Wade Rathke is the Chief Organizer of ACORN International, Founder and Chief Organizer of ACORN (1970-2008), and Founder and Chief Organizer of Local 100, Service Employees International Union. The views expressed on this website are his own.





Guide to Environmental Health
July 3, 2008
By Wade Rathke
     


New Orleans         Usually when you read about a book that a publisher spent $1.6 million and allowed the authors to take eight years to get thing together for a July roll-out, this is the back story for some beach book potboiler with plenty of steamy scenes and page flying fury.  The money usually represents a 7-figure advance to produce a page turner.

    That’s not the story this time, but the excitement that awaits the book... [more]   Comments (0)

In a Minnesota Minute
July 2, 2008
By Wade Rathke
      


StarTribune.com caption: Nancy Braun, in front of a store in Rochester, is lead plaintiff in the class-action suit. She worked at a Wal-Mart in Apple Valley, where she said she repeatedly wasn’t given breaks even to go to the bathroom.
New Orleans         Wal-Mart learned yesterday in the Minnesota courts that minutes matter to workers as well as the company.  

    After seven years state courts held that the company played fast and loose with rest breaks, meal breaks, training time, and about any other way that they could cheap the workforce.  They may have done it 2 million times and might have to pay as much as $2 billion in back wages and penalties if... [more]   Comments (0)

Hoarding Food
July 1, 2008
By Wade Rathke
      


NY Times caption: Rice is prepared for export in Bangkok, above, and processed at a Thai mill. Thailand, Brazil, Canada and the United States are among the few nations still exporting large quantities of food.
New Orleans        The global crises in rising food prices makes it clear how far away we really are from a global solution or program to deal with hunger and subsistence feeding programs for the poor around the world.  Coupled with the increase in fuel costs which in many places is driving the pressure on food production prices, we increasingly have the makings of the perfect storm.  

    An article in the New York Times b... [more]   Comments (1)

Global Poverty and Evangelicals
June 30, 2008
By Wade Rathke
     


Rick Warren, Pastor of Saddleback Church
New Orleans         Jim Wallis of Sojourners said something to me a week ago in Detroit that struck me as very interesting.   Frances Fitzgerald, the esteemed author and sometime contributor to the New Yorker made a similar point in the recent issue in a piece called, “The New Evangelicals.”

    Jim was mentioning this insight as we discussed the work of ACORN International.  He wanted to make sure that I realiz... [more]   Comments (0)

Bechaks
June 28, 2008
By Wade Rathke
       


A bechak being pushed by Jesse (left) and Dine (right)
New Orleans        There is a story every step of the way it seems, but the debut performance of the two Indonesian bechaks representing ACORN International at the final march in Detroit on National City Bank was by all reports a resounding success and welcomed enthusiastically by the members.  The picture with this blog shows a bechak transporting one of the members and being pushed by Jesse Rafert of ACORN International and Dine Butler who directs a te... [more]   Comments (0)
A Great Day for Denis
June 27, 2008
By Wade Rathke
      


Denis Petrov
New Orleans        Denis Petrov has worked for Citizens Consulting, Inc., our financial services contractor, since 2001.  He has specialized in the technical side of CCI in support of the Navision online accounting system as well as the highly successful OMS (on-line management system) developed for CCI which has streamlined payroll allocations, reservations, and other procedures.  An early version of our national database puts us in the slender ran... [more]   Comments (1)
Drummond's Blog
June 26, 2008
By Wade Rathke
        


Wade (left) and Drummond (right) in Peru
New Orleans        Drummond Pike is the founder and CEO of Tides, which includes the Tides Foundation, Tides Center, and a host of other “water” named and great organizations.  He has been a boon comrade of mine for four decades, and it is not surprising to see that he posted up something on his [more]   Comments (2)
Next CHapter
June 25, 2008
By Wade Rathke
        


Detroit        As a special treat for the members, we had made the decision to bring in a play from New York called “Collard Greens and Plantanos,” sort of a hip-hop thing that was a little edgy, funny, and drove a hard message about African-Americans and Latino relationships.  This was going to be the first official event of the ACORN Convention in Cobo Hall to get the whole show going.

    Maude Hurd, ACORN’s long-time Preside... [more]   Comments (5)