WADE RATHKE is the founder of ACORN, Chief Organizer at ACORN International, and Author of "Nuts & Bolts", "Citizen Wealth", "Global Grassroots", and "The Battle for the 9th Ward".
New Orleans It’s been a while since we talked about Walmart and that lot. It’s not because they have really gotten kinder and gentler, since they have continued to grow bigger and bigger, it’s just because talking about Walmart seems not to change the way they do business. What’s different now, you might …
New Orleans Eighteen years ago, ACORN warned Walmart that opening stores in Chicago was not just a mistake, but wrong. We fought for a higher living wage for retail workers with mixed results. I was there with our members one day when we picketed the location. We were especially opposed to the company’s plans …
Pearl River The second leg of the stool was building a community-based organization in order to block Wal-Mart from building new supercenters. To engage that fight, we build WARN, Wal-Mart Alliance for Reform Now, as a broad coalition of unions, community and civil rights organizations (including ACORN chapters obviously), environmental groups, and civic associations in …