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".
Bilbao Originally, the Organizers’ Forum delegation was scheduled to travel to Bayonne to visit Alda, a sister organizing project in the northern Basque country concentrated in the three provinces of France. Our French affiliate, JusticeEnsemble, had trained and supported the growth of the organization. We really wanted to visit. Then reality sat in. …
Bilbao With 100,000 members, ELA, the Basque Labor Union, is the largest union in Spain’s Basque Country, which locals call South Basque compared to North Basque in the three provinces in France. Their size alone would make them a force to be reckoned with in this area of Spain, but as two of their …
Barcelona The key meetings for the Organizers’ Forum delegation on the second full day in Barcelona, were with Mujeres Plantes and the Invisible City. The first group in the center of the city specialized in assisting migrant women become registered and stabilized in the city. The second group turned out to be a series of …