Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog

Founder of ACORN, Chief Organizer at ACORN International, Author of Citizen Wealth, Global Grassroots and The Battle for the 9th Ward.

Skip to content
  • Home
  • About & Bio
  • Audio of the Blog
  • Contact
  • Organizations
  • Press
  • The Organizer Documentary
  • Training
  • Video
  • Voice of the People
  • Wade’s World
  • Writings
  • Books

Visiting with the Miami Workers’ Center

imagesMiami        Here and there I had run into Gibran Perera, the director of the Miami Workers’ Center, and had heard of the operation over the years.  He spoke at the Tides’ Foundation Momentum conference several years ago on the “right to the city” which held interest.   Looking for a way to give ACORN Canada organizers a chance to get a glimpse at organizing in Miami during their Year End-Year Begin staff meeting held at Sunny Isles, I reached out for Perera and his associate, Quanita Toffie, who I had known as a close friend of my daughter’s for several years, to see if we could visit.

The Center itself is near ground zero in Liberty City, the historic center of the African-American community in Miami, and along with Overton Park the epicenter of the riots that broke out almost 30 years ago around police involvement in a murder of one of the young men in the area.  The area right around the center was ghetto-rugged with abandoned store fronts, the worn signs in front of the old 60’s era Community Action Agency from the long abandoned “War on Poverty,” and the usual slow moving, barely surviving mom & pop stores speckled here and there.  Hashim Benford, the deputy director mentioned early in his briefing that one could arguably say not much had changed since the riot.  There had been promises, including large scale economic development, more housing, and business opportunities, but in fact most of this had been empty promises.  In fact one ill conceived plan was going to level the area where the center was housed, but now had was in longer discussions and planning.

The Center offered some minimal services like a small meeting room and a coming computer center, but mostly this was a beehive for campaign-based advocacy in and around the core of the African-American community.  More recently they had spent the last year helping found Florida New Majority in 2009 to increase civic engagement dramatically.    Using targeted canvass programs in several urban areas around the state more than 15,000 had joined through that program and participated in civic activities leading to the mid-terms, thereby filling a vacuum in Florida, as Hashim mentioned, created by the dissolution of ACORN in the state.  The activist core membership of around 150 dedicated people shouldering much of the work of the MWC would be interesting for the work being done in the rearguard of public housing destruction and effective advocacy for black communities in Miami, but the decision and investment in Florida New Majority makes the work much more interesting and significant for these communities and the state.

The ACORN Canada crew enjoyed the exchange, I finally felt like I had a better grasp for the outfit, and we all felt it was exciting to watch what might come out of this work in Miami in coming years by our new friends.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail
This entry was posted in ACORN International, Community Organizing and tagged ACORN Canada, campaign-based advocacy, canvass, civic engagement, Community Action Agency, Florida, Florida New Majority, Gibran Perera, Hashim Benford, Liberty City, Miami, Miami Workers Center, Overton Park, Tides Foundation Momentum on December 11, 2010 by wade.

Post navigation

← Challenging a Sitting President: Memory Lane in 1980 Abandoned Communities: Detroit & New Orleans →
Follow @worldorganizers

The Other Side of the News March 16 2018-Interview with ACORN founder Wade Rathke

March 16th, 2018

Blogroll

  • ACORN International
  • ACORN International on Facebook
  • Buy Books by Wade
  • Organizers Forum
  • Social Policy
  • Twitter
  • ULU Local 100

Categories

Tag Cloud

  • ACA
  • ACORN
  • ACORN Canada
  • ACORN International
  • Affordable Care Act
  • affordable housing
  • arkansas
  • bank of america
  • Citizen Wealth
  • Comcast
  • Coronavirus
  • Covid-19
  • digital divide
  • Donald Trump
  • elections
  • FCC
  • Foreclosure
  • France
  • Health Care
  • Hillary Clinton
  • housing
  • Immigration
  • India
  • Internet
  • katrina
  • labor unions
  • Local 100 United Labor Unions
  • louisiana
  • mexico
  • New Orleans
  • nlrb
  • Obama
  • obamacare
  • Organizers Forum
  • poverty
  • President Obama
  • racism
  • SEIU
  • tea party
  • Trump Administration
  • unions
  • voter registration
  • voting
  • WalMart
  • workers

Interviews with Wade

Wade Interview in Czech Republic

Sherry Linkon's Interview with Wade Rathke on the show "Lincoln Avenue" on WYSU radio about "Organizing and Citizen Wealth"

Italian Interview with Wade

Halo Noviny: The occupation of the Wall Street fills us with hope (Czech-Language)

Religion Dispatches: Forty-year organizing veteran has plenty of new ideas

Corporate Knights: The Magazine for Clean Capitalism

Intrepid Liberal Journal

The Peter B Collins Show

For Original Writing by Wade Click Here

Subscribe for daily email updates. Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Archives

  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • February 2006
  • January 2006
  • December 2005
  • November 2005
  • October 2005
  • September 2005
  • August 2005
  • July 2005
  • June 2005
  • May 2005
  • April 2005
  • March 2005
  • February 2005
  • January 2005
  • December 2004
  • November 2004
  • October 2004
  • September 2004
  • August 2004
  • July 2004
  • June 2004
  • May 2004
  • April 2004
  • March 2004
Proudly powered by WordPress