Looking for the Kindness of Strangers – Think France!

ACORN International Community Organizing Immigration Reform International

New Orleans   Over the last two years with an emerging affiliate in France, I’ve now been on the ground working in Grenoble or Paris there a bunch of times, well for me a bunch anyway, like five or six times over two years approximately. My comrades and colleagues there are wonderful people of course, but …

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The French Rein in Unions with Carrots and Sticks

ACORN International Financial Justice International Labor Organizing Organizing

Amsterdam   Two very different meetings in Paris on my last day of this European organizing stint left me with an uneasy feeling about the power of the state in dealing with independent, autonomous organizations. One meeting was with the leader of a small national labor federation. The other was with a Green Party European Union …

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The Activists of Paris Are Ready for a Movement Now

ACORN ACORN International Community Organizing International Labor Organizing

Paris   On the bus to our meetings in Paris we were clogged up in a huge traffic circle where the Bastille, the infamous prison of the French Revolution was located. On that site now is a quite grand appearing Opera House. My colleague had earlier reprised stories of Charles De Gaulle and his comeback after …

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