Bristol After eleven years of organizing in England and Wales, ACORN was holding its first formal convention in Bristol. More than 200 people poured into the Malcolm X Community Center to start the meeting, as the officers opened the session mid-morning. People were excited, and so were we. I had arrived late the afternoon before, while Judy Duncan, ACORN Canada Head Organizer and Marva Barnett, President of ACORN International had arrived earlier that morning. In the ACORN world, a first convention is a big, big thing. With over 7500 dues paying members, it was the right time for all the right reasons for this event.
Chelsea Phillips, chair of ACORN England and Wales, opened the general plenary with remarks on where the organization had been and was developing to get the proceedings off with a bang. Workshops were excellent. With three on our visitors’ team, we were able to cover a lot of them. They ranged from tips and role plays on membership recruitment and how to make videos on victories to communications strategies, leadership development, and details on housing rights, women in organizing, and more. Nick Ballard gave a rousing presentation to close the final sessions in the afternoon that brought the crowd yelling and shouting to our feet. All of this was great, but ACORN is not a show pony, but a work horse, so it was appropriate that the highlight of the convention was the launch of a new national campaign, calling for Bailiffs Out of Britain.
Bailiffs are the pointed end of the stick for evictions in Britain, just as sheriffs and others do the job in the United States. They are reviled, and their tactics can be rough and tumble. The organization has had success in several cities in northern England, like Sheffield and Manchester, in pushing them out of the process. With a battle-tested record, the leadership had voted to make pushing the bailiffs out everywhere their signature campaign for the coming year and had set the convention for the launch. There had been posters and t-shirts available throughout the day. Most the members were probably prepared for a presentation of the issues and demands to get the campaign off on the right foot.
Suddenly, there was noise and confusion at the back of the hall and a scrum of men and women with high-viz vests trying to breach the back door before they were pushed back. We were all emptied out into the car park the rain and joined hands in lines three deep across the back of the building. It became clear this was a reenactment of what it might be like to stop bailiffs from an eviction. Fifteen or so of the staff and members were acting as the bailiffs in this role play and poured out of the building behind the community center and charged various points in the line trying to breakthrough to shouts and cheers. The members repelled them not once or twice, but three different times. Some likely wondered, if this was more real than acting! It was wild. Each time they were thwarted, the members cheered and chanted, sometimes yelling ACORN and other times local football-like insults along with shame, shame, shame.
Everyone filed back into the hall supercharged and ready to rock. In an earlier, workshop on ACORN International, Marva had been asked about her favorite actions and had talked about the big actions at the conventions. For everyone lucky and privileged enough to attend this first ACORN Convention in England, the bailiff resistance event will be the one thing no one will forget. 
