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".
Catania I’m counting the days now until I’m home, as I wind down this five-country global business tour. The travel has been longer than I like, but there have been some benefits aside from meeting new friends, helping push new organizing drives farther, and celebrating milestones with our affiliates. Frankly, it’s been nice to …
Bucharest The Roma people constitute about 12% of the Romanian population with between 1.8 and 2.2 million people disbursed across the country, even though official census figures number only 600,000. Their minority status has led to intense discrimination in the region for hundreds of years. We were meeting with Alin Banu, the Executive Director …
Washington In the 1960s, citizen participation seemed to be coming to low-and-moderate income communities with President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society. Maximum feasible participation was a baseline requirement for local community action programs. In CAPs, one-third of the seats had to come from the lower income constituency, ostensibly being served by the programs. …