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".
Salvador The Organizers’ Forum delegation had learned a lot in our meetings with informal workers unions and cooperatives as well as our hike through the in-city forest, but we wanted to see a side of Salvador away from the breaking waves of the ocean, and the ships in the bay under the care of …
Recife The itinerary said “meeting with GMM” and that there would be various groups to meet with the Organizers’ Forum delegation in the late afternoon. We left in plenty of time, but we got an education in transportation planning in this outer neighborhood of Recife. For almost fifteen minutes we were all parked in …
Salvador Organizing low waged and informal workers around the world teaches an organizer a lot about the basic humanity and survival skills of workers. Humility and respect are constant companions, but so are the painful lessons about economics at the bottom of capitalism’s barrel. Call them waste pickers, trash workers, or, preferably, recyclers, I’ve …