Salvador’s Recyclers’ Cooperatives

Organizers Forum Organizing Recycling Unions

            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 …

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Getting Down to Business in Sicily

Organizer Training Organizing

            Catania           Working with the Catania University team of professors, instructors, post-docs, and PhD candidates, the dog-and-pony show about ACORN was done, the walking tour of San Berillo had been checked off, and the presentation and Q&A with interested people from their activist trainings and study groups had been completed as well, so it was …

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San Berillo Conundrum

Community Development Community Organizations International Housing Organizing

            Catania           San Berillo proper, we might say, is a historic district near the city center of Catania, the second-largest city in Sicily.  The narrow alleys and unique, but too often deteriorated and hardly habitable housing structures, all tell stories of life, history, and the culture of the community. Now as I walked for several …

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