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".
Bilbao Originally, the Organizers’ Forum delegation was scheduled to travel to Bayonne to visit Alda, a sister organizing project in the northern Basque country concentrated in the three provinces of France. Our French affiliate, JusticeEnsemble, had trained and supported the growth of the organization. We really wanted to visit. Then reality sat in. …
New Orleans Recently I was surprised to find that tenants in Maryland were legally able under certain conditions to withhold their rent to force their landlords to make repairs by following certain procedures. Living and working in red states in the South and elsewhere for so long had “blinded me to the light” …
Toronto As luck would have it, I had come to Toronto for the regular spring meeting of ACORN Canada’s lead and head organizers from around the country almost immediately after Toronto members had released their “State of Repair Report” based on a survey of tenants over progress of the RentSafe program in the city. …