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".
London I had met with our ACORN London crew nine months earlier as they were just beginning their work here. Now there were branches formed in Haringey, a launch coming soon in Hackney, and other groups forming with actions here and there and more than 400 members now in this brief period. The …
Bradford Visiting with one of ACORN’s newest emerging branches in Bradford, a unique, mid-sized, growing former mill town in England’s north, not far from Leeds, was fascinating. Leaving the train with Kat Wright, ACORN UK’s field director, we walked through the center of town and then up the hill past colleges and universities until …
Sheffield There were people there from towns that I recognized, but had never been like Oxford, Liverpool, Cornwall, Cambridge, and Haringey. Others were from cities where I had visited our branches before in Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham, London, Brighton, Newcastle, and of course Sheffield, which was hosting the conference at St. Mary’s near the center …
Sheffield It’s not a busman’s tour, because it’s more like train hopping or something. I’m not sure what to call breakfast in Brighton, lunch in Leeds, and dinner in Sheffield? Whatever the name, it couldn’t have been clearer that with organizers, there is nothing that beats face-to-face, person-to-person to really get a grip on …
Brighton I got a big cheer and laugh talking to ACORN members in the United Kingdom during a Q&A after the screening of The Organizer in Brighton, England, when I said mi companera had responded to a picture that I had posted of the view from their meeting by saying “Bright On!” Get it? …