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".
Sao Paulo My father would have liked Brazil. He knew “field” Spanish from time spent in the California orange groves when his dad was a foreman there near Orange and Santa Anna. He would help out and talk to the Mexican workers when they were putting out smudge pots to ward off freezes or …
Recife I was confused, but that’s not uncommon when an Organizers’ Forum delegation is on foreign soil and lost in another language. Trying to sort out the address for our meeting with CUT, the Brazilian labor federation, and some of its members, I worried that I had gotten the wrong address for the …
Salvador It had been a good, productive week in Brazil. The meetings had come together. The delegation had gelled well. Some had early flights to Salvador and on to Sao Paulo, well others were leaving from Recife in the afternoon. We had heard that our friends at MST now had some kind of store or …