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 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 …
Salvador We were lucky that Sunday is traditionally the day off for household domestic workers around the world. We were scheduled to meet the director and leaders of SINDOMESTICO-BA, the Domestic Workers Union in the Brazilian state of Bahia late in the afternoon in Salvador. The address was eluding us, but we were early. …
Salvador Flights were cancelled to Brazil. One stuck in Houston, another in Toronto, and one missing altogether. The Organizers’ Forum is on the road again. We often don’t even start meeting as a delegation until Sunday afternoon or evening, but we jumped out a bit past 8am in order to meet a 16-year-old environmental …