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".
Pearl River Mildred Edmond’s daughters were arranging a visit for me early in 2020, but then came the pandemic, postponing everything until the coast was clear. Sadly, a Facebook message from the oldest daughter found me overseas with the news that Mildred had passed away while I was gone. She would be buried before I returned, so …
Lyon Traveling from Paris, we arrived in time to meet the head organizer of ACORN’s affiliate, Alliance Citoyenne, in Lyon for a quick coffee, and then were off to a community center in one of the housing complexes where we had a chapter organization. We passed by the building where, earlier in the week, we …
Paris Given visa problems back and forth to India, it was a rare treat to be able to meet with at least two of our India directors, Vinod Shetty from Mumbai, and Dharmendra Kumar from Delhi. We have made great progress in moving our organizing forward among informal workers and their communities during this …