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".
New Orleans One of the “laws” of organizing I have often repeated to new organizers, frequently to blank stares, is that in organizing, “the beginnings prejudice the ends.” In English that is supposed to mean that the organizational structure and form often predetermine function. In simpler terms it is very, very hard to ever …
Santa Fe Back in the USA it takes some time learning how to sleep again and of course catching up with all of the changes around us. Keith Kelleher, head organizer of SEIU Local 880, one of the pillars of the ACORN family of organizations, sent me a note from Montreal, where the …
Utrecht, Netherlands Jan van Doggenaaar, the director of a 55-person team for the ICCO Alliance that focuses on the program area of “basic needs” was very generous with his time, because it took a while to describe both what ICCO was and how it has totally re-invented itself along new lines in January of …