Subject: Organizing
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In September, when Congress voted to ban federal funds for ACORN, it was clear, if it hadn’t been already, that the organization had emerged as a political liability. ACORN had sustained right-wing attacks for years, but at this point, even its more progressive allies wouldn’t give the organization the time of day.
But now, ACORN is challenging that Congressional ban in federal aid in the courts, saying it was unfairly targeted — singled out — by the resolution, with Congress taking punitive action “without an investigation.” The cut in federal aid, while originally portrayed by ACORN as a minor hit to the organization, has reportedly resulted in layoffs within the organization, and cuts in programming, including counseling for homeowners facing foreclosure or struggling to pay bills.
Exacerbating the loss of federal funding is the increasing number of long-time supporters distancing themselves from the organization.
At the time of ACORN’s loss of federal funds, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) said in a statement that the move to cut ACORN funding, in the form of an amendment to a bill on college lending, was a “blatant violation of the Constitution’s prohibition against Bills of Attainder — referring to legislation crafted for punitive purposes:
“Congress must not be in the business of punishing individual organizations or people without trial, and that’s what this Amendment does. Whatever one may think of an organization, the Constitution’s clear ban on Bills of Attainder is there for the protection of all of our liberties.”
The lawsuit names as defendants Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, and Peter Orszag, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, according to The New York Times. more
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We’ve long said here that the right-wing attacks on ACORN are rooted in fear: fear of voter registration, fear of increased wages for working people, fear of empowering certain demographics, and so on. So it was good (well, not “good,”…
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By now, most Americans have heard of ACORN. We know them as the national anti-poverty group, which uses community organizing to provide invaluable services to our communities, pressure powerful banks to provide home ownership opportunities for working people, fight to raise workers’ wages, get traffic lights installed at dangerous intersections, advocate for increased police protection in low-income neighborhoods, and help families avoid foreclosures
ACORN has improved the lives of millions of the poor and working poor by strengthening America’s democracy through its voter registration efforts, as well as helping to lift the working poor out of poverty by building the “living wage” and minimum wage movement — a series of local efforts that contributed to a national increase in the minimum wage.
ACORN’s volunteers, poor and working-class, mostly black and Hispanic, number more than 400,000. To support their organization, they pay annual dues. more
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You might have seen Peter Dreier, NHI board member, and the director of the Urban & Environmental Policy Program at Occidental College on Rachel Maddow the other night discussing the coverage of ACORN in the media: Visit msnbc.com for Breaking…
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It’s September here in the Northeast and the acorns falling from the oak trees, including those from the Northern Red Oak, New Jersey’s state tree, cause a messy, but welcome sign that cooler temperatures are here, and fall is on…
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Now we know that Karl Rove spearheaded the firing of David Iglesias, the U.S. Attorney in New Mexico who refused to follow the Bush White House’s orders to intimidate low-income voters by making false charges of “voter fraud.” What The…
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On his Comm-Org listserv, Randy Stoecker, a professor in the Community and Environmental Sociology department at the University of Wisconsin, talks about an emerging meme comparing the right wing activists’ recent disruptions of health care forums to “Alinsky’s tactics.” “I…
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There are several things that I’ve been noticing out in the community organizing world that I find increasingly intriguing. I first noticed it over the past year with PICO’s push on national health care legislation. Now I am also noticing…
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Editor’s Note: This article by Peter Dreier, NHI board member and professor of politics at Occidental College, first appeared in Dissent Magazine
Two recent union victories may be harbingers of renewed worker activism. One came quickly in the wake of the ever-increasing economic meltdown. The other arrived after years of unsuccessful effort. Both reflect the optimism spurred by the Obama administration that has not yet taken power.
For six days in early December, 240 members of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), a small but feisty union that has always been in the labor movement’s progressive wing, illegally occupied the manufacturing plant of Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago after their employer abruptly told them that it was shutting down the factory. Their bold action worked. They got what they demanded—sixty days of severance pay, earned vacation pay, and two months of health insurance coverage. more
In the past few days we’ve seen news of 3,500 jobs to be lost by the closing of U.S. Steel facilities in Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota; a fan factory laying off 164 workers in Wisconsin; and thousands of auto industry…
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Imagine that it’s hurricane season, and 150 Katrinas are pounding poor neighborhoods — and the federal government response is totally inadequate. The community development movement faces two challenges: first, that 30-plus years of solid, successful community revitalization work could be…
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Interviewed on “The Takeaway” this morning, Emory University psychology professor Drew Westen, author of The Political Brain, had this to say about how President-elect Barack Obama can deliver on his promises to bring change we can believe in: “...think like…
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As we approach Tuesday’s historic election, we can count on one clear fact that the political pundits likely will overlook in their election night coverage — no matter what the outcome, the state of our economy will necessitate a role…
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Just picked this up from the Jed Report:
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It might have been that brick to the head as a child (long story), but it was October 6 before I realized the second McCain-Obama debate was October 7. By then I had committed the debate-evening to an Obama phone…
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Yesterday I posted here on Rooflines to explain the back-story behind the latest round of accusations about ACORN and voter fraud. Today, the McCain-Palin campaign released the Web ad below attacking Barack Obama for his ties to ACORN. It’s important…
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With less than one month left until Election Day, the Republican Party voter repression machine is at it again and once again, its target is ACORN.
Nationwide, ACORN has registered over 1.3 million voters (most of them from low-income, African-American…
CNN this morning reported that grass-roots groups are organizing demonstrations across the country against what they’re calling the Bush administration’s “cash for trash” bailout plan. According to today’s Boston Globe, yesterday there were demonstrations on Boston Common, at the N.Y.…
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When present and former public officials ranging from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to Lawrence H. Summers, the former Treasury secretary under President Clinton, started calling for the creation of a new agency that would buy the almost worthless assets from staggering financial companies, my first thought was great. As Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, who heads the House Financial Services Committee, said this week, “…the question of a broader more systemic action in which the government tries to help resolve these things is very important.”
When I realized these leaders would model a new agency along the lines of the Resolution Trust Corporation, all I could think of was Charles Keating, the Savings & Loan bailout, and the response by progressives to that bailout, and I shuddered. What should we do?
Keating — head of the Lincoln Savings & Loan, which in the words of Frank Rich in today’s New York Times, “went belly up because of risky, unregulated investments” — became the poster boy of the S & L bailout of the 1980s. He started his public career in the late 1950s, founding the Cincinnati anti-pornography organization Citizens for Decent Literature. A greedy man, he was determined to make his mark in the banking business. As the head of Lincoln Savings of Irvine, Calif., he made millions through nepotism, buying politicians, and speculating with bank deposits.
Keating took advantage of the federal government’s rush to deregulate banks. It eased federal restrictions on the S&Ls, corrupting the federal rules originally created to provide homeownership to families with modest means.
Congress changed the rules by lifting the lid on interest rates. This gave S&Ls, whose deposits were insured up to $100,000, a green light to engage in real-estate speculation. Soon we had bankers, exemplified by Keating, leading the country into a massive abuse and misuse of deposits for quick profits. more
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Peter Dreier’s most recent Rooflines post cited a story titled “Community Organizing Changed Fishery,” in which John Corrigan, the fishing writer for the Concord (N.H.) Monitor, explained that “anybody who has caught a fish at Sewalls Falls over the last…
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