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 Meeting of the Latin American organizers Mexico City The annual meeting of the ACORN International board continued its meetings for a second day in Mexico City, as they conferred on fundamental issues of support for existing work, self-sufficiency and support and expansion into new areas like Sicily and Liberia. Additional reports were heard from Mexico on the Neza water campaign and received from Argentina. Planning meetings of the Latin American staff and leadership spent valuable hours at a great local coffeehouse, Denmedio, appropriately facing Solidarity Square, firming up the Remittance Justice Campaign and plans to organize coffeehouses and other enterprises in our cities to support the organizing. Other meetings consolidated the leadership training schedule and organizing plans for Local 100. Solid progress was made on all fronts topped off, appropriately, with a Friday night visit to see the Lucha Libre Mexican wrestlers!
Reading the papers on-line was almost as wild.
Florida continues to want to make a place for itself in voter suppression by gaining access to Department of Homeland Security information on immigrants so that it can data match voter lists for any slips. It seems the fears of immigrant rights advocates about the Secure Communities Act are fully confirmed as the continued Obama consolidation of this steel fist in a soft glove strategy becomes a potential Republican voter suppression tool, even as other studies like those of the Pew Center establish that the state managed voter registration systems are now in complete chaos.
Walmart seems to be conceding that the bribery problems in Mexico may be even worse than previously revealed and though hinting that there may be problems in other countries, they have not revealed bribes in China or India, which I have argued are very likely branches that have sprung from the roots of this corrupt corporate culture.
The rise of informal workers in the European economic crisis in places like Spain where a day’s work and wage is being bartered for hardly 50 euros, as reported by the Times, threatens to undermine the last of the social contract even in its last bastions of defense against neo-liberalism. Europe is the new Asia perhaps?
It seems that the arrogance of Jamie Dimon and JP Morgan Chase has led to losses of $3 billion (and rising) rather than the $2 billion earlier reported. Hedge funds have continued to profit from Chase’s problems, proving that a billion here and a billion there are still something more for sharks on Wall Street than friends across the counter. Nonetheless, Dimon’s board and shareholders looked the other way.
Finally, Joe Ricketts owner of Wrigley Field, founder of Ameritrade, and a billionaire with buffalo in Wyoming (sorry about that!), proved that haters still rule the world in some sectors with a kerfuffle even rejected by the Romney campaign that he underwrite a $10 million campaign of race baiting and race hating against Obama via the sputtering and aged rhetoric of Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Good to see that there was pushback in Chicago which is not yet located in the “new” South and he was sent scurrying. All of which is not to say that we cannot expect similar mess on the airwaves and elsewhere in the coming presidential contest, but it certainly goes to prove that other side of the coin on the old saw: “just because you are rich, does not mean you aren’t stupid,” rather than “why aren’t you rich, if you are so smart?”
 Dilcia Zavala from ACORN Honduras in Tegucigalpa showcases the entry to Denmedio
 Jill O'Reilly gives ACORN Ottawa report to attentive organizers Mexico City A highlight of the year is always getting the reports of ACORN International affiliates around the world and hearing about the progress and the challenges members, leaders, and organizers are facing. The obstacles are legion, but so are some of the surprises.
Vinod Shetty from Mumbai started the ball rolling with a clear Skype connection as he delighted everyone with the news that the ACORN India Dharavi Project band composed of some of our recyclers is being featured on MTV in coming weeks. He topped that off by reporting continued progress with the Blue Frog jazz club partnership and the album they are doing of acts visiting Dharavi with us that will be a fundraiser for ACORN India. Vinod also reported that we are running a school for our people now with 70 in attendance, which was a development I had not realized had gone so far. Later reports from Dharmendra Kumar in Delhi focused on the huge struggle around FDI (foreign direct investment) in retail that brought Parliament to a standstill in recent months, but Delhi also reported that they continue to run a homeless shelter for some of our displaced members. Bangalore reported on a full menu of action and activity!
In Honduras Dilcia Zavala delighted people with the news that the land rights had been returned to the squatters the delegation had visited in the rain in Tegucigalpa and they were going to be able to rebuild their homes. Luis Martinez from San Pedro Sula gave a report that led all others in details on membership growth down to the fact that they have now knocked 10, 756 doors at some level in the several years of organizing!
 Dilcia Zavala gives ACORN Honduras report on Tegucigalpa For the first time people really understood how groundbreaking the tenant-landlord campaign and model is that we are building in Rome. There was an education provided from Prague of the huge unrest around the current government that rivals the Velvet Revolution in 1989. Orfa Camacho had me showing a map of Peru when she announced new cities in Peru where we are now organizing and the ongoing development of our partnership with FENTAP, the water workers union.
You get the picture? It was fantastic!
Importantly the meeting also focused on developments with the Remittance Justice Campaign. ACORN Canada reported that a bill to cap the rates will be introduced in Toronto for the Ontario province on May 31st with British Columbia following later in the year. Honduras ACORN shared the news that they had a commitment for a bill to be introduced before the elections next February 2013 at the latest. Working with our intern from the Clinton School of Public Service there was optimism that we would lay the groundwork for progress in Mexico.
Good work has been done with more to come!
 Honduran organizers work with Dine Butler of Local 100 and Jill O'Reilly of Ottawa ACORN on bank draft procedures  Suresh Kadashan and his wife give report from Bangalore on ACORN India's work there
 Delegation with Laura in front of symbol of Workers University Mexico City The day started ominously in Mexico City as I walked at dawn towards the Zocalo. First the Alameda, one of my favorite parks in the world, was encased in a plastic, invisible wall indicating some form of construction for some indefinite amount of time. Then the Palacio Belles de Artes was blocked by police barricades and armed, bivouacked soldiers, which I later understood was in preparation for the funeral of Carlos Fuentes, the Nobel prize winning Mexican author. Later walking to the Universidad Obera de Mexico in the light of day with the whole ACORN International delegation, the sun was shining and life on the streets of the city invigorated everyone.
Laura Juarez Sanchez, a researcher at the UOM on the effects of economy, migration, and other topics had prepared a briefing for us that was sobering to say the least. With elaborate charts and carefully chosen words she laid out the case against neo-liberalism that was stark in the Mexican context. The heart of her argument rested on the stagnation of the minimum wage for Mexican workers compared to other industrialized countries, including the USA and China. She argued that the wage was now in comparison, the lowest in the world and the growth in the minimum wage had been miniscule, all because Mexico was trying to hold on to its place in the “race to the bottom” by competing against China and other Asian countries on the basis of wages even as maquila jobs were leaving the country. The assault on Mexican workers was not simply based on low wages, but also included abnegation and dilution of the labor laws, privatization and reduction of pensions, limited health care, and increasing barriers to education. We were glad to see our companera, Laura, at UOM and to meet in their lovely library, but there were no smiles on our face about the news she offered.
Similarly, we toured the Neza (Nezahualcoyoth), where ACORN Mexico has done most of its organizing in recent years. Our leaders said there had been some progress in the struggle for water, but it was mainly around increased water pressure and access to more homes of water adequate for bathing, washing, and so forth. Potable water for drinking and food preparation was still the issue and for many ACORN families sucked up 40% of their monthly income!
Besides the issue of potable water, we spent some time along the drainage canals and the rio negra as our members called the rivers of sewage discharge that were floating out of Neza without any treatment. The coming summer rains inevitably would lead to floods and the sewage once again overflowing into many homes and sections of Neza.
 Rio Negra -- sewage discharge into river at Neza The reports indicated progress, partially by exploiting the opportunity to pressure the parties in the face of the coming national and local elections on July 1st. Federal elections only come every six years, so our campaign cannot depend on this opportunity, because we are unwilling to wait.
 Everyone with ACORN Mexico Neza members
 Ronnie from Via Organico San Miguel San Miguel de Allende is a picturesque 500 year old colonial town in the central highlands that played a major role in the Mexican Revolution against Spain and more recently is known as an artistic and ex-patriot center for North America. I first visited at the founding meeting of Enlace a dozen years ago and always enjoyed my time here. On our last visit in January 2010, close to 50 folks had packed the patio of the offices of the Center for Global Justice to hear about ACORN International’s work, so we were excited to be able to return to the Biblioteca, a nonprofit library touted as the largest such institution in Mexico and perhaps North America, where Judy Duncan of ACORN Canada and Dilcia Zavala of ACORN Honduras would join me in updating folks here on ACORN International’s progress.
After Cliff Durand of the Center introduced the discussion and our presentations the questions were interesting and focused on everything from what we had learned from the ACORN experience in the USA to Occupy San Miguel to whether or not it was practical to organize effectively around economic development in rural areas of the developing world. It was great to have some of our friends ask for updates on the Remittance Justice Campaign who had been with us in San Miguel in 2010. Before the end of May, we will post the session on ACORN International’s YouTube channel upon our return.
After a last look at the Biblioteca and a wave towards Juan of our favorite San Miguel coffeehouse, Juan’s Café, complete with a can of Café du Monde coffee & chicory commemorating his own visit to New Orleans, we joined Ronnie Cummins for a fantastic lunch and deeply educational tour of the Via Organico café and sundry operations. Ronnie is a fellow traveler on the activist path who originally hails from the homeland around Port Arthur, Texas, and after a stint at Rice in Houston jumped into the maelstrom as many of us did to oppose the Vietnam War and, as they say, the rest is history. He ended up making a career of advocating around food and other environmental issues and now heads a 850,000 strong Organic Consumers Association based in Minneapolis where he lives part of the year and Via Organico, the Mexican counterpart, where he is based in San Miguel. The Via Organico nonprofit is in many ways a demonstration project for an all-organic operation as well as a combination store, café, brewery, classroom, storage facility, and rooftop farm operation.
And, a heckuva operation at that! Lunch was fantastic and some of our number felt it their duty to try the beer brewed by Via Organico from cactus among other things while others had a dessert to die for that included homemade ice cream and later lime popsicles. Ronnie gave us a full tour of the entire operation along with the warehouse and brewery. He did such a great job, he made it feel like it might be possible to duplicate it, but as organizers, we all knew how difficult bringing projects like this to fruition really are.
 Alex McDonald of Ottawa ACORN trying a cactus beer Among the more interesting things Cummins showed us is was the rooftop growing area where the old ways that Mexican farmers used gourds were in use for growing produce in this dry, high, arid land by conserving the water they had collected. They would plant large gourds at intervals among the vegetables and refill the gourds with water through small caps on the gourd. Because the gourds were fired from the more porous clay, as the ground dried, the soil would literally suck the water out of the gourd and into the dirt nearby in order to water the plants to good health and yield. Amazing!
Anytime you can have a great dialogue with people, share what you’ve learned, join others successes and experiences, and learn something as well, it has to count as a great trip all around. As we hugged our old companera, Ercilia Sahores, who had organized all of these events for us, we said hasta luego, but in our hearts we could hardly wait to return for more.
 All Organic Operation  Gourd Watering System
 Jamie Dimon San Miguel de Allende It’s a dogpile now, so I feel totally justified in saying “I told you so” for the umpteenth time after years of being a Cassandra about the damage that Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan Chase CEO, and his bank had done to the country by bullying the Treasury Department and Obama Administration on regulations, foreclosures, and god knows what else. There’s no particular joy in reading about the $2 billion and rising loss at the bank despite red lights and sirens going off to warn them to duck and cover, largely because so much of the damage is done.
The banks have practiced naked self-interest and self-survival while pretending to have wise counsel and a voice in public policy as millions lost their homes and struggle to find work and decent wages in the worst recession in most Americans’ lifetimes. Dimon on the other hand thinks he’s still got a horse in the race as he sneers that the “pundits” will be coming for him now. Dude, you better hustle or you might even find out what the unemployment line looks like yourself.
Other banks seem to have realized that Dimon, Chase, and their derivative arrogance has cost them dearly. Perhaps Dimon will get the message soon. He needs to go, and shame on his board for not doing the deed when they meet in June.
Meanwhile, it’s time to revisit the compromises and lost opportunities around financial protections and real regulations on banking again. It’s not a matter of being “too big to fail,” but recognizing that big banks are public concerns not private playthings, and need to be steered to a proper course with the national economy and public interest foremost and everything else, way, way later.
 Houston Light Rail Houston For a change it wasn’t work. We were in Houston during the weekend to celebrate the wedding of Emma Graves Fitzsimmons and Gerry Smith. First time ever any of us had attended a wedding reported in the New York Times. It goes without saying that Emma’s job on the national desk of the Times and her marriage to Gerry, a reporter for Huffington Post, so no slouch, had a lot to do with it. Good times or bad Times, having been at the wedding of her parents and known her since birth, we wouldn’t have missed the event for the world. They were deliriously happy, which might not be enough to change my views about marriage, but certainly was enough to convince me that the culture has a couple of strong and persuasive advocates still. Anything that for any reason can make two people that happy, has to have some real value.
I was also excited to have an excuse to be back in downtown Houston, 4th largest city in the United States. We found a hotel right next to the new light rail system running down Main Street. I could hardly wait to see it. I could remember the arguments both pro and con about light rail when ACORN first opened our office in Houston in 1976 and now more than 30 years later, here it was. It was beautiful, too. Long and sleek. At some points along its route there were watercourses. At dawn, I watched a young woman absorbed in her cell phone with the water placidly reflecting the last shadows of the night behind her. She was also about the only person I saw anywhere around either then or the evening before. The light rail might be called light because its passenger loads were infinitesimally small with trains passing with only a couple of people aboard.
We were in a virtual ghost town. In fact walking early in the morning the number of For Lease signs and vacant properties throughout the main streets of this thriving commercial center were mindboggling. I started to wonder whether or not the buses coming up one street and the rail going down another had severed the arterial passages to the heart of the city? Rather than attracting businesses to the pathways along the speedy rail line, it almost seemed like businesses were in full flight.
Nothing was open. There was no place for even as much as a cup of coffee. It felt like we had stumbled into the valleys of an urban desert walking between modern skyscrapers. Even in Detroit, which once was the 4th largest city, I could have found a diner. What had happened to Houston and its “catch the horse by the tail” bold and brash Texas shout to the urban future? Had this slipped into the bayou with Enron? Been lost in the skepticism attending a future with diminishing oil?
I love Houston, but I couldn’t help feeling with every block I stepped off along the miles of my walk that something was terribly wrong.
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