ACORN News June 18, 2004
colist at comm-org.utoledo.edu
colist at comm-org.utoledo.edu
Wed Jun 23 04:56:32 CDT 2004
[ed: this is one of the regular ACORN updates.]
From: "Camellia Phillips" <acornnews at acorn.org>
ACORN News: June 18, 2004In This Issue
Voter Registration Update: Over 400,000 Voters Registered!
1. ACORN and Team of Lawyers File Class Action Lawsuit Against
Wells Fargo
2. Chicago Limits Wal-Mart Expansion Plans
3. Kansas City Turns In Signatures to Put Living Wage on
Ballot
4. ACORN Holds National Week of Action for Education Funding
5. ACORN Keeps Up Pressure on Jackson Hewitt
6. Contra Costa Wins Translation Services Program in Local
Health System
7. Albuquerque City Council Passes Resolution Against CLEAR
Act
8. Peru Defeats Local Water Privatization Proposal
ACORN News June 18, 2004
Voter Registration Update: Over 400,000 Voters Registered!
Nationwide, ACORN in partnership with Project Vote has passed
the 400,000 voter registration mark - registering a total of
400,186 voters since July 2003! On June 9, ACORN and Project
Vote, along with more than 100 other grassroots organizations,
also unveiled a new campaign to empower millions of immigrant
voters in the upcoming election: Immigrant Vote 2004. A
cooperative project of the New American Opportunity Campaign,
Immigrant Vote 2004 brings together labor, community,
religious, ethnic, civil rights, policy and other
organizations to register and engage new immigrant voters
around the country.
ACORN is also encouraging voters to register to vote online
through our campaign at:
http://www.registrationbyworkingassets.com/ACORN
ACORN and Team of Lawyers File Class Action Lawsuit Against
Wells Fargo
Pennsylvania ACORN members protested at a Wells Fargo
office in Harrisburg in early June.
On June 10, ACORN held a press conference in Chicago to
announce the filing of a major class action lawsuit against
Wells Fargo Financial in the state of Illinois. The suit
alleges that Wells has violated Illinois state law which
prohibits loans with interest rates above 8% from having fees
greater than 3%. Many Wells loans with high rates made in
recent years have fees of 5%, 7% or even more than 10% of the
loan amount. The potential impact of the case is huge, as the
remedy provided for in the law is twice the finance charges
(which includes all of the interest and fees) on the loans,
and ACORN believes that Wells has made thousands of loans in
violation of the law. Explains Illinois ACORN President Bea
Jackson: "Wells has gotten away with unfair, abusive, and
illegal lending in our communities for years, but we are
determined to put a stop to it. With this suit we are
demanding back the huge fees which Wells has been ripping out
of our communities." Meanwhile, state regulators are beginning
to take a hard, critical look at the way Wells does business.
The Louisiana Attorney General's office has issued a Civil
Investigatory Demand against the company around unfair and
deceptive lending practices, and the Maryland Human Relations
Commission is investigating a civil rights complaint against
the company. For more information, contact Lisa Donner at
acorncampaign at acorn.org or 718-246-7900.
Chicago Limits Wal-Mart Expansion Plans
ACORN members and allies rallied outside the City
Council meeting where Councilmembers voted on whether to
allow Wal-Mart to open new stores in Chicago.
On May 26, the Chicago City Council voted to deny approval to
one of two new stores that Wal-Mart had proposed to build in
primarily low-income, African American neighborhoods -
Wal-Mart's first attempt to expand into the city of Chicago.
Although the store planned for Chicago's West Side was
approved, the City Council's rejection of Wal-Mart's South
Side store marks a significant win for community and labor
activists. ACORN and allies in the Alliance for Justice at
Wal-Mart, the United Food and Commercial Workers, the Chicago
Federation of Labor, the Grassroots Collaborative, and others
were successful in delaying the City Council's vote on
Wal-Mart for months. Building on that victory, ACORN and
allies continued to rally Wal-Mart opposition up to the May 26
City Council meeting, where hundreds of community members and
living wage supporters turned out against the company. ACORN
opposes the expansion of Wal-Mart into our communities because
of its negative impact on small and local businesses, low
wages, minimal health benefits for employees, and anti-union
practices. Chicago ACORN members are now working with allies
to introduce a Big Box Living Wage ordinance that would set
living wage standards for all big box stores in the city. To
read more about ACORN's emerging campaign against Wal-Mart,
see the recent article from The Nation at:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040628&s=featherstone.
For more information, contact Madeline Talbott at
ilacorn at acorn.org or 312-939-7488.
Kansas City Turns In Signatures to Put Living Wage on Ballot
On June 8, Kansas City ACORN and SEIU Local 96 members turned
in over 5,400 signatures to put a living wage measure on the
November ballot. Members of ACORN and SEIU mobilized to
quickly gather the necessary signatures in late May after the
living wage proposal being considered by the City Council was
tabled until further notice. Under the proposed ordinance,
firms that enter into large service contracts with the City,
including workers at the Kansas City airport, would be
required to pay employees doing city service work at least
$9.79 per hour with health insurance, or $11.29 per hour if
health benefits are not provided. Describing ACORN's effort to
put the living wage on the ballot, Kansas City ACORN member
Deni Coker said: "Our community won't wait for justice while
elected officials drag their heels. We're taking it to the
people." In the first day of petitioning, nearly 2,000 Kansas
City residents signed in support of the effort. For more
information, contact Andrew Ginsberg at moacornkcro at acorn.org
or 816-931-6611.
ACORN Holds National Week of Action for Education Funding
Orlando ACORN members and children pretended to hold
class in Rep. Ric Keller's office.
During the week of May 24, ACORN members in 33 cities took
action against their Republican Congressmembers to urge them
to "Invest in Schools, Invest in Kids" by fully funding the No
Child Left Behind Act. In the coming months, the House and
Senate Appropriations Committees will be determining how much
money the federal government will provide to our schools. The
current, Republican-sponsored budget proposal gives $29.9
billion to the No Child Left Behind Act - $9.4 billion short
of what was promised. ACORN National President Maude Hurd
explained that: "Republicans are pushing a budget that
underfunds education. We are putting pressure on those
Congressmembers who voted for this budget and with that vote
said that they don't care about our schools and our kids."
In Glendale, AZ, ACORN members protested at the offices
of Representative John Shadegg and won a meeting with the
congressman himself for the next morning. In
Indianapolis, IN, ACORN members held a bake sale for
local schools outside of the offices of Representative
Mitch Daniels to call attention to the desperate funding
situation for local schools. In Providence, RI, ACORN
members and Save Our Schools, a Providence parents
organization, held a rally attended by more than three
hundred people. In addition to full funding for NCLB they
also planned to demand that Governor Donald Carcieri
withdraw a proposal to cut more than $8 million dollars
of education funds to cities and towns. Shortly before
the event, Governor Carcieri granted the request. In San
Antonio, TX, ACORN members and their children teamed up
with School Board members and the Assistant
Superintendent of schools to call for more school funding
on the federal and state levels. Kids performed skits
that showed how the lack of funding was affecting their
schools and wore buttons that said, "I deserve a good
education." In Kansas City, MO, ACORN members rallied in
front of the Federal Building, passing out flyers about
how the Bush Administration has shortchanged public
schools in Missouri. A group of ACORN members then went
into Senator Jim Talent's office and spoke to a staffer
about the Senator's commitment to Missouri's children.
To sign on to ACORN's Invest in Schools, Invest in Kids
campaign, go to www.acorn.org/?id=2028.
For more information, contact Amy Schur at
campaigndirect at acorn.org or 213-747-4211x210.
ACORN Keeps Up Pressure on Jackson Hewitt
ACORN members kept up the pressure on Jackson Hewitt with two
protests on June 16. ACORN members in Albuquerque, NM, and
Kansas City, MO, demonstrated at the local offices of Jackson
Hewitt - the nation's second largest pusher of high cost tax
Refund Anticipation Loans or RALs - to protest the company's
sales of RALs. ACORN members recognize this as a critical
moment to challenge Jackson Hewitt's abusive RAL sales
practices, which generated $33 million in revenues for the
company last year alone. Jackson Hewitt recently filed
registration papers with the SEC and is on the verge of an
initial public offering - and ACORN members want investors to
know the cost to low-income families of Jackson Hewitt's
business practices. For more information, contact Lisa Donner
at acorncampaign at acorn.org or 718-246-7900.
Contra Costa Wins Translation Services Program in Local Health
System
After over four months of organizing and negotiations, at a
June 10 meeting with ACORN members, representatives from the
John Muir/Mt. Diablo health system announced their commitment
to provide better translation services for patients who do not
speak English. Over the course of the next several months,
John Muir/Mt. Diablo will dedicate $86,000 to a program to
improve hospital translation services - including a 30 hour
training and certification program for new and existing
employees interested in serving as interpreters, who at the
end of the program will receive added compensation as
translators. In addition, the hospital system has also
developed a Limited English Proficiency committee to conduct a
thorough survey of all of the system's departments in an
effort to identify and address the most common needs of
patients who do not speak English. ACORN members will be
meeting with John Muir/Mt. Diablo representatives in the
coming months to verify that the program changes are on track
and truly meeting patient needs. For more information, contact
Anthony Panarese at caacornbpro at acorn.org or 925-261-0233.
Albuquerque City Council Passes Resolution Against CLEAR Act
On June 7, the Albuquerque City Council voted unanimously to
pass ACORN's resolution against the CLEAR Act. Proposed
federal legislation, the CLEAR Act would ask local police to
act as immigration agents responsible for finding and
deporting undocumented immigrants. In Albuquerque, where local
police are already spread thinly, the Act would overtax
existing law enforcement resources, and would discourage many
immigrant and mixed immigration status families from reporting
crimes committed against them for fear of retaliation and
deportation. For the last three months, New Mexico ACORN has
been working with members of Enlace Comunitario to create a
broad coalition opposing the bill, including public and
elected officials like Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White,
Mayor Martin Chavez, and Congresswoman Heather Wilson. The
City Council resolution calls for Albuquerque's congressional
delegation to take strong action to oppose the CLEAR Act. For
more information, contact Matthew Henderson at
nmacorn at acorn.org or 505-242-7411.
Peru Defeats Local Water Privatization Proposal
One of ACORN Peru's partner organizations FENTAP, the national
union of water and sanitation workers, spearheaded a
successful campaign to roll back the privatization of water in
three cities in the Peruvian state of La Libertad. Earlier
this year, ACORN opened its first office in Lima, Peru, where
ACORN is working closely with FENTAP. In coalition with labor,
women's, and community groups, including ACORN Peru, FENTAP
waged a two-year campaign against the company contracted to
manage the water systems, Nordwasser, holding demonstrations
in all three cities and working at state and local levels to
demand transparency and accountability from the company. 43%
of residents in the state of La Libertad do not have access to
running water, and under Nordwasser's management, the services
had deteriorated even further - including increased bacterial
contamination levels, raw sewage repeatedly overflowing into
irrigation ditches, and the average household only receiving
water service from 3-5 hours per day. After the local
government joined the community coalition in demanding that
management of the water and sewage systems be returned to the
municipality, Nordwasser abandoned its project and turned
control of water services back over to the state. ACORN Peru
and FENTAP are now organizing to ensure that water systems in
the state remain under local control, as well as waging a
national campaign to prevent water privatization in 13 other
Peruvian states. For more information, contact Donna Bransford
at international at acorn.org or 510-434-3118.
DONATE TO ACORN
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75 percent of ACORN's budget. But ACORN also needs financial
support from non-member allies, people who do not live in
neighborhoods with ACORN chapters but who support the work
ACORN is doing. For more information, link to
http://acorn.org/?4 or contact Steve Kest at
natexdirect at acorn.org or 718-246-7900.
ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform
Now, is the nation's largest community organization of low-
and moderate-income families, with over 150,000 member
families organized into 700 neighborhood chapters in 65 cities
across the country. Since 1970 ACORN has taken action and won
victories on issues of concern to our members. Our priorities
include: better housing for first time homebuyers and tenants,
living wages for low-wage workers, more investment in our
communities from banks and governments, and better public
schools. We achieve these goals by building community
organizations that have the power to win changes -- through
direct action, negotiation, legislation, and voter
participation.
Check out ACORN's website at http://www.acorn.org.
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Camellia Phillips
ACORN - Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now
88 3rd Ave, Floor 3 Brooklyn, NY 11217
phone: 718-246-7900 x227
fax: 718-246-7939
acornnews at acorn.org
http://www.acorn.org
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