"ACORN Under the Microscope" -- Huffington Post

[Discussion list for COMM-ORG]

[ed:  Shannah responds to Peter's article.  A bit from me at the end.]

From:
Shannah Kurland <shannah_k at hotmail.com>


It's not that we have to be squeaky clean because we're under scrutiny 
from the right - i really don't care what they think about us.  The 
point is that we have to be squeaky clean, transparent, and accountable 
because this money is raised in the name of poor people - it belongs to 
the communities who organizations say they represent!  Stealing money 
and covering it up is not just a case of "oh, whoops, mistakes will be 
made!" It's the same crap that so-called former revolutionary leaders 
around the world use to justify their plundering of resources that 
belong to the people, and there is no justification, no excuse.
 
This is a good moment to plug The Revolution Will Not Be Funded:  Beyond 
the NonProfit Industrial Complex, edited by INCITE Women of Color 
Against Violence.  Only in the u.s. do we accept the outrageous idea 
that the tail (funding) wags the dog, and that social movements best 
occur in an NGO structure.
 
One last thing - while I respect Dr. Dreier's many contributions to 
research and writing about organizing, i can't understand why an essay 
that attempts to offer a long-term and broad look at ACORN doesn't even 
mention the many, many, many violations of legal and moral standards in 
how it treats its own workers.  The passing reference to "disgruntled 
employees" doesn't even pretend to do just to the former ACORN staff 
members who have been violated in terms of missing and late paychecks, 
exploitative salaries, and verbal and even physical abuse.  And i'm just 
talking about people i know personally, not even beginning to count 
second and third hand stories i've heard, NLRB complaints, etc.
 
We don't have blank checks by virtue of working on good issues, or 
having some good wins, that permit us to exploit and steal.  Again, it's 
not about shielding ourselves from the right wing and those who prop up 
the systems of capitalism, white supremacy and patriarchy - it's about 
trying not to do their work for them.
 
 
Shannah Kurland
Providence, RI

 

Everyone knows the cause of war - it is capitalism.  We can't just give 
those bad capitalists their supper and put them to bed the way we do 
with our children.  We must fight them. 

Todos saben la causa de las guerras - es el capitalismo.  No solo 
podemos darles a los malos capitalistas su comida y acostarlos como 
hacemos con nuestros hijos.  Tenemos que luchar contra de ellos.

Lulia Jackson, 19 34 

Discussion list for COMM-ORG wrote:
> --------
> This is a COMM-ORG 'colist' message.
> All replies to this message come to COMM-ORG only.
> --------
>  
> From: "Peter Dreier" <dreier at oxy.edu>
>
>
> Friends and Colleagues:
>  
> In our article today's HuffingtonPost, "ACORN Under the Microscope,"  
> John Atlas and I examine the current controversy surrounding ACORN, the 
> country's largest and most successful progressive community organizing 
> group. 
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/acorn-under-the-microscop_b_112491.html  
> Last week the New York Times reported that 8 years ago ACORN's chief 
> financial officer embezzled almost $1 million from the organization, but 
> that top staff agreed to keep it secret. ACORN put new financial 
> controls in place and the money has now been repaid.  Even so, covering 
> up the embezzlement revealed poor judgement.  Now that the story has 
> leaked, ACORN's allies and  funders are understandably upset by this 
> episode. Most have already indicated their willingness to continue to 
> support ACORN, but with more scrutiny over its finances. ACORN has 
> chapters in 103 cities in 38 states and has played a key role in winning 
> victories for low-income people on such issues as living wages, 
> predatory lending, affordable housing, voting rights, public schools, 
> health care, and welfare reform. In its 38-year history, ACORN has 
> accumulated many enemies among corporations and conservative politicians 
> with whom it has done battle. These opponents, along with right-wing 
> media, are happy to use the current scandal to try to weaken ACORN and 
> undermine its reputation and political influence. ACORN is now 
> reorganizing its leadership and management structure, a process that is 
> certainly painful many of its veteran leaders and staff.  Our article 
> puts this controversy in the larger context, exploring whether this 
> self-inflicted wound will do irreparable harm or will help strengthen 
> the organization in the long run.
>  
> Peter Dreier
>  
> _____________________________________
> Peter Dreier
> Dr. E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics
> Chair, Urban & Environmental Policy Program
> Occidental College
> 1600 Campus Road
> Los Angeles, CA 90041
> Phone: (323) 259-2913
> FAX: (323) 259-2734
> Website: http://employees.oxy.edu/dreier
>  
> "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great 
> moral crises maintain their neutrality" - Dante
>  
> *****************************
[ed:  as a sociologist who shares the core values that unite the left, 
one of the things I most worry about are the internal conflicts that 
divide the left.  I fear that we too often use the same conflict and 
confrontation tactics on each other that we use on our opposition, and 
they often work better on us than they do on the opposition.  I also 
worry that we often engage in an analysis of situations such as ACORN 
using the same theories that are often promoted by the 
opposition--namely, theories that single out organizations or 
individuals as the cause of a problem.  Such theorizing, of course, is 
part of a time-honored tool of community organizing--pick the target, 
isolate it, and freeze it.  It works.  But it works dialectically, 
achieving short-term victories but potentially undermining long-term 
goals by reducing our ability to think in broader structural and 
cultural terms.  ACORN, whatever its problems, is embedded in a broader 
social structural and cultural context that makes it extraordinarily 
difficult, if not impossible, to do their work without contradiction. I, 
too, recommend The Revolution Will not be Funded, which begins to get at 
some of these issues.  And, as Shannah alludes to, analyses of  
revolutionary movements are also instructive.  Most of them reproduce at 
least some of the oppressions that they fought against, and most produce 
new oppressions.  That is not a product of the individuals who lead 
revolutions, but part of the structure of the revolutionary movement 
process itself. If it was the product of individuals, we would see a lot 
more variation in outcomes. Likewise, in U.S. community organizing and 
social movement processes, the stories of factioning, conflicts between 
leaders and members, and organizational collapse exist for all the 
movements in our history.  ACORN's problems are no more pronounced than 
the internal problems of the environmental movement, the past women's 
movement, the Civil Rights movement, labor union organizing, and even 
our own revolutionary war. You can even go back to Roberto Michel's 
"iron law of oligarchy" in Europe to learn the same lessons.  The 
problem is that we have found neither an insightful enough analysis nor 
an effective enough strategy to prevent the negative influences of the 
existing oppressive social structure/culture from invading our efforts 
to end them.  But I urge us to look for and attack those broader causes 
of internal problems before we attack each other.  How many of would 
argue that we need tougher prison sentences rather than a more just 
economy to reduce crime?  How many of us would say the poor must change 
their behavior before they warrant our respect?  I likewise reject such 
an analysis when applied to social movement and community organizing 
efforts.  The problem is, I don't have a better analysis that is more 
than a sociological abstraction.  So, some work for us to do.]