ACORN News June 18, 2004Voter 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 Chicago Limits Wal-Mart Expansion PlansOn 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 BallotOn 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 FundingDuring 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 HewittACORN 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 SystemAfter 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 ActOn 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 ProposalOne 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. |
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