ACORN International

Logo of ACORN International
Logo of ACORN International

ACORN International is a federation of autonomous member-based community organizations and tenants unions. The organisations represent a total global membership of approximately 250,000 members.[1]

ACORN International lists affiliated organisations in Belgium, Cameroon, Canada, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, England, France, Honduras, India, Italy (Sicily), Kenya, Liberia, Malta, Mexico, Nigeria, Palestine, Peru, Scotland, Tunisia, the United States and Wales.[2]

History

Acorn International was created in 2004 by members and staff of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).[3][4] The Founder and Chief Organizer is Wade Rathke. The headquarters of ACORN International are in New Orleans and Toronto. Much of the capacity outside of the organizing areas is provided by interns and volunteers that have come from George Brown College (Toronto), Carleton University (Ottawa), York University (Toronto), Georgia State University, the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), and many others.[3] ACORN International's own account of its history dates the creation of the international federation to 2002, describing it as an effort "to spread the ACORN model to other countries, often where our U.S. members had emigrated from".[5]

Organizing model

ACORN International's affiliates are described as "local, member-based, democratic organizations that operate like a union for their members", funded principally by member dues. The model set out by the federation involves door-knocking and home visits to identify neighbourhood issues and recruit dues-paying members, a launch meeting at which members select a winnable issue, the identification and training of member leaders, and the use of direct action in which "those affected by a problem take action themselves to resolve it, instead of relying on politicians, lawyers, or non-profits". Affiliates are multi-issue: rather than dissolving after a campaign, they treat each victory as "only a means to the broader end of building power" and move on to a new issue.[6]

Campaigns

Since its creation it has focused on a wide variety of local campaigns and initiatives, including fighting for potable water, paved roads, schools and parks in San Juan Laragancho in Lima, Peru,[7] working to organize ragpickers and hawkers in India's mega-slums,[8] and working to raise the standards for tenants in cities across Canada.[9] Much of ACORN International's work in Latin America, Africa and India focuses on mega-slums like Dharavi (Mumbai), San Juan Laragancho (Lima), La Matanza (Buenos Aires), Korogocho (Nairobi), the ITO community (Delhi), Col. Ramon Amalia Amador (Tegucigalpa), and Choloma (San Pedro Sula) among others.[10]

ACORN International's major projects have included the Commonwealth Games campaign.[10] and the Remittance Justice campaign.[11]

Tenant organising

Tenant organising is carried out by affiliates including ACORN Canada, ACORN the union in England and Wales, Alliance Citoyenne in France and Living Rent in Scotland. The federation's stated policy demands include rent controls and rent freezes, caps on utility charges, landlord licensing, restrictions on evictions and on short-term rentals, and an end to quasi-law-enforcement eviction practices. Tactics listed include picketing landlords' offices, human blockades against evictions, collective refusal to pay rent, and street theatre.[12]

Adani and Dharavi

ACORN International has campaigned against the redevelopment of Dharavi in Mumbai by the Adani Group, having supported organisations working in the settlement for close to two decades. Adani Properties won the bidding for the 259-hectare scheme in November 2022, and it is being carried out through a special purpose vehicle, Navbharat Mega Developers Private Limited, in which the Adani Group holds 80 per cent; around 59,000 households and up to a million people live in the area, and the project has permission to move some 50,000 of them to land near the Deonar landfill, which environmentalists have warned could be damaging to public health.[13] ACORN argues that the scheme excludes residents unable to prove ten years of uninterrupted residence.[14] The federation published a report, Adani Group and Dharavi: Corporate Expansion, Political Connections, and Community Displacement in Mumbai, in 2025, which also covers the group's political connections, the Hindenburg Research allegations of 2023 and the US federal indictment of November 2024 over alleged bribery of Indian officials.[14]

On 18 June 2025, marking the 55th anniversary of ACORN's founding, affiliates held a global day of action against the Adani Group, with protests in Toronto; New Orleans, Little Rock, Dallas and Baltimore; Paris; London and Edinburgh; and in Kenya. The federation called on governments and institutions to divest from Adani and urged the US Department of Justice to pursue its indictment under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.[15]

Beat the Heat

Beat the Heat is a climate justice campaign framing extreme heat as an issue disproportionately affecting low-income tenants, outdoor and informal workers and older people. Its demands include affordable cooling retrofits for rented housing, maximum indoor temperature standards, heat protections for outdoor workers, and tenant involvement in local climate planning.[16] Affiliates held an inaugural global day of action on 23 July 2025, and a second on 15 July 2026 which the federation said took place in 41 cities; in Canada, ACORN organised events in eleven cities on the latter date, calling for a free air conditioner programme for low-income renters, energy rebates, upgrades to rental housing and the opening of cooling centres during extreme heat.[16][17][18] In France the equivalent campaign is run by Locataires Ensemble under the name logements bouilloires.[19] Outcomes claimed by the federation include maximum indoor temperature bylaws in New Westminster, British Columbia, and Hamilton, Ontario, a New Orleans ordinance requiring paid heat breaks for workers, heat audits agreed by major landlords in Lyon following a petition by the French affiliate Locataires Ensemble, and public heat warnings issued by the India Meteorological Department.[16]

Research

ACORN International conducts research on topics relevant to its members' campaigns. Topics have included rural electric cooperative governance, voter purges, hospital accessibility and accountability, extreme heat, and the Adani Group. Research is conducted in partnership with the Labor Neighbor Research and Training Center, United Labor Unions Local 100 and the journal Social Policy.[20]

Previously, the organization researched the interest rates, transparency, and role (if any) of micro-finance in poverty reduction. A white paper, along the lines of those developed for the Remittance Justice Campaign, entitled "Mega Troubles for Micro-Finance" was released in the summer of 2011 demanding among other things that no additional donor or government money be invested in micro-finance since it has failed to reduce poverty according to both ACORN International's research and research done by the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab. Responses received from a number of international development agencies such as the World Bank and UK AID have been in agreement with many of the criticisms of microfinance industries included in the report, but do not agree with the report's final recommendations of eliminating all public funding of microfinance among other suggestions.[21][22]

In the United Kingdom and Ireland

The first ACORN branch in the UK opened in Bristol in 2014 by three people – all three of whom had experience organising the Bristol Industrial Workers of the World,[23] two of them also graduates of the Community Organisers programme.[24] Part of the funding to establish ACORN in the UK came from the Big Society initiative.[23][25] Initially ACORN was not set up to focus much on housing issues, with this focus developing as repeated concerns regarding housing were raised.[25]

Since 2014, Acorn groups in the United Kingdom have been established in Brighton, Weston-super-Mare, Ceredigion, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds and Newcastle.[23] The group has been described as being akin to trade union for tenants,[25] as a trade union but with community membership,[26][27][28] and as a renters' union.[23]

Following the victory of the Conservative Party in the 2019 UK general election, ACORN England received a surge in membership applications.[27] In the face of recession due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the British left-wing political group Momentum organised with tenants' organisations such as ACORN, as well as the London Renters Union, to educate renters about their tenancy rights and organise renters to fight evictions.[29][30] Momentum began encouraging their supporters in to join up direct action efforts with such organisations in May 2020,[31][32] and the campaign was in full swing by September.[30][32] As of 2020, ACORN Bristol had 600 members.[33]

The Scottish tenants' union Living Rent, and the Irish tenants' union CATU Ireland, are both affiliates of ACORN International.[34][35]

In Canada

ACORN Canada was founded in 2004 and has chapters across the country.[36] The national organization has led campaigns for more affordable internet access,[37][38][39] caps on grocery prices,[40][41] caps on banking fees,[42][43] and tenants issues.[44][45][46]

In France

Alliance Citoyenne is a working-class community organisation in France that advocates for "citizen unionism" inspired by the trade union model.[47] The organisation was founded on 4 December 2012 in Grenoble,[48] and is an affiliate of ACORN International.[49]

See also

References

Citations

  1. ↑ "ACORN International". ACORN International. Retrieved 19 August 2026.
  2. ↑ "ACORN International Affiliates". ACORN International. Retrieved 19 August 2026.
  3. 1 2 Beck & Purcell (2013), p. 101
  4. ↑ Atlas, John (2010). Seeds of Change: The Story of ACORN, America's Most Controversial Antipoverty Community Organizing Group. Nashville, Ten.: Vanderbilt University Press. p. 231. ISBN 978-0-8265-1705-0.
  5. ↑ "History". ACORN International. Retrieved 19 August 2026.
  6. ↑ "The ACORN Model". ACORN International. Retrieved 19 August 2026.
  7. ↑ Smith, Ben (8 November 2010). "ACORN razzes Obama on India visit". POLITICO. Retrieved 12 April 2025.
  8. ↑ Recycling and respect - Culture - livemint.com
  9. ↑ Standards-of-maintenance bylaw sought for Lower Mainland municipalities | Vancouver, Canada | Straight.com
  10. 1 2 Beck & Purcell (2013), p. 101
  11. ↑ Remittance Justice
  12. ↑ "Tenant Organizing". ACORN International. Retrieved 19 August 2026.
  13. ↑ "Adani's Dharavi redevelopment plan ignites fear of evictions and displacements among residents". Land Conflict Watch. Retrieved 21 August 2026.
  14. 1 2 "Adani Report". ACORN International. Retrieved 19 August 2026.
  15. ↑ "ACORN's 55th Anniversary Press Release: Global Action Opposes Adani". ACORN International. 18 June 2025. Retrieved 19 August 2026.
  16. 1 2 3 "Beat the Heat". ACORN International. Retrieved 19 August 2026.
  17. ↑ "Help renters 'beat the heat' amid record-breaking temperatures, ACORN tells government". NB Media Co-op. 16 July 2026. Retrieved 21 August 2026.
  18. ↑ "Global Day of Action: Beat The Heat!". ACORN Canada. Retrieved 21 August 2026.
  19. ↑ "Logements bouilloires : agir contre les appartements qui surchauffent avec Locataires Ensemble". Locataires Ensemble - Construisons notre pouvoir d'agir (in French). Retrieved 21 August 2026.
  20. ↑ "Research". ACORN International. Retrieved 19 August 2026.
  21. ↑ "UK Aid Response". 29 September 2011.
  22. ↑ "ACORN International".
  23. 1 2 3 4 Cant, Callum. "Taking What's Ours: an ACORN Inquiry". Notes From Below. Retrieved 13 April 2025.
  24. ↑ A. Gilchrist and M. Taylor, The Short Guide to Community Development 2nd edn (Bristol: Policy Press, 2016)
  25. 1 2 3 Sabbagh, Dan (3 June 2018). "Do you live in shoddy housing that costs a fortune? Time to join the renters' union". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 13 April 2025.
  26. ↑ Simpson, Will (8 February 2016). "Acorn - A Community Union in Action". Bristol 247.
  27. 1 2 Booth, Robert (22 December 2019). "Community union Acorn reports glut of applications". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 12 April 2025.
  28. ↑ Mathers (2021), p. 152
  29. ↑ Fisher, Andrew (22 September 2020). "Momentum is focusing on community campaigns - it's where it is most powerful". inews.co.uk.
  30. 1 2 Walker, Peter (21 September 2020). "Momentum to focus on resisting evictions during Covid-19 crisis". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  31. ↑ Booth, Robert (16 March 2020). "Community aid groups set up across UK amid coronavirus crisis". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 12 April 2025.
  32. 1 2 Lewis, Nigel (22 September 2020). "Labour activists plan 'peaceful resistance' when bailiffs attempt evictions". LandlordZONE. Archived from the original on 22 October 2020. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
  33. ↑ Mathers (2021), p. 148
  34. ↑ "About us". Living Rent. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
  35. ↑ "ACORN International Affiliates". ACORN International. 13 May 2020. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
  36. ↑ "About ACORN Canada - ACORN Canada". 18 January 2013. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  37. ↑ "Protesters demand cheaper Internet access in Ottawa". Ottawa Sun. Archived from the original on 23 October 2020. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  38. ↑ "Cheap internet should be expanded to everyone living in poverty, advocates say". CBC. 7 April 2016.
  39. ↑ Mundie, Jessica (28 December 2022). "Many Canadians struggle to afford pricey high-speed home internet in urban areas". The National Post.
  40. ↑ Chini, Joey (28 July 2024). "'I can't afford to buy fresh produce': Calgarians rally against high grocery prices". CBC.
  41. ↑ Arif, Hafsa (10 February 2024). "Nationwide rallies call out record grocery store profits amid affordability crisis". CTVNews. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  42. ↑ Brown, Desmond (19 February 2021). "Hamilton ACORN leaders target predatory lenders to demand lower interest rates". CBC.
  43. ↑ Thompson, Elizabeth (19 March 2025). "Non-sufficient funds fee will be limited to $10 in Canada starting next year". CBC.
  44. ↑ "Anti-poverty group protests lack of Burnaby rentals". Burnaby Now. 29 July 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  45. ↑ Glowacki, Laura (11 November 2019). "New rental regulations too weak to stop slumlords, advocates say". CBC.
  46. ↑ Guardian, Alexandra Heck Brampton (30 May 2022). "Peel ACORN calls for provincial rent control, amid calls to action for upgrades to Ardglen apartment building". Brampton Guardian. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  47. ↑ Azib, Elies Ben (17 February 2023). "« L'enjeu est de parvenir à faire reconnaître la pertinence et la légitimité de l'interpellation citoyenne »". www.millenaire3.com (in French). Retrieved 26 October 2024.
  48. ↑ Louis, Jérémy (9 September 2015). "L'ambition démocratique du community organizing". Mouvements (in French). 83 (3): 168–176. doi:10.3917/mouv.083.0168. ISSN 1291-6412.
  49. ↑ Talpin, Julien (2016). Community organizing: de l'émeute à l'alliance des classes populaires aux États-Unis. Cours et travaux (in French). Paris: Raisons d'agir. ISBN 978-2-912107-86-2.

Works cited

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