As ACORN Members have been doing since 1970, our members work on the issues that matter to low and moderate-income families in their communities, homes, and workplaces. Our chapters around the world have been getting out, getting active, getting heard, and winning major victories!
Find out how below!
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 RADIO ACORN After four years, the license for an internet radio station www.radioacorn.org has been approved in Uganda! In other radio news, the council of the catfish capital of Arkansas, Eudora, voted 8-0 for KEUD to install an antenna on their water tower.
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 SOCIAL POLICY Volume 54 Issue 3 has begun to arrive in mailboxes worldwide. Fall 2022 leads with ongoing concerns about protecting the U.S. election process and the right to vote followed by a bottom-up proposal to remake democracy and a slap back at replacement theory. Excerpts highlight field work in Minneapolis, efforts in South Africa, implications that fights in San Francisco have for community-based education, and stories of rank-and-file organizing in industrial plants in the 60s-and-70s. Book reviews offer commentary, challenges, and critique of a look at the history of the Democratic Party, the story of a priest whose politics confronted the Holocaust, and the community organizing experiences of Frank Pierson. Regular columnists dissect the Twitter storm, underline climate change’s water issues, disgust at sexual abuse coverups in sports, and highlight the threat that real estate appraisal pose to our communities. The issue’s parting gift is tentative steps forward from California new fast-food legislation. If you are committed to making change and building power in these troubled times, this one is a keeper! Renew or subscribe today at socialpolicy.org!
 As a lead article in Social Policy, research from the Voter Purge Project highlights that, in battleground states in the U.S. elections, the Republican Party is registering more new voters and winning more voters who switch party than the Democratic Party; the voter suppression efforts in Georgia targeted at Black voters appear to be having an effect; and more!
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In September, Camwater, the company in charge of servicing public drinking water and sanitation in Cameroon, connected the homes of 19 families in the Bepanda petit Wouri district to the drinking water network. Camwater’s commitment to serving this community is thanks to the collective action and citizen mobilizations carried out by OnEstEnsemble and district residents.
Since heavy rains destroyed the "truth" bridge in February 2022, populations of the sector have been separated and forced to travel very long distances to reach schools and workplaces. Trade between the two neighborhoods has been strongly affected and the local committee of OnEstEnsemble have mobilized to illustrate to the Mayor of Duala 5 borough, the difficulties they have encounter daily since the bridge collapse. District spokespersons initially sent a letter and 200-signature petition followed by a member delegation the Douala 5 town hall resulting in the mayor’s staff assessing the damage, estimating the repair, and continuing communication.
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ACORN Canada was one of five researchers in a project led by the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate to explore the financialization of housing. In conducting a survey on the impact felt by low- and moderate-income tenants, ACORN Canada contributed to identifying measures to put human rights first and address the devastating impacts of the financialization of housing. To read ACORN’s report, click here.
Across Canada, ACORN is taking action on the cost of living crisis. The Stand Up for Surrey Housing Campaign calls on municipal candidates in British Columbia to protect affordability, stop displacement, and ban demovictions.
In New Brunswick, members ramp up campaigning as Temporary Rent Control expires. Weston Picnics for Playgrounds at Pinedale and Vanier takes on Q Residential. All this and more from Hamilton, London, Peel and more ACORN action across Canada.
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ACORN Honduras carried out literacy activities in Tegucigalpita and Omoa. Efforts focused on covid protection and support securing food and medicine. Regular home visits continue in Honduras and will focus on mitigating problems caused by recent flooding.
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Acorn Foundation India produced this profile of Hanumanti Ramchandra Chalwadi who has worked in the waste recycling sector in Dharavi, Mumbai, for over 40 years. The video is directed by Subuhi Jiwani.
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In New Delhi, the Working People’s Coalition joined the Centre for Indian Migrant Studies (CIMS) and other civil society and trade union partners to organize a national panel on Justice for Wage Theft. It is a country-wide multi-stakeholder discussion to understand and evaluate the issue of wage theft and stakeholder responses during the pandemic among internal and international migrants. The Hawkers Joint Action Committee also presented on a panel hosted by ActionAid Association.
Members in Bengaluru won the construction of a new marketplace and, in Janpahal, children, parents, and teachers inaugurated a community library to increase quality time and reduce screen time.
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JUSTICITIZ Liberia joined numerous organizations to observe the International Day of Struggle against Monoculture. Members have petitioned the Socfin Group Salala Rubber Company to protest the tree plantations, demand fair compensation for the land grabbed, and for the end of violence against women working for the company.
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#PlantationsAreNotForests
Like in Liberia, citizen mobilizations against RSPO took place in Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Nigeria among others where local residents demand [the] "Withdrawal of the certification of the Socfin group as a producer of "sustainable" palm oil". Learn More
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Solidarity and international trade unionism!
The Collective of McDroits employees, supported by ReAct Transnational, had an appointment in Brussels! Invited by two members of the European Parliament, Mathilde testified with activists from Brazil and the United States. They and they have suffered harassment and assault while working at McDonald's.
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Enough is Enough
ACORN is on the front line of fighting the cost-of-living crisis in the UK. In Manchester, ACORN took their campaign to #BootTheBailiffs directly to the City Council, disrupting their meeting and dumping disused items at their office.
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ACORN Bristol members turned up the heat outside Bristol City Hall for the #REALRentingComission calling to improve conditions for renters.
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“It's time for us to fight back. We need to organize in our communities and in our workplaces and build a movement that says enough is enough."
- ACORN Head Organizer, Nick Ballard, September 2022
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SAVE THE DATES!
 November 4 - 6: ACORN International Staff and Board Meeting, Cliffe House, Shepley, West Yorkshire, England
November 4 - 19: Voice of the People Radio Stations Annual Pledge Drive, KABF in Little Rock and WAMF in New Orleans
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CANADA
- Windobi Editorial staff (September 2, 2022) Calgary Tenants Group Urges Rent Control, Eviction Protection Windobi
- Ritika Dubey (September 7, 2022) ACORN members demand bylaw to help tenants deal with extreme heat The Hamilton Spectator
- Jessica McDiarmid (September 8, 2022) If province won’t protect renters from extreme heat, municipalities must, advocates say at campaign launch National Observer
- Stephanie Thomas (September 15, 2022) Tenant union calls for Alberta to introduce rent control to address affordability, safety concerns CTV News Calgary
- CTV News Staff (September 17, 2022) ACORN, allies calling for landlord licensing system CTV News Atlantic
- Anam Khan (September 18, 2022) Advocacy group lobbies for landlord licensing CBC News
- Global News (September 19, 2022) New Brunswick ACORN ramping up campaigning as Temporary Rent Control set to expire Global News
- Micah Guiao (September 19, 2022) Advocates call to license Halifax landlords to ensure tenant safety CMP
- Sarah Lunney and Angus Fletcher (September 27, 2022) COMMENTARY: Rent control is a vital piece of an affordable housing strategy NB Media Coop
FRANCE
INDIA
- Rafeek Ravuther, Chandan Kumar, Dharmendra Kumar (September 26, 2022) Government 'fails to take up' Indian migrants' unpaid wages issue with other countries. Counterview
UK
ENGLAND & WALES
- Mark Taylor (September 24, 2022) Community union Acorn calls on Bristol renters to voice their concerns at public meeting outside City Hall Bristol World
- Alex Seabrook (September 27, 2022) Renters urged to share stories of dodgy landlords and rising rents outside City Hall Bristol World & Bristol Post
- Mia Vines Booth (September 28, 2022) Tenants Protest Council’s ‘Whitewashing’ Rent Commission Bristol247
- Mark Taylor (September 29, 2022) Rats, mould and unsafe gas boilers - Bristol renters speak out over council ‘stitch up’ outside City Hall Bristol World
- BBC West (September 30, 2022) Protest held over state of Bristol's housing BBC
- Greg Barradale (September 30, 2022) All the protests and strikes taking place this weekend as anger grows over the economic crisis Big Issue
SCOTLAND – LIVING RENT
- Kieran Findlay (August 30, 2022) Scottish Government has ‘whitewashed’ rent control support from consultation, says Living Rent Scottish Housing News
- Gordon Maloney (September 8, 2022) How we won a rent freeze in Scotland: People before profits Huck
- Living Rent (September 10, 2022) Living Rent: How tenants' union got Scottish Government to implement a rent freeze The National
- Ferret Journalists (September 12, 2022 FFS Explains: Scotland’s rent freeze and eviction ban The Ferret
- Ella Jessel (September 14, 2022) Rent freeze: could London follow Scotland’s lead and bring in rent controls? The Evening Standard
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OCTOBER 2022
