Thanks Wade for a great discussion and thank you Bev for continuing your commitment to this great institution, The FDL Book Salon.

I am surprised no one has asked questions about the Kony/Invisible Children campaign. Recall that last March a group called Invisible Children became instantly famous after its video that publicized the atrocities of a Ugandan warlord named Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army went viral. It was part of a grassroots campaign that included getting Angelina Jolie and 20 other “culture makers” to call for the warlord’s arrest and to promote programs to save young African children. Her image appears towards the end of the documentary along with other famous figures, such as Bill Gates and Justin Bieber, who Invisible Children hoped viewers might pressure to condemn Kony.
The group raised $5m in just 48 hours.
According to YouTube statistics, the Kony video was most popular with young women aged 13 to 17 and men aged 18 to 24 racked up the most views in the US, China and Australia.

Critics have condemned the group for over-simplifying a complex issue, not doing enough work on the ground in Uganda and its ties to rightwing Christian fundamentalists groups in the US, who have also funded anti gay-rights causes.

However, the group has succeeded in highlighting a horrible and continuing human rights cause that had garnered little attention for decades and using social media to engage young people in social activism.

Wade what lessons have you learned from Invisible Children work?

Could you say some more about Acorn International’s campaign to get the President of the World Bank to commit to aggressively making all available efforts to achieve the World Bank and G-8 goal of stopping predatory pricing of remittances and reducing maximum costs for migrant workers and immigrants to no more than 5% for remittances.

Explain the family tragedy and human suffering that motivated this campaign.

Speaking about Breitbart and O’Keefe, talk to us about the role of the MSM. The NY Times today had yet another article focusing on one of the activists who helped destroy ACORN’s reputation with trickery and deceit. This time it was Andrew Breitbart. Of course what the story wrote about Acorn was wrong.

I don’t think the Times ever did a profile of you. The Times has not done a story on what actually happened to Acorn. Why do you think that’s so? And how do you feel when the Times kind of glorify an evil bully like Andrew Breitbart but basically refuses to do a post-Obama-election-Acorn-story that accurately portrays what Acorn was and what happened?

US government aid program, international donors, and groups like Oxfam can be very helpful, don’t you agree? In Rwanda, for example, as donors gave direct support to the government, the government increased its spending in health, while simultaneously decreasing defense spending. And in 2005, after receiving donor support, the countries of Burkina Faso, Malawi, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Uganda, and Vietnam all stepped up pro-poor spending and scaled up social service delivery.

when you were organizing Acorn you were focused on sustainability or in other word making sure your group had money to pay for organizers etc and in your new book you seem obsessed with sustainability and scale. Why?

Repying to Reply 14

Wade,
When I was on a book tour in England the OWS movement was gaining momentum, but there was no connection with the community organizing groups.

As I read your book it seems you are kind of hostile to NGO’s? What’s up with that?

Have any of the groups you are working with internationally worked with OWS?

So give us two examples of interesting organizing campaigns in some other countries?

I’d like to start with two questions: why did you write global grassroots? And give us an example of interesting organizing campaigns in some other countries?

Welcome Wade and BevW thanks for inviting me to host this.

look forward to this event

Hi Michael and congratulations on the book which I hope to read soon. As you know I recently finished a book about Acorn called Seeds of Change, (available from Amazon, Progressive Book Club and book stores.) I am quite aware of Acorn’s relationship with Ameriquest, including their fights to rein in its predatory practices in 1999 and 2000, as well as its partnership with Ameriquest. Later in 2005, Ameriquest helped Acorn, whose HQ were in New Orleans, survive Hurricane Katrina by donating $100,000 to the group, as well as weeks of housing in Houston for dislocated staff. This helped Acorn regroup and then lead the fight to save the Lower Ninth from destruction and help thousands of homeowners to return.

In my chapter on the subprime crisis I detail Acorn’s huge victory against Household Finance Corporation. In these difficult times its important to know a poor people’s group can defeat Goliath.

Tell us how Acorn aided and abetted Ameriquest’s destructive behavior?