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Wade Rathke

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Wade Rathke
BornAugust 5, 1948 (1948-08-05)
Alma materWilliams College
OccupationOrganizer
Known forFounder of ACORN
SpouseBeth Butler
Website[1]

Wade Rathke (born August 5, 1948) is the co-founder of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 100. He was ACORN's chief organizer from its founding in 1970 until he stepped down June 2, 2008.[1] Rathke and his wife, Beth Butler, live in New Orleans, Louisiana. A member of the radical Marxist Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), he dropped out in 1968 to join the anti-draft movement. [2][3]

Education

Rathke attended Williams College, a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, from 1965 to 1968.[4]

Founding of ACORN

Rathke began his career as an organizer for the National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO) in Springfield, Massachusetts. After working with the NWRO, he left for Little Rock, Arkansas, to found a new organization designed to unite poor and working class families around a common agenda. Working with Gary Delgado, Mr. Rathke was a co-founder of ACORN.

This community organizing initiative in Arkansas eventually grew into the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the largest organization of lower income and working families in the United States, with 175,000 dues-paying families spread across about eighty-two staffed offices in American cities. The ACORN family of organizations includes radio stations (KNON and KABF), publications, housing development and ownership (ACORN Housing), and a variety of other supports for direct organizing and issue campaigns, such as Project Vote and the Living Wage Resource Center. ACORN International has recently opened staffed offices in Lima, Peru, and Toronto and Vancouver, Canada.

Departure from ACORN

The New York Times reported on July 9th, 2008, that Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN's founder Wade Rathke, was found to have embezzled $948,607.50 from the group and affiliated charitable organizations back in 1999 and 2000.[1] ACORN executives decided to handle it as an internal matter, and did not inform most of the board members or law enforcement, and instead signed an enforceable restitution agreement with the Rathke family to repay the amount of the embezzlement. Wade Rathke stated to the Times that the decision to keep the matter secret was not made to protect his brother but because word of the embezzlement would have put a 'weapon' into the hands of enemies of Acorn, a liberal group that is a frequent target of conservatives who object to ACORN's often strident advocacy on behalf of low- and moderate-income families and workers. A whistleblower revealed the embezzlement in 2008. On June 2, 2008, Dale Rathke was dismissed, and Wade stepped down as ACORN's chief organizer, but he remains chief organizer for Acorn International L.L.C.[1]

Founding Service Employees International Union Local 100

Rathke is also founder and Chief Organizer of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 100, which is headquartered in New Orleans and also has chapters in Texas. Founded in 1980 in New Orleans as an independent union of Hyatt employees, the union became part of SEIU in 1984. SEIU Local 100 organizes public sector public workers, including school employees, Head Start, and health care workers, as well as lower wage private sector workers in the hospitality, janitorial, and other service industries.

His work in the labor movement includes three terms as Secretary-Treasurer of the Greater New Orleans AFL-CIO. Rathke is the president and co-founder of the SEIU Southern Conference; a member of the International Executive Board of SEIU; and Chief Organizer of the Hotel and Restaurant Organizing Committee (HOTROC) a multi-union organizing project for hospitality workers in New Orleans sponsored by the AFL-CIO and its president, John Sweeney.

Other projects

In 2000, Rathke created the Organizers' Forum, which brings together senior organizers in labor and community organizations in dialogues about challenges faced by constituency-based organizations, such as tactical development, organizing new immigrants, using technology, utilizing capital strategies and corporate campaign techniques, or understanding the impacts and organizing challenges of globalization.

Since 2004, Rathke has directed the Centre for Community Leadership, based in Vancouver, British Columbia and Toronto, Ontario, Canada. A project of the Columbia Foundation, the Community Leadership Centre works to build a more progressive democracy in Canada and the Americas by training organizers to build partnerships between community organizations and labor unions. The Centre will: 1) identify and train community leaders and organizers to initiate and implement campaign-based initiatives on critical community issues, and 2) assist in the formation of sustainable local community or campaign-based organizations capable of effecting social change at the local, provincial/state or federal level.

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Strom, Stephanie (July 9, 2008). "Funds Misappropriated at 2 Nonprofit Groups". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-10-13.
  2. ^ Rael Jean Isaac, Erich Isaac. The coercive utopians. Regenrey Publishing. 1983
  3. ^ Andrew C. McCarthy. ACORN’s White Horse. National Review
  4. ^ Rathke, Wade. "Wade Rathke, Chief Organizer at ACORN". LinkedIn. Retrieved 2008-10-09.
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