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Who We Are
What we are
ACORN INTERNATIONAL IS AN FEDERATION OF PEOPLE ACROSS THE GLOBE
– TENANTS, WORKERS, RESIDENTS.
ACORN International is a federation of mass membership organizations of low-income people organizing for a fairer deal for communities left behind by companies and governments. We know that the economic and political systems set up do not work for us.
The idea of ACORN is simple – community organizations along the lines of a trade union – a union in the community; organizing our communities and fighting for a better quality of life. What began in grass roots organizing in local communities has developed into an international organization with hundreds of thousands of members across continents.
Inequality and social problems are about power: who has power and, in whose interests, it is used. We believe that the only way we’ll see meaningful action is if we can counter the individual power of money and establishment politics with the power of people taking collective action.
Every day we hear the issues facing our communities: rising housing costs, unemployment, stagnant wages and brutal cuts that have starved our public services. Wealth is being transferred upwards, and the only solution is for people to get organized and win it back.
We power society and keep it going. We are entitled to exercise power in that society and to receive our fair share of what we produce. Nurses, shop workers, delivery drivers, carers, parents: we raise the young, support the elderly, and produce the world’s wealth.
In ACORN International we coordinate our struggles for freedom, create ties of friendship and support across borders, and to unify the working class across the globe.
We know we can win because we’ve already started. In dozens of countries and across continents our victories have already added up to hundreds of millions but ACORN is more than just money – we are showing that by working together, we can refresh and rebuild democracy and the fabric of our communities worldwide.
WE STAND FOR AN ORGANIZED AND UNITED WORKING CLASS WORLDWIDE.
What we believe
We believe that every human deserves the means to a dignified and comfortable life. We believe in the capacity of everyone to decide their own future, and to work collectively to find solutions to the problems facing our neighborhoods, towns, cities, countries and planet. We believe that solidarity and the desire for justice are fundamental to being human.
We live under a system which degrades these values; a system in which humans live and work collectively, but under which the things we produce, consume, and even the places we live are controlled by the needs of private profiteers. The vast majority of people are denied the ability to make decisions about our own lives as we are denied the right to use the resources necessary for a dignified existence as we see fit. We know from experience that women, migrants, ethnic minorities, disabled people, LGBT+, and other marginalized communities experience this in particularly sharp and unique ways.
We know that governments and businesses cannot be undependable. They tell us that there is not enough to go around, but we live in a world of plenty. Enough is already produced for everyone to live a dignified and decent life. But around the globe, our people are poor. Wealth and resources are hoarded by a privileged few.
Historically, we have fought to take back what’s ours. In unions, we fight for better wages and dignity at work. In tenants’ organizations, we have battled against exploitative landlords and their agents. In women’s groups, we have demanded autonomy over our bodies and the course of our lives.
In movements for racial, sexual, and disability rights we have fought to live the lives we choose free from discrimination and harassment. All of these activities make up a wider movement; a set of separate organizations and strategies that depend on each other and strive towards our collective liberation.
ACORN stands in this tradition.
ACORN International is a source of power: organizations with the strength to defend our interests and build an alternative power base.
Our Demands
We want a world where all are guaranteed the means to life and to a life worth living. A life operating in the interests of all and allowing the maximum participation of all without discrimination. We want a society organized by and for the people, allowing the full enjoyment of our fundamental rights.
- Climate and Ecological Crisis: That the economic system that has brought humanity and the natural world to the brink of collapse be urgently replaced. To prioritize action against the biggest threat we have ever faced through rapid decarbonization of industry across the globe.
- Work: Dignified, well-paid and meaningful work that benefits our communities and respects the environment. A system where workers have control and ownership over their work and where everyone has comprehensive rights to organize in the workplace.
- Housing: Decent, secure and affordable homes for all. Housing fit for human habitation and respectful of the environment
- Health: Universal health and social care services, accessible to all and free at the point of delivery. This must cover all aspects of health and well-being from cradle to grave.
- Welfare: Welfare states that guarantee a fully comprehensive support system so that our ability to work does not determine our quality of life.
- Food: An end to hunger. A food system in which everybody has access to healthy, sustainable and affordable food produced by farmers with control over the process, properly compensated and respected for their work.
- Utilities: Access to all utilities which must be publicly-owned and operated, and delivered on the basis of need not ability to pay.
- Transport & Civic Infrastructure: Public transport and amenities properly accessible and truly affordable to all.
- Digital, print, broadcast, and social media: Platforms and outlets that represent our communities run by and for the people, properly regulated, free from political and corporate advertisement.
- Environment and Nature: The safeguarding and development of a sustainable and ecologically diverse environment with renewable resources, clean air and water. Comprehensive access to nature and green spaces for all.
- Education: Free lifelong education and training, accessible to all and which includes critical teaching about the histories and roles of our people and communities in shaping society
- Democratization of everyday life: An advanced and organised society where all that is maintained in common should be enjoyed in common. For the shared ownership of public land. For workers’ control of industry. For a transparent, accountable and proportional political system.
- Migration and borders: Migration and seeking asylum from war, climate change and poverty should not be criminalized or penalized.
How we will do it
Every person unorganized fights alone. A battle fought alone is a battle lost.
ACORN’s task is to organize the unorganized for power.
As members of ACORN, we pledge:
To organize and mobilize low-and-middle income constituencies to secure the essentials of a dignified and comfortable life by strengthening our communities and building networks.
To practice democracy as an organizing principle. Led by our members, we will take control of our lives, our communities, and of our own human potential. We insist on the right to identify the problems facing us and to decide on our own solutions.
To combine and coordinate our activities across and outside our organization, building social movements to best pursue our mission.
To provide education for our membership and wider constituency to increase our capacity, strengthen our solidarity, and build the power we need to win.
To collectively fund and resource our work through membership dues to maximize our independence, sustainability & fighting potential.
To use direct action to develop our power and ….
Take back what is ours!
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