Big leap forward for ACORN and organizing, if I could be so bold as to say so, as organizers and allies came together in two great meetings in Heerlen.
The first was in a surprising venue, as the ACORN Organizing School took its show on the road in the Netherlands. We were meeting in the actual circle where the Heerlen city council – all 37 members with name plates that signified their party affiliation – meets to do its regular business. In classic ACORN style, we might accurately call this a sit-in, but it was by invitation, which never happens.
Ron Mayer, our longtime comrade and friend in Heerlen, who had arranged the venue for the training, briefed me earlier on the historic architecture that informed the space. When it was built originally, Holland was 90% Catholic. The ceiling above the desks was a giant circular glasswork. The message of the design was that when the city directors opened the doors to come in, even without turning on the lights, God was watching from above.
So be it, more than 40 organizers, leaders, and activists from around the Netherlands as well as from Sicily, Belgium, India, and Malta, as well as Canada and the United States, went through an introduction to community organizing. There was door knocking and of course role plays for everyone to test their skills. We detailed the outline for an ACORN organizing drive and then jumped into issue campaigns in small groups that were tackling how to win retrofits for substandard housing, which is a global issue. Good times with good people!
Wham, bang, within hours, back at the ranch, the rest of the organizers from around the ACORN world from France and the UK were also showing up at NIVON, where we were meeting in a giant house that serves as a dormitory of sorts for meetings, small and large. NIVON is a large volunteer operation and so was dinner, except in our case, it was assigned to first to Scotland with the USA on cleanup, breakfast by Canada, and so on. New Orleans will be featuring jambalaya as a treat.
When the meeting convened, we were more than 50 packed cheek-to-jowl in the meeting room, as every country gave a report on their progress. There were the usual stars who recorded another great year. It had been the 20th anniversary of ACORN Canada and the 10th anniversary of ACORN in England, for example. Jet lag and all other obstacles took a back seat as organizers listened with great interest to the reports from new affiliates in Malta and emerging ones in Belgium and the US. We were having our first detailed briefing, so it was fascinating.
It’s always hard to win a doubleheader, but we had managed. To top it off, the debut of the translation equipment got high marks and the meeting venue itself even seem to be passing with a good grade. We’ll be at this for days, so let’s hope, we’re on a roll in Heerlen!
