ACORN began in the early 1970s in Arkansas, as the Arkansas Community Organization for Reform Now.  Its roots are in the Northeast's National Welfare Rights Organization, where its organizers' mission was to fight for the right for people to rely permanently upon government welfare.

That strategy came about because of a 1966 article in The Nation magazine, entitled, "The Weight of the Poor," written by Richard A. Cloward and Frances Fox Piven.  They wrote:

The discrepancy is not an accident stemming from bureaucratic inefficiency; rather, it is an integral feature of the welfare system, which, if challenged, would precipitate a profound financial and political crisis.  The force for that challenge, and the strategy we propose, is a massive drive to recruit the poor onto the welfare rolls.

...

Widespread campaigns to register the eligible poor for welfare aid, and to help existing recipients obtain their full benefits, would produce bureaucratic disruption in welfare agencies and fiscal disruption in local and state governments.   These disruptions would generate severe political strains, and deepen existing divisions among elements in the big-city Democratic coalition: remaining white middle class, the white working-class ethnic groups and the growing minority poor.  To avoid a further weakening of that historic coalition, a national Democratic administration would be constrained to advance a federal solution to poverty that would override local welfare failures, local class and racial conflicts and local revenue dillemas.  By the internal disruption of local bureaucratic practices, by the furor over public welfare poverty, and by the collapse of current financing arrangements, powerful forces can be generated for major economic reforms at the national level.

The ultimate objective of this strategy--to wipe out poverty by a guaranteed annual income--will be questioned by some. ...

Seeing a limited trajectory of a single issue in the northeast, NWRO leaders sought a beachhead in the South.  The calculation was made to set up a headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas, and ACORN took root.

Eight years later, it moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, where it remains today (although a subtle power shift seems to be occuring towards New York).

 

Wade Rathke, along with Gary Delgado of NWRO, founded ACORN.

ACORN's ties to Saul Alinsky

Radical organizer and founder of the Industrial Areas Foundation could be considered the founding father of community organizing, most notably because of his ability to effectively implement abrasive, intimidating tactics.  According to Gary Delgado, writing in "Organizing the Movement: The Roots and Growth of ACORN":

Many writers focus on Alinsky's tactical abrasiveness while others are more critical of his lack of ideology, but of one fact there can be no doubt: Alinsky was the first organizer to systematically project a purpose for community organizing (the obtaining of power) and to develop a replicable organizational model. 

Developing...

Wade Rathke

At the core, Rathke is a radical organizer.  In fact, his website is chieforganizer.org!  In addition to ACORN, the Holy Grail in Rathke's world has been organizing Wal-Mart employees.  In 2005, Rathke wrote an article for New Labor Forum, entitled, "Leveraging Labor's Revival: A Proposal to Organize Wal-Mart." Rathke writes:

“I would argue a campaign on all fronts against Wal-Mart and its workers could potentially change the tide for labor and create organizational capacities that would give us fighting and winning forces for our future.”

But those who know Rathke best provide an interesting analysis.  Steve Bachmann, an attorney for ACORN who advocated for Rathke’s firing, said in an internal e-mail, “…The evidence suggests that Wade Rathke is a liar, a maniupulator [sic], and anti-democratic.”

Rathke, who allegedly was fired last year as chief organizer of ACORN, remains chairman of the Organizer’s Forum, a collection of politically-driven organizations collaborating on winning elections for liberal candidates.

It was claimed Wade Rathke was no longer a part of ACORN, though his website says he is the “chief organizer” of ACORN International.  His site also says that entity, which apparently is still a part of the ACORN family, is changing its name to “Community Organizations International.”

He is jetting around the world, spreading the message of community organizing, picketing financial institutions, and all the other things ACORN has done to America.

Rathke is also still involved in the Service Employees International Union—the most radical of all unions, with members in the government and health care sectors.

Gary Delgado, mentioned above, now heads the Applied Research Center in Oakland, California.

ACORN comes under heavy fire

In 2008, it was revealed that in 2000, Wade Rathke’s brother, Dale, had embezzled nearly $1 million from ACORN.  Instead of reporting the theft to authorities, ACORN agreed to be repaid by the Rathke family.  According to an article in the New York Times, less than a quarter had been repaid  when the Tides Foundation, of which Wade is a trustee, repaid the difference.

Not long after that, ACORN’s sloppy, and potentially illegal, system of registering voters was revealed.  Media outlets, such as CNN, called ACORN’s political activities outright “fraud.”

ACORN apparently instituted a quota system on employees, setting minimum levels of newly registered voters each day.  If a worker did not meet such quotas, his or her job was at stake.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review tracked court hearings related to voter registration fraud accusations in 2008 (and continues to do so).  Their reporting reveals Project Vote, ACORN’s entity to register voters, “was provided a ‘donor list’ from the presidential campaign of Barack Obama in late 2007 for fundraising efforts.”  Another article said an employee “knew of co-workers who were fired for not achieving quotas,” of registering 20-25 people per day.

An Allegheny County judge has ordered 7 former ACORN workers to stand trial in connection with “elections law violations.  “Somebody has to go after ACORN,” Senior District Judge Richard H. Zoller said, according to the Tribune-Review.  “We will,” was the reply from a county detective.

We will, too, you honor.

Members turn on their organization

Several national board members began asking questions about the way the operation works, where the money flows, and the embezzlement of nearly $1 million by Dale Rathke.  They were quickly marginalized.

To fight back, the group formed an organization called ACORN 8.

The group has filed suit in Louisiana, seeking a full airing of ACORN's books and an accounting of how taxpayer dollars have been spent. 

Employees turn on their organization, too

Fired ACORN employee Anita MonCrief has started a website, posting the e-mail mentioned above, as well as countless other documents, which have garnered her lawsuit threats from ACORN.

MonCrief’s site is a must-read, as it is a collection of internal documents and e-mails detailing ACORN’s tactics and arguably partisan and criminal activity.