Rathke calls ACORN critic 'creep'

Wade Rathke

Wade Rathke, founder and longtime chief organizer for the beleaguered Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is rejecting claims a new book is making about the group.

In an interview, Rathke stipulated that he had not read the project by Matthew Vadum, "Subversion Inc.: How Obama's ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers."

Vadum, a senior editor at Capital Research Center, a think tank that studies left-wing advocacy groups and their funders, assembled the information in the book from nearly three years of research and hundreds of interviews.

"I have no idea what kind of twisted logic he had," Rathke said in response to questions about some of the most explosive charges in the book.

Get the book that reveals the ongoing criminal enterprise known as ACORN. This book is so explosive, copies have been provided to all 535 members of the House and Senate in hopes of prompting further investigation of the subversive activity it exposes.

Vadum's book opens with a provocative, rhetorical question: "How many dead Republicans does it take to satisfy the bloodlust of ACORN founder Wade Rathke?"

Vadum went on describe an incident in which a community organizer named Brandon Darby informed the FBI of an impending attack on the 2008 Republican National Convention by individuals that Vadum called "radical left wing anarchists."

The attack was thwarted but as Vadum explained, Rathke vented his ire on Darby and not the perpetrators, saying in a blog post, "One thing to disagree, but it's a whole different thing to rat on folks, or even worse, as some now allege, to try and mouse trap people."

In the interview, Rathke called Darby "creep" and suggested doubts about the veracity of Vadum's story, saying, "I had no reason to believe he (Darby) was telling the truth.".

Rathke continued, "Maybe that's what he (Darby) was trying to do to me when he stopped by the office."

Vadum dismissed that assertion, pointing out that numerous perpetrators were convicted following an investigation.

Vadum also linked Rathke to Richard Cloward and his wife Frances Fox Piven through their penultimate 1960s article in the Nation, The Weight of the Poor. The article introduced a strategy by which community organizers would overload welfare rolls and bankrupt the government. Rathke began his community organizing career by working for the National Welfare Weights Organization under the tutelage of legendary organizer George Wiley.

Rathke called the article dated, saying, "It's not relevant now," and continued defending the article: "Their argument was that this would force a more equitable system."

He called Piven and Cloward brilliant and referred to the article as an experimental academic exercise exploring tactical arguments and not broad goals.

Rathke also said that the strategy was largely rejected by the welfare organizing community. Vadum challenged this assertion and pointed out the strategy nearly brought down the city of New York in the 1970s, an incident he detailed in the book.

Rathke has had longstanding ties to labor unions. He founded and has been the chief organizer of the local New Orleans chapter of the Service Employees International Union. As such, he's been criticized for the perception that ACORN engaged in union busting tactics against its own employees and forced poor and dangerous working conditions upon its employees.

Rathke disputed the assertion that no ACORN employees were unionized, saying some employees were unionized but also that the small number of union employees was evidence that such protections offered by the union were not needed.

"Employees were satisfied and taken care of so they didn't feel the need to unionize," he said.

He dismissed any suggestion of anecdotal stories of abuse of employees. Rathke said, "Unions are things that are determined by the employees." In fact, Rathke represented management during that time.

Marcel Reid was a long-term board member as well as head of the Washington branch of ACORN. In 2008, Reid had a public break with ACORN after she said that the rest of the board stonewalled her in supplying documents as part of an investigation she led into potential organization and financial corruption at the organization.

Reid has since helped to form ACORN 8, a group of former ACORN board members demanding reform at ACORN, including a forensic audit. In the book, Vadum quoted Reid as saying, "Alinsky wanted poor people to lift themselves out of poverty; Wade (Rathke) needs poor people to stay in poverty because that allows him to stay paternalistic".

But Rathke dismissed Reid's criticism, "Marcel (Reid) wouldn't know if Alinsky had wings." Reid declined to respond to Rathke's comments in an interview.

Rathke also said the spotlight caused by President Obama's historic ties to community organizing has not helped the cause, "It hasn't been particularly beneficial to the community organizing community."

Rathke said that mockery from conservatives like Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani of Obama for his community organizing past was effective. Ironically, enough mockery was one of the rules preached by Saul Alinsky in Rules for Radicals.

Reid disagreed. Reid has pointed out, including in Vadum's book, that no wars or religions were started without a community organizer. Reid said that community organizers were marginalized because conservatives largely misunderstood and mischaracterized their role in society.

Because of the potentially criminal activity documented in this explosive book, copies of "Subversion Inc.," by Matthew Vadum have been sent by the publisher, WND Books, to all 535 members of the House and Senate in hopes of prompting further investigation of ACORN and its tentacles.