ACORN Canada Gets Their Hypocrisy On “Exploiting” Low Wage Professional Protesters

Toronto city councillor Mike Layton with Alejandra Ruiz Vargas of ACORN Canada

Toronto city councillor Mike Layton with Alejandra Ruiz Vargas of ACORN Canada

Anti-poverty group ACORN is one of the most ethically challenged social justice NGOs known to mankind. The group was originally conceived in the US and had close ties to the Democratic Party. They were a growing organization back in the day but this all changed in 2009 when James O’Keefe filmed undercover videos where they offered help as he played the role of a pimp trying to register his “underaged” prostitute to cheat the IRS. ACORN USA shut down the next year.

ACORN Canada claims that they’re an independent organization with no connections to their dirty cousins in the USA. They work closely the Canadian labour movement, including the First Nations abusers at Unifor, the child abuse advocates at OPSEU, the cop baiter allies at CUPW, and the Ontario Federation of Labour’s militant anarchist heavy Ontario Common Front. Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson is a known associate of ACORN USA founder Wade Rathke.

Wait, didn't they say they were unrelated?

Wait, didn’t they say they were unrelated?

Being an anti-poverty NGO, it should come as no surprise that ACORN has an interest in the minimum wage. ACORN has complained that “Canada’s elected leadership has been disturbingly timid on the wage-raising front”. They’ve been actively working on the labour movement’s campaign to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour and to index it against inflation. Sounds good, right? Unfortunately, like many labour-backed social justice warriors and poverty pimps, ACORN Canada is yet another hypocritical “do as I say, not as I do” organization.

$15 minimum wage now! (ACORN excluded)

$15 minimum wage now! (ACORN excluded)

Like many of Canada’s AstroTurf poverty pimps, ACORN isn’t as grassroots as they try to position themselves as. They have little respect for transparency, so there’s no way of knowing where they get their cash from (likely the unions). That said, they have enough cash to pay organizers to rally together the poor people they use make themselves look grassroots.

Three weeks ago ACORN posted a job ad on Craigslist looking for a part-time “community organizing position”. The lucky candidates will “be part of a team doing community organizing in order to expand the reach of Toronto ACORN’s economic justice campaigns in low-to-moderate income neighbourhoods.” No experience is necessary and training will be provided.

There’s “room for advancement” for staff who successfully fool enough poor people to attend their meeting and rallies. Some of who, presumably, will join the campaign to stop ethically challenged capitalist pigs from “exploiting” workers in their campaign for a $15 minimum wage. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Yeah, but there’s one little problem. Staff who are lucky enough to get paid to exploit Toronto’s poor will be exploited themselves. You see, ACORN is only willing to pay staff $13 an hour to work on their campaigns for the $15 minimum wage. Can you say hypocrisy, sure you can! (If you’re a manager at ACORN.)

My advice to Canada’s poor is to avoid ACORN at all costs. They’re not working for you, they’re working for the unions. If you’re one of the “lucky” people who founded themselves a job at ACORN, perhaps it’s time to stand up and revolt?

The labour movement will surely back your cause, and ACORN won’t fire or punish you by reducing your hours, will they? On second thought, if they’re willing to pay you a wage they deem exploitive, you might want to think twice befoe you start fighting for your rights- it doesn’t seem like ACORN actually gives a damn about the poor.

Solidarity!

[Small Print: Big labour reserves solidarity only to our middle-class beneficiaries, poor people can get stuffed.]

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