Alex Han
Alex Han joined New York ACORN in 1999 as a canvasser working on school privatization, election campaigns, living wage and other labor issues. He worked there for eight months before going to Chicago to get involved in union organizing under the ACORN umbrella arm, Local 880. He worked primarily on homecare organizing for eighteen months. He left Local 880 to do consulting, but returned in 2004 to work on organizing and unionizing childcare workers. In this interview he candidly discusses the racial tensions and the hierarchical, non-democratic leadership at the top of ACORN. As a Korean American, he says he never felt fully at home nor recognized by the well educated, elite white leadership. In addition to specific details about organizing and the difference between union and community organizing, Alex outlines what he felt were fundamental problems in the ACORN organization. The silver lining to a gigantic flaw, he says, were the sheer numbers of people ACORN trained as organizers and the common language for organizing that was created. His main influencers were Maggie Laslo, Madeline Talbott and Jenny Goldman – all based in ACORN Illinois and Local 880.