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How did the RPA get started?

By Juan Reardon

Between the fall of 2003 and the fall of 2004 the Richmond (RPA) erupted in Richmond, , and the city would never be the same. Here are a few notes about the years 2003-2004 and why, how and who got the Richmond Progressive Alliance started that year.

Why was it started? The short answer: to make our lives better, healthier, happier starting right here, in our city and communities.

Many existed already in our city before the RPA, and they continue, fortunately, to exist today. Charitable groups, churches, educational centers, and activists struggling for the environment, for equality, for justice, against brutality, for immigrant rights and many other great causes. The good people involved in so many struggles were already transforming Richmond into a better place one struggle at a time, one stand at a time, one embrace at a time. Why add one more?

As in the case of many other cities, the and organizations doing good work to educate the community and improve the lives of residents were absent from the tables where the key decisions were being made.

The vast majority of city council members, and the mayor, were individuals who were either placed in office by the corporate forces ruling our city (Chevron, developers, Police & Firefighters Union, and others), or were people who emerged with good intentions to improve our lives, but soon enough were convinced that to keep their seats and career prospects they had to bow to the mighty corporate dollar that ruled local . These local elected officials, often isolated from the community, ended acquiescing to corporate money and the strings that it always has attached.

Richmond residents, on their part, also had come to believe that our had been overtaken by the power of corporate money, and most folks also assumed that it was the only system possible.

Nevertheless, there have always been in Richmond, and elsewhere, people who saw with clarity that corporations and their fronts are the enemies of . They realized that unregulated greed brings us , and rooted in poverty are crime, violence, self-destruction and community-destruction by drugs, repressive violence by police, lack of good schools, institutional racism, and a lack of job opportunities to advance. Globally, the results are a permanent state of world war, and the systematic, and possibly irreversible, destruction of the people’s planet.

Over the decades, there were many examples of Richmond activists fighting for a better world and against the different expressions of corporate domination.

In the years immediately preceding the formation of the Richmond Progressive Alliance, several important struggles and centers of activism were alive and impacting Richmond. Here are a few of them:

In 2001, the Richmond Greens were formed as a local chapter of the Green Party of Contra Costa; the “Richmond Alliance for Green Public Power and Environmental Justice” was created between the West County Toxics Coalition, Green Action, the Richmond Greens and others to stop construction of a polluting power plant at the Chevron refinery (It was stopped in June); The “Globalize Justice, Not War” march on the Chevron refinery took place on November10th; the “North Richmond Open Space Shoreline Alliance” was formed under Whitney Dotson’s ; The “Sister –Friendship City” relationship was established between Richmond and Regla, Cuba.

In 2002-2003: The “ Is Not A Crime Coalition” fought the criminalization of the homeless by the City of Richmond with its “anti-camping ordinance” passed on December 2001. The Mobilization against the Richmond Police Brutalization of Latinos on Cinco de Mayo took place.

In 2003: Anti-war demonstrations took place at Chevron; the community forced the City Council to pass resolution 29-03 defending the U.S. Constitution and opposing the ; the Association of Richmond Day Laborers was created and a 10 point agreement of rights and mutual respect was signed by the Association and Richmond Police Acting Chief, Chuck Bennett; Citizens Against Casino Expansion came together to oppose San Pablo Casino and other such centers (Pt. Molate); the No Fines for High Fences Mobilization of hundreds of Latino homeowners against proposed penalization for high fences erected to defend themselves from crime took place.

In 2003 and 2004 a diverse group of Richmond residents emerging from these and other previous local and global struggles came together to continue the local fight in the new century, and in electoral politics, an area which until then completely lacked progressive organizing in Richmond. Each person participating in the efforts of the founding and of the first year of the Richmond Progressive Alliance brought forward many different experiences, backgrounds and skills, and that common understanding was expressed as, “We will think globally and we will act locally!”

We lost the Feds. All power to the locals!

Many had already realized that no possible solution of our collective national and global problems would come from the federal government, the presidency, the congress and other federal institutions. The people of our have lost those institutions to the corporations, and there is no possible hope of getting anything significant from them. The corporations hold them tight and the corporations will keep them for the long haul.

Many of those converging into the Richmond Progressive Alliance believed, to different degrees, that our only hope for survival, and for a national transformation, was to develop local political power through the organizing of our , our friends and our neighbors, and the winning of local seats on the City Council. Here at the city level we have the possibility to impact our lives to some extent and, perhaps more importantly, to learn by this experience, and show to others, that it is possible for people with common sense to prevail and for democracy to work in the people’s interests. If we can improve our lives locally through the democratic process, then why can’t we do it at the macro level? If we learn to successfully fight the corporations locally, why can’t we apply those lessons to a national and global movement?

The RPA starters were, nevertheless, relatively aware that even the most successful local effort would still leave the local community imprisoned in a matrix of regional, state and federal limiting our ability to fulfill needs and dreams. Years later it would eventually became clearer. Only through the emergence of a broad progressive movement that recaptures local power in a thousand cities and communities could enough strength be gathered to significantly change the direction of our lives and the country.

And so, the embryonic Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA) was conceived as an answer to that absence of true people’s representatives on the local boards of power, be it city council, school boards, board of supervisors or other local elected positions. All the progressives doing great work in the City must have on the council representatives that respond to the progressives and the interests of the regular residents.

The Richmond Progressive Alliance brought people together to show the community that it is possible to stand free of the corrupting influence of corporate money in politics and that honest people coming together for the common good can defeat corporate money. Since its inception, the basic dichotomies of the Richmond Progressive Alliance have been: “People not Corporations”, “People Power not Corporate Money”.

The Richmond Progressive Alliance coalesced some of the many dedicated activists who were in Richmond at the time into a group that clearly challenged the local political establishment. The emergent group denounced the corrupting influence of corporate money in our democracy by supporting candidates who pledged not to take corporate money for their campaigns, demonstrating their true independence from the corporations.

Every voter had heard before from every politician in the land the statement that taking corporate money does not influence his or her votes. It was clear however that the people were tired of noticing how much influence the campaign contributions had in the decisions made by the same elected officials.

It was time to say that true progressives simply rejected the acceptance of contributions from large corporations, as a concrete example of our independence. Some candidates rejected all corporate donations, some rejected contributions from large corporations. This initial policy of the RPA evolved years later into a higher bar which required that candidates to office pledge not to accept any corporate donations at all, not even from small corporations. This policy was hopeful music to the tired and frustrated ears of the skeptical voters. It was a grass-roots defense of democracy and it became part of the RPA DNA.

Challenging the local political power to get progressive candidates elected with independence from corporate money was the first and central act of the emerging Richmond Progressive Alliance.

The RPA also understood that winning elected positions was difficult. Being new to the process, the RPA activists did not have much electoral experience. Most RPA members came from the protest world or the social services world, and our candidates did not have a lot of name recognition.

On the other hand, we knew that the electoral work was only part of the work to be done; that the electoral work would help to create the and teach the skills needed for the political transformation of the city. The RPA was not only doing the electoral work to win the seats and denounce the corrupt influence of corporate money. The RPA was also raising people’s issues of concern, educating, starting a community thinking process and bringing together all willing progressives already activating in the city. The RPA knew that it may not win the first election, but if members worked hard and with good criteria, the organization could emerge with structures, organization, and a platform of ideas that resonated with residents as well as with several concentric circles of general support. If fortunate to succeed with the electoral seats, these RPA achieved seats would become an important stage from where to further advance the building of local progressive political power. The RPA members were committed to work to win, but had a broader perspective of the potential results.

Who were the first Richmond Progressive Activists?

The following activists were founding members of the Richmond Progressive Alliance, and/or had significant active membership in the year that encompassed the Fall of 2003 to the Fall of 2004, the election and first progressive electoral victory:

Gayle McLaughlin: A Richmond resident and registered Green, Gayle had moved in 2001 to Richmond. She was born in , into a working class union . As a young activist during the 1980's, Gayle worked with the Central American solidarity movement, People United to Save Humanity (PUSH), and the Rainbow Coalition. In 1986 Gayle participated in a Venceremos Brigade in solidarity with Cuba and to learn from the Cuban Revolution. Gayle earned a Bachelor of Science in from Bridgewater State University, Massachusetts graduating summa cum laude. Her graduate studies included psychology and . She worked as a with children of special needs. Gayle was willing to run for Richmond City Council to allow the RPA to test the electoral waters, and she was successful. Gayle went on to be Richmond’s mayor for eight years (2007-2014) and Richmond Councilmember again in 2015.

Andrés Soto: In 2003 Andres was a Richmond resident and a registered Democrat. After graduating from UC Berkeley in the 1980s Andrés became active as a parent in the West Contra Costa Unified School District as well as a Latino advocate in West Contra Costa County. Since 1991 Andrés had worked as a violence prevention program manager for Contra Costa County, focused on Richmond, and as Policy Director for the Trauma Foundation in San Francisco for a state-wide violence prevention initiative. In the year 2002 he and members of his family were brutalized by the Richmond police during the local Cinco de Mayo celebration, for which he and others successfully sued the City of Richmond in a federal civil rights case. Andrés chose to run as candidate in the 2004 At-Large election to challenge the Richmond political status quo. Andrés, the better-known progressive candidate, was attacked by the Police and Fire unions with mailers and hit-pieces. There were five open seats and Andrés came in a close 6th place. Andrés was appointed in 2009 by Mayor McLaughlin to the Planning Commission where he helped to update Richmond's General Plan. Since 2013 Andrés has been the Richmond Organizer for Communities for Better Environment and is a leader in the Bay Area Climate Change movement and the efforts to stop dangerous crude by rail.

Juan P Reardon: A Richmond resident and registered Green, Juan was born and raised in where he was part of the revolutionary struggles in the 1970’s. Into exile during “Argentina’s dirty war” he studied medicine in Puebla, , and has a Masters in Public from UC Berkeley. Juan worked for Contra Costa County during the HIV/AIDS epidemic as an epidemiologist and biostatistician. Residing in Richmond since 1999, he participated in the “Richmond-Regla, Cuba Friendship Committee” in 2000, founded the “Richmond Greens” in 2001, the “Homelessness Is Not a Crime Coalition” in 2002, and the “Richmond-San Pablo Day-Laborers Association” in 2003. In 2001 he took the Richmond Greens into the “Richmond Alliance for Green Public Power and Environmental Justice” with the West County Toxics Coalition, GreenAction, and others, and successfully defeated a project to build in Richmond a polluting power plant. Juan became campaign manager for Gayle McLaughlin for City Council in 2004 and later for Mayor in 2006.

Susan Prather: A Richmond resident and homeless advocate, Susan founded Fresh Start, a homeless aid drop-in center in Walnut Creek, California. Susan had protested the treatment of the homeless since the 1980’s. In 2002 Susan joined the “Homeless is Not a Crime Coalition” to fight the criminalization of Richmond homeless with the local ‘anti-camping ordinance’ passed by the Richmond City Council in 2001. She was a close friend of actor-activist Ed Asner, and an organizer for the “Grey Panthers” in West Contra Costa County, a senior citizen activists group. Susan died in 2008.

Roberto Reyes: A Richmond resident and registered Democrat. In 1987 Roberto was part of organizing a Latino Educational Task Force to address long-standing disparities in the West Contra Costa Unified School District. He was also an organizer for the Mission Foods Tortilla Workers strike and boycott in 1996. He worked for the Benicia and West Contra Costa School Districts, and as a gang violence mediator for the Youth Bureau. In 2001 he founded the Richmond Youth Together, and in 2002 the Contra Costa Youth Continuum for homeless youth. Roberto was an active supporter of the Soto family against police brutality and also helped to found the March4Education in 2004. Roberto was one of its first two officers of the newly form RPA. Later he managed the CCC Adult Housing Program. He was later appointed to the Contra Costa Inter-jurisdictional Council on Homelessness, and was community services coordinator for CC Central Labor Council supported by the United Way. In Richmond he was appointed, at different times, member of the Police Commission and the Planning Commission by Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, serving each for several years.

Kay Wallis: A Richmond resident and registered Green, Kay is a health educator with a Masters in Public Health from UC Berkeley. Kay works for the University of California San Francisco in the professional education of doctors and nurses involved in tuberculosis control. She is a communication specialist who at the time was teaching public speaking at local adult schools. Kay had media outreach coordination tasks during the campaigns of 2004 and she was part of the organizing of the People’s Convention 2004. Kay was appointed to the Mayor’s Environmental Justice Task Force in 2007.

Alejandro Soto-Vigil: In 2003 Alejandro was a Richmond resident, a registered Democrat, a UC Berkeley student and was part of a group of Latino residents assaulted by the Richmond police on Cinco de Mayo the previous year. He joined the electoral campaign of his father, Andrés Soto, as Treasurer and advisor. Alejandro completed his studies in Political Sciences at UC Berkeley and later earned a J.D. from the University of the District of Columbia, David A. Clarke School of . In 2007 he moved to the City of Berkeley where he works as legislative assistant for District 7 (Kriss Worthington). In 2012 Alejandro was elected to the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board, where he served as its Vice-President. He has been on the Berkeley Housing Advisory Commission since 2009. In 2014, Alejandro ran for the first time as the Progressive alternative for the Berkeley City Council District 1 Seat, more than doubling the turn out and finishing second with 40% of the vote.

Whitney Dotson: A Richmond resident and a registered Democrat, Whitney is the son of a minister who in the 1940s organized the creation of the first neighborhood in Richmond that allowed African Americans to own their homes (Parchester Village). A lifelong environmental activist defending the open bay shoreline and the fulfillment of promises made to his father’s generation of a neighborhood park by the bay, Whitney served as president of Parchester’s neighborhood council and is president of the North Richmond Shoreline Open Space Alliance. Dotson holds a masters' degree in Public Health Planning, Administration, and Education from UC Berkeley. He served as the Associate Director of the Neighborhood House of North Richmond, and later became the Vice Chair of the South Richmond Shoreline Community Advisory Board monitoring the cleanup of Campus Bay and UC Berkeley Richmond Field Station, also an appointed member of the East Bay Regional Park District Park

Advisory Committee. In 2008 he was elected to the East Bay Regional Park District Board of Directors.

Malia Everette: A Richmond resident and a registered Green, Malia was the Director of Global Exchange’s popular Reality Tours program. Malía has a Bachelors of Art in English Literature and a Masters of Arts in from San Francisco State University. During her tenure at Reality Tours she oversaw the growth and development of alternative travel programs, study seminars and fact finding delegations to over 45 global destinations. Malia has been involved with many local environmental and human rights groups in the San Francisco Bay Area including IFCO, Pastors for Peace, Freedom To Travel Campaign, Food First and university based solidarity with , , , , Mexico. As the RPA came together she was one of the organization’s first two officers. Malia later served as a Human Rights Commissioner for Contra Costa County and founded AltruVistas, a foundation and travel company to promote transformation philanthropy and social responsibility in the travel industry.

Paul Kilkenny: A Richmond resident and registered Green, born in Vallejo, Paul trained in the

Building and Construction Trades at College of the Redwoods and Solano Community College. Paul was part of the anti-war activism in the lead up to the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. Later that year Paul helped the Peter Camejo for Governor Campaign. In 2004 he was active against building multi-story housing on the toxic former Stauffer Chemical property on Richmond’s south shoreline and also activated against a proposed casino in Richmond’s Pt. Molate. During the campaign of 2004 Paul was Gayle McLaughlin’s campaign cmmittee treasurer and yard sign coordinator. Paul became, and continues to be, the RPA expert in forms, filings, and reports obligatory to electoral campaigns.

Tarnel Abott: A Richmond resident and a registered Green, Tarnel worked locally as a librarian. A member, and later steward and Vice President, of SEIU 790 (later SEIU 1021), Richmond chapter, and a member of the Richmond-Regla/Cuba Friendship Committee, she co-founded the Richmond Greens and worked in 2001 with the “Richmond Alliance for Green Public Power and Environmental Justice” against a project to build in Richmond a polluting power plant. Tarnel holds a Masters degree in Library and Information Sciences from UC Berkeley. In 2002 Tarnel co-founded Librarians for Intellectual Freedom and worked against the USA Patriot Act. Tarnel became part of the South Richmond Shoreline Community Advisory Board (RSSCAG) pushing the state to clean up the Toxic Zeneca-Stauffer Superfund. She was key in obtaining SEUI support for the RPA endorsed candidates and was active participant at the RPA Forums and People’s Convention 2004.

Marilyn Langlois: A Richmond resident and registered Green, born and raised in El Cerrito, California, Marilyn was past president of the League of Women Voters of Diablo Valley and former volunteer legislative analyst for the League of Women Voters of California. Soon after moving to Richmond in the year 2002, she joined Richmond Vision, a coalition of faith, labor and community groups, and was an active member of the Just Cause Coalition promoting stable housing for renters. Marilyn holds a degree in German from Pomona College. Among many jobs she worked for several years as a community mediator and conflict resolution trainer. Marilyn is also an active internationalist and does work with the Haiti Action Committee. Marilyn would later work for several years as a Community Advocate on the staff of Mayor Gayle McLaughlin. She also ran unsuccessfully for the Richmond City Council in 2012. Marilyn was a member of the Human Rights and Human Relations Commission and is currently a member of the Richmond Planning Commission.

Soula Culver: A Richmond resident and a registered Green, Soula worked as a web designer and technical tutor. Soula had many years of activism in areas of health and environment justice, anti- nuclear, anti-wars, KPFA and Indymedia campaigns. She was part of the Richmond Greens and fought against the criminalization of homeless in 2002. During the 2004 campaign Soula helped design leaflets and mailers and canvassed regularly for both candidates. Later on she was the Office Manager at the Meiklejohn Institute (Berkeley).

Ché Soto-Vigil: A Richmond resident, a registered Democrat, and a student at Laney College, Ché was part of a group of Latino residents assaulted by the Richmond police on the Cinco de Mayo of 2002. As a result, Ché activated against police brutality and for leadership change in the Richmond Police Department and the City of Richmond. Ché transferred to UCLA and returned on break to run the 2004 LULAC Voter Registration program in Richmond and joined the 2004 Progressive electoral campaign of his father, Andrés Soto. Ché completed his studies in International Development at UCLA in 2005. Ché worked in communications and eventually returned to Richmond working as a Keeper at the new RYSE Youth Center providing leadership and support to youth leaders in the RYSE Center implementing the center's mission and goals. For the past three years, Ché has been an At Home Dad in Benicia raising his two sons.

Henry Clark: Henry was born in North Richmond and has been an activist for environmental justice in Richmond and elsewhere since the early 1980’s. Henry attended Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo for a few years and then San Francisco State University, where he participated in the Civil Rights, the Black Power, and the Free movements. Henry has a PhD from the American College of Metaphysical Theology in Minnesota. He worked with youth at the Neighborhood House of North Richmond and in 1986 became executive director of the West County Toxics Coalition, and lead it for years with many local battles against toxics and pollution as well as against injustices related to class and race. In June of 2003 Henry and Gayle McLaughlin connected at a demonstration in front of the Chevron refinery and this was the beginning of a relationship that would coalesce into the RPA where Henry brought experience and passion. He has earned many distinctions and awards and done international work in Nigeria in support of the Niger Delta, in Vieques, Puerto Rico in support of the people resisting the US Navy abuses, and elsewhere.

Jerome Smith: Jerome was born in Florida and graduated from the University of Delaware with a degree in Agriculture and Communications. He went to India in 1969 where he met Indira Ghandi who was promoting progressive policies such as poverty elimination. In the late 1970’s Jerome was in Hawaii activating with GreenPeace and SaveTheWhales. He was part of the ground support crew for the Ohana Kai greenpeace ship which pursued Soviet whalers in the North Pacific. In 1978 Jerome moved to Richmond and activated with animal rights organizations like Animal Rights Connection and the Animal Protection Institute. A registered Green and founding member of the Richmond Greens, Jerome activated in 2001 against the polluting power plant plan in Richmond and against the local criminalization of the homeless. After the founding of the RPA Jerome also joined other organizations including Vision 2000, Fresh Start for the homeless, and the Contra Costa Care Council. He was later appointed to the Richmond Community Development Commission. Jerome is also poet and spoken word activist.

Daniel Cabrera: A Richmond resident and a registered Green. Born in Mendoza, Argentina, Daniel was a young activist in Argentina in the 1970s. He subsequently spent several years as a merchant marine in the South Atlantic before moving to Richmond, California where he became a licensed General Contractor and Plumber. A supporter of Green presidential candidate Ralph Nader, Daniel was one of the co-founders of the Richmond Greens in 2001 and he helped to organize several of “Gayle’s campaign caravans” to bring the candidate to Richmond neighborhoods and educate the community, particularly the Latino community of Richmond.

Howard Sodja: A resident of El Sobrante and a registered Green, Howard had studied and activated in the University of Miami in the early 1960’s. He also worked at the Miami International airport, providing ground support services for Cubana Airlines flights. He helped organize the Young Peoples Socialist League at the University, and worked with “Turn Toward Peace” to organize first anti- nuclear testing demonstration in Miami. Howard earned a BA at the University of Miami in 1962, majoring in psychology and philosophy. In 1963, he moved to Chicago where he organized the Roosevelt University Young Socialist Alliance (YSA) and joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and participated in the Woolworths Chicago sit-ins and helped organize the SNCC Chicago Public School boycott. In 1964, he moved to NYC and organized the Uptown YSA chapter and the Columbia University YSA chapter. In 1980’s and in the San Francisco Bay Area, Howard helped organize the Berkeley Non-intervention in El Salvador Committee, which grew to become the Oakland/Berkeley CIPES chapter and the Contra Costa CISPES, which with all the Bay Area chapters and many local anti-war groups joined a large broad-based Port Chicago Coalition to oppose Concord Naval Weapons Station (Port Chicago) arms shipments to Central America with demonstrations and blockades that continued for over a decade. Howard helped the incipient RPA as the web-worker who put together and updated periodically the RPA website and the Gayle McLaughlin for Council website.

Edgar T. Monk: A Richmond resident and registered Green Edgar was born in 1917 in Cowley Wyoming. He was a cowboy on his grandfather’s ranch until 1937, when he became an elder in the Mormon Church and went on missions to and the UK until 1939. In the last years of the war, he worked in the in Richmond, CA. He joined the Printing Specialties Local 1, and became Shop Steward and sat on both the San Francisco and the Alameda Central Labor Councils. Edgar moved from Oakland to Richmond in 1959 and started the Santa Fe Neighborhood Council in 1961 and was its first President. In the late 1940's Edgar joined the Consumers Co- operative of Berkeley where he held elected positions. He became an advocate and activist with the United Farm Workers union and participated in civil rights and peace marches through the 1960s. In 1977 helped to form the Society for Soviet-American Friendship, which folded in 1991. After retirement in 1982 he spent much of his time on senior concerns. He drove his own car to deliver Meals-On-Wheels, and was on the Board of the Contra Costa Senior Nutrition Project. In 2002 he activated with Richmond’s Homelessness is not a Crime Coalition. In 2006 he was honored by Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin for "his over 3 decades of service to the City of Richmond". Edgar died in 2010.

Tony Sustak: A Richmond resident and a registered Green Tony is a lifelong activist for economic, social and environmental justice. Tony worked as a bus mechanic since 1982 and was committed to the promotion and expansion of mass transit. He was a member of the Richmond Greens and volunteered with a number of campaigns affecting Richmond, including the cleanup of the former Zeneca toxic site and in the East Bay Bicycle coalition. Later on Tony would become part of the Richmond Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee and treasurer of the Richmond Progressive Alliance. Tony is also in the Board of Directors of Citizens for East Shore Parks (CESP).

Kathy Guruwaya is an Indian-Fijian American who was a Pinole resident in 2003 and a registered Green. Kathy had volunteered in the campaign of Peter Camejo for Governor and the Matt Gonzalez for Mayor of San Francisco campaign, and was also a member of the Richmond Greens. Kathy participated in the organization of the RPA first and second public forum, the RPA table at the 2004 Juneteenth and the Richmond People's Convention 2004, and she organized the first RPA joint campaign fundraiser (McLaughlin and Soto) in 2004 at Garibaldi’s restaurant and was part of many canvassing events and other campaign activities.

Devin O’Keefe: A Richmond resident and a registered Green, Devin was a Laney College student in 2003 and a member of the Richmond Greens. Devin had been active in many events against the Iraq wars as well as environmental protests against Chevron’s pollution over Richmond. He was part of many canvassing events and other RPA campaign activities.

Robby Block: At the time Robby was a resident of El Cerrito and a high school student. He was a founding member of El Cerrito Greens and worked in launching of Gayle McLaughlin and Andres Soto campaigns for Council. He was part of the organizing of the 1st RPA forum in January 2004 and the 2nd in February of 2004 with presidential candidate Dennis Kusenich. As part of the RPA, Robbie led the lobbying effort of the March for Education to Sacramento and was the MC at the steps of the Capitol upon arrival. Robbie participated in many RPA campaigns activities and canvassing days. Robbie went on to graduate from Pitzer College, Claremont, in Politics and and obtained a Masters in Screenwriting from NYU. His last job in Richmond was working in supported employment for developmentally disabled individuals at California ARC, starting a car wash at the Richmond Police Department.

Millie Cleveland: Millie was born in Detroit, Michigan, resides in Oakland and is a registered Democrat. She has degree from Barnard College and the University of San Francisco and in 2003 was SEIU 790 field representative (now she is in SEIU 1021). Prior to being a union representative she was a youth organizer and as a member of the Kids First Coalition. She successfully helped to pass an Oakland ballot initiative that created institutionalized funding for youth programs and established a base line funding for existing city funded youth programs. Millie also activated to established conflict resolution in four Oakland High Schools and was an advocate for violence prevention, understood as a public health issue rather than a criminal justice problem. Millie also helped established the first Medi- Cal based outpatient substance abuse program under the jurisdiction of West Oakland . Millie worked with the initial RPA to make sure that the concerns and priorities of SEIU 790 (City Employees) were included among the priorities of the RPA. She was an organizer of the Richmond People’s Convention in July of 2004 and remained part of the RPA and its steering committee for years to come. Currently Millie is a also a member of the Bay Area Black Worker Center and the Oakland Alliance which works to develop progressive strategies to elect progressive candidates.

Susan Swift: An El Sobrante resident and registered Green who switched to the after deciding to run for local Director, Susan had been in the 1980’s a staff member of the Abbalone Alliance, a direct action environmental group. Susan left complaining that the tactics of ‘civil disobedience’ were elitist and disconnected with labor and minorities. In the 1990s she worked for Contra Costa Health Department. When the RPA came together she joined and decided to run for office on the local progressive wave. She obtained endorsements from the same Democratic party establishment that the RPA was questioning. She lost the election in spite of these endorsements (including George Miller, Ellen Tauscher, Don Perata, Bob Campbell, Supervisor John Gioia, Richmond Mayor , and the pro-Chevron councilmembers Maria T. Viramontes, Jim Rogers, John Marquez, and former councilmembers Jim McMillan and John Ziesenhenne, as well as Chevron’s lobbyist Eric Zell). She was also was endorsed by the Contra Costa Building Trades Council and the Central Labor Council of Contra Costa. She went on to work in marketing.

Kim Stewart: A Richmond resident and registered Democrat Kim had worked organizing a union for university employees. She volunteered with others to organize a progressive Juneteenth in 2104. The official event had been cancelled due to lack of city financial support. Believing that the community could organize it even without the city support she called community groups to come together and lead. Among those folks some took on the leadership of the effort and the progressives went along, supporting and participating in the festival with educational games based on African American lessons and speeches by Whitney Dotson and Maria Labossiere from the Haiti Action Committee. Later on Kim became a member of the City Personnel Board and was active in Richmond’s International Women Day celebrations.

Evan Blinckenstaff: An El Cerrito resident and registered Green, Evan has training in classical music performance and was a small business owner first selling farm produce directly from the Central Valley and then founding a moving and storage company. He is a co-founder of the El Cerrito Greens, he was part of the Camejo for Governor and Gonzalez for San Francisco mayor campaigns and participated in the successful passage of resolutions against the Patriot Act in Richmond, El Cerrito and Contra Costa County. Evan was part of many canvassing events and other campaign activities in 2004.

Tony Martarella was a former Richmond resident living in central Contra Costa County and a registered Democrat who had some professional experience in the production and distribution of campaign signs in Richmond. Tony had worked in a few campaigns in Richmond and came to the initial formation meetings to provide some ideas and suggestions for our candidates. He was not able to continue his participation after those initial meetings but followed the struggle with great interest. Impressed by what was accomplished in Richmond in 2004, Tony founded in 2005 the “Contra Costa Progressive Alliance” and activated for a while from this platform. Tony died in January of 2015.

Barry Paperno: A Richmond resident and registered Green with a degree in Science and from the California State University–East Bay, who had years of experience as a consumer relations manager and who in 2001 launched his own company myFICO.com, where, for the first time in the U.S., consumers were able to obtain their own FICO credit scores. Barry directed the myFICO.com customer care team, maintaining excellent in-house and outsourced call center service levels for more than 50,000 monthly consumer inquiries. Barry joined the Gayle McLaughlin for council campaign, organized fund-raising events and subsequently was similarly part of her successful mayoral campaign in 2006.

David Marin: A former El Cerrito resident, a registered Green and a graduate student researcher at UC Berkeley. David had graduated in 2000 from UC Berkeley with the highest honors and was a Green Party activist who had helped secure fair treatment for day laborers by the El Cerrito Police, and have been active in trying to get the El Cerrito city government to adopt more tree-friendly laws. He co-founded the El Cerrito Greens. David was very helpful during the 2004 RPA endorsed campaigns managing files of registered voters and preparing walk-sheets and maps and other canvassing tools to target likely voters. Later on David received a Masters in Computer Science from UC Berkeley and continues to promote justice through Spend Right-Demand Better, an ethical consumption resource encouraging the application of a sense of right and wrong to purchasing decisions and looking at not just the good or service that you get, but the impact that buying it has on the rest of the world.

2003: The State of the City

In the Fall of 2003 the overlapping City financial crisis and the crisis generated by police abuse and mismanagement came crashing on the walls of Richmond’s City hall. By the end of the summer, the embattled Richmond Police Chief Joseph Samuels announced his retirement, effective at the end of October.

The 2003-2004 City budget, already approved by the City Council, had been described by the City Manager as a “perfect storm” with everything that could have gone wrong, gone wrong. There was a $35 million budget deficit and no way to hide it. The City’s proposed solution was to lay-off some 300 city employees, cut services to residents, and attempt to justify the catastrophe. Newspapers announced that Richmond was at the verge of bankruptcy.

Here is just one example of the level of corruption and mismanagement by the City: In June of 2002 the company SAP- Accounting Software flew City Manager Isaiah Turner, first class, to Orlando, Florida, to promote their software. Anna Vega, the finance director, went along, paid by the City. They ended up purchasing the SAP system for the City and they paid $4.5 million for it. The software, not specific for government work, never worked!

The Police and Fire associations had also received approximately $6.5 million in generous additional benefits secured by the threat over the council incumbents of the Police and Fire associations’ electoral machine, operated by Darryl Reese, a retired fireman and convicted felon.

The budget crisis and impending bankruptcy shook the City. Even though in September City Manager Isaiah Turner and his cronies on the council tried to save his job with a city council resolution of ‘commendation’ for the City Manager’s performance, there was too much of a crisis and with an electoral year ahead, the councilmember politicos made it clear that his head should roll. Turner turned in his resignation a few months later (November 18)

This was the background when the first conversations about challenging the local establishment from a progressive standpoint took place.

On September 29th, 2003 the first conversations about pulling progressive forces together for that challenge started. The nascent group met at the home of Kay Wallis and Juan Reardon. By November 17 we had arrived to a basic understanding of what it needed and what it was going to do. By then the RPA had its first two RPA candidates, Andrés Soto and Gayle McLaughlin. Meetings were held almost weekly at the same place. Some members dropped out of the meetings and others came on board. Once the campaigns got going in early 2004 more progressives came on board to organize the first Richmond Progressive Alliance.

2004: Reaching out to Richmond

In addition to the work of outreach by the two progressive and mutually supportive campaigns of Andrés Soto and Gayle McLaughlin, the RPA as an organization put together some serious efforts during the year 2004 to engage the Richmond residents in an analysis and discussion of their main issues of concern. These efforts took place if six key events:

1. A Dialogue on Richmond: The first RPA forum was held on Saturday January 31st 2004 at the Richmond Madeline F. Whittlesey Community room, next to the City main library. Attended by over one hundred people it featured as keynote speaker the president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Matt Gonzalez. Andrés Soto and Gayle McLaughlin announced their candidacies to Richmond City Council and many issues were addressed by many community members as listed in the program (see below) and others not listed who spoke during the open mike section of the event.

2. Dennis Kusinich and “the other America tour”. This was the second RPA forum held collaboratively with Dennis Kusenich’s presidential campaign was held on Monday February 23, 2004 at the Lobby area of the Richmond Civic Auditorium and attended by more than 500 people. Van Jones of the Ella Baker Human Rights Center made the introductions and community leaders Fred Jackson and Cesar Cruz spirited the audience and challenged people to address the important issues affecting Richmond and the “Other America”. RPA candidates Gayle McLaughlin and Andrés Soto spoke about issues affecting Richmond such us the , industrial pollution, environmental racism, energy sustainability, globalization, the war in Iraq, police brutality, the USA Patriot Act and the corrupt influence of corporate money in politics. Dennis Kusinich speech closed the meeting

3. March for Education Organized by progressive in the district, including Eduardo Martinez, it took place April 9-16 2004 with parents, teachers and students marching from West Contra Costa to Sacramento to demand debt relief for the district. The march was co-sponsored by the Richmond Progressive Alliance and the RPA helped build the send-off rally, where Andrés and Gayle spoke. Several RPA members were key to the overall success of this march and significant outreach was achieved.

4. Cinco de Mayo and Juneteenth. Each campaign had presence and messages during the Cinco de Mayo celebrations on 23rd St. In addition the RPA displayed two large signs reading in both English and Spanish: “Peace is the Respect of the Rights of Others” and “Richmond Police: Respect the Latino Community”. On Juneteenth, the RPA participated in the community-based celebration (no support from the City) which the RPA had spearheaded. The RPA had a booth and educational game where families participated in the raffle after having identified by name some 25 pictures of African American heroes (answers were available nearby).

5. The Richmond People’s Convention took place on July 31st 2004 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center on Harbor Way. It was co-sponsored by the Richmond Progressive Alliance, Just Cause Richmond, ACORN, Richmond Improvement Association, Contra Costa Central Labor Council, SEIU 790, IFPTE Local 21 and Richmond Vision, and attended by more than 300 people from 10 AM to 3 PM , lunch included. The RPA and other organizers had decided that this would be a day of education about the problems in Richmond, of affirmation of People’s Rights, and of democratic participation by voting for specific measures which would secure these rights. Upon arrival all attendees were provided with a package of ideas to vote on as well as with the opportunity to add their own ideas. During the morning session several educational presentations were made including a very well received power point presentation titled: “A long, long journey into the crisis. What the hell happened in Richmond?”. In the afternoon participants adopted a Richmond Residents Bill of Rights and voted on specific initiatives to defend these rights, initiatives which were to be presented to each of the 15 candidates to the Richmond City Council for affirmation or rejection. The tabulated results of the candidates’ answers can be found below. The convention was a clear democratic event and it expanded the support for the Richmond Progressive Alliance and its progressive candidates.

6. The “Posada” of Peace and Solidarity with the people of Iraq, Haiti, and the World. A ‘posada’ (‘shelter’ in Spanish) is a Mexican end of the year family and neighborhood celebration when people visit each other and share a good time. For the RPA it was important, at the end of this first year of organizing to celebrate our organizing victories and to connect with the global struggles. The Posada took place on Saturday December 18, 2004 at the same Madeline F. Whittlessey Community Room where the RPA had its kick-off forum twelve months earlier. (See program below)

In the next pages are copies of some early RPA documents, programs and pictures. In most cases the documents are self explanatory.

The men and women who started the Richmond Progressive Alliance in 2003-2004 did a great task. Further and better tasks were followed by themselves and by others to make Richmond a better, healthier and happier place. All of them, those who helped for a while and those who are still at it, those who moved on to other or other causes and those starting today to become activists will be honored by the words of Bertold Brecht:

There are those who fight one day and are good. There are those who fight one year and are better. There are some who fight many years and they are better still. But there are some that fight their whole lives, these are the ones that are indispensable.

Introduction to the first RPA meeting 11/17/2003

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