Good, well researched, deep dive into what works in organizing. One of the problems with our media landscape is i could probably go find mike 1700 pieces on whatever the president put out on twitter yesterday. But an actual helpful account of how to organize communities, grassroots, anticorporate power, that is asking too much. And i know the richmond california story is an important story and has been told. Ive seen a couple of articles about it. And again it is one of the real sort of stories we should be learning from especially in a town like baltimore that shares a lot with richmond in the deindustrialization, racism, poverty and really one of the most important things is the lack of luxury to kind of get hung up on not working together. Like baltimore, richmond is simply too small to have too many divisions and what is exciting about what i know about the story is they found a way to get over the divisions, worked together in alliance that was able to get stuff done including electing the only significant Green Party Mayor in the United States so excited to talk tonight and excited to learn. Please join me in welcoming steve. [applause] thank you very much for that great introduction. Its a privilege to be here tonight. I apologize for the formality of arrangements. Our good friends at cspan book tv are here, so this is an opportunity for all of us to be on tv late night at some upcoming date yet to be determined if we make this event a lively one i gather when people very soon get to come up and ask questions contribute to the discussion, it would be good if you came up where john was just now and that way the camera crew can capture what you have to say. Im going to keep this real short because i think these kind of events are most productive if they are conducted as an exchange, as a discussion. And i know from the folks ive known for a long time in the room or just meant like Dan Schwartzman who ran for the city council this fall with the backing of the green party and democratic american socialist alternative theres a lot of people in the city who are tackling the problem of how progressives can get involved in electoral politics at the municipal level and run credible and eventually successful campaigns. Its great to see the old union comrades, old and in the sensef Longtime Union comrades. But berry who i met years ago when he was a stalwart of the united electrical workers throughout the northeast, and my longtime fellow newspaper guild, god, coworker and friend Donna Cartwright who is the one person i know in the room has actually been to richmond california and is a visitor to the neighborhood whose daughter hasnt been there on days like this five years ago when degioia was having a very bad hair day and had a fire and explosion that sent 15,000 of our richmond neighbors scrambling for medical attention at every hospital emergency room and clinic in the area. Is there anybody else that went to school in the area or work in the area, spent time in the great city of richmond or near its . [inaudible] he went t you into berkeley. Did you ever go to richmond . [inaudible] lets come back and talk about that. Anybody else clacks [inaudible] okay, the county seat where we have a sheriff we need to replace at the moment. But we can talk later on about the challenges of the Progressive Movement gaining traction in one city and then coming up against the fact that in California Property taxes are controlled at the county level, the county sheriff can be a friend of trump even while your own city police chief is on a sanctuary city program and when there is problems with the conduct of a wash this case after case. One of our objectives in the richmond area at this point is to come up with credible candidates to challenge both who are as our tenets and the District Attorney but i get ahead of myself. Anybody else been a tourist in the area clicks okay well, i have only been a resident of richmond california for five years. Prior to that, i spent three years as a bostonbased National Union representative for the communication workers guy did some freelance writing on the side about mainly labor issues, strikes, organizing, bargaining, unionbased Political Action. When i moved to richmond five years ago after retiring from my fulltime job with a communication workers, i was drawn to the richness of the city and its colorful history, its many current challenges and the inspiring emergence the last ten or 15 years of one of the most successful citybased reform movements led by as john said a very Unusual Coalition of green party is, socialists from two or three different groups, independent dissident black and latino democrats and independent voters. We have a lot of fragmentation on the left and people overcame some of those political differences and decided to rebrand and run candidates for not just run candidates for city council and mayor bud to build a Membership Organization that now has 300 to 350 members in the city of 110,000. The membershipbased group also has labor and Community Organization affiliates and organizes around a wide range of workers rights and community and Environmental Issues yearround. So its a kind of hybrid organization and de facto Political Party when people start running for the city council and thcouncil and the md richmond as progressives under the alliance inter in 2004 they were pretty new to the local politics. They had to learn from scratch how to set up phone banks and how to canvas and how to build a database of identified progressive voters, how to raise money and allow the campaignfinance and paperwork. But over time, they got good enough and bolts of the politics and since 2004, the progressives in richmond have won ten out of 16 city council races. In the city i would say 80 white that is largely poor and working class with a Median Income of in the community median Family Income is one of the lowest in the area which a percentage of the families are living at oliving at or below ty defined poverty level. Not university town, not berkeley, madison wisconsin, burlington vermont, not santa monica or any of the other places that in many parts of the country guy you know, we associate with past efforts by progressives by socialists and green to take over the city hall to try to turn the municipal government and the lyra tory for the progressive initiatives. We now have a progressive super majority five out of seven Council Members in richmond and as mentioned, between 2000 and 2006 and 2014, the green mayor mcglaughlidoug laughlin made rie largest city in the country and im proud to report she is still a member of the city council and monday declared independent progressive candidacy for the Lieutenant Governor of vermont of california. We also have a fellow progressive on the city Council Running for the state assembly. So we have a strong base in one of the larger cities and into costa county, richmond progressives are trying to move up in politics. Let me say very briefly a couple things about some of the elements of success. People got involved in the municipal politics in richmond not because they particularly wanted to. People have been involved in the campaign in 2000, the Green Campaign for governor of california. People have been involved in the Peace Movement and the Environmental Movement. Most people were direct action nests. They didnt have much use for the politics and as i mentioned, not much experience with it, practical experience, but people were confronted in the kind of problems that you face here in baltimore, the Police Department out of control that killed people and cost the city millions of dollars in civil rights damages that brutalized black and latino youth. The city ten to 12 years ago was faced with a corrupt and dysfunctional City Hall Administration nearly bankrupt at one point due to the incompetence of the series of not so professional city managers. There were landlords running amok. Chevron previously under standard will dominate its richmond politics as part of a broader conservative coalition that included the chamber of commerce and Manufacturers Association and Major Developers and adversaries here in baltimore. The Building Trade Union police and firefighter unions cause of people up against a few of tho those. They are deeppocketed Political Forces richmond progressives had to start tackling ten or 12 years ago. In the last ten or 12 years the progressive representation on the city council has grown particularly during the eight years when the governor was our innovative mayor we have been able to raise the minimum wage without a veto. We have been able to make chevron a little bit more its fair share of taxes. Last fall they helped elect to more progressives and give the majority and richmond voters by the 21 margin made it one of the first in 38 years to adopt rent control. I know what to do this and other places an in the country, washington state, oregon, massachusetts. We cant adopt rent control. In california, and overly limited extent, municipalities can regulate and our ballot measure last year that was incredibly popular among thousands of black and latino lowincome tenants rollback to the level of a year before for the rent increases to the overall annual increase in the Consumer Price index and created a board of a. She came in and 2,000 votes ahead of an 85yearold africanamerican council incumbent backed by chevron the last four decades the second place environmentalist also a firsttime candidate like melvin benefited from this huge upsurge of turnout around the rent control issue. The other seven candidates in the field, some of them nice people and some of them were neighbors of mine, democrats have none of them unlike our progressive candidates in richmond will take the pledge to refuse corporate donations. So we are providing the wind and richmond politics over the last decade this meant the candidates that run corporate free and together as a part of a ticket committed to the common progressive platform which would be then better able to hold them accountable when they get elected to the Public Office and everybody elses is in the usual entrepreneurial hand out looking for corporate donations kind of campaigns, really more about personal career and ambitions into doing good things for the people to then become the mayor to run for the state legislature into them run for congress. So come and richmond we have the de facto Political Party or Movement Based party for eight years and they function very much like seattle. Whatever resources they have as a fulltime public official in the case of a mayor to mobilize constituencies. Constituencies. Of the laborthe labor, Community Organizations, environmental groups between the insiders and the outsiders. The other element i personally contributed a little bit at least in some long meetings and this started with the mayor in 2006 there2006 is dozens of apd positions to all kinds of key city boards and Commission Meetings that had been cited as progressives over the last decade parks and recreation, more important ones like the planning commission, the Housing Commission by the civilian Police Oversight commission whose powers and richmond have been strengthened. I asked a labor activist and now appointed to the Personnel Board and get to hear members of the police or firefighters or the bluecollar workers represented by Service Employees in Northern California so theres hundreds of people that only help out in election years as door knockers and contributors and sign holders and campaign volunteers, theres people yearround support professionals with staffing and expertise as a plaintiff city officials to move in a better direction when you have that kind of activist in the best sense of the word the City Government so its not just relying on two people were one person it on our behalf of a whole layer of folks involved in trainintrying to help to transfe City Government. Of th the lessons of the experiment are that you cant do as much as you want to do in one city. He tried to do more networking in the wake of the Bernie Campaign with other likeminded campaign inspired local progressive groupings in the area. The strong groups in berkeley and one emerging people trying one way or another to have this kind of model to their own. It was the network of progressive groups around the country he also had discussions with the working Families Party and the peoples action theres a bunch of networks out there trying to support people. Ii am ready to run, what do i o next. So there is an enormous number of people thinking seriously about the politics trying to contest the state and county. Some of the differences in some of your own ideas about how to move ahead. Thank you very much for coming and whats open up. [applause] [inaudible] as i understand it, one of the things that made it possible in the municipalities in california they have inspired and so you dont have to get into the question immediately at least. [inaudible] that is correct in california they are officially nonpartisan in the sense that people are not listed on the ballot as democrats, republicans, peace and freedom party, alternative. But the process of building a Progressive Movement over the last ten or 12 years in the electoral arena has made them highly partisan as theyve always been in this nonpartisanship is kind of a disguise. When you have candidates running with the benefit of hundreds of thousands of dollars by the Renewable Energy giant they are the personification of the term corporate democrat. Richmond is a city with 70 registered democrats probably only two or 300 at this point and then some independence and the conservative role is played by conservative democrats. On a number of issues. And the issue of who takes corporate money and who doesnt and the Bernie Sanders style is what people look for now when virtually all democrats are running it in this environment do take business donations. So, these are getting a little blurry. Mayor mclaughlin has been in the primary as a candidate the Lieutenant Governor is running for the state Assembly Seats surrounding richmond whos always been a registered democrat though part of the progress of the ligands and peace running as a democrat. Its been changed in california in a way that has regulated the third parties. We have a jungle primary system, so everybody is thrown into the same pot and legislative races and congressional races and senate races. Now there is one big primary. They all run in the primary intd the top to make it on the ballot in the fall. Thats after the space to kind of buildin build an electoral ft is a different kind of brand and a different kind of platform and a different kind of identifiable program at the local level where the legislation is predominantly democrat but the Party Organization is a truly fairly weak so when you build a membership based on the Political Party, do you do that kind of groundwork to progressives have been doing for more than a decade even though the other side is spending 301 is dated in 2014, you could still find. Other questions from people that have been involved in a recent campaign here in baltimore . If you get up to that microphone you are going to be hearing from people for months. Im interested in leadership development. The issues mentioned the organizing and rent control. What were some of the other issues in the period of a decade or 15 years and was there a platform or what did it look like . I will pass out a little membership card actually that shows. The way that its structured right now is an overly rigid but its to make the leadership in important thing that people join and elect an annual membership 25 to 30 Member Steering Committee and theres the quarterly membership hearings a year to pay to make decisions about the candidates and campaigns. The Steering Committee meets monthly and they are open to any members to observe the last couple of years as i try to describe in the book founding mothers and fathers made i think a very important decision to kind of step back and create space for younger black latino, asian activists to move up into leadership positions, so the committee today, like in the past, is predominantly female. People of color and much younger people in the past. As in baltimore prior to 2005 the Police Department was unrepresentative they were beating shooting killing people costing the city millions of dollars of damage settlements for reforming the Police Department was a prio