In 2004, Gayle McLaughlin was the first corporate-free progressive candidate ever elected to the Richmond city council. The Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA) is an organization key to the electoral success of Gayle and other corporate-free progressives subsequently elected to the council. Now 5 our of 7 members of the Richmond city council are RPA members. They have reduced crime with community policing, increased the minimum wage twice, forced $114 million in local taxes out of Chevron, imposed pollution controls, defended homeowners underwater in the mortgage fiasco, and defended immigrant rights.

In this video Gayle and other RPA Steering Committee members guide us through an exploration of the key ideas of the RPA approach to community organizing and political empowerment. With this guide you can put a local grassroots progressive alliance in place in your community — an alliance with progressive values, free of corporate control and independent of political parties under corporate control.