Refinery Town: Big Oil, Big Money, and the Remaking of an American City
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GUEST: Steve Early, journalist, lawyer, labor organizer and union representative. His writing has appeared in The Nation, the Boston Globe, the New York Times, Washington Post, Los AngelesTimes, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, and USA Today. He is the author of several books including Save Our Unions: Dispatches from a Movement in Distress. His latest book is called Refinery Town: Big Oil, Big Money, and the Remaking of an American City
BACKGROUND: In the wake of Donald Trump's ascendancy to power, one mantra about defeating him has been, "organize at the local level." While that may sound abstract and even ineffective, there are cities in the US where local organizing has borne fruit in powerful ways.
One such city is Richmond, California, a town that for decades was at the whim of one of the biggest oil corporations in the world: Chevron. But, a decade of grassroots organizing led to the political transformation of the city, making Richmond one of the most progressive and safest cities in the nation. How did it happen?
Author Steve Early tells the story of Richmond in a new book called Refinery Town. The book's foreword is by Senator Bernie Sanders who makes the case that "To Change US Politics, We Need More Cities Like Richmond, California."