Jovanka Beckles moved to Richmond, California in 2005. Back then Richmond bordered on a company town — the Chevron oil refinery is the largest employer in the city, and the city council was staffed almost entirely by politicians the company backed financially.

Beckles had no political background, but as a children’s mental-health worker for the county, she’d seen the hardships of working-class people throughout the Bay Area and felt that the wealthy needed to pay their fair share. New to town, Beckles started seeing yard signs for a Richmond ballot measure that levied a tax against Chevron to pay for social programs, public education, and infrastructure. She supported the idea but thought the language on the sign was overly technical. So she called the group responsible and suggested it should read simply: “Measure T: Taxes Chevron, Not You.”

That’s how Beckles fell in with the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA), an anti-corporate, pro-worker independent political organization in the city. By winning a supermajority on city council, RPA has broken Chevron’s stranglehold over the city council.