Building a solidarity economy in Jackson, Mississippi, anchored by a network of cooperatives and worker-owned, democratically self-managed enterprises.



News & Media

Conference on Worker Power and Economic Democracy: Keynote Address with Kali Akuno and Matt Meyer

Moderated by Benjamin Case, this Keynote Address from Kali Akuno and Matt Meyer-- editors of "Jackson Rising Redux: Lessons on Building the Future in the Present"-- was presented on Day One of the CWD Conference on Worker Power and Economic Democracy.

This event was held on Friday, February 23, 2024 at Arizona State University through the Center for Work and Democracy

To View

Acting U.S. Labor Secretary pledges to enforce federal labor laws in Mississippi

Ed Inman, Special to the Mississippi Clarion Ledger

Article about the US Secretary of Labor, Julie Su, visit to Jackson, MS on Wednesday, February 14, 2021.

Cooperation Jackson played a critical role in helping to make this happen, via connections from the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives last Wednesday, February 14th. We thought it was critical to help advance our longstanding "union-cooperative" initiative, as part of our effort to unite and strengthen all of the tools in the toolkit of working class self-organization (respect to our comrade Tim Schermerhorn for this analysis and analogy, may he rest in power). It was a good time to reconnect with the various forces of the organized working class in Jackson, but we will see what the Labor Secretary can and will do in the days and months ahead to support the organizing efforts of workers in the state of Mississippi. Stay tuned.

To Read

Cooperation Jackson at 10: Lessons for Building a Solidarity Economy

Article written Steve Dubb for the Nonprofit Quarterly in January 2024. The story addresses some of the primary lessons learned by Cooperation Jackson in the decade it has been in existence from 2014 to the present.

To Read

Building the Future in the Present: Lessons from Cooperation Jackson.

Howard Zinn Book Fair

San Francisco, CA

Sunday, December 3, 2024

This stimulating panel discussion brings together three pioneering figures in grassroots activism and community-centered economics. The dialogue focuses on the insights and experiences derived from Cooperation Jackson, an innovative endeavor to establish a solidarity economy in Jackson, Mississippi. The panelists explore themes related to decentralized community organizing, ecological sustainability, educational outreach, and how to reimagine economic structures beyond the conventional capitalist framework.

Panelists: Kali Akuno, Sacajawea Hall, Matt Meyer

To View

Communes or Nothing! Communes against Capitalism

Thursday, December 7, 2023

This virtual panel examined the commune and communal organizing as part of the project of revolutionary social transformation. The speakers address how socialist communes can be used to abolish capitalism’s logic, based on the exploitation of the human being and the expropriation of nature, along with the range of oppressions (including racial, gender, sexual, and colonial oppression) in capitalist society.

The speakers – Kali Akuno, John Bellamy Foster, Chris Gilbert, and M.E. O’Brien – draw from various theoretical perspectives and practical experiences. This panel is presented by Monthly Review and hosted by The People’s Forum, and was organized in the context of the recent launch of Chris Gilbert’s Commune or Nothing! Venezuela’s Communal Movement and Its Socialist Project from Monthly Review Press. The book looks at the theory, practice, and history of socialist commune building in Venezuela.

To View

Build and Fight: Community Production, Community Control, and the Struggle for Self-Determination in Jackson, MS and across the Globe

Monday, December 4, 2023

Kali Akuno, Sacajawea Hall, and Matt Meyer discuss the strategies, successes, and lessons of Cooperation Jackson and how it became a center for national and international coalition efforts around the movement for grassroots-centered Black community control and self-determination, inspiring growing partnerships and emulation across the globe.

To View

Imaginal Cells of the Solidarity Economy: Politics and Policy

This webinar series on The Imaginal Cells of the Solidarity Economy will showcase the myriad ways that solidarity economy practices are providing models and pathways to build a more cooperative, democratic, equitable, and sustainable world--one in which many worlds fit.

This video features David Cobb, Lydia Lopez, Jyoung Carolyn Park, Kali Akuno, and Petula Hanley discussing how to use/influence public policy advance individual policies as part of a coherent strategy to democratize the entire economy.

To View

People’s Climate Week 2023 Launch Session - Monday, September 18, 2023

Video from the New School in New York City, kicking off the Peoples' Climate Week Launch: Day 1 on Monday, September 18, 2023! Listen in to Environmental Justice leaders holding the line against #FalseSolutions and demanding real climate action and #JustTransition! #PeoplesClimateWeekLaunch

Featuring video of Cooperation Jackson Executive Director, Kali Akuno.

To View

Freedom is a Constant Meeting: An Interview with Kali Akuno

Facing South Interview with Kali Akuno, Executive Director of Cooperation Jackson, conducted by Frances Madeson.

Interview focused on how to deal with the organizing challenges in Jackson and the Deep South during an era of neo-confederate and neo-fascist ascendency.

To Read

Kali Akuno interview in Barcelona, Catalonia

Interview with Catalan Journal, Setembre. Conducted by Nuria Segura. The interview focused on how our organizing efforts are addressing the crisis in Jackson and beyond.

Please note the interview was printed in Catalan and translated into English via website tools. So, some things have been lost in translation.

To Read

Solidarity Economy in the Age of Global NeoColonialism

Lecture given at the Kenyan National Theater on Thursday, June 22, 2023.

It was hosted by Mwamko and Cooperation Jackson and featured a lecture by Kali Akuno. And discussion with Sacajawea Hall, Alieu Bah, and Ruzuna Akoth.

To View

Coop News review of Jackson Rising Redux

Article written by Miles Hadfield for Coopnews.com that reviews Jackson Rising Redux and provides some updates on the development of the cooperatives developed by Cooperation Jackson.

To Read

Jackson Rising Redux interview on Hard Knock Radio, June 7, 2023

Cooperation Jackson Executive Director, Kali Akuno, interviewed by Davey D for KPFA’s Hard Knock Radio about the release of Jackson Rising Redux, which was published by PM Press.

To Listen

Cooperation Jackson, Cooperative Economics, and Black Liberation

Kali Akuno in conversation with Dr. Jared Ball of I Mix What I Like on Black Power Media talking about Cooperation Jackson, Cooperative Economics, and Black Liberation. This conversation took place on Friday, May 26, 2023.

To View

Eco-Justice Activist honored in Dixwell

Article from the New Haven Independent written by Allan Appel on May 15, 2023. The article is a report on the 2023 Gandhi Peace Award which was awarded to Kali Akuno from Cooperation Jackson.

To View

Gandhi Peace Award 2023 - Kali Akuno Acceptance Speech

Video of Kali Akuno, Cooperation Jackson’s Executive Director, acceptance speech at the 2023 Gandhi Peace Awards given by Promoting Enduring Peace. The speech was given on Saturday, May 13, 2023 in New Haven, CT.

To View

Organizers gather to advance solidarity economy organizing

The gathering was titled Building Worker Power through Solidarity, Cooperation and Care. Organized by the Labor Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Wellspring Cooperative, a worker co-op network based in nearby Springfield, the conference set to develop deeper ties between unions and worker co-ops—and to advance organizing for a solidarity economy.

To View

Cooperation Jackson, Political Struggle, and Organizing against neo-confederate fascists

Eric Draitser welcomes Kali Akuno back to CounterPunch to discuss the roots of Cooperation Jackson, the nature of political struggle in Mississippi, and the need to organize against the neo-confederate far right fascist movement. Kali Akuno is a co-founder and co-director of Cooperation Jackson and author of the new book "Jackson Rising Redux: Lessons on Building the Future in the Present."

To View

A Call to Come Together for Climate and Economic Justice

Photo exhibit and short report on a lecture given by our Executive Director, Kali Akuno, at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs on Tuesday, April 11, 2023. The focus of the lecture was Shifting Focus: Building towards and EcoSocialist Future.

To View

Organizers Are Resisting a 2-Tiered Legal System in Majority-Black Jackson, MS

Black Jacksonians plan to make this attempt at reinstating white supremacist rule “extremely difficult” to implement.

Frances Madeson ,TRUTHOUT

April 15, 2023

To Read

Shifting Focus Lecture at the University of Vermont

March 28, 2023

Capitalism is choking the life systems of our precious planet and threatening extinction of complex species including humanity. Kali Akuno explains how EcoSocialism offers transformation from below, employing the principles of decolonization, anti-imperialism, anti-capitalism, anti-racism, anti-heterosexism, and degrowth.

To View

Shifting Focus Lecture at the Schumacher Center

March 26, 2023

Kali Akuno delivered the First Annual Robert Swann Lecture in Great Barrington, Massachusetts in March, 2023. in 2023, we introduced the Annual Robert Swann Lectures, featuring Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson as the inaugural speaker. The lecture took place in the Great Hall at Saint James Place in Great Barrington, MA.

To View

Apartheid 2.0 in Mississippi

Davey speaks with Kali Akuno from Cooperation Jackson about new laws being passed in the state of Mississippi. On Feb. 7, the Mississippi State House approved House Bill 1020, a bill that would create a new, unelected court system in the state capital of Jackson.

To Listen

CJ and the State of Jackson Short Take from Joshua Dedmond, Part 3

Check out Part 3 of Joshua Dedmond, our Program Director analyzing the impact of the reactionary legislation being proposed by the Republican majority of the Mississippi legislature that is attempting to construct apartheid 2.0 in Jackson, MS. He also highlights what Cooperation Jackson and the broader progressive social movement in Jackson are doing to combat the reactionary development.

To View

CJ and the State of Jackson Short Take from Joshua Dedmond, Part 2

Check out Part 2 of Joshua Dedmond, our Program Director, breaking down highlights of the work of Cooperation Jackson and sharing updates on the social struggles taking place in Jackson in early 2023.

To View

CJ and the State of Jackson Short Take from Joshua Dedmond, Part 1

Check out Joshua Dedmond, our Program Director, break down highlights from the work of Cooperation Jackson and provide updates on the social struggles taking place in Jackson in early 2023.

To View

Jackson’s water system is broken by Design

By Hadas Their

February 23, 2023

Article published in the Nation Magazine that describes how declining federal funding has left Jackson’s water system at the mercy of the states conservative state legislature.

To Read

Making Reparations: Seeding a Just Future.

An event held in honor of the 50th anniversary of the book Small is Beautiful, 2023 as an opportunity to advance solutions to today’s social, economic, and environmental challenges that build on Schumacher’s original vision. re, organized around 12 key themes and fields of activism.

This event featured Winona LaDuke, Chief Kelly Larocca, Robin Rue Simmons, and Kali Akuno

To View

Formerly incarcerated people seek discrimination protections as a “protected class”

By Ella Fassler

Truthout

February 16, 2023

Formerly incarcerated people in Atlanta won collective protection from discrimination, inspiring organizing nationwide.

This article provides an example of how our model is being used to inspire others in similar arenas of struggle.

To Read

Jackson, Mississippi’s water crisis persists as national attention and help fade away

Article by Char Adams

January 17, 2023

Grassroots organizers who supported the city’s residents during the water crisis last summer say they’re now out of resources to help those in need.

To Read

Fight and Build: Envisioning Solidarity Economies as Transformative Politics

Written by Pen Loh and Boone Shear

December 12, 2022

This article was adapted from a more extensive journal article called, “Fight and Build: Solidarity Economy as Ontological Politics”, published in Sustainability Science, Volume 17, pp. 1207 - 1221. 

We are republishing here to demonstrate Cooperation Jackson’s influence on the current solidarity economy movement. 

To Read

From Crisis to Transformation: What is Just Transition? A Primer

This Primer has been the product of a collective process of thinking between the authors and their organisations, who have been working in different ways on the concept of Just Transition with social movements, organisations and communities around the world, and trying to understand how this simple but powerful idea can help people to mobilise for genuine and transformative change. This is not a final or exhaustive vision of Just Transition, as different regions, communities, movements and organisations are developing their own visions (see the final section). However it is hoped that these key ideas and questions will give all readers tools for thinking more deeply about what Just Transition might mean for them, their movements, and their communities.

To Read and Download

Authors

Kali Akuno, Katie Sandwell, Lyda Fernanda Forero, Jaron Browne

In collaboration with

Grassroots Global Justice Alliance (GGJ)


Mission & Purpose

The broad mission of Cooperation Jackson is to advance the development of economic democracy in Jackson, Mississippi, by building a solidarity economy anchored by a network of cooperatives and other types of worker owned and democratically self-managed enterprises.

Our Mission & Purpose ›

Announcements

A Just Transition for Goddard College

Help Cooperation Vermont raise $5 million to purchase the Goddard College grounds and transform it into a Just Transition Center and future Cooperative College. 

Cooperation Vermont is a sister organization of Cooperation Jackson, based in Marshfield, Vermont, and is the sponsor of the Marshfield Cooperative at the Marshfield Village Store. Cooperation Vermont is also one of the anchor organizations of the People’s Network for Land and Liberation, which consists of Cooperation Jackson, Community Movement Builders, and INCITE Focus. 

Donate Now and Spread the Word! Please note “Goddard/CVT Land Trust” in your donation. 

For More Info

Seeking Experienced AgroEcologist to work with Freedom Farms Cooperative

Cooperation Jackson is seeking to hire two experienced Agroecologists to anchor our Freedom Farms Cooperative. We are looking to develop a team to farm our urban farming lands, our rural farming lands, and support the aquaponic and hydroponic operations that will be central to the People’s Grocery Cooperative. These anchors will need to help us revive our community supported agriculture program (CSA) and produce enough for steady market exchange to make the cooperative as self-sufficient as possible.

These positions will be vacant until filled. 

Please send a resume and cover letter to cooperationjackson@gmail.com. Note: “Freedom Farms Position” in the title.

Direct Post

Congratulations to Vick L. Hudson on his appointment to the Jackson, MS Planning Board 

Cooperation Jackson offers our heartfelt congratulations to Vick L. Hudson on his appointment to the Jackson, MS Planning Board. Vick was appointed to the Board on December 5, 2023 by Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and the Jackson City Council. 

Vick joined the staff of Cooperation Jackson in early 2023, to serve as our Community Land Trust Organizing Director.

For more Info

Thank you for a dynamic 2023. Here’s to an amazing 2024!

To everyone who supported us, thank you. Your solidarity helped make our ongoing work possible. Love, Respect, and Solidarity.

For More Info

Fannie Lou Hamer CLT Plaza Update

A short update on the development of the Fannie Lou Hamer Community Land Trust. Made in November 2023. Featuring, Sacajawea Hall, our Operations Manager, and Vick Hudson, our CTL Coordinator.

Help us start the new year off strong. We are in the process of completing Phase 2 of our CLT development work now, and getting in position to move to Phase 3 in 2024! Please donate now and spread the word to your family, friends, comrades and fellow cooperators.

To View

Support the Eversville Design and Print Shop

Checkout this video of one of the Coop's co-owners Kwame Braxton describing some of the outlines of the business and its needs. We are looking to raise $80,000 to complete the build out of the Print Shop at the Ida B. Wells Plaza.

For Mor Info

August 2023 Fundraising Appeal: Phase Two Development Completion 

Completing Construction on the Ida B. Wells Plaza and other properties of the Fannie Lou Hamer Community Land Trust  

Help Cooperation Jackson take the next step in our evolution. We are on the cusp of making a qualitative advance in our work, but we need your help to get there. Since our inception, we have tried our best to start our cooperatives as debt free as possible. To this point in our history, we have largely been able to acquire the property holdings of our community land trust and support our various cooperatives on a debt free basis by mobilizing resources drawn the various savings initiatives of our founders, dues from our members, ongoing support from our sustainers, strategic grants from progressive philanthropies, and the investment of major donors who share our vision. 

We would like to see this trajectory through the completion of phase two of our development, which will enable our main hub and all of our cooperative units to remain debt free moving into the third phase of our collective development. This will enable us to further build and fortify a market protected ecosystem that will provide us with some competitive advantages in our quest to overcome the ruthlessness of the capitalist system, and replace it with a more cooperative and ecologically regenerative one. With your help, we will be in position to continue to serve as one of the largest and most strategic radical, Black led, land-based, solidarity economy initiatives in the United States.

So, what do we need help with? We need to raise $600,000 by October 31st to complete the foundational renovations at the Ida B. Wells Plaza, which is the largest holding in the Fannie Lou Hamer Community Land Trust, and several of our property holdings, including the Community Production Center.

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Join the Campaign to Rebuild the Fight Back Center

This video features Endesha Juakali, one of the founders of the New Day Collective, and one of the principal organizers of the movement to save public housing in New Orleans over the last 40 years. The New Day Collective started in the St. Bernard neighborhood, located in the historic 7th Ward, in the 1970's. In this video Endesha shares some of the history of the struggle to save public housing housing since Hurricane Katrina, what the economic and political elite of New Orleans did to undermine this struggle to ensure that nearly 100,000 Black working class and poor folks could not make it back to New Orleans to ensure that the city would become "whiter, smaller, and more affluent". 

Please donate as generously as you can to the Fight Back Center Campaign by donating to Cooperation Jackson at www.cooperationjackson.org/donate

To View

The Principles of Building Class Conscious Cooperatives 

These graphics distill the core principles outlining what we believe it takes to build class conscious cooperatives. We believe the adoption of these principles help enable organizers, cooperators, and communities from building “cooperatives for cooperatives sake”, which are often ungrounded politically and can be and are used against working class communities as enablers of gentrification and displacement. 

These principles are some of the emerging cornerstones of our Build and Fight Formula. Be on the lookout for more details on elements of how we think this formula can and should be operationalized to make some critical contributions to advance the struggle to socialize production and democratize society. 

To View the Graphics

Building Class Conscious Cooperatives

An article written by our Executive Director, Kali Akuno, on occasion of International Workers Day 2023 and the 9th anniversary of Cooperation Jackson. The article focuses on the need to build class conscious cooperatives as a core tool in the toolkit of the working class to socialize production and democratically transform society.

To Read

Realizing the Durban Declaration and Program of Action is at the Heart of Our Pan-African Global Reparations Movement

An open letter to the Permanent Forum for People of African Descent will be issued before the next Session at the end of May. Support the demand for its work to be grounded in the Durban Declaration and Program of Action (DDPA) and the full and complete repair & justice it calls for. Provide your info and we will keep in touch around the Open Letter and other ways to engage.

Sign up for More Info

Waste Management Support

Monday, April 17 - Friday, April 21, 2023

Ida B. Wells Plaza

1128 W. Capitol Street, Jackson, MS

Join us in the effort to serve the people and keep our community clean. Dump your trash and recycle your plastics with us as we work together to overcome this crisis.

Jackson Rising Redux

Out Now! Get your copy today.

Edited by Kali Akuno and Matt Meyer

Jackson Rising Redux is an updated and expanded version of Jackson Rising. It chronicles and growth and struggles of Cooperation Jackson in the ongoing struggle to socialize production and democratize democracy on a municipal scale.

To Order

Stop HB 1020

Fight Apartheid 2.0

House Bill 1020 is nothing but the promotion of a new and improved version of Jim Crow apartheid. HB1020 is intended to be an expansion of the Capitol Corridor Improvement District (CCID), which came into effect in 2018. This Bill will expand the district to include all of the majority white districts in the city of Jackson, and enable them to exercise a degree of self rule, that would include creating as separate police force in this district, a separate court system, the elimination of voting and political rights for Black people in this district, and will divert critical tax dollars away from the Black controlled municipality and communities in need. 

This Bill poses a critical threat to the Jackson-Kush Plan and Cooperation Jackson opposes it unequivocally. We encourage everyone, in Mississippi and beyond, to do the same.

#StopCopCity

Cop City is a portent of the future. It represents the fact that both mainstream political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, are running out of viable options for a better, brighter, equitable and regenerative future. The investment of the Atlanta police, the City of Atlanta, the Federal government, and both political parties in making sure this project comes to fruition demonstrates that they all clearly envision and plan on delivering a more repressive future. 

We have to Stop Cop City. We have to preserve what remains of our natural environments, particularly in urban spaces, where the vast majority of humanity now resides. Stay tuned to our sister organization Community Movement Builders (CMB) for updates on the struggle to stop Cop City and how you can get involved.

Follow CMB Here

#Justice4Jackson Demands and Action Items

There are two components to Phase 2 of our Water Crisis Recovery, One dimension is Building Community Resilience and the Second dimension is Political Resistance. We need your help with both.

Water Catchment Demonstration Video

A short explanation about one of the methods of water catchment and filtration that we will be employing at community centers and homes throughout Jackson as part of Phase 2 of our response to Jackson's ongoing water crisis.

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Jackson, MS Water Crisis - Building Community Resiliency, Water Crisis Relief Phase 2

What's happening is that we are moving on to Phase 2. This is the first community based water catchment system we are installing. More are on the way with your help & donations to build some resiliency in our community.

Special thanks to our comrades from Just Construction for coming down and lending us some knowledge, skill, education, training, and labor.

For More Info

We need your support for Phase 2 of this struggle. Please donate generously.

To Donate

Justice 4 Jackson. Help us fix Jackson’s water system and build more autonomy and people power in the city.

Call to Action from Cooperation Jackson.

We are demanding the State and Federal Government completely overhaul Jackson’s water treatment and delivery systems. And asking our allies to help us build autonomous infrastructure to help us end various dependencies on the racist state apparatus.

Read the Call

We Need Your Support. Please Donate Today.

Water Crisis Fundraising Appeal - 8.30.22

Support Jackson in our critical time of need. Due to climate change & decades of neglect of our cities infrastructure the entire city is without drinking water and it is not clear when water access will be restored. Donate today at https://cooperationjackson.org/donate. #Solidarity #MutualAid

For More Info

Show some love for Cooperation Jackson!

Support Our Capital Campaign for the Fannie Lou Hamer Community Land Trust 

After two years of adjusted development due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cooperation Jackson is poised to take the next major step in our development. We aim to raise $2,500,000 that will strengthen our efforts to decommodify land and housing, collectively steward our resources, and expand the opportunity we have for democratic community control. Help us take the leap needed to consolidate the development of our Community Land Trust. 

Cooperation Jackson developed the Fannie Lou Hamer Community Land Trust as a division of our non-profit operations in 2015. We established the land trust to protect and preserve Black land stewardship in West Jackson. By purchasing as many of the vacant lands and facilities as our limited resources would allow, over the past seven years, we have successfully acquired over forty properties in West Jackson, including a shopping mall, and three commercial facilities. 

In our fight to defend our neighborhood in West Jackson from the rising tide of gentrification and displacement, our approach continues to be multifaceted; remove land and housing from the speculative market; build the affordable housing and commercial space needed to support families and businesses; create community space where we can be in relationship with each other; and build the democratic practices necessary to sustain and defend our alternative model. The money raised will enable us to finish developing the land and facilities we currently steward, and purchase a few remaining strategic assets in the neighborhood.

In many ways, it is now “the best of times, and the worst of times'' in Jackson. The housing market is increasingly rapacious, while speculation runs even more rampant than when we launched Cooperation Jackson. While it is true that these multinational corporations like Amazon will help address the need for jobs in Jackson, their arrival comes at a cost. In addition to the impact on land and housing, most of these jobs will deepen the exploitation of the working class in Jackson, the state of Mississippi, and the southern region in overall, as they are premised on exploiting the political conditions that exist in the state and region that intentionally impoverish labor and deprive workers of their fundamental rights, particularly the right to organize themselves into collective bargaining units. 

In order to play our part in countering these developments, we are focusing and prioritizing the following:

  • Completing the renovation of the Ida B. Wells Plaza, to enable the opening of the People’s Grocery Cooperative, and to provide affordable commercial space for local businesses and community organizations

  • Fully renovating the Dambala House, one of the commercial facilities we own to turn it into a Maker Space with a training center in the arts of digital fabrication

  • Acquiring the commercial lot behind the Ida B. Wells Plaza to turn it into a food hub and recycling center

  • Acquiring a new home on one of our newest properties for Ms. Rose Brown, that will enable her to receive the critical live in home care that is required to manage her chronic medical condition

  • Completing renovations on the three existing cooperative housing units

  • Completing renovations on three additional housing units that can enable the development of more affordable housing in our community. 

  • Clearing the dilapidated structures on Ewing Street, commencing soil remediation, continuing the community envisioning and planning workshops that will go hand in hand with the experimental housing development led by our Community Production Cooperative for the Eco-Village Pilot

The $2,500,000 we are seeking to raise will enable us to complete these fundamental projects that ultimately position our community and Cooperation Jackson to weather the storm of capital accumulation presently confronting us. So, we ask everyone who despises gentrification, displacement, the exploitation of labor, and the extraction of resources to show us some love today and the remainder of February. 

We look forward to building a groundswell of support for our vision of a regenerative economy and a self-determined community. Donate and spread the word to family, friends, co-workers, comrades, and fellow cooperators. 

We appreciate the love and support! 

 

Our Story

Cooperation Jackson is the realization of a vision decades in the making. Our roots lay deep within the struggle for democratic rights, economic justice, and self-determination, particularly for Afrikan people in the Deep South, and for dignity and equality for all workers.

Our Story ›

Events

March 2024 Film Night - Fannie Lou Hamer’s America

Friday, March 29, 2024

Balagoon Center 939 W. Capitol Street, Jackson, MS

6 - 8 pm

A new documentary about Mississippi legend, Fannie Lou Hamer, in her own words.

For More Info

Really, Really Free Market

Join Cooperation Jackson and local allies and partners on Saturday, March 23, 2024 for this mutual aid exchange to meet the material needs of our families and community.

Ida B. Wells Plaza

1128 W. Capitol Street, Jackson, MS

Saturday, March 23, 2024

9 am - 2 pm

Read More

Worker Power and Economic Democracy

Old Main ASU, Tempe Campus

February 23 and 24, 2024

Worker Power and Economic Democracy, the ASU Center for Work and Democracy’s Annual Conference with Kim Kelly, Kali Akuno, and Matt Meyer in-person in Tempe, AZ and online.

Learn more, join via Zoom, and get their books at blog.pmpress.org/event-directory/

For More Info

Land Back and Liberated Zones

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Old Chapel, UMass Amherst

Featuring Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson and Ethan Miller of Land in Common

Organized by Building Solidarity Economies at UMass Amherst

Fore More Info

February 2024 Movie Night - “Life and Debt”

Friday, February 23

6 pm

Balagoon Center

939 W. Capitol Street, Jackson, MS

"Life and Debt" is a searing documentary from director Stephanie Black that examines the ways that policies of the International Monetary Fund (I.M.F.), the World Bank, and other aid organizations changed the Jamaican economy in the late 20th century.

For More Info

January Movie Night - Stonewall Uprising

Friday, January 12, 2024

Kuwasi Balagoon Center

939 W. Capitol Street, Jackson, MS

6 pm

Stonewall Uprising tells the story of the massive police raid of Stonewall in June 1969.

For More Info

Commune or Nothing! Communes against Capitalism

Thursday, December 7

6:30 pm est

This virtual panel will examine the commune and communal organizing as part of the project of revolutionary social transformation. The speakers address how socialist communes can be used to abolish capitalism’s logic, based on the exploitation of the human being and the expropriation of nature, along with the range of oppressions (including racial, gender, sexual, and colonial oppression) in capitalist society.

The speakers – Kali Akuno, John Bellamy Foster, Chris Gilbert, and M.E. O’Brien – will draw from various theoretical perspectives and practical experiences.

This panel is presented by Monthly Review and hosted by The People’s Forum, and is organized in the context of the recent launch of Chris Gilbert’s Commune or Nothing! Venezuela’s Communal Movement and Its Socialist Project from Monthly Review Press. The book looks at the theory, practice, and history of socialist commune building in Venezuela.

PLEASE NOTE this is a virtual panel and there will be no in-person component of the event.

For More Info

Climate Strategies in the Solidarity Economy

Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Eastside Arts Alliance Cultural Center Gallery

2285 International Blvd, Oakland, CA

Join Kali Akuno and Sacajawea “Saki” Hall in Redding, CA for this book tour event about our struggle to construct economic democracy and ecological regeneration from below in Jackson, MS.

Hosted by Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ), the Anti-Police Terror Project (APTP), and the California Arts Council.

Howard Zinn Book Fair

Sunday, December 3, 2023

10 am - 6 pm

CCSF Mission Center

1125 Valencia Street, San Francisco

Kali Akuno and Sacajawea Hall will be speaking about “Jackson Rising Redux” and the ongoing work of Cooperation Jackson.

For More Info

Climate Strategies in the Solidarity Economy

Saturday, December 2nd

3 pm

First United Methodist Church

1825 East Street, Redding, CA

Join Kali Akuno and Sacajawea “Saki” Hall in Redding, CA for this book tour event about our struggle to construct economic democracy and ecological regeneration from below in Jackson, MS.

For More Info

Dope is Death. Film Night.

Friday, December 1

6:30 pm

Kuwasi Balagoon Center for Economic Democracy and Sustainable Development

939 W. Capitol Street, Jackson, MS 39203

The story of how Dr. Mutulu Shakur, stepfather of Tupac Shakur, along with fellow Black Panthers and the Young Lords, combined community health with radical politics to create the first acupuncture detoxification program in America in 1973 - a visionary project eventually deemed too dangerous to exist.

For More Info

Building Relationships for Climate Justice

  • Tuesday, November 14, 2023

  • 8:00 AM 8:00 AM

  • 939 W Capitol St.

Join these esteemed thinkers, strategists, and climate justice activists in roundtable discussions and an opportunity to break bread. We will explore big questions like: What role can higher education play in climate justice? How can we create transformative climate justice strategy and networks?

For More Info

Imaginal Cells: Politics and Policy

Tuesday, September 19, 2023

1 - 2:30 pm cst

The Imaginal Cells of the Solidarity Economy is an ongoing webinar series that showcases the myriad ways that solidarity economy practices are providing models and pathways to build a more cooperative, democratic, equitable, and sustainable world--one in which many worlds fit.

For More Info

People’s Climate Week Launch

Monday, September 18, 2023

3 pm - 8 pm cst

Join us Monday (9/18) for a Plenary & Movement Social as the launch of Peoples' Climate Week. On Tuesday (9/19), we will host a teach-in led by EJ/CJ frontline and BIPOC organizers on real versus false climate solutions.

For More Info

Reparations and the Construction of a New International Order : Addressing the crimes of Enslavement, Colonialism and Climate Change

Thursday, September 14

6 pm

Balagoon Center

939 W. Capitol Street, Jackson, MS

This event is sponsored by Cooperation Jackson and the Global Working Group Beyond Development of the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.

The event will be translated from English to Spanish and Spanish to English online and in person.

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Friday Films in Jackson - Summer of Soul

Friday, June 30, 2023

6:30 pm

Balagoon Center 939 W. Capitol Street, Jackson, MS

Join us Friday, June 30 at 6:30 pm at the Balagoon Center located at 939 W. Capitol Street, Jackson, MS.

We will be showing the Summer of Soul about the Harlem Music Festival that was long forgotten by many.

Food and snacks will be served.

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Solidarity Economy in the Age of Globalized Neo-Colonialism

Thursday, June 22, 2023

Mwamko and Cooperation Jackson invite you to this timely lecture and conversation on the alternatives to Capitalism and the many ways to build a new world. Join us at the Kenya National Theatre on Thursday, 22nd June 2023, at 4.00pm Kenya time 9 am est/8 am cst/7 pm mst/6 am pst. The event will be livestreamed on Cooperation Jackson’s Facebook page.

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Juneteenth New Orleans

Saturday, June 24, 2023

3 pm

Join us for Juneteenth 2023 in New Orleans on Saturday, June 24, 2023 at the Fight Back Center located at 3820 Alfred Street, New Orleans, LA 70122.

Vendors, food, and music will be present.

Join us in taking the our next step in the journey to help the New Day Collective reclaim the St. Bernard neighborhood and take back New Orleans.

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Friday Night Movie Night - May 2023

6:30 pm

Balagoon Center

939 W. Capitol Street, Jackson, MS

Join us Friday, May 26, 2023 for Friday Night Movie Night featuring “If Beale Street Could Talk”, a film based on the work of James Baldwin.

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Malcolm X Birthday Celebration and Grand Opening of the New Day Fight Back Center

Saturday, May 20, 2023

12 pm - until

3820 Alfred Street, New Orleans, LA

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KALI AKUNO TO RECIEVE THE GANDHI PEACE AWARD

On Saturday, May 13 at 2 p.m. the Gandhi Peace Award for 2023 will be held at the Q-House at 197 Dixwell Avenue in New Haven, CT. If you'd like to attend on Zoom click here for the registration.

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Jackson Rising Redux Book Launch in New Orleans

With Kali Akuno, Sacajawea Hall, Endesha Juakali and Matt Meyer

Community Bookstore

2523 Bayou Road, New Orleans, LA

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

6 pm

This event will be special launch for the development of the Fight Back Center in New Orleans.

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May Day 2023 + 9th Anniversary Celebration + Book Launch

Monday, May 1, 2023

Balagoon Center, Jackson, MS

6 pm

Join us in honor of workers throughout the world. And for our 9th anniversary birthday celebration and book launch. Cooperation Jackson was intentionally launched on May 1st, 2014 to help reunite the coop and union organizing movements. We are continuing this agenda.

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What is to be done?

Saturday, April 22, 2023

11 am - 12:30 pm pst

“What Is to Be Done? Burning Questions of Our Movement” is a political pamphlet written in 1902 by Vladimir Lenin outlining a “skeleton plan” for going beyond fighting economic battles over wages, working hours and the like and towards restructuring all of society. As we face ecological collapse, and fascism rising across the globe, we bring together movement leaders to pose that question to them: “What Is to Be Done?”

Presenters: Richard D. Wolff, Edget Betru, Blair Evans, and Michelle Eddleman McCormick 

Moderated by Kali Akuno

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Decolonizing Economics: 4th Annual Post-Capitalism Conference

Thursday, April 20 - Saturday, April 22, 2023

This 3-day virtual conference serves as a space to exchange experiences and information, strengthen alliances and networks, and to devise strategies to decenter colonial systems and implement concrete solutions to heal the land and people.

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Our Principles

Cooperation Jackson has 13 Core Principles, which were crafted by adapting aspects from the basic principles of the Mondragón Cooperative Corporation in the Basque country of Spain, and the International Cooperative Alliance’s cooperative identity, values and principles. 

Our Principles ›