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Checkout these dope slides about People's Assembly's that draws heavily on the work emerging from experiences in Jackson, MS and New Orleans over the last 20 years. This is from the Solidarity Economy Association out of the UK. Enjoy!
Read MoreHelp 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.
Read MoreCooperation 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.
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.
Read MoreA 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.
Read MoreWe have almost reached our Phase 2 fundraising goals for Cooperation Jackson. One of our last objectives is completing the build out for the Eversville Design and Print Shop Cooperative.
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.
Please donate what you can to help us finish the build out. Please tell you family, friends, comrades, and fellow cooperators. Donate here: https://cooperationjackson.org/checkout/donate?donatePageId=547ad38ae4b0fa4e5a5a45cc
Read MoreAugust 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. With these resources we be able to:
Complete the foundational renovations for the People’s Grocery, which will allow the members of this cooperative to complete their business planning, preliminary build out with the Community Production Cooperative, and autonomous resource procurement.
Complete the foundational renovations for Cisa Farms, which is our emerging medicinal cannabis cooperative. This will enable this initiative to remain as autonomous as possible in a market facing increasing consolidation and corporatization.
Complete the buildout for the Eversville Design and Printing Cooperative. This will enable this cooperative to provide the full range of its services and engage in the full range of its community programming activities by the start of 2024.
Install a new roof on the Community Production Center, that will enable it to become more secure and energy efficient.
If we are able to secure these funds and complete this work, this will mark the completion of our second phase of development. The first phase of work, spanning roughly from May 2014 when we launched, till roughly May 2018, focused on a) acquiring as much land as as possible in West Jackson to incorporate into a community land trust and take it off the speculative market to ensure permanently affordability for our cooperatives and community residents and b) establishing a network of interrelated and interdependent cooperatives to serve as foundational anchors for social and solidarity economy we are aiming to build in Jackson and the Kush District.
Before - Yellow House, March 2023
After - Yellow House, June 2023
The second phase of the work, which started in the summer of 2018, and was extended due to the COVID pandemic, focused on a) launching a second class of cooperatives, to expand on the productive capacities of our foundational cooperatives and provide more services to our community - the primary one being the Community Production Cooperative, b) establishing a network of supporting solidarity institutions and practices, like a time bank and alternative currency, to develop the internal resources within our community and improve the overall quality of life, and c) rehabilitating and redeveloping the existing housing and commercial infrastructures that exist on the Fannie Lou Hamer Community Land Trust.
Future home of the Eversville Design and print Shop Coop
Over the course of the last two years, we have made tremendous strides toward the rehabilitation of all of our facilities. And we are now in the process of developing our own community inclusive currency (CIC) in partnership with Grassroots Economics. If we are able to raise the $600,000 we need and complete the foundational work on the Ida B Wells Plaza, we will be able to create a full set of institutional anchors for our currency application - particularly through the comprehensive operations of the People’s Grocery during phase three of our growth, ensure that the second class of cooperatives will all possess the physical space that they need to grow and thrive, and critically enable the expansion of the social and solidarity economy in Jackson.
Bathroom Buildout for the future People’s Grocery
The third phase of our work, which we are eagerly looking forward to over the course of the next several years, will entail the rollout of a number of cooperatives that are likely to employ dozens of people, we project on average over 20 per cooperative in arenas like the grocery store, recycling operations, cannabis production and retail, food processing, housing construction, and more.
Our construction crew hard At Work!
As you can see, we have some major plans in the works in Jackson to further fulfill the vision of the Jackson-Kush Plan. But, we need your help to see them through to fruition. Please donate as generously as you can and spread the word to your family, friends, cooperators and comrades and encourage them to support us in this strategic pursuit.
You can donate at https://cooperationjackson.org/donate. Please designate “2023 Construction Support” in the designation field.
You can also write a check to “Cooperation Jackson”, please designate “2023 Construction Support” or “CLT” in the check note. Please mail to Cooperation Jackson P.O. Box 1932 Jackson, MS 39215.
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".
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreAn 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.
Read MoreThe 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa was a historic moment in the struggle for African peoples. With people from every corner of the world present, civil society and governments reached a consensus and issued the Durban Declaration and Program of Action (DDPA).
The DDPA was the hard-won result of tremendous effort to educate, organize and mobilize African people and allies for years prior to the conference.
The world declared colonialism, slavery, and apartheid crimes against humanity, without a statute of limitations and that reparations are due.
The DDPA is a tool that was fought and won. We must affirm, defend, fully claim, and assert the DDPA as our human right of self-determination.
We strongly recommend that the future work of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent utilize the Durban Declaration and Program of Action (DDPA) as its central working document and ensure the effective implementation of the DDPA.
We can not let short term promises of 30 pieces of silver cause us to betray our peoples. The USA and other European countries, former colonizers, fought our DDPA efforts then and continue to work to control our movements today.
An open letter to the Permanent Forum for People of African Descent will be issued before the next Session. Support the demand for its work to be grounded in the 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.
Contact info: Efia Nwangaza enushrnetwork@gmail.com
Jackson Rising Redux
Edited by Kali Akuno and Matt Meyer
Order your copy today.
Mississippi is the poorest state in the US, with the highest percentage of Black people and a history of vicious racial terror. Black resistance at a time of global health, economic, and climate crisis is the backdrop and context for the drama captured in this new and revised collection of essays. Cooperation Jackson, founded in 2014 in Mississippi’s capital to develop an economically uplifting democratic “solidarity economy,” is anchored by a network of worker-owned, self-managed cooperative enterprises. The organization developed in the context of the historic election of radical Mayor Chokwe Lumumba, lifetime human rights attorney. Subsequent to Lumumba’s passing less than one year after assuming office, the network developed projects both inside and outside of the formal political arena. In 2020, Cooperation Jackson became the center for national and international coalition efforts, bringing together progressive peoples from diverse trade union, youth, church, and cultural movements. This long-anticipated anthology details the foundations behind those successful campaigns. It unveils new and ongoing strategies and methods being pursued by the movement for grassroots-centered Black community control and self-determination, inspiring partnership and emulation across the globe.
Read MoreA 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.
Read MoreWhat'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.
Call to Action Statement 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.
Join the call. Spread the word.
Read MoreSupport 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.
Read MoreShow Your Love is the start of our 2022 Capital Campaign to develop the Fannie Lou Hamer Community Land Trust
We are trying to raise over $2,500,000 for this campaign to renovate our facilities and acquire some new strategic properties.
We need your support!
Read MoreVideo appeal for the campaign to support Ms. Rose Mae Brown and the Fannie Lou Hammer Community Land Trust, stewarded by Cooperation Jackson, secure adequate housing for her medical condition. We are seeking to raise $200,000 to purchase a home for her on Rose Street in West Jackson, a home big enough to ensure that she has permanent in-home care to treat her chronic epileptic seizures.
Please make a generous donation to this vital campaign. Donate today here.
Donate Today. Please indidate "Symbiosis Summer" in the note on your donation.
This summer from August 8 through 15, members of the Symbiosis network are converging in Jackson, Mississippi to renovate and rehab properties and sites on the Fannie Lou Hamer Community Land Trust stewarded by Cooperation Jackson, in order to provide affordable housing, lots for urban agriculture, and a basis for an Eco-Village concept ensuring a more sustainable future. We need your help to make this a reality!
Symbiosis Summer
Inspired by the Detroit Summer program based out of the Boggs Center, itself inspired by the Mississippi Summer at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Symbiosis Summer brings together volunteers from far afield to come together and work on a project giving back to that community and building deeper connections and networks of solidarity between them.
This inaugural summer will take place in the western neighborhoods of Jackson, where we will be working with Cooperation Jackson to complete the rehabilitation of several properties held by their community land trust, as well as help with the summer harvest of Freedom Farms cooperative.
The Costs
Our committee has budgeted for costs to provide room and board on their properties for up to thirty volunteers to be about $5000. We are reaching out to local groceries for possible donations to reduce costs. We are also looking to rent a passenger van for transporting people to and from the work sites, to reduce the need for cars. Most coming in are paying entirely for their travel expenses to reach here.
Cooperation Jackson has committed to paying 40% of the costs, with the remainder to be paid by the crowdfunding and the Symbiosis Network. Anything raised in the excess of this goal will go towards paying back Cooperation Jackson for their portion and investing back in the community of West Jackson.
Cooperation Jackson
Cooperation Jackson is a network of worker co-ops, solidarity economy institutions, and mutual aid initiatives that are working to build economic democracy and self-determination, as outlined in the Jackson-Kush Plan. Officially founded in 2014 at the Jackson Rising conference, Cooperation Jackson owns over fifty lots of land in their Fannie Lou Hamer Community Land Trust initiative, where most of the work of Symbiosis Summer will take place.
Symbiosis
Symbiosis is a confederation of grassroots, municipal organizations across North America, building a democratic and ecological movement for a better world, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city. Starting at the Congress of Municipal Movements in 2019, Symbiosis provides a global platform for local organizing with over twenty affiliate organizations and more partners in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Through this platform we seek to escalate our work to new territories of radical possibility, rooted deeply in principles of autonomy, solidarity, social ecology, and radical democracy.
Get involved!
Bringing together resources from the crowd is a key strategy. We do not rely on grants or foundations, instead run on the donations of our members and friends of the movement. In addition to giving, please feel free to reach out and share widely on social media over Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, and if you are interested in traveling to Jackson with us this summer, you can find a form to sign up to join us at this link!
Building a solidarity economy in Jackson, Mississippi anchored by a network of cooperatives and other worker-owned and democratically self-managed enterprises.
