World Social Forum 2016 Events

Cooperation Jackson is participating in this year's World Social Forum held in Montreal Canada. Below is a schedule of event we will be hosting/co-hosting/attending.

As the South Goes: Climate Justice and a Just Transition in the Black Belt South      

Université du Québec à Montréal - Pavillon A (Local A-1875)
400, rue Sainte-Catherine Est – Montréal
Wednesday, August 10th, 2016
9:00 - 11:30 am

This panel/workshop session will provide some basic education, and give a context to the struggle some organizations have been engaged in from the black belt south from an extractive economy, to one that’s sustainable for people and the planet. We will also discuss Cooperation Jackson’s role as a pilot site for the Climate Justice Alliance working as an entity aimed at making Jackson Mississippi a zero waste city by the year 2025. Our presenters, facilitators and handouts will be centered around creating a space for open discussion and dialogue on these topics. Just Transition is a sustainable shift from an extractive economy with extractive industries (such as timber, industrial agriculture, mining, petroleum, mountain-top removal, and industrial fishing) towards community control and power. A just transition includes re-localized economies that will be ecologically grounded, produce community well being, democratize decision-making, and promote local control of resources (including land, water and food systems), healthy, viable communities with a sustainable economy.

UN Decade on the People of African Descent: Challenging the structures of white supremacy and mobilization for reparations

DS-4375 of the Pavillon De Sève de l'UQÀM
Wednesday, August 10th, 2016
13:00 – 15:30 pm

There is a critical need for challenging the myths of racial hierarchy on a global scale. The institutions of white supremacy have to be confronted and challenged as the basis upon which AFRICAN and people of African descent can reclaim non-discrimination with its corollary equality. Centuries of enslavement, slave labor, racial exploitation, colonization, and the continued domination of transnational corporations and finance capital represented by 'globalization', including racial profiling that is becoming a permanent feature of immigration law and praxis, are all factors that have contributed to the dehumanization of people of African descent. The UN Decade on the People of African Descent, which started January 1st, 2015 and ends December 31st, 2024, provides an opportunity to focus international attention on the international and national/domestic structures of  racial racism, in order to develop strategies for mobilization for reparations, decoloniality of power and knowledge,  decolonization and other forms of social justice. 
 

2016 Elections in the US: The Rise of the Right and the State of Our Movements

Université du Québec à Montréal – Pavillon A (Local A-2855) 400, rue Sainte-Catherine Est
Thursday, August 11th, 2016
9:00 – 11:30 am

The 2016 Elections is an unprecedented moment we are living through. There is at once an expanded and highly polarized space in mainstream politics, where we are seeing a socialist and a neo-fascist both running for the White House. Donald Trump has galvanized the most reactionary forces among the white working class, activating and normalizing long-accumulated “white rage” against gains that people of color have made in past decades, and threatening the future of all relatively progressive politics. As a result, the most extreme of right-wing forces are dominating public debate over policy, and this consolidation has long-term implications for people of color and indigenous peoples beyond whoever gets elected as President. Given the long-term implications of potential reversals in progressive politics, the introductions of racist policies such as Trump’s proposed “bigger wall” on the US-Mexico border and banning all Muslim migrants, and a much more hostile landscape within which people of color will have to continue to struggle, we believe that this is the moment to bring our bases together and amplify a collective “NO!” to the politics of the GOP. At the same time, the Clinton candidacy represents an threat to our movements as well, as a continuation of US neoliberal imperialist militarism.This is a moment when our movements need to be organized and aligned. Hear from frontline leaders from grassroots Black, Indigenous, Latino/Xicano, Asian, Pacific Islander, Arab and working class white movements in the US, and our read on the implications of the current political moment in the US and what is at stake for our movements.

 

Africans on the Frontlines: Afrodescendants Fighting for Climate Justice and a Just Transition

Université du Québec à Montréal - Pavillon A (Local A-1750)
400, rue Sainte-Catherine Est – Montréal
Friday, August 12th, 2016
09:00 - 11:30 am

An Assembly for Africans throughout the Diaspora confronting the ravages of colonialism, neo-colonialism, imperialist aggression and climate change and struggling for self-determination, reparations, climate justice and a just transition.

Cooperation Jackson and The Struggle for Economic Democracy in Jackson Mississippi

Université du Québec à Montréal - Pavillon A (Local A-1870)
400, rue Sainte-Catherine Est – Montréal
Friday, August 12th, 2016
13:00 - 15:30 pm

This panel/workshop session will provide some basic education, and give a context to the struggle for economic democracy in Jackson Mississippi and Cooperation Jackson’s role as a vehicle designed to actualize economic democracy in Jackson, Mississippi. This will be conveyed largely through our presenters, facilitators and handouts that will be centered primarily around creating a space for open discussion and dialogue. “Economic Democracy” – A Working Definition Economic Democracy is a social system that calls for the participatory, or popular, self-governance of the economic relationships and processes in society. It is premised on workplace democracy; the democratic ownership of the means of production; the collective management over all of the essential processes of production and distribution by workers, distributors, suppliers, consumers, and communities; the democratic distribution of the income and wealth produced; and democratic control over finance and investment.

Strange Fruit: Making Common Cause for a Racism-Free World

Maison de la Culture of Montreal – North
Saturday, August 13th, 2016
6 pm

Today, throughout the world, the lives of brown and black individuals as well as the survival of entire communities are threatened by racist policies. Resulting from unequal power relations, racism gives privileges to those designated as members of the white race, western civilization or rich countries. This is done by denying the rights and liberties of those designated as members of the black race, indigenous people, non-western civilizations or poor countries. In this conference, we will lay out different issues linked to racism and its negative impact on our environment and on healthcare, educational and justice systems. Following a presentation of how different forms of racism (anti-black, anti-indigenous and Islamophobia) harm the majority of us regardless of our skin color, we will discuss the need to make common cause to free our world of racism. It is in that perspective that the following panelists will each give a talk and answer questions.