Decolonization, Reparations, and Climate Emergency Preparedness: Clarifying the CJ and CGO Collaboration

By Cooperation Jackson and the Center for Grassroots Organizing

As veteran activists, we should have known better than to trust a liberal media outlet to tell our story and portray our interests, intents, and strategies correctly. When we agreed to do a story with VICE magazine about our shared work and growing collaboration, based on several lead-in conversations we thought the article would focus on the efforts of grassroots forces like ours trying to:

• Develop concrete strategies to rapidly address the advancing climate catastrophe
• Initiate just transition plans from the bottom up that lead to a regenerative, eco-socialist future based on non-extractive and non-exploitative systems of production and reproduction where the means of production are democratically owned and controlled by communities of associated producers
• Coherently plan for the coming waves of climate migration within the context of fighting for decolonization, in the form of land back transfers to Indigenous nations and land steward agreements for Blacks and Latinos based on these land grant transfers

VICE unfortunately has its own agenda, and appears to have pursued our story to serve its own needs. In the pursuit of drawing in readers from traffic generated revenue, it appears that their agenda is riffing on disaster porn to lure in readers. VICE intentionally chose to ignore the land back and reparations issues, which constituted the center of our focus. In ignoring these issues, neither of the central contradictions at the heart of the American empire - namely the interplay of Indigenous genocide, European settler-colonialism, the enslavement of African and Indigenous people, and the ongoing social and material legacy of chattel slavery - are confronted or addressed. And without addressing these issues, it portrays our efforts as just another left oriented trip bent on perpetuating the systemic dynamics of settler-colonialism and white supremacy.

In addition to talking about the historic and structural need for decolonization and reparations, we grounded our interviews around concrete efforts to achieve these objectives in Vermont, by talking about the critical and trailblazing work of Everytown and the Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust Network (NEFOC). Everytown and NEFOC are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) lead organizing projects rooted in Vermont and New Hampshire that are working on securing land transfers from white farmers and landholders to BIPOC individuals, organizations and communities for restorative justice.

Instead of focusing on these comprehensive efforts, VICE chose to highlight the singular collaborative efforts of the Center for Grassroots Organizing (Grassroots Center) and Cooperation Jackson coming together to establish a practical program in Vermont centered on the joint stewarding of land based on the three strategic points stated above. What they omitted was that our efforts were and are designed to uplift, support, and advance the work of Everytown and NEFOC, not compete with it or negate it. Similarly, they uplifted the nascent work of the People’s Network for Land and Liberation (PNLL) as something distinct from these efforts, rather than something designed to elevate our collective efforts to free the land.

Instead of macro issues and strategic efforts of the various organizations and alliances being the focus of the article, we largely got treated to a personal expose about Kali Akuno and Henry Harris, that was filled with holes, conjecture, and mischaracterizations. One major distortion was posing the land granting process that the Hall-Akuno family is engaging in Vermont as an abandonment of their work in Jackson, Mississippi and the overall mission to free the land there. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Hall-Akuno family are not abandoning Cooperation Jackson, nor the struggle in Jackson. Instead, their efforts and those of Cooperation Jackson overall relative to this initiative are centered on building a bridge for their comrades and communities in Jackson to have a potential safe haven from the calamitous climate threats confronting Mississippi and the Gulf State region. Our aim is to make sure that our communities and our people can survive and thrive in the future. This starts by securing places in more climate adaptive regions like Vermont or Northern California, where they can safely relocate because forces like ours have built solid social and political relations with local Black, Indigenous, Latino, and radical white organizations and communities that will enable the successful integration of the individuals, families, and communities needing to migrate from the climate sacrifice zones that capital and the government are creating by their gross negligence on climate change.

Another critical distortion in the article was overstating the degree of Indigenous involvement in the land transfer efforts in Vermont. To be clear, the organizers at the Center for Grassroots Organizing, EveryTown, and NEFOC are establishing relations with Abenaki leaders and communities, but the work to incorporate these relationships into the center of their collective work are nascent at best. There are three challenges that the organizers have to overcome to make this transformative work decolonial and reparative. One challenge is establishing a means for the Western Abenaki bands to hold land in common in Vermont. At present, the settler-colonial laws that govern the state bar this form of land ownership. Another challenge is supporting Abenaki tribes to successfully take on and win this political struggle, while fully respecting their self-determination in all forms. And finally, there is the challenge of establishing a three way process of land granting, one that transfers land from white farmers and landowners to Black and Latino families and organizations to steward for regenerative purposes with the approval of the Abenaki bands.

In the effort to address these issues within a restorative justice framework in the context of the aforementioned structural limitations the Center for Grassroots Organizing is in consultation with Native leaders to discover how to build power together and decolonize our relationships to each other and to the land. NEFOC is asking every land transfer project under their purview to write letters of intent, so we are drafting letters and discussing our intentions with a couple of Native friends and contacts, and will be submitting our letters to be discussed with Indigenous people that NEFOC are in touch with, as well as our own networks. These letters are intended to outline how each project is going to respect Indigenous sovereignty and be responsible ecological stewards to the land. They are also intended to lay a solid moral and legal foundation to engage in the long-term political struggle that will need to be waged to win the land back.

If VICE had told this story, in its proper context, we think it could have been a much greater and politically clearer narrative than what it was. Instead, the Center for Grassroots Organizing and Cooperation Jackson have had to field a lot of uneasy questions from both friends, allies, and foes alike. Confusion breeds contempt. And we have tried to clean up as much of this confusion as we can, including the release of this statement. We tried to get VICE to help us clear up this confusion as soon as we saw the piece, in the hours before the article was released. The author of the article was more than willing to make the corrections that we requested, but the editors rebuffed our concerns. The only things that they conceded were changing the title of the article, correcting the name of the township where the Grassroots Center is located, and properly identifying one of its projects.

However, these cosmetic changes still missed the mark. For instance, the original title said that “organizers in Vermont are buying land for people escaping climate disaster”. The change now says that we are “sharing land”. While “sharing” is better than “buying” in this context, it is not the same as transferring land under the premise of developing a land back and reparations movement as we stated. Further, the emphasis on buying that they originally framed is extremely problematic because it made it appear that our initiative was and is intended to extend capitalist relations of production and exchange, rather than subverting them and creating an alternative to them. It also raised serious transparency questions in light of the recent mainstream media expose regarding the finances of the Black Lives Matter foundation and movement network. On this basis, many folks questioned where in the hell did grassroots forces like ours come up with the millions of dollars needed to start buying land to the extent implied. In our view these were legitimate questions, but they were based on the confused message that was conveyed in the story.

When it is all said and done, we are responsible for telling our own story and constructing our own narrative. VICE is what VICE is. For anyone and everyone who might have been somewhat confused by the VICE article, we hope this short response clarifies some issues. As veterans of radical movement we will do better and continue to refine our work to not repeat mistakes like this in the future. And to those who did read the article and found it somewhat inspiring, because we’ve heard some of that as well, we hope that being exposed to the deeper meanings we were trying to convey give you even greater inspiration and encourage you to support our respective individual and collective efforts, and to start or enhance similar efforts in your communities.

To reach Cooperation Jackson or the Center for Grassroots Organizing for further questions or to support our work, please contact us via the following communicative instruments:

Cooperation Jackson Website: www.cooperationjackson.org Email: cooperationjackson@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CooperationJackson Twitter: @CooperationJXN Instagram: @CooperationJXN

Center for Grassroots Organizing Website: https://www.grassrootscenter.net/about/ Email: info@grassrootscenter.net Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/grassrootsnorth Instagram: @vt_grassroots_center