Support Cooperation Jackson’s Relief and Emergency Preparedness efforts in West Jackson
/
The Polar Vortex that engulfed the Gulf Coast in February devastated Jackson. Thousands of the city’s residents experienced power outages, freezing temperatures, and water deprivation during the freeze. Now in the middle of March, weeks after the freeze, thousands continue living without running water or adequate water pressure for weeks on end due to the inadequacy of the cities antiquated infrastructure.
This is the second major Polar Vortex induced infrastructure calamity that the city of Jackson has faced since the winter of 2018. Sadly, these cold spells and the damage they inflict are becoming part of our “new normal” due to the rapidly escalating climate calamity that is confronting us all.
What we have clearly learned the hard way since the calamity of Hurricane Katrina, is that during times of acute crisis the government, particularly on the Federal and State levels, will not adequately intervene on behalf of predominantly Black, Latino, Indigenous, or working class communities. The racist and reactionary forces that control these apparatus do not see it in their short or long-term interests to assist these communities and build their infrastructures, which could aid in the development of their overall social capacities and deter their exploitation by the forces of capital. Local municipalities, particularly mid-sized cities like Jackson, more often than not do not possess the independent financial resources, technical capacities, and sufficient tax bases to draw upon to deal with these issues on their own.
Since the Federal and State governments won’t help, and Municipal governments are often unable to adequately help, we, the people have a dual task: 1) to build self-governing institutions with the skills and capacities to help ourselves address and overcome the mounting crisis afflicting us and 2) build movements with enough power to restructure the state and transform society. To these ends, we are asking you to act in solidarity with us to enhance and fortify the autonomous institutions we are building in West Jackson to meet these ends.
In the short term, we are asking you to support our autonomous relief efforts, providing water, safety masks, and sanitizing supplies to the people in our community, particularly the houseless residents in our community, to deal with the immediate water and sanitation crisis the community is confronting. We will be hosting our first major relief distribution on Friday, March 19th at 12 noon at the Ida B. Wells Plaza located at 1202 W. Capital Street, Jackson, MS 39203.
In the mid-term, we are seeking your support to do a) ongoing emergency preparedness training for freezes, tornados, hurricanes, and floods and b) the provision of emergency ready resource kits. As it relates to resource provisioning, we are seeking to develop and distribute thousands of emergency ready kits that will include the following: Solar powered lighting and recharging lamps 5 gallon portable water containers Water purification filters and/or tablets Sleeping bags Tarps Survival Tip Guides
In the long-term, we are seeking your support to aid us in the development of the following institutions to fortify the Fannie Lou Hamer Community Land Trust: Solar Power Community Energy Stations Water-catchment and distribution systems for agricultural and emergency use
Once we ease our own internal COVID-19 safety protocols, hopefully by August or September pending on the state of the pandemic, we will be seeking help with construction brigades and skill share exchanges in the construction trades to help us build the solar power and water-catchment systems, as well as other infrastructure on the community land trust.
Donate today to support the relief and emergency preparedness initiatives of Cooperation Jackson. We are looking to raise $10,000 for our short-term (1 to 2 month) relief efforts. We are looking to raise a minimum of $200,000 for or mid and long-term efforts. To donate please visit our “donate” page.
Thank you!
