Will cities save us? In the last decades we have witnessed a resurgent interest in cities, accompanied by a great deal of urban optimism, even in the face of the exclusion and inequalities of our cities. Cities have become a privileged target of investment, as professionals and elites have rediscovered urban cores as desirable locations. At the same time, cities have become a veritable laboratory for new technologies in transportation and infrastructure, ones that promise to be more sustainable and resilient. And most recently, urban progressivism has captured the imagination of many large cities, like New York, Barcelona, London, and Los Angeles, and smaller ones, like Jackson, MS, and Berkeley, CA. Such places have played important roles in advancing innovative progressive policies, but also as symbolic beachheads holding up socially just principles in the face of global tides of conservative and reactionary politics playing out at the national level. And yet a number of questions remain about the viability of progressive strategies at the local level. Cooperation Jackson’s Director, Kali Akuno, was featured on this panel discussion.

This article focuses on the “Just Transition” movement, which is broadly defined climate justice movement that focuses on building a regenerative, post-capitalist economy and society that centers on the needs of workers and oppressed peoples and communities in balance with the needs of the Earth and its ecosystems. It also focuses on the Just Transition Assembly hosted by Cooperation Jackson and held in Jackson, MS in February 2018. This article appeared in the Earth Island Journal and was written by Samantha M. Harvey.

This article from Yes! Magazine focuses on the development of Community Land Trusts and other forms of fair and affordable housing in Jackson, Mississippi. Cooperation Jackson’s emerging Fannie Lou Hamer Community Land Trust, being anchored by Sacajawea “Saki” Hall, is featured in the article.

For the first time in decades, cities round the country are advancing progressive innovations and solutions to too-long-sustained poverty and inequality. In New York City worker cooperatives, participatory budgeting, and community land trusts are on the policy platform of the City Council’s progressive caucus and elected officials in the democratic party are pushing legislation for employee and worker ownership at the state and federal levels. With greater visibility and support from the public sector some believe that these pilots and experiments for neighborhoods to drive wealth creation and capture and create equitable economic opportunities can reach into broad-based and mainstream policy.

Cooperation Jackson Director, engages the Solidarity Economy Initiative - SEI and its allies in Boston, Massachusetts about the lessons from the organizing initiative to implement the Jackson-Kush Plan and how they might apply in Boston.

The dialogue centered on the insights from Cooperation Jackson's recent book, "Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, Mississippi."

This Future Left Podcast features Gyasi Williams a member of Cooperation Jackson and anchor on the emerging Community Production Cooperative.

The interview focuses how communities can use technology create localist, environmentally conscious models of production that are aimed at black liberation and the empowerment of the working class.

A discussion with Cooperation Jackson Director, Kali Akuno, in Worcester, MA and that focused on the Jackson Rising book, the Jackson-Kush Plan, and the formation of Cooperation Jackson is an emerging network of cooperatives and grassroots institutions that aim to build a "solidarity economy."

brandon king, Cooperation Jackson Executive Committee member and co-anchor for Freedom Farms Cooperative, speaking about the Jackson-Kush Plan and the need for International Solidarity and Cooperation and Peer-to-Peer learning and collaboration at Kultuhuset Jonkoping, Sweden on April 27, 2018.

brandon king, Cooperation Jackson Executive Committee member and co-anchor of Freedom Farms Cooperative, talking about Cooperation Jackson, the Jackson-Kush Plan, and the struggle for Economic Demcoracy and Black Self-Determination at Finnish Social Forum 21st April 2018.

Our emerging Community Production Cooperative (CPC), was one of three winners of the 2018 The Workers Lab Innovators Award. The Workers Lab asked innovators to address one of three key areas: improvements to workforce development; building worker power; and responding to job automation. After an unprecedented response from 334 organizations in 13 countries and 34 U.S. states, the CPC, along with The Hood Incubator, and Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation, won this critical award.

This event featured Cooperation Jackson Director, Kali Akuno, and R. L. Stephens, from the National Political Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). The event was held in Seattle, Washington at Washington Hall on April 1st, 2018.

A critical review from CounterPunch by Pete Dolack of Cooperation Jackson's, "Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, MS", edited by Kali Akuno and Ajamu Nangwaya, and co-published in 2017 with Daraja Press.

On This episode of UpFront Cat Brooks Interviews Kali Akuno, Executive Director of Cooperation Jackson, about the Jackson Kush Plan, the vision and mission of Cooperation Jackson. They also discuss the book: Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, Mississippi.

On February 4, 2018 Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson spoke on the challenges and opportunities facing Black communities struggling for self-determination in Jackson, MS and beyond.

Kali Akuno, Director of Cooperation Jackson, talking with Davey D on Hard Knock Radio KPFA 94.1 FM about a article he co-wrote with Gyasi Williams that talks about 3rd wave technology and the Fabrication divide. The interview discusses the ways in which the current trends toward automation and 3D printing is impacting Black working class people. Kali speaks about the moves being made by Cooperation Jackson to create a technology hub that services human needs in Jackson, MS.

Kali Akuno and Gyasi Williams discuss the prospects, possibilities, and challenges of community production and the emerging "fabrication divide". The article further explores the effort to incorporate the Fab City concept into our Transition City vision.