JACKSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
Imagine a self-sustaining village in West Jackson run by its residents.
A grass-roots environmental group hopes to eventually see that happen.
The "Our Power Plan" group says the Obama Administration's Clean Power Plan doesn't go far enough to reduce carbon pollution or take action on climate change. Group members hope to encourage Mississippians to take charge and demand more.
Read MoreThe Jackson Free Press' Scott Prather interviewed members of the Cooperation Jackson delegation going to the global climate justice convergence in Paris, France. Members of the delegation discuss the goals of the trip and Cooperation Jackson's climate and economic justice work in Jackson, MS.
"The goal is half protest and half affirmation," said Kali Akuno. The political leaders and corporations involved in the official discussions about climate change are "playing games with the planet and with our lives."
Cooperation Jackson's climate-justice vision outlines policy goals grounded in a political vision that looks to connect the dots between the environmental, economic and racial crises that have long plagued the south.
Read MoreFeaturing Kali Akuno
As part of the Climate Convergence, REC helped host "The U.S. Left and the Problem of the State," a panel with Bhaskar Sunkara of Jacobin, journalist and author Christian Parenti, historian Frances Fox Piven, organizer Kali Akuno, and REC Executive Director Marcie Smith. The panel, which was held at 16 Beaver Street, discussed the role of the state in addressing the climate crisis.
Building a solidarity economy in Jackson, Mississippi anchored by a network of cooperatives and other worker-owned and democratically self-managed enterprises.
