Jackson-based Kali Akuno of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement reflects on the Movement for Black Lives after Dallas and the prospects for transformation. Recorded in Buffalo, NY, at Common Bound 2016
CommonBound 2016 - Livestream - Day 3 (including closing plenary)
The closing plenary includes our very own Kali Akuno as one of keynote speakers.
Left Forum 2016
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Friday, April 1st is the launch of “Operation Jackson Rising”. Operation Jackson Rising is a grassroots effort to stop the Confederate Spring being ushered in by Governor Phil Bryant and the neo-confederate, Tea Party dominated state Republican Party. The Confederate Spring is an onslaught of reactionary legislation, being forced on Black, Indigenous, immigrant and working class communities in Mississippi and throughout the south. This assault is an effort to impose a neo-liberal social order that seeks to reestablish an open racial hierarchy, patriarchal dominance and hetero-normative hegemony. It is explicitly seeking to criminalize more sectors of the Black working class, to openly and legally discriminate against LGBTQI individuals, to privatize public education and eliminate any semblance of Black or ethnic studies, and reduce the scale and scope of the government to privatize essential goods and services by eliminating taxes and reduce revenues. Cooperation Jackson has been working with the Coalition for Economic Justice which is specifically focused on combating the aspects of the Confederate Spring that are seeking to seize Jackson’s strategic assets and destroy Black political power in the city. This panel/workshop session will also 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.
Panel/Workshop Topics: Political Economy And The Current Crisis, Political And Social Movements, Culture and Everyday Life
More Panel/Workshop Information
Diversity of Perspectives:
This panel/workshop session will allow space for a diversity of perspectives relating to economic democracy, self-determination, solidarity economy, and shared economy. We will also connect how white supremacy, colonization, and austerity to the current context of a confederate assault.
About Left Forum 2016: Rage, Rebellion, Revolution: Organizing Our Power
"Today's left generates an increasingly bold and resonant criticism of contemporary capitalism and the severely compromised everyday life that it produces. From Occupy Wall Street to Black Lives Matter and the Fight for $15; from escalating climate justice and gender freedom demands and the movement against mass incarceration to the massive national support for Bernie — not despite but because he wears the socialist label: left critique is going big. Something profound is shaking.
The fuel for radical social transformation is all around us. From the streets and from offices; from campuses, factories, and stores, we see a growing rage against the system coming from those left behind and left out. People have had it. But we know too well that rage can easily feed the dangers of right wing populism, fascism, militarism, and gun violence in the U.S. and around the world.
Rebellion, too, stalks the institutions that perpetuate a ruthless and violent system. Rebellion is inevitable when people live in a dehumanizing and contradictory society. But rebellion can fuel the right as well as the left — from “Know-Nothing” style populism to positive reforms like higher wages, and from movements to end the racist dimensions - and transform the institutional purposes - of policing in our country, all the way up to a revolutionary alternative. The future depends on what we envision and build today, and on how we ride this wave.
We know that we can do better than capitalism and its state violence and endless bullshit. We reject the corporate dominance that corrupts our politics while delivering depressions, unemployment, and austerity. Folks all around the world share our disgust at the grotesque inequalities of today’s corporate system: its discriminations against and oppressions of vast populations, and its destruction of our environment. They sense that there are better alternatives. At Left Forum, we come together to imagine and hash out these alternatives, and to organize our power to make them real.
There is a lot to build on, and a lot to build. See you at Left Forum!"
- via leftforum.org
Left Forum 2016 Coverage
Provided by: Deep Dish TV
Producer: Brian Drolet
Cinematography: Ron Myrvik
Live Stream: Matt Hopard
Editors: Ron Myrvik and Rebecca Centeno
Our latest Mississippi Project video, "The Assault on Black Political Power in Jackson, MS: Countering the Confederate Spring, Part 1
Republicans throughout the South are trying to build a "new" Confederacy by dominating state legislatures and enacting laws that aim to return society back to the 18th century. Mississippi Republicans are working overtime to lead this reactionary charge.
The Mississippi Republican supermajority in the State Legislature are advancing an all out assault on the social gains won by Blacks, women, workers, farmers, immigrants and LGBTQI individuals and communities over the past 100 years during the 2016 legislative session.
Jackson, the Black majority state capital of Mississippi is coming under heavy attack this legislative session. There are four critical attacks being waged this session: SB 2162 The Airport Takeover Bill, SB 2525 The Downtown Annexation Bill, SB 2306 The Racial Profiling and Immigrant Targeting Bill, and Gov. Phil Bryant's Confederate History Month declaration. The city's water treatment and delivery system is also under threat.
The Coalition for Economic Justice launched in January 2016 to counter these reactionary assaults, defend Jackson's economic integrity, and fight for economic justice and democracy.
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For more information about the Coalition for Economic Justice visit www.CooperationJackson.org or email info@coalitionjustice.org
Send resources for The BDS Campaign to:
Community Aid and Development Inc.
P.O. Box 68426
Jackson, MS 39286
Send resources for the Buy Jackson Campaign to:
Cooperation Jackson
P.O. Box 1932
Jackson, MS 39215
Hard Knock Radio – March 9, 2016
The Capitol Complex project will benefit a large section of downtown, as well as the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson State University, Fondren and Belhaven. Affected areas are colored in pink. Photo courtesy Kristin Brenemen
By Tim Summers, Jr. Wednesday, March 9, 2016 9:44 a.m. CST
JACKSON — Several parts of Jackson will benefit financially if a pair of bills the Mississippi Senate passed last week survives and becomes law. If successful, a new Capitol Complex Improvement District project would help fund development of a large section of downtown, as well as the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson State University, Fondren and Belhaven.
Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, explained in a phone interview Tuesday that the project would be funded out of tax dollars from the state's share of the sales tax revenue from the city. "The City of Jackson is going to get the same money it has always got. But the additional money which comes out of the state's share is going into this special fund for infrastructure around state property," he said.
The money will most likely be spent around state buildings, he said, hence the "Capitol Complex."
"We have a crisis with infrastructure. And a failure of infrastructure around state buildings where the state has a substantial investment is bad for the state," Blount said. "The state has an interest in seeing that the infrastructure around its buildings are well-maintained."
Mayor Tony Yarber heralded the move. "We applaud and are so grateful to our elected officials who saw past partisanship for the greater good of our entire state by making a move toward the much deserved investment in the infrastructure of our state Capital," he said in a statement.
The Senate version of the bill, SB 2525, would relegate the funds to very precise improvements, mostly involving infrastructure. The bill was clear that it would take place only on "public areas" including bridge construction and repair, water drainage systems, traffic and street lights, new water and sewer lines, as well as the ever-popular "street reconstruction, resurfacing, and repairs to roadways, curbs and gutters."
A five-member board of four appointees from the executive branch of the state government and one by the Jackson mayor would approve the fund allocations. Both the governor and the lieutenant governor each receive two appointees apiece, each to initially serve for three years.
The board will develop a plan for the project based on input from an advisory committee. That committee will provide the insight from the constituent area bounded in by the Capitol Complex district. While these 11 committee members may influence the final plan that the board develops, the City of Jackson, through the city council, will have final approval over any plan.
"The plan shall attempt to incorporate the needs of the City of Jackson, the Department of Finance and Administration, Jackson State University, the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Any plan adopted by the board must be approved by the governing authorities of the City of Jackson," the bill states.
The Jackson mayor would choose three members of the advisory committee, while the governor, the lieutenant governor and the House speaker would each have their own appointees.
Diverted tax revenue from the City of Jackson would pay for the improvements; however, only two members of the governing board are required to be from Hinds County, while the other three may be from Hinds, Rankin or Madison counties. Neither Rankin or Madison County has any land in the project area.
Kali Akuno, of the Coalition for Economic Justice and Cooperation Jackson, said both of these organizations are opposed to the bill.
"We are calling this the 'Downtown Annexation Bill,' because that is essentially what it amounts to," he said Tuesday. "If passed, this bill will give the governor control over the primary economic engines of the city (government, colleges and universities, and health care), which given the partisan and racially divided nature of Mississippi politics, will result in few of the 'improvement' contracts and the wealth generated from them, going to benefit black and other non-white contractors and workers."
Akuno said the bill would increase gentrification and displacement already occurring in the areas that benefit due to higher rents and taxes, and lead to "outright housing discrimination."
"This is exactly what has happened in other cities that have employed such schemes, like Austin, Texas," Akuno added. "SB 2525 is not designed to aid the existing residents of Jackson, it is designed to push impoverished black people out and replace them with an entirely new demographic with different class and racial interests."
Correction: The original version of the above story designation Sen. David Blount as a Republican. He is, in fact, a Democrat. We apologize for the error.
Email city reporter Tim Summers, Jr. at tim@jacksonfreepress.com See more local news atjfp.ms/localnews.
Kali Akuno, co-director of Cooperation Jackson, says it will give greater exposure to the realities of African Americans and put the US government and the state of Mississippi on notice
Bracey Harris, The Clarion-Ledger 10:31 a.m. CST January 23, 2016
A United Nations working group focused on combatting matters of disenfranchisement affecting people of African descent has selected Jackson as one of four cities that members will visit as part of a fact-finding mission.
The Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent will hear testimonies Saturday at the Lumumba Center at 939 W. Capitol St. on a number of social justice issues such as education, mass incarceration and environmental rights.
Read MoreJACKSON, 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 More"Climate Justice Alliance organizes actions in 10 cities to call attention to community-based solutions to clean energy future."
Cooperation Jackson took the lead for the Southeast Region at the EPA region 4 headquarters.
This article features member Sacajawea 'saki' Hall.
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 More“There’s no Hispanic air, no African American air, or white air, there’s just air. And if you breathe air, and most people I know do breath air, then that makes you part of the environment and if you are concerned about the quality of that air, I would consider you an environmentalist. And if you drink water, and most people I know drink water, and you are concerned about what’s in the water, then I would consider you an environmentalist. And you eat food, and again most people I know eat food, and you are concerned about what’s in the food, then I would consider you an environmentalist. If you answer two of the three, then I would say you are an environmentalist, you just might not know it.”Read More- Dr. Robert Bullard
150 years since an end to chattel slavery, anti-Black racism is still a virulent force in the U.S. The cause? The path to liberation?
Please donate generously to make this project a success. We cannot complete this provocative and revelatory film without you.
Read MoreA call to support An American Nightmare: Black Labor and Liberation
Greetings,
This is an appeal to people’s artists of liberation and revolution to join with Deep Dish TV and Cooperation Jackson to create a new multi-media video project, An American Nightmare: Black Labor and Liberation , a seven part documentary series which is now at a crucial stage of development.
Read MoreSince the rebellion in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014, Black people throughout the United States have been grappling with a number of critical questions such as why are Black people being hunted and killed every 28 hours or more by various operatives of the law? Why don’t Black people seem to matter to this society? And what can and must we do to end these attacks and liberate ourselves? There are concrete answers to these questions. Answers that are firmly grounded in the capitalist dynamics that structure the brutal European settler-colonial project we live in and how Afrikan people have historically been positioned within it...
Read MoreBuilding a solidarity economy in Jackson, Mississippi anchored by a network of cooperatives and other worker-owned and democratically self-managed enterprises.
