On this episode of On Contact with Chris Hedges, Kali Akuno, Co-Founder and Co-Director of Cooperation Jackson, discusses the radical transformation of Jackson, Mississippi through capitalism and the socialist alternative, Cooperation Jackson.
Read MoreMississippi, USA: An Interview with Kali Akuno by Cat Brooks on KPFA's UpFront
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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.
Read MoreJackson Rising: At Last, a Real Strategic Plan→
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“When the bubble bursts we will need a network of worker cooperatives and people’s assemblies to sustain us.” -Kali Akuno
Review of the Jackson Rising book by Richard Moser, Black Agenda Report.
Jackson Rising is the most important book I have read in a long time. Organizers are going to love it. If you wonder what democracy might look like in our time — here it is. -Richard Moser
Read MoreCooperation and Solidarity
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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.
Read MoreLEFT OUT: Kali Akuno on Worker Cooperatives, Economic Democracy, and Black Self-Determination→
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Left Out, a podcast produced by Paul Sliker, Michael Palmieri, and Dante Dallavalle, creates in-depth conversations with the most interesting political thinkers, heterodox economists, and organizers on the Left.
In this episode, we sat down with Kali Akuno — the co-founder and co-directer of Cooperation Jackson. We discuss the emerging network of worker-owned cooperatives and the people behind it building an alternative, solidarity-based economy inside the majority-black and impoverished city of Jackson, Mississippi.
Read MoreCountering the Fabrication Divide
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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.
Read MoreCountering the Fabrication Divide
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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.
Read MoreKali Akuno on the Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination Amid Rise in White Supremacy→
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Part 2 of a Democracy Now! conversation with Kali Akuno, the co-founder and co-director of Cooperation Jackson, a network of worker cooperatives in Jackson, Mississippi. He is a longtime organizer with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. His new book is titled Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, Mississippi. Part 1 can be viewed here.
Read MoreCoates and West in Jackson→
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Eminent Black liberation movement historian Robin D. G. Kelley's thoughts on the recent high-profile controversy between Dr. Cornel West and Ta-Nehisi Coates, in light of the movement in Jackson, Mississippi.
Read MoreJackson Rising: Saki Hall, from Cooperation Jackson, on the Intersection of Gender and Economics
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Read the full interview of Sacajawea “saki” Hall by Thandisizwe Chimurenga featured in the Cooperation Jackson book: Jackson Rising The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, MS.
Read MoreThe Blueprint for the Most Radical City on the Planet→
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In July 2017, 34 year old Chokwe Antar Lumumba was sworn in as Mayor of Jackson Mississippi. He soon announced that the city was going to be “the most radical city on the planet.” This was not an idle boast because Jackson Mississippi, of all places, is where one of the country’s most radical experiments in social and economic transformation is happening.
For years, people in Jackson have been organizing to build and sustain community power. They created Cooperation Jackson to take concrete steps to make human rights a reality for all by changing their democratic process and their economy.
Their goal is self-determination for people of African descent, particularly the Black working class. The vehicle is the building of a solidarity economy in Jackson Mississippi on a democratic economic base. The long range plan is to participate in a radical transformation of the entire state of Mississippi and ultimately the radical democratic and economic transformation of the United States itself.
Read MoreFood Desert: Engaging in Jackson's Food System→
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For brandon king of Cooperation Jackson's Freedom Farms, growing food is a form of activism.
king, who spells his name in all lowercase letters, moved to Jackson from New York City nearly four years ago to join a local movement grounded in economic justice and given life with the 2013 mayoral election of Chokwe Lumumba, the late father of the current mayor.
king hadn't farmed before, but in a time of transformation for the capital city, Jackson was like a blank canvas. Especially west Jackson, where the cooperative is headquartered and where grocery stores are few and far between.
Read MoreHow Cooperation Jackson Works: An Interview with Ajamu Nangwaya, Ph.D. and Kali Akuno
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Ajamu Nangwaya, Ph.D. and Kali Akuno, co-authors of Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Self-Determination in Jackson Mississippi, are interviewed by host Chuck Mertz on the radio show "This is Hell!", WNUR 89.3FM Chicago. This is Episode 976: "From the Wreck Age", broadcast October 28th. The interview runs from approximately 1:00:44 to 2:04:45 on this marathon four and a half hour program.
Read MoreThe Socialist Experiment: A new-society vision in Jackson, Mississippi
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A well written article by Katie Gilbert reporting on “A new-society vision in Jackson, Mississippi” spanning her visits and history. Gilbert traveled to Jackson guided by an interest in alternative economic models inside the United States.
Read MoreMiss. Organization, Cooperation Jackson Leads Movement for Self-Determination→
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The broad mission of Cooperation Jackson is to advance the development of economic democracy in Jackson, Miss., by building a solidarity economy anchored by a network of cooperatives and other types of worker-owned and democratically self-managed enterprises.
The organization’s four-part approach for building in Jackson involves developing a co-op incubator, an education center, and financial institutions. It has recently launched its Sustainable Communities Initiative, which involves the development of an “eco-village” housing cooperative, a community land trust and a community development corporation. The initiative provides the stable foundation for the development of child care, urban farming, construction and recycling cooperatives.
Some of the project’s other goals involve the creation of a fabrication laboratory (fab lab), called the Center for Community Production, that functions as a training center and digital fabrication factory. This is a part of Cooperation Jackson’s Community Production Initiative, which hopes to establish a flourishing production economy based on new and innovative technology like 3D printing. Cooperation Jackson is always busy working on a number of projects in the Jackson area that all feed into each other.
Read MoreBlack Power Takes Root in the Heart of Dixie→
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Jackson is the largest city in Mississippi. Surrounded by prosperous white suburbs, it is more than 80 percent Black and overwhelmingly working-class. “If you are making $10 an hour here you are doing damn good,” says Kali Akuno, who for 20 years has been a driving force in Cooperation Jackson, a community organizing hub intent on radically changing business as usual in Mississippi’s capital city and creating a model for local movements in the United States and around the world.
The movement for Black self-determination that Akuno helps to lead has roots in Mississippi that date back to the 1970s. After decades of base building work by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) and others, radical lawyer Chokwe Lumumba was elected mayor of Jackson in 2013 only to die less than eight months into his first term in office.
Read MoreBuild and Fight: The Program and Strategy of Cooperation Jackson→
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The fundamental program and strategy of Cooperation Jackson is anchored in the vision and macro-strategy of the Jackson-Kush Plan. The Jackson-Kush Plan was formulated by the New Afrikan People’s Organization (NAPO) and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) between 2004 and 2010, to advance the development of the New Afrikan Independence Movement and hasten the socialist transformation of the territories currently claimed by the United States settler-colonial state.
Cooperation Jackson is a vehicle specifically created to advance a key component of the Jackson-Kush Plan, namely the development of the solidarity economy in Jackson, Mississippi to advance the struggle for economic democracy as a prelude towards the democratic transition to eco-socialism.
Read MoreDon’t Just Fight, Build!→
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Rather than see the limitations, we are seeing there’s more space from the decay of late capitalism to actually do some things to push back and start seizing the means of production. That is a big part of our project in Jackson. We call it organizing for “community production.”
Read MoreMeet the Radical Workers’ Cooperative Growing in the Heart of the Deep South
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On November 9, people across the left woke up and wondered, “What do I do now? Under total Republican control, how does one fight for progressive change?”
Kali Akuno, the co-founder of Cooperation Jackson, a workers’ cooperative in Jackson, Mississippi, has been grappling with that question for years, and believes his organization provides a good model for progressives who still want to effect change under President Trump. When Donald Trump was elected, Akuno felt like he could tell the rest of the country: “Welcome to Mississippi.”
Read MoreTime To Build and Fight To Become Ungovernable with Kali Akuno
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Time To Build and Fight To Become Ungovernable with Kali Akuno - Audio Link
Communities around the country are meeting and preparing for the continued onslaught of neo-liberalism that has exploded the wealth divide and has undermined education, health care, wages and more and the additional threats of an administration and Congress that are openly hostile towards immigrants, Muslims, LGBTQ, women and blacks. We speak with Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson and the Malcolm X Grassroots Organizing Movement about the new project Ungovernable 2017 and the ongoing work to build economic alternatives to capitalism. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.
