Cultural Worker and Rapper Noname, discusses how reading our Jackson Rising book inspired her to start a reading club on the Comedy Central Trevor Noah show in late October 2019.

Good short article about our work. However, we share it with one clarification. We, Cooperation Jackson, were not largely responsible for the election of the current administration in Jackson, many of our members were part of the broad coalition that helped the administration get elected. This is critical for everyone to note and learn from in regards to understanding municipal politics and power.

A new piece on Community Land Trusts and their importance in Mississippi and beyond. One critical thing to note however, our Fannie Lou Hamer Community Land Trust currently has close to 50 lots and several commercial properties, including the Balagoon Center, the Obadele Center, and the Ida B. Wells Plaza. Resource willing we will continue to expand and grow the CLT in the effort to defeat gentrification and displacement encroaching on West Jackson.

Cooperation Jackson is proud to be nominated to part of the Transnational Institutes (TNI) Transformative Cities Award. The final awards will announced in December in the Netherlands.

We do offer a few clarifications as to what is reported in their write up: 1) we are not currently organizing broad people’s assemblies in Jackson, b) we are currently only providing housing at 3 of our land trust units, and c) the construction of our eco-village is going to take several years.

We have made some great strides over the past 5 years, but we still have a long, long way to go to realize our full potential and accomplish all our aims and objectives.

This zoom call was organized by the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture and was held on Thursday, August 22, 2019.

Science Facts, Science Fictions

What will happen if we don’t take action on climate change? The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report presents different visions of the future depending on the action and policies that we take. These visions range from an equitable utopia to a fascist dystopia. Join us to learn about the science behind climate change predictions, and to hear stories of creative leaders who imagine with their hands, creating the best case scenarios for a just climate future through their visions and community work. 

Our conversation on how artists and cultural workers can get involved with a Green New Deal continued with Ananda Lee Tan, Demetrius Johnson, Kali Akuno, and Carrie Schneider discussing the visionary roles that BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of color) and artists play in the movement for climate justice. We were inspired by your enthusiasm, and the steps that you have taken since our last call to inspire your communities towards action.

Checkout this post about rapper, poet, and activist Noname promoting Cooperation Jackson, cooperative enterprise, and the development of the solidarity economy and economic democracy as a transition towards ecosocialism.

Progressive, locally rooted movements have long proven their ability to influence wider social and political trends, whether by force of example, concerted political pressure, or active resistance to centralized power.

We print this with this caveat: This is good article and an orientation we wholeheartedly agree with. But, a few corrections need to be made to this article for the historical record. Cooperation Jackson did not start the Jackson People's Assembly, nor have we run candidates in Jackson. This was done by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and executed largely through the People's Assembly Task Force. As part and parcel of the struggle to execute the Jackson-Kush Plan, Cooperation Jackson did start the Human Rights Institute and has conducted Human Rights Budgeting Assemblies. But, we have to give credit where credit is due so the history is clear and concise.

Local news coverage from WJTV Channel 12 on the Black August Community Arts Festival. The interview was held on Sunday, August 18th with Sacajawea “Saki” Hall at the Ida B. Wells Plaza, which is a part of the Fannie Lou Hamer Community Land Trust.

Time and again it has been the radical political imagination of grassroots leaders from marginalized communities armed with the truth of their lived experience who have confronted oppressive systems through building collective power that allows for community-controlled systems to take root. Communities across the country — like Buffalo, New York, Springfield, Massachusetts, and Jackson, Mississippi — are organizing for a New Economy that centers people on the front lines of environmental degradation and economic disenfranchisement (byproducts of a capitalist system that prioritizes profit motive above all else).

Rapper and poet Noname has started a book club that has the goal of highlighting progressive work from writers of color and writers within the LGBTQ community. The Club started with Cooperation Jackson’s “Jackson Rising: the Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, MS”

The Dual Power Map is a strategic jump-off point for those looking to build #DualPower against the oppressive power of the state and the exploitative power of capital

The Black Socialists of America are hoping to put alternatives to capitalism on the map with their newest project.

The Dual Power Map is a strategic jump-off point for those looking to build #DualPower against the oppressive power of the state and the exploitative power of capital.

An interesting article by Katherine Schwab published in Fast Company that addressed the question of what big tech can and should learn from the formulations and debates being articulated around the Green New Deal. This article features some aspects of the thought and practice of Cooperation Jackson.

Critical article about building a just transition and eco-socialism from below by Zaina Alsous of Scalawag Magazine, a journal of Southern culture, politics, and resistance. The article features aspects of the work and thought of Cooperation Jackson.

An article written by Steve Early in Counterpunch Magazine focusing on the continuing development of the left-oriented Municipalist Movement and the growing Fearless Cities Movement being lead by Barcelona En Comu. Cooperation Jackson is an affiliate of the Fearless Cities Movement and featured in this article.

An article in Jacobin Magazine focusing on efforts to democratize the economy by the Bernie Sanders campaign and the Labor Party in the United Kingdom under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.

Written by Peter Gowan and Mathew Lawrence

“Bernie Sanders’s plan for worker-owned funds isn’t just notable because it could lead us toward a democratized, sustainable, socialist economy. It’s also the product of a growing collaboration between the Left in the United States and the United Kingdom.” - From Jacobin Magazine

An article from the Independent, a United Kingdom based left newspaper, from June 1st, 2019. The article is based on an interview conducted in Dorset, England in late May 2019 during the Stir To Action training conducted by Kali Akuno and Sacajawea Hall.

Jackson Free Press article about the Community Arts Festival held in April 2019, featuring Shambe Jones, Justin Ransberg and Krystal Jackson, aka Krystal Gem.

Sacajawea Hall from Cooperation Jackson and Huriye Semdin from Rojava shared their experience during a workshop at Ways Forward in May 2019.