As Wall Street banks exploit the COVID-19 crisis and continue to exacerbate racial and economic inequality, the need for just institutions like public banks has never been clearer. Hear from community and movement leaders who are fighting for public banking to strengthen the cooperative economy and advance racial and economic justice, ecological sustainability, and neighborhood equity – in this moment of crisis and beyond.

Featuring Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson.

Article about the May Day 2020 Caravan Action in Jackson, MS organized under the banner of the People’s Strike by Cooperation Jackson, the Black Youth Organizing Project 100 - Jackson Chapter, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and MS Central AntiFa.

The article was written by Frances Madeson for Scalawag Magazine.

WJTV Jackson, MS Channel 12 coverage of the Jackson, MS May Day Caravan on Friday, May 1, 2020.

The Caravan was organized by Cooperation Jackson, Black Youth Organizing Project - Jackson, Chapter, and Nissan Organized Workers.

WJTV Jackson, MS Channel 12 live stream news coverage of the People’s Strike May Day Caravan organized by Cooperation Jackson, Black Youth Organizing Project - Jackson Chapter and Nissan Organized Workers.

The Red Nation in partnership with the Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC) and the Center for Political Education is hosting a series of critical conversations on settler colonialism, US imperialism, and decolonization. The COVID-19 pandemic is global, and so our response to it must also be global. Friday Night Forums feature anti-imperialist perspectives and lessons on organizing from around the world, with an eye toward decolonizing Turtle Island.

Speakers included Kali Akuno (Cooperation Jackson), Zenei Cortez (National Nurses United), and Vijay Prashad (Tri-Continental).

This May Day, an unprecedented coalition of essential workers from Amazon, Instacart, Whole Foods, Walmart, Target and FedEx are calling out sick or walking out during their lunch break to demand better health and safety conditions, along with hazard pay. Others are joining them for May Day actions that include rent strikes, car caravan protests and online organizing calling for a “People’s Bailout” and economic recovery plan that prioritizes workers. We speak with Kali Akuno, co-founder and co-director of Cooperation Jackson, which issued a call for a people’s strike starting May 1. “The corporations and the government are willing to sacrifice tens of thousands of us,” Akuno says. “We have to put people before profits.”

Kali Akuno and Kate Doyle Griffiths interview Marxist economic professor Richard Wolff about the historical significance of May Day, the significance of May 2020 in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how the working class movement should respond to this crisis.

Workers at some of the biggest corporations in the United States are planning an unprecedented wave of strikes on May 1, International Workers’ Day. Employees of Amazon, Whole Foods, Walmart, FedEx, Target and Instacart will walk off the job demanding compensation for unpaid time off work, hazard pay, sick leave, personal protective equipment and cleaning supplies at workplaces. Many of the workers are part of a growing coalition that will join a May 1 People’s Strike launched by worker cooperatives in Mississippi. This is Kali Akuno, co-director of Cooperation Jackson.

Kali Akuno: “We’re asking everybody to start with these basics: no work, no shopping, no rent, no mortgage, no school, no borders, no prisons. Right? Let us all take joint action together.”

Rent Strikes and General Strikes with Kali Akuno, Kshama Sawant and Peggy Perkins. We discuss how the pandemic provides a once in a century opportunity for workers, renters and the 99% to organize to get the kind of large structural change we need in this country.

This forum was held on the Robust Opposition hosted by Lauren Steiner on Saturday, April 18, 2020.

A forum hosted by the Center for Economic Democracy with Nwamaka Agbo, Kali Akuno, Gopal Dayaneni, Jessica Norwood, and Francisco Perez. The forum was held on Friday, April 17, 2020.

The arc of the moral universe might bend towards justice, but it doesn’t bend alone. If history is told by the winners, what story will be told about the Pandemic of 2020? What can we do to ensure it is a story about a turning point towards justice for people and the planet? Center for Economic Democracy’s Fellows -- Nwamaka Agbo, Kali Akuno, Gopal Dayaneni, Jessica Norwood, and Francisco Perez -- are national leaders in the fight for a transformed economic and political system, with wide-ranging expertise. Join us for this virtual forum as they offer perspectives that help us make meaning in this moment and prepare to play our parts in reclaiming our collective future. The Center for Economic Democracy is a Boston-based movement building organization advancing visions and practices for a world beyond capitalism.

Learn more: www.economicdemocracy.us

From Rising Up with Sonali Radio and TV Show

GUEST: Kali Akuno, co-founder and co-director of Cooperation Jackson. Also formerly the Co-Director of the US Human Rights Network and the Executive Director of the Peoples’ Hurricane Relief Fund (PHRF) based in New Orleans, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina.

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted whose labor our entire society depends on and it’s not corporate executives. Grocery workers, migrant farmworkers, meat packers, delivery drivers, Amazon workers, postal carriers, nurses, and janitors – all those deemed “essential workers,” are required to show up to work even as the rest of us are quarantined at home for our own safety.

But most these essential workers are not just keeping us fed and healthy - they are also often the least paid, most vulnerable workers.

Now, there are growing calls for a General Strike on May Day – the same day that President Donald Trump has insisted the US will restart its economy and return to business-as-usual.

Interview conducted on Monday, April 13, 2020

Kali Akuno, of Cooperation Jackson and Firoze Manji of Daraja Press talk about what COVID19 tells us about racism and white supremacy in USA.

This interview was conducted on Sunday, April 12, 2020.

“Cooperation Jackson deploys its community production capacity to make masks during COVID-19.” Article by Frances Madeson about our Community Production Mask Challenge initiative. The article was printed in the Progressive Magazine on Tuesday, April 7th.

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Our update. from Sunday, April 5, 2020

Cooperation Jackson would like to thank everyone who has donated and supported our Community Production Mask Challenge in any way. We now have a 5 person team working on mask production. 3 people sewing masks, and 2 people engaged in 3D printing masks. We are in the process of combining efforts with several local clinics and other forces in our community also taking on the challenge. We did our first round of distribution to Freedom Farms on Thursday and Friday. Freedom Farms is the only unit we presently have working, as food is an essential service, besides our mask production team. The next round of distribution, which will start taking place on Monday, April 6th will be to additional members and essential workers in our community. Resources are still needed. So, we continue to encourage everyone to donate whatever you can using the following link:

https://cooperationjackson.org/announcementsblog/communityproductionmaskdrive

Article in Truthout , written by Frances Madeson, about Cooperation Jackson’s efforts to overcome food insecurity in West Jackson, by creating a comprehensive food sovereignty strategy, anchored by Freedom Farms and the Ida B. Wells Plaza.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cooperation Jackson had to cancel several events it scheduled with Professor Richard Wolff for the 26th and 27th of March in Jackson, MS. To meet some member education needs about COVID-19 and how it is impacting the economy, we held a members only conversation with Richard Wolff about COVID-19 and all its socio-economic impacts and present and potential consequences.

This recording is critical portion of this conversation shared with the public. The conversation was held on Friday, March 27th, 2020. Most of the video is only audio file.

Howie Hawkins and Kali Akuno discuss the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on national politics, on working-class communities and on mutual aid organizing.

Howie Hawkins is a long time union organizer, community activist, and candidate for the 2020 presidential nomination for the Green Party of the US.

Cooperation Jackson Executive Director, Kali Akuno, interviewed by Firoze Manji of Daraja Press about how Jackson, the state of Mississippi are addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. The call also focuses on things that left forces can and should do to confront COVID-19 to not only survive the pandemic, but to transform society in the process of addressing this threat. The interview was conducted on Thursday, March 26, 2020.

The Cooperative Way is a periodic publication of Cooperation Jackson. This is the Fifth year of the publication and the first for 2020. This issue primarily focuses on redeveloping the Ida B. Wells Plaza and our upcoming events with radical Economics Professor, Richard D. Wolff.

A Panel Discussion: "Our industrial model of growing and consuming food is contributing to both climate change and social inequity. Put simply: industrial capitalism is undermining our ability to build sustainable food systems for all. "In this panel discussion, organizer, educator, and writer, Kali Akuno, will share his experiences leading Cooperation Jackson, an emerging network of worker cooperatives and supporting institutions. Akuno and Cooperation Jackson are fighting to create economic democracy by creating a vibrant solidarity economy in Jackson, MS that will help transform Mississippi and the South. We will then hear from local voices, including Leticia Deawuo of Black Creek Community Farm and Adabu Brownhill Jefwa with the National Farmers Union. "Many rightfully argue that alternative economies—including alternative food networks—continue to benefit middle class white folks, while further marginalizing communities of colour and low-income folks. In this panel, we ask: What alternative economic models can we point to, and to what extent can these models help achieve food, racial and climate justice together? To what extent can alternative economic models work for everyone, and how can they more meaningfully prioritize racially and economically marginalized folks?" Recorded at York University, February 25, 2020.

Coverage by local news station WLBT Channel 3 of our efforts to address the departure of Dollar General from the Ida B. Wells Plaza, how the departure creates more food insecurity in our community and what Cooperation Jackson is planning on doing about it.

The coverage touches on our plans to create a cooperative grocery store at the plaza in partnership with Jackson Cash and Carry, and to create and aquaponic/hydroponic produce and fish producing operation at the plaza to create some food security in the community.

The next Ida B Wells Plaza and Community Land Trust Meeting will be Tuesday, March 24th at 6 pm at the Balagoon Center 939 W. Capitol Street, Jackson, MS.