White Supremacy, Capitalism, Settler Colonialism, Heteropatriachy

This session will explore the interconnections between White Supremacy, Capitalism, Settler Colonialism, and Heteropatriachy. These power-over systems are based on exploitation, oppression and extraction. We will explore the historical development of how and why these systems developed in tandem, and what our movements for liberation can learn from understanding those relationships.

Presenters: Kali Akuno (Cooperation Jackson), Mel Figueroa (Chico TEK and The Cooperative New School), and Nicola Walters (Cal Poly Humboldt and CFA).

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People’s Network for Land & Liberation: An Experiment in 21st Century Liberated Zones This panel will describe an emerging network of local communities working to explicitly decolonize the land to reestablish the relationship with the earth and all our relatives and relations. We aim to democratically transform the means of production, establish liberatory social relationships, and build sustainable communities that regenerate the earth’s lifegiving eco-systems. We have made a commitment to the tools, tactics and strategies of the social and solidarity economy to accomplish our goals. We employ community land trusts (and other forms of collective stewardship of land) to decommodify the land and deconstruct the systems of private ownership. We are developing cooperatives, community production centers, and horizontal unions and workers collectives to organize oppressed peoples and the working class to build class consciousness and work as associated producers in unison as a coherent social and material force.

Presenters: Kali Akuno, Kamau Franklin, and Michelle Eddleman-McCormick.

What Is to Be Done? “What Is to Be Done? Burning Questions of Our Movement” is a political pamphlet written in 1902 by Vladimir Lenin outlining a “skeleton plan” for going beyond fighting economic battles over wages, working hours and the like and towards restructuring all of society. As we face ecological collapse, and fascism rising across the globe, we bring together movement leaders to pose that question to them: “What Is to Be Done?” Session Format: Presentation and discussion facilitated by David Cobb.

Presenters: A discussion between Yvonne Yen Liu (Solidarity Research Center), Richard D. Wolff (Democracy at Work), Jessica Alvarez-Parfrey (Transition US), and Kali Akuno (Cooperation Jackson).

What are the struggles & delights of translocal networking for just sustainability transitions? Countless initiatives around the world working towards transformative change are finding support and resources through international network organizations. These networks promote global solidarity while also acknowledging deep local identities and traditions. However, these movements need to challenge, alter and replace existing power structures in order to promote their alternative approaches and address existing economic systems, commercial interests and political ideologies. How do we best connect and empower our respective organisations to enact change? What are some of the delights of working with Translocal Networks, and what are the main struggles encountered in carrying out the work?

The Real News Network

From climate chaos and capitalist destruction to rising far-right violence, there’s a lot to be despondent about right now. But Kali Akuno, co-founder and co-director of Cooperation Jackson, explains why now, more than ever, is the time to organize and prepare ourselves for what’s coming. In late January 2022, TRNN contributor Frances Madeson traveled to Jackson, Mississippi, to speak with Akuno about confronting the political, economic, and planetary crises before us. Visit the TRNN website to read Frances Madeson's full text interview with Kali Akuno: https://therealnews.com/organize-dont...

Videos shot by Kwame Shakur

Post-production: Adam Coley

From climate chaos and capitalist destruction to rising far-right violence, there’s a lot to be despondent about right now. But Cooperation Jackson’s Kali Akuno explains why now, more than ever, is the time to organize and prepare ourselves for what’s coming.

BY FRANCES MADESON

MARCH 25, 2022

Check out this exciting new development. Cooperation Vermont, it's its flagship project, the Marshfield Cooperative. Cooperation Vermont and the Marshfield Cooperative are fiscally sponsored by Cooperation Jackson, and are receiving training and logistical support from our organization. Cooperation Vermont is also part of the People's Network for Land and Liberation, a network of radical place-based solidarity economy projects pursuing the development of class conscious cooperatives.

Support Just Construction 2022 Projects - Including Cooperation Jackson

Just Construction is a network of builders and community organizers working to strengthen the connections between regenerative/"biophilic" building practices, access to land and housing for Black, Indigenous and People of Color, while working towards a resilient, survivable economy through the climate crisis. Part of the movement for a Just Transition in Vermont is organizing for regenerative agriculture, agroforestry, and a commons engineered especially for frontline communities to participate. By building physical infrastructure for BIPOC leaders throughout the state, we engage in tangible reparative work and support these leaders' ability to lead. This project is a partnership between the SUSU commUNITY Farm, Center for Grassroots Organizing, Every Town, New Frameworks Natural Design/Build, and a number of organizers through our Land Alliance network.

Jackson Rising Redux is a new book by the movement for grassroots-centered Black community control and self-determination. This is the story and strategy of Cooperation Jackson.

A panel of international climate justice activists shares perspectives on COP26 and the next stage of our struggle, and afterward answers questions from the audience. This event was cosponsored by Green Eco-Socialist Network (GEN) and System Change Not Climate Change (SCNCC), two organizations committed to ecosocialist transformation. Speakers, in order: Maura Stephens, introduction, for SCNCC Mel Figueroa, moderator, with GEN Osprey Orielle Lake, WECAN (Women's Environment & Climate Action Network, via prerecording) John Foran, System Change Not Climate Change Asad Rehman, War on Want Irene Shen, Trade Unions for Energy Democracy Kali Akuno, Cooperation Jackson Yeb Saño, Greenpeace, SE Asia

Written by Frances Madeson

The Real News Network

November 10, 2021

On the 16th anniversary of Katrina, Hurricane Ida hit with destructive force, killing many and leaving underserved communities in ruin. We spoke with representatives from mutual aid organizations that have been helping people rebuild in the wake of catastrophe.

Written by Steve Dubb

Non-Profit Quarterly

October 27, 2021

October is co-op month in the US, a time for co-op leaders to gather, even if gathering these days is hybrid or virtual. This year’s Co-op Impact conference, organized by the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA), the US co-op trade association, centered on questions of co-op identity and meaning. Or, as Karen Zimbelman, a longtime food co-op trainer who was inducted this year into the national cooperative hall of fame, put it, “What are the times asking and demanding of us as co-ops today?”

By Carol Bardi, Jacob Smessaert, Joe Herbert, Nathan Barlow, originally published by Degrowth.de

Resilient

October 25,2021

Degrowthers have recently seemed to find a lot of inspiration in Erik Olin Wright’s framework of political strategies for transformations beyond capitalism. In this blog post, we wish to highlight some crucial insufficiencies of Wright’s framework in relation to degrowth transformations, and propose some adaptations which can enhance its utility for further strategy discussions. To do so, we begin by offering a brief overview of some ways in which degrowthers have discussed Wright’s strategic framework so far. We then propose three ways in which we believe Wright’s framework can be enhanced in order to speak more fruitfully to degrowth. These consist of (i) a reconsideration of ruptural strategies, (ii) a greater attentiveness to the dynamics of contemporary ecological crisis, and (iii) a deeper recognition of possibilities for the inter-mingling of different political traditions in order to develop novel strategic frameworks for twenty-first century degrowth transformations.

Published on October 20, 2021

A Patron of Economic Update asks: "What are your thoughts on the emerging cooperative ‘Cooperation Jackson’ and what’re some models or practices that socialist can advocate for on the municipal level. Thank you, again!" This is Professor Richard Wolff's video response.

Written by John Foran

Resilience

October 14, 2021

This article addresses the intersections and overlaps of intersectional theory, ecosocialism, and radical climate justice activism. It argues for a new synthesis between these different viewpoints and paradigms and features the work of Cooperation Jackson as model of practice.

Written by Rich Whitney

Non-Profit Quarterly

September 22, 2021

This articles addresses the question of how universal basic income could be used to build and bolster the solidarity economy, particularly on the financial end.

Written by Steve Dubb

Non-profit Quarterly

September 15, 2021

This article comes from the Summer 2021 edition of the Nonprofit Quarterly, “The World We Want: In Search of New Economic Paradigms.”

Early in 2020, the board of the U.S. Solidarity Economy Network (USSEN) called on like-minded organizations that were engaged in economic justice and systems change work to gather at a Resist and Build summit at the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, Tennessee. The center, founded in 1932, has played an outsized role as a movement-organizing space, known for helping to train labor organizers in the 1930s and civil rights organizers in the 1950s and 1960s.

This is a recording of a live event that took place on September 14th.

Dissent partnered with the Democratic Socialists of America Fund, NYC-DSA’s Housing Working Group, In These Times, Housing Justice for All, Dollars & Sense, and the Sustainable Economies Law Center for the third installment in a series of virtual events inspired by the film The Big Scary “S” Word.

This discussion focused on worker cooperatives and the fight for economic justice.

Speech on climate justice and organizing for a regenerative economy given by Kali Akuno.

The speech was part of the annual Anti-Racist Festival, the ABBA CUP, organized by the anarchist collective Cantiere.