From Hard Knock Radio

We talk with Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson about the current water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi. He gives the ins and outs and historical backdrop to this catastrophe

Kali penned this breakdown ...

Due to climate change and decades of neglect of our cities infrastructure, critical portions of Jackson have flooded and incapacited our cities water treatment facilities. As a result, the entire city is without drinking water and it is not clear when the system is going to be repaired and water access restored.

The Governor has declared a state of emergency and is deploying the national guard to supply water to the residents of Jackson. However, to ensure that aid is delivered directly to the people of our community in West Jackson, we are engaging in an autonomous relief effort to ensure that the homeless, the elderly, and those with limited transportation in our community get the resources they need.

We are asking all of our friends, comrades, and fellow cooperators to join us in the effort. Please donate generously at cooperationjackson.org/donate. Please spread the word to your family and friends and encourage them to donate.

If you or your organization can deliver pallets of water, we welcome that as well. Please contact us at CooperationJackson@gmail.com to coordinate or call 601.355.7224

- Kali Akuno-

Cooperation Jackson Executive Director, Kali Akuno, speaking on Democracy Now! on Wednesday, August 31, 2022 about the water crisis in Jackson, MS.

Critical article from the Monthly Review, published in July 2020, featuring the work of Cooperation Jackson, in particular our Just Transition Plan and ground level efforts to build ecosocialism from below.

“Capitalism has brought the world to the edge of the abyss. We are rapidly approaching a planetary tipping point in the form of a climate Armageddon, threatening to make the earth unlivable for the human species, as well as innumerable other species. Such an absolute catastrophe for civilization and the human species as a whole is still avoidable with a revolutionary-scale reconstitution of the current system of production, consumption, and energy usage, though the time in which to act is rapidly running out.”

Songs of Slavery and Emancipation features the lyrics of fifteen slave songs and fifteen abolitionist songs, placing them in proper historical context and making them available again to the general public. These songs not only express outrage at slavery but call for militant resistance and destruction of the slave system. There can be no doubt as to their purpose: the abolition of slavery, the emancipation of African American people, and a clear and undeniable demand for equality and justice for all humanity.

This is the municipalist moment. The movement to gain democratic control of cities and towns is ascendant from Los Angeles to Barcelona to Jackson, Mississippi. People are crafting municipalist platforms, reclaiming the right to the city, and self-organizing as rebel cities.

Panelists: KALI AKUNO, Cooperation Jackson RUTH WILSON GILMORE, CUNY Graduate Center ANANYA ROY, UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy ABDOUMALIQ SIMONE, University of Sheffield

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.