If you want lessons on building the future in the present, this volume of reports on Cooperation Jackson will provide
We often cite Cooperation Jackson, in Mississippi, as an exemplar of what a CAN (citizens action/community agency network) might do, in both building culture and concrete action. CJ comes from a recognisable set of left-green traditions, fully responsive to racial and sexual injustice. But its commitment to building new economic and participatory structures, as much as railing against the oppressions of the old, inspires throughout the world.
So we were delighted to discover this book just out, on PM Press, titled Jackson Rising Redux: Lessons on Building the Future in the Present. We print both the blurb below, and a table of contents:
Mississippi is the poorest state in the US, with the highest percentage of Black people and a history of vicious racial terror. Black resistance at a time of global health, economic, and climate crisis is the backdrop and context for the drama captured in this new and revised collection of essays.
Cooperation Jackson, founded in 2014 in Mississippi’s capital to develop an economically uplifting democratic “solidarity economy,” is anchored by a network of worker-owned, self-managed cooperative enterprises.
The organization developed in the context of the historic election of radical Mayor Chokwe Lumumba, lifetime human rights attorney. Subsequent to Lumumba’s passing less than one year after assuming office, the network developed projects both inside and outside of the formal political arena.
In 2020, Cooperation Jackson became the center for national and international coalition efforts, bringing together progressive peoples from diverse trade union, youth, church, and cultural movements.
This long-anticipated anthology details the foundations behind those successful campaigns. It unveils new and ongoing strategies and methods being pursued by the movement for grassroots-centered Black community control and self-determination, inspiring partnership and emulation across the globe.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Foreword: Richard D. Wolff
Building Economic Democracy to Construct Eco-Socialism from Below: Kali Akuno and Sacajawea Hall
Part I. GROUNDINGS
Build and Fight: The Program and Strategy of Cooperation Jackson, Kali Akuno
Toward Economic Democracy, Labor Self-management
and Self-determination, Kali Akuno and Ajamu Nangwaya
Part II. EMERGENCE
The Jackson-Kush Plan: The Struggle for Black Self-determination and Economic Democracy, Kali Akuno
People's Assembly Overview: The Jackson People's Assembly Model,
Kali Akuno for the New Afrikan People’s Organization and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
The Jackson Rising Statement: Building the City of the Future Today, Kali Akuno for the Mayoral Administration of Chokwe Lumumba
Seek Ye First the Worker Self-management Kingdom: Toward the Solidarity Economy in Jackson, MS, Ajamu Nangwaya
Part III. BUILDING SUBSTANCE
Jackson Rising: An Electoral Battle Unleashes a Merger of Black Power, the Solidarity Economy and Wider Democracy, Carl Davidson
Jackson Rising: Black Millionaires Won’t Lift Us Up, But Cooperation and the Solidarity Economy Will, Bruce A Dixon
Coming Full Circle: The Intersection of Gender Justice and the Solidarity Economy, Sacajawea 'Saki' Hall interviewed by Thandisizwe Chimurenga
Casting Shadows: Chokwe Lumumba and the Struggle for Racial Justice and Economic Democracy in Jackson, Mississippi, Kali Akuno
The Socialist Experiment: A New-Society Vision in Jackson, Mississippi, Katie Gilbert
Casting Light: Reflecting on the Struggle to Implement the Jackson-Kush Plan, Kali Akuno
Reflections on 2018: A Year of Struggle, Lessons and Progress, Cooperation Jackson
Part IV. CRITICAL EXAMINATIONS
The Jackson-Kush Plan: The Struggle for Land and Housing, Max Rameau
A Long and Strong History with Southern Roots, Jessica Gordon Nembhard
Freeing the Land, Rebuilding Our Movements: Reflections on the Legacies of Chokwe Lumumba and Luis Nieves Falcon, Matt Meyer
Atlanta 2021: Radical Futures, Yolande Tomlimson
Part V. MOVEMENT EXPANSIONS
Community Movement Builders, Kamau Franklin
Cooperation Humboldt, Cooperation Board and Staff Collective: Argy Munoz, David Cobb, Marina Lopez, Oscar Mogollon, Ruthi Engelke, Ron White, Sabrina Miller, Tamara MacFarland, Tobin McKee
Afrikan Cooperative Union, Adotey Bing-Pappoe
Part VI. RADICAL MUNICIPALISM
Cooperation and Self Determination—Not Middle Management, Kana Azhari and Asere Bellow
First, We Take Jackson: the New American Municipalism, Kate Shea Baird
Looking Beyond Electoralism: the New Radical Municipalism in the UK?, Daniel Brown
Libertarian Municipalism and Murray Bookchin’s Legacy: A Conversation between Debbie Bookchin and the editors of Green European Journal
The Concept of Democratic Confederalism and how it is implemented in Rojava/Kurdistan, Ercan Ayboga
Part VII. TOWARDS THE GENERAL STRIKE AND DUAL POWER
Building the Commune, George Ciccariello-Maher
Dual Power and Revolution, Symbiosis
“A Deeper Understanding of What We're Trying to Accomplish”—A People’s Strike Dialogue with Kali Akuno, Sakajawea ‘Saki’ Hall, Rose Brewer, Wende Marshall, and Matt Meyer
Part VIII. GOING FORWARD: ECOSOCIALISM AND REGENERATION
Red Black and Green Destiny Weapon: Cooperation Jackson and the Ecosocialist International, Quincy Saul
Countering the Fabrication Divide, Kali Akuno and Gyasi Williams
Fearless Cities and Radical Municipalism, Sophie L. Gonick
Eco-socialism or Death, Kali Akuno
Conjunctural Politics, Cultural Struggle, and Solidarity Economy: An Interview with Kali Akuno by Boone W. Shear
Part IX. AFTERWORD
Home Isn’t Always Where the Hatred Is: There is Hope in Mississippi, Ajamu Baraka
Resist and Fight!, Hakima Abbas