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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.
“Jackson is one of the epicenters of resistance for all of us to emulate; this book lays the scene.”
—Chris Hedges, journalist, Presbyterian minister, and Princeton University lecturer; author of War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning
“Jackson Rising is the rarest of things: a real strategic plan. You will not find a simple wish list that glosses over the hard questions of resources, or some disembodied manifesto imploring the workers forward, but a work in progress building the capacity of people to exercise power.”
—Richard Moser, author of The World the Sixties Made
Foreword—Richard D. Wolff
Building Economic Democracy to Construct Eco-Socialism from Below—Kali Akuno and Sacajawea Hall
I. GROUNDINGS
1. Build and Fight: The Program and Strategy of Cooperation Jackson—Kali Akuno
2. Toward Economic Democracy, Labor Self-management and Self-determination—Kali Akuno and Ajamu Nangwaya
3. Organizing for Self Determination and Liberation: Beyond the Basics in the Black Liberation Movement, Sacajawea ‘Saki’ Hall
4. A Beautiful Struggle (“Saki’s Continuously Learning in Past, Present and Future”), Sacajawea ‘Saki’ Hall
II. EMERGENCE
5. The Jackson-Kush Plan: The Struggle for Black Self-determination and Economic Democracy—Kali Akuno
6. 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
7. The Jackson Rising Statement: Building the City of the Future Today—Kali Akuno for the Mayoral Administration of Chokwe Lumumba
8. Seek Ye First the Worker Self-management Kingdom: Toward the Solidarity Economy in Jackson, MS—Ajamu Nangwaya
III. BUILDING SUBSTANCE
9. Jackson Rising: An Electoral Battle Unleashes a Merger of Black Power, the Solidarity Economy and Wider Democracy—Carl Davidson
10. Jackson Rising: Black Millionaires Won’t Lift Us Up, But Cooperation and the Solidarity Economy Will—Bruce A Dixon
11. Coming Full Circle: The Intersection of Gender Justice and the Solidarity Economy—Sacajawea 'Saki' Hall interviewed by Thandisizwe Chimurenga
12. Casting Shadows: Chokwe Lumumba and the Struggle for Racial Justice and Economic Democracy in Jackson, MS—Kali Akuno
13. The Socialist Experiment: A New-Society Vision in Jackson, MS—Katie Gilbert
14. Casting Light: Reflecting on the Struggle to Implement the Jackson-Kush Plan—Kali Akuno
15. Reflections on 2018: A Year of Struggle, Lessons and Progress—Cooperation Jackson Executive Committee
IV. CRITICAL EXAMINATIONS
16. The Jackson-Kush Plan: The Struggle for Land and Housing—Max Rameau
17. A Long and Strong History with Southern Roots—Jessica Gordon Nembhard
18. Freeing the Land, Rebuilding Our Movements: Reflections on the Legacies of Chokwe Lumumba and Luis Nieves Falcon—Matt Meyer
19. Atlanta 2021: Radical Futures—Yolande Tomlimson
V. MOVEMENT EXPANSIONS
20. Community Movement Builders—Kamau Franklin
21. 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
22. Afrikan Cooperative Union—Adotey Bing-Pappoe
VI. RADICAL MUNICIPALISM
23. Cooperation and Self Determination—Not Middle Management—Kana Azhari and Asere Bellow
24. First, We Take Jackson: The New American Municipalism—Kate Shea Baird
25. Looking Beyond Electoralism: the New Radical Municipalism in the UK?—Daniel Brown
26. Libertarian Municipalism and Murray Bookchin’s Legacy—A Conversation between Debbie Bookchin and the editors of Green European Journal
27. The Concept of Democratic Confederalism and How it is Implemented in Rojava/Kurdistan—Ercan Ayboga
VII. TOWARDS THE GENERAL STRIKE AND DUAL POWER
28. Building the Commune—George Ciccariello-Maher
29. Dual Power and Revolution—Symbiosis
30. “A Deeper Understanding of What We're Trying to Accomplish”—A People’s Strike Dialogue with Kali Akuno, Sacajawea ‘Saki’ Hall, Rose Brewer, Wende Marshall, and Matt Meyer
VIII. GOING FORWARD: ECOSOCIALISM AND REGENERATION
31. Red Black and Green Destiny Weapon: Cooperation Jackson and the Ecosocialist International—Quincy Saul
32. Countering the Fabrication Divide—Kali Akuno and Gyasi Williams
33. Fearless Cities and Radical Municipalism—Sophie L. Gonick
34. Eco-socialism or Death—Kali Akuno
35. Conjunctural Politics, Cultural Struggle, and Solidarity Economy—An Interview with Kali Akuno by Boone W. Shear
IX. AFTERWORD
36. Home Isn’t Always Where the Hatred Is: There is Hope in Mississippi—Ajamu Baraka
37. Resist and Fight!—Hakima Abbas
About the Contributors
Additional Readings and Documentation
Index