📓 conversations-with-gamechangers-cooperation-jackson.md by @neil ☆

Conversations with Gamechangers: Cooperation Jackson

Speaker : [[Kali Akuno]] of [[Cooperation Jackson]]

Part of [[Conversations with Gamechangers]] series. It was an intro to coops, and CJ in particular, followed by questions.

@startmindmap
+ CJ
++ community organising
+++ unions
+++ coops
<p><hr /></p> Jackson water crisis
<p><hr /></p>_ broken treatment facility
<p><hr /></p>_ no availability of drinking water
++ Jackson Kush-Plan
+++ dual power
++++ people's assemblies
+++ democratising the economy
++++_ coops
+++ running for elected office
@endmindmap

currently a water crisis in Jackson
currently in the middle of distribution event
types of community organising
- organising by trades (union style)
- cooperatives
- originally coops serviced social and reproductive needs
  - child care coops, etc
- after: a compromise during 1930s compromise
- capital struck a deal with some labour leaders
  - national labour board etc
  - set it up so that labour could only work for wages, hours, and healthcare
    - but removed ability for political strikes and political action
      - one union can not work in concert with other set of workers
        
        same as UK
  - social security and social welfare as well
  - removed the need for social organising in a sense - divorced the coops from the trade unions
    - limiting what both could do in terms of power and struggle, became special interest groups within bourgeious order
  - coop jackson are intentional in trying to break that
- history exists in a context of colonization, white power and patriarchy
- black workers did not work in industries that were allowed to be unionzed
  - e.g. farming or maids
  - because of race
  - black workers were excluded from trade unions
- lost the ability to own the means of production
- CJ developing model that gets out of these relations of production
- Jackson, rouhgly 220,000 in Jackson
  - it has shrunk to about 160-180 thousand in recent years
  - 80% of city is black
- brain drain: black doctors from Mississipi move elsewhere in the US
- 85% population is potential leverage of political power
  - black political power
- Jackson-Kush Plan
  - automous independent power, dual power
    - self-governance through people’s assemblies
  - democratising the economy
    - CJ was explicitly for this part of it
  - political power without economic power is symbol without substance
  - additionally running for elected office
    - two mayors have been elected
- a young project with a lot of experimentation
  - mistake have been made, CJ aim to learn from them
- CJ about 8 years old
- accomplishments:
  - [[community land trust]]
    - 44 properties
    - collectively-owned
      - saved up money to own outright
        
        (CJ don’t trust banks, racist institutions)
  - network of federated [[cooperatives]]
    - Green Team (landscaping cooperative)
    - Freedom Farms (hit hard by water crisis)
    - [[Community Production Coop]] - manufacturing coop
      - digital fabrication coop, 3d printing, electrical design and craft, print shop
    - in the pipeline
      - Zero Waste Jackson (recycling and composting coop)
      - People’s Groceries
      - Cannabis coop - medicinal cannabis coop
        
        hemp and bamboo as sustainable materials for the CPC
- withstand pressures of capitalist market
  - largest employer in Mississipi is Wal-Mart
    - a vicious corporation - they want no form of competition
- some coops have failed, but there’s space to do that
  - owning gives this time and space for learning
- one coop failed (previous recycling and composting coop)
  - too tightly coupled to city system
  - city shut everything down, then the coop failed
- walmart investor in recreational cannabis in mississipi
to democratise economy
- create supply and value chains
most coops in US
- constructed on friends and favours orientation
  - 10 people who like the same thing, turn it in to an income
- in CJ, given poverty etc
  - what will given the most independence from market structure and political leverage?
e.g. food was weaponised during hurricane katrina, so ownership of food supply is strategic
a lot of trial and error in CJ
- that’s something to get used to in solidarity economy

questions

how are the people’s assemblies organised and used?

what does the solidarity economy mean to CJ?

what are CJ striving against?
- entrepreneuriship has been promoted in black community as answer to all problems
- i.e. individual ownership
  - but this is a continuation of unequal relationships
prefer individuality over individualism
solidarity is the antidote to individualism
- being in alignment and in practice with people who are not your blood or kin or clan, but your community
- productive relationships where we consciously and deliberately depend upon each other

how to get started in Solidarity economy

start with what you have
avoid thinking in terms of deficits
e.g. if you don’t have a job, maybe you have a lot of time
who can I work with and how can I work with them

water crisis in Jackson

there’s no affordable drinking water currently in Jackson
water pressure has been restored (since about a week ago)
- sanitary system was not functioning
need to avoid airborne diseases
- it’s a hot and humid region
- malaria and denge fever and sleeping sickness are coming back
to get bottled water you would have had to go 20 miles out of the city (last week)
- now if you get to a grocery store early in the morning you can buy water
- most people don’t have enough money to go and buy water
CJ doing water distribution
all the faith and community organisations are doing water distribution
- but still not enough people are getting water
if you don’t have a car, you can’t get enough water
CJ going to members in the community and doing water drop offs
working age people are off working elsewhere sending money back
- reverse bell curve for the population (lots of young and elderly)
no indication as to when the water will be restored
problems
- pipes are old, antiquated and lead, they break a lot
- treatment facility is broken - it’s not cleaning the water
  - billions of dollars to build a new treatment facility
    - state government is refusing to give money for this
racial component to how it is playing out
- state government redirecting money from federal government to white neighbourhoods outside of jackson

how did jackson get going?

it was a long time in gestation
going back generations
then in 2001…
- group decided to get together and pool resources
- $50 a month in to collective pool
- to buy land in mississipi
- a lot of patience, a lot of discipline
- first purchase in 2011
additionally some athletes and entertainers from the area
- they’ve given back
property values are low in mississipi and in jackson
- might not have been able to do the same thing in atlanta for example

how to avoid cooptation?

foundations come and offer grants with a lot of conditions
have to be patient and disciplined and don’t be tempted by these
a long-term intergenerational vision and being able to stick to it

accountability processes?

open communication and transparent communication

threats to CJ from the state etc

the most concerning of late
- mississipi has a supermajority that controls state legislature now
- passing preventative laws
- e.g. climate justice
  - after helping with committment to reducing emissions by about 10% in a couple of years…
  - state legislature
    - said mississipi must not adhere to any EU standards around climate
so CJ have had to censor themselves to some degree
FBI sniffing around, trying to intimidate
- they’ve been infiltrated, disruption

how to get those on low income involved?

don’t just assume that people can participate
- that is classist and gendered
low dues
but if can’t afford it, then give us some time
building up systems that allow people to participate
- e.g. single mothers - provide childcare