{"id":6534,"date":"2017-10-20T12:51:56","date_gmt":"2017-10-20T19:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=6534"},"modified":"2017-10-20T12:51:56","modified_gmt":"2017-10-20T19:51:56","slug":"blueprint-radical-city-planet-bill-quigley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2017\/10\/20\/blueprint-radical-city-planet-bill-quigley\/","title":{"rendered":"“The Blueprint for the Most Radical City on the Planet” by Bill Quigley"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf we do not save the environment, then whatever we do in civil rights, or in a war against poverty, then whatever we do will be of no meaning because then we will have the equality of extinction.\u201d<\/h3>\n
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The Mississippi State Capitol in downtown Jackson. (Photo: Shutterstock)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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October 19, 2017 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n

In July 2017, 34 year old\u00a0Chokwe Antar Lumumba<\/a>\u00a0was sworn in as Mayor of Jackson Mississippi.\u00a0 He soon announced that the city was going to be \u201cthe most radical city on the planet<\/a>.\u201d \u00a0This was not an idle boast because Jackson Mississippi, of all places, is where one of the country\u2019s most radical experiments in social and economic transformation is happening.<\/p>\n

For years, people in Jackson have been organizing to build and sustain community power.\u00a0 They created\u00a0Cooperation Jackson<\/a>\u00a0to take concrete steps to make human rights a reality for all by changing their democratic process and their economy.<\/p>\n

Their goal is self-determination for people of African descent, particularly the Black working class.\u00a0 The vehicle is the building of a solidarity economy in Jackson Mississippi on a democratic economic base.\u00a0\u00a0 The long range plan is to participate in a radical transformation of the entire state of Mississippi and ultimately the radical democratic and economic transformation of the United States itself.<\/p>\n

The story of how Jackson Mississippi is being transformed and its plans for the future are set out in the new book\u00a0JACKSON RISING: \u00a0The Struggle for Economic Democracy, Socialism and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, Mississippi<\/a>, edited by Kali Akuno and Ajamu Nangwaya.<\/p>\n

This book details the history of how Jackson became the center of an epic campaign of organizing for Black self-determination politically and economically.\u00a0 It explains the philosophy undergirding this work, how cooperative economics works, and the community\u2019s concrete plans for present and future building.<\/p>\n

History<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mississippi, despite arguably the most racist and violent government in the country, has always had its freedom fighters.\u00a0 It has also been the home to outstanding organizing.\u00a0 While no social movement can be captured in one person\u2019s story, one narrative is instructive to highlight important markers along the road to progress in Jackson Mississippi.<\/p>\n

In 1971,\u00a0Chokwe Lumumba<\/a>, father of the current mayor, first came to Jackson along with a number of seasoned organizers who were part of the Republic of New Afrika Peoples Organization, a group advocating for Black self-governance and self-determination in the U.S. South.\u00a0 Though he left Mississippi to finish law school he returned and with others co-founded the\u00a0Malcom X Grassroots Movement<\/a>, a progressive multiracial organizing community, in 1990.<\/p>\n

One of their organizing efforts was the creation of a series of Peoples\u2019 Assemblies.\u00a0 The assemblies, often hosted at Black churches, were vehicles for local low income residents to practice self-determination and local governance.\u00a0 These assemblies have become a building block in the philosophy and practice of the changing of Jackson.<\/p>\n

The first Peoples\u2019 Assembly was organized in a city council district that in 2009 elected Chokwe Lumumba as their city council representative.\u00a0 Peoples\u2019 Assemblies began organizing citywide.\u00a0 They focused both on self-determination projects and changing city policies.\u00a0 Citywide organizing by Peoples\u2019 Assemblies ultimately set the foundation for a mayoral run for Chokwe Lumumba.<\/p>\n

The 2013 election of\u00a0Chokwe Lumumba as Mayor of Jackson<\/a>\u00a0signaled the beginning of a new phase of community driven economic democracy.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, he unexpectedly died in February 2014 on the exact day that significant plans were due to be presented to the city council.\u00a0 Those plans were further derailed when his son, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, who was openly dedicated to continuing the work, was defeated in a special election.<\/p>\n

Now with Chokwe Antar Lumumba as Mayor, the nation\u2019s attention has turned back to Jackson, but it has been organizing for years.\u00a0 And the progress is not just political, it is economic as well.<\/p>\n

Cooperation Jackson<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite the death of Chokwe Lumumba in 2014,\u00a0Cooperation Jackson<\/a>\u00a0was launched in 2014.<\/p>\n

Cooperation Jackson is an initiative to help address the material needs of Jackson\u2019s low income and working class communities through cooperative economic efforts.\u00a0 Without government support it rose autonomously and created a network of worker cooperatives, a community land trust and a network of urban farms.<\/p>\n

The book explains the basics of cooperative economics and documents a long tradition of cooperative economic models in the African American community.\u00a0 Ella Baker, Marcus Garvey, Fannie Lou Hamer, A. Philip Randolph and many others pressed for coops seeing them as pathways for economic liberation.\u00a0 Dr. W.E. DuBois wrote in 1933 \u201cWe can by consumers and producers cooperation establish a progressively self-supporting economy that will weld the majority of our people into an impregnable, economic phalanx.\u201d<\/p>\n

A federation of local cooperatives and mutual aid networks, Cooperation Jackson, has many concrete forms including an urban farming coop, a food coop, a cooperative credit union, a hardware coop, and a cooperative insurance plan.\u00a0 They plan to be an incubator for more coop startups, a school, a training center, a cooperative credit union, a bank, a community land trust, community financial institutions like credit unions, housing cooperative, childcare cooperative, solar and retrofitting cooperative, tool lending and resource libraries, community energy production.\u00a0 They are also working to build an organizing institute and a workers union.<\/p>\n

Cooperation Jackson is an economic movement, a human rights movement and a movement insistent on environmentally sustainable progress.\u00a0 They work for clean air and water, zero waste, and against toxic industries.\u00a0 They explicitly recognize the wisdom of James Farmer, \u201cIf we do not save the environment, then whatever we do in civil rights, or in a war against poverty, then whatever we do will be of no meaning because then we will have the equality of extinction.\u201d<\/p>\n

The book includes essays on Jackson by a beautiful mix of radical voices including Hakima Abbas, Kali Akuno, Kate Aronoff, Ajamu Baraka, Sara Bernard, Thandisizwe Chimurenga, Carl Davidson, Bruce Dixon, Laura Flanders, Kamau Franklin, Katie Gilbert, Sacajawea \u201cSaki\u201d Hall, Rukia Lumumba, Ajamu Nangwaya, Jessica Gordon Nembhard, Max Rameau, Michael Siegel, Bhaskar Sunkara, Makani Themba-Nixon, Jazmine Walker and Elandria Williams.<\/p>\n

Whether Jackson Mississippi can indeed become the most radical city in the world is as yet unknown.\u00a0 But it is definitely off to a concrete start and that itself is both instructive and inspirational.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n