Transformative Cities 2019 Edition: Open Call (Video)

Transformative Cities is an opportunity for progressive local governments, municipalist coalitions, social movements and civil society organizations to popularize and share their experiences of building solutions to our planet’s systemic economic, social, political and ecological crisis.

Kali Akuno spoke on behalf of Cooperation Jackson at the 2018 Transformative Cities event which was held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands in June of 2018.

Economic Update: Dialogue with Richard Wolff and Kali Akuno

"Look, nobody's coming to save us. What can we do ourselves with the resources and the skills that we have to transform our own situation? ... We do see ourselves as on a project of trying to build socialism from the bottom up, and worker coops being a vehicle to do that based upon their democratic nature..."

Transformative Cities: Crisis and Opportunity

Jackson Rising: A Real News Network interview with Kali Akuno

Cooperation Jackson: Building a Social and Solidarity Economy

Resist and Build, a Dialogue with the US Solidarity Economy Network

Resist and Build, Fight and Build, Oppose and Propose, Resist and Insist – whatever the wording, there is great convergence about the need to connect these dimensions. Even if the lines are a bit blurry, we can broadly distinguish between resist work that seeks to fight back against an oppressive, unjust and unsustainable social/economic system, and the build work of the solidarity economy that seeks to build ‘another world’ beyond capitalism to one that puts people and planet, equity, justice and sustainability front and center. Resistance without knowing where you’re going is likely to lead only to reform of the current system. Building a solidarity economy without being grounded in grassroots organizing runs the risk of losing touch with the struggle that impels the need for a solidarity economy in the first place. Kali Akuno brings a powerful vision and deep analysis that is changing the social and economic fabric of Jackson, Mississippi. Activists are bringing together resist and build through three spheres of organizing: 1) Cooperation Jackson is building the solidarity economy through cooperative and community controlled enterprises and initiatives, 2) People’s Assemblies are used to organize the community, as well as to 3) engage in a political/electoral strategy to take power through local government and grassroots organizing.

Reawakening the Black Radical Imagination