Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

After Winning the Election Do We Govern the Place or Transform It? Kali Akuno on the Lessons of Jackson MS So Far
Bruce A. Dixon, BAR managing editor
26 Oct 2017
🖨️ Print Article

This is a hasty and cleaned up version of Kali Akuno's remarks at the Movement School for Revolutionaries, which was hosted by Cooperation Jackson in Jackson Mississippi on October 21, 2017. My apologies for the previous less accessible version and for this one too. Haven't edited video in a long while. Will do better next time, I promise.

Among much else, Akuno summarizes the long history of struggle, including electoral struggle to which Jackson MS and Cooperation Jackson are heirs. He outlines the factors behind Cooperation Jackson's break with City Hall in Jackson and with the Democratic party. He examines the problems encountered by left movements which win elections in this neoliberal era -- can the limited powers of local government be harnessed to transform the economy and peoples lives, or are local officials merely rubber stamps and friendly faces for the forces of austerity, perpetual war and privatization. Akuno also touches upon the connection between local and global politics, and frankly assesses the prospects of human, economic and social transformation from the front lines of Jackson Mississippi.

Cooperation Jackson

Related Podcasts

Cooperation Jackson's Kali Akuno: Elections Don’t Necessarily Change a Damn Thing
Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
Cooperation Jackson's Kali Akuno: Elections Don’t Necessarily Change a Damn Thing
06 December 2017
A key strategist among the Black radicals that were behind the election of two Black mayors in Jackson, Mississippi, says his fellow activists have
Coope ra tion Jackson: Reclaiming Democracy and Building a Solidarity Economy in Mississippi and Beyond
This Is Hell
Cooperation Jackson: Reclaiming Democracy and Building a Solidarity Economy in Mississippi and Beyond
01 November 2017
Kali Akuno and Ajamu Nangwaya discuss building a solidarity economy at Cooperation Jack

More Stories


  • BAR Book Forum: Nadine Ehlers and Shiloh Krupar’s “Deadly Biocultures”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Nadine Ehlers and Shiloh Krupar’s “Deadly Biocultures”
    24 Jun 2020
    Market logics, commodification, extraction, and exploitation condition our possibilities for life and expose many to ever-expanding forms of precarity.
  • BAR Book Forum: Lola Olufemi’s “Feminism, Interrupted”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Lola Olufemi’s “Feminism, Interrupted”
    24 Jun 2020
    The political project we are invested in will require long term conviction and must be internationalist in its orientation.
  • Hold Prosecutors Accountable, Too
    Kate Levine and Joanna Schwartz
    Hold Prosecutors Accountable, Too
    24 Jun 2020
    Police violence is tied to other agents in criminal law enforcement, including and especially prosecutors.
  • A Moment or a Movement? The Blowback Will Tell
    Wilmer J. Leon III
    A Moment or a Movement? The Blowback Will Tell
    24 Jun 2020
    You cannot separate the racist police aggression in the streets of the US and the racist US aggression against Venezuela, Bolivia, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Yemen, Libya and Syria.
  • Ungentrifying International News Reporting from Brazil to Ecuador and Beyond
    Julian Cola
    Ungentrifying International News Reporting from Brazil to Ecuador and Beyond
    24 Jun 2020
    So-called “racial democracy” has systematically excluded and kept black people at the dirt end of the socioeconomic totem pole in Brazil, as reflected in its media.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us