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


  •  Black Urban Crises and Push-Out “Engineered”
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Urban Crises and Push-Out “Engineered”
    13 Apr 2021
    Dr David Stovall, author of an article titled, “Engineered Conflict: School Closings, Public Housing, Law Enforcement and the Future of Black Life,” said “one of the ways to attrac
  • Freedom Rider: The U.S. Can’t Control the World
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: The U.S. Can’t Control the World
    07 Apr 2021
    Slow-witted Joe Biden appears to think that we’re still in the age of the sole superpower, when in fact that era has come and gone.
  • Criticizing the Democratic Party is not “Privileged”, It is the Duty of a Revolutionary
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    Criticizing the Democratic Party is not “Privileged”, It is the Duty of a Revolutionary
    07 Apr 2021
    Neither AOC nor the rest of the Squad has mounted any significant challenge to the party’s corporate leadership, despite being elected for this exact purpose. 
  • PAMPHLET: Africa Fights for Freedom, Alpheaus Hunton, 1950
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    PAMPHLET: Africa Fights for Freedom, Alpheaus Hunton, 1950
    07 Apr 2021
    A pamphlet written 70 years ago by an exiled Black American communist reveals an African continent seething to break free from European colonization.
  • Rwanda and Zaire (DRC) 1990 to 1997, Where the US Blocked Real Humanitarian Intervention
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Rwanda and Zaire (DRC) 1990 to 1997, Where the US Blocked Real Humanitarian Intervention
    07 Apr 2021
    The real story of the Rwandan genocide begins in 1990, when exiled Tutsis from Uganda invaded northern Rwanda, unleashing a deadly campaign that uprooted a million Hutu peasants and set ethnic tens
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us