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
  • omnibus

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


  • Clau O'Brien Moscoso , Austin Cole
    The Struggle for a Zone of Peace Continues!: A Conversation with Austin Cole
    26 Feb 2025
    The newly launched U.S./NATO Out of the Americas Network activates local grassroots organizations across the region in an effort to make this hemisphere a Zone of Peace.
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Gimme, gimme, gimme …
    26 Feb 2025
    "Gimme, gimme, gimme…" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Françoise N. Hamlin and Charles W. McKinney, Jr.’s Book, “From Rights to Lives”
    26 Feb 2025
    In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book. This week’s featured authors are Françoise N. Hamlin and Charles W. McKinney, Jr.  Dr. Hamlin is Royce Family…
  • Julia Wright
    What Happens When You Cannot Describe What Your Eyes See?
    26 Feb 2025
    State and corporate media control through censorship is intended to have a psychological effect on the masses. The genocide in Palestine reveals the dangers of this depraved effort.…
  • Bruce Dixon
    Another Black Face on MSNBC: Good News For Joy Ann Reid, Not So Much For The Rest of Us
    26 Feb 2025
    If Fox News is the Republican ministry of TV propaganda, MSNBC is the mouthpiece of the White House and corporate Democrats. The last real journalist in an MSNBC host spot was Phil Donahue, fired for…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us