Build and Fight: Community Production, Community Control, and the Struggle for Self-Determination in Jackson, MS and across the Globe
Cooperation Jackson talk with Kali Akuno, Sacajawea "Saki" Hall, and Matt Meyer. Co-Presented by PM Press, Anthropology and Social Change at CIIS, and The Center for Political Education.
1.5-Hour In-Person Conversation, Books Available for Sale After the Book Signing
Kali Akuno, Sacajawea Hall, and Matt Meyer discuss the strategies, successes, and lessons of Cooperation Jackson and how it became a center for national and international coalition efforts around the movement for grassroots-centered Black community control and self-determination, inspiring growing partnerships and emulation across the globe.
Learn from new and ongoing projects and methods by progressive peoples from diverse trade union, youth, church, and cultural movements found within the community and in the pages of Jackson Rising Redux: Lessons on Building the Future in the Present, coedited by Kali Akuno and Matt Meyer.
Books will be available for sale with a book signing to follow the talk. The new book, Jackson Rising Redux, is also available for purchase PM Press here.
Cosponsored by the Center for Political Education.
Event Speakers
Kali Akuno is a co-founder of Cooperation Jackson, an inspiring initiative aimed at building a solidarity economy in Jackson, Mississippi. His work intertwines community organizing with economic self-sufficiency, rejecting conventional capitalist structures in favor of a decentralized approach that foregrounds collective ownership.
Sacajawea Hall is another linchpin in the Cooperation Jackson machinery. She’s deeply committed to educational and ecological projects, bridging the gap between activism and grounded, local action.
Matt Meyer is a peace activist and educator whose influences range from liberation theology to anti-apartheid movements. A formidable mediator, he joins this panel to offer a broader perspective on how grassroots activism can reshape economic paradigms.