Cooperation Jackson

Cooperation Jackson is a network of worker cooperatives, community institutions, and mutual-aid projects based in Jackson, Mississippi. Established in 2014, it seeks to build a locally rooted solidarity economy in a city marked by high poverty, unemployment, racial inequality, and long-term economic disinvestment. Rather than functioning as a conventional commercial brand or a single operating company, Cooperation Jackson acts as a federation and development platform for democratic economic institutions. The organization’s central objective is to create interconnected enterprises and supporting structures that give residents greater control over work, land, production, food, and community development. Its stated constituency includes poor, unemployed, Black, and Latino residents of Jackson. The model is influenced by the Mondragon Corporation in Spain, historical cooperative traditions, the writings of W. E. B. Du Bois, and scholarship on Black cooperative economics, including Jessica Gordon Nembhard’s work on collective courage and solidarity. Cooperation Jackson is closely associated with the Jackson-Kush Plan, developed by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. The plan combines three broad strategies: building a broad-based solidarity economy, establishing people’s assemblies and other forms of direct democracy, and developing an independent Black political party. Within that framework, cooperative economic development is treated not only as a way to provide employment and services, but also as a means of building community power and preparing residents to participate in wider political transformation. The network has developed or supported several cooperative institutions. These have included The Green Team, a worker-owned lawn-care business; Freedom Farms, an organic vegetable-growing project; Eversville Design & Print Shop; and the Center for Community Production, which operates 3D-printing equipment and supports local production. The Kuwasi Balagoon Center for Economic Democracy and Sustainable Development serves as an incubator and training center for cooperative activity. Cooperation Jackson describes its development model as having three connected layers: a community land trust as an anchor, worker-cooperative development, and solidarity institutions that provide services, education, and organizational capacity. Land, food, and mutual aid are recurring priorities. Members have created community gardens and composting facilities on vacant land, with an ambition to expand local organic food production substantially. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the network helped produce and distribute personal protective equipment and operated an eviction-support hotline. In 2021, organizers also began working with the Grassroots Center in Vermont and local Indigenous partners on a land-trust and regenerative-agriculture project. That initiative was intended to address food needs, build land-based resilience, and potentially provide a refuge for people displaced by worsening climate conditions in Mississippi. Cooperation Jackson works both within and outside formal government structures. Its organizers have opposed measures they regard as weakening local democracy, including state-level austerity policies, an attempted state takeover of Jackson–Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport, and proposals to transfer control of the city government to Mississippi’s governor. This political engagement reflects the organization’s view that cooperative enterprises cannot be separated from questions of public power, racial justice, and municipal democracy. By 2024, the network was nearing completion of Ida B. Wells Plaza, a planned cooperative business center. The project was expected to include Eversville Design & Print Shop, Chief Farms, described as a medical-cannabis cooperative, and People’s Grocery, a cooperative grocery project. Cooperation Jackson has stated that land acquisitions and cooperative start-ups through its second development phase were completed without taking on debt. The organization’s work remains a long-term effort to establish a self-governing, community-owned economic ecosystem rather than a conventional growth-oriented company.

Cooperation Jackson emerged in 2014 from organizing connected to the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and the broader Jackson-Kush Plan. Its formation responded to the limited presence of cooperative businesses in Jackson despite the city’s existing cooperative and community-organizing traditions. The project’s organizers sought to adapt cooperative economics to an urban Southern setting, with particular attention to Black working-class communities and residents excluded from stable employment and conventional ownership opportunities. The network’s intellectual and organizational influences include the Mondragon Corporation, historical cooperative movements, the writings of W. E. B. Du Bois, and research on Black cooperative traditions. Its organizers view worker ownership as part of a wider process of building community power. The objective is not simply to create isolated businesses, but to connect enterprises with land ownership, political education, direct democracy, mutual aid, and local food production. The Jackson-Kush Plan gives this work a broader political framework. It calls for a solidarity economy, people’s assemblies, and an independent Black political party. Cooperation Jackson represents the economic component of that program, while also depending on the democratic and political structures described by the plan. The network therefore treats cooperative development as both an economic practice and a transitional strategy for challenging poverty, racial oppression, and concentrated private power. Over time, Cooperation Jackson supported a range of projects. The Green Team provided lawn-care services through a worker-cooperative model. Freedom Farms focused on organic food production. Eversville Design & Print Shop supplied printing and design capacity, while the Center for Community Production developed local manufacturing capabilities using a 3D printer. The Kuwasi Balagoon Center for Economic Democracy and Sustainable Development was established as a cooperative incubator and educational facility. Land and food systems became especially important. Members developed gardens and composting sheds on vacant parcels, linking vacant-land reuse to the goal of producing enough organic food to meet a significant share of Jackson residents’ caloric needs. Mutual aid also became a practical expression of the network’s mission. During the COVID-19 pandemic, organizers helped distribute personal protective equipment and operated an eviction-support hotline. In 2021, Cooperation Jackson organizers expanded their geographic relationships through work with the Grassroots Center in Vermont and local Indigenous communities. The proposed land-trust and regenerative-agriculture collaboration addressed food needs and explored the possibility of creating a safe haven for people displaced by climate change or increasingly inhospitable conditions in Mississippi. The organization has also engaged in municipal and state political conflicts. Its organizers opposed Mississippi state measures they characterized as anti-democratic, including austerity policies, an attempted takeover of Jackson–Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport, and legislation intended to give the governor greater control over Jackson’s city government. These disputes illustrated the tension between local democratic organizing and state intervention in a financially stressed municipality. Cooperation Jackson has described its development process in three tiers: a community land trust to secure an anchor base, worker cooperatives to create democratic employment and production, and solidarity institutions to provide training, services, and coordination. By 2024, Ida B. Wells Plaza was nearing completion as a planned cooperative business center. Its intended tenants and projects included Eversville Design & Print Shop, Chief Farms, a medical-cannabis cooperative, and People’s Grocery, a cooperative grocery. The network reported that its land acquisitions and cooperative start-ups through the second phase had been completed without debt. Its continuing project is to build an interconnected, community-controlled economic infrastructure in Jackson rather than a conventional profit-maximizing corporation.

• 2024

  Ida B. Wells Plaza approaches completion

  [1]Cooperation Jacksonen.wikipedia.org

  The planned cooperative business center is nearing completion and is intended to consolidate several network enterprises and projects.

• 2021

  Vermont land-trust collaboration begins

  [1]Cooperation Jacksonen.wikipedia.org

  Organizers begin a collaboration involving land stewardship, Indigenous partnership, regenerative agriculture, and climate resilience in Vermont.

• 2014

  Cooperation Jackson is created

  [1]Cooperation Jacksonen.wikipedia.org

  A network focused on worker cooperatives, democratic institutions, and community economic development is established in Jackson, Mississippi.

A Black-led, place-based solidarity-economy network that combines worker cooperatives, community land ownership, mutual aid, regenerative agriculture, and democratic political organizing.

• Worker cooperative lawn-care services

  The Green Team

  A lawn-care business operating within the Cooperation Jackson network. It represents the organization’s effort to create practical, locally owned employment through worker-cooperative structures rather than conventional wage employment.

• Organic agriculture

  Freedom Farms

  An organic vegetable farm associated with Cooperation Jackson’s goals of improving local food sovereignty, reusing available land, and building community-controlled production systems in Jackson.

• Printing and design

  Eversville Design & Print Shop

  A cooperative print and design shop that provides local production capacity and is planned as one of the enterprises located at Ida B. Wells Plaza.

• Digital fabrication and manufacturing

  Center for Community Production

  A community-production institution operating a 3D printer and supporting Cooperation Jackson’s effort to develop shared, locally controlled manufacturing capabilities.

• Cooperative incubator and training center

  Kuwasi Balagoon Center for Economic Democracy and Sustainable Development

  A center that supports cooperative incubation, training, and education in economic democracy and sustainable development. It forms part of the network’s institutional infrastructure rather than serving as a conventional consumer product.

• Cooperative grocery

  People’s Grocery

  A planned cooperative grocery associated with Ida B. Wells Plaza. Its development is intended to mark a later phase in Cooperation Jackson’s effort to build community-controlled food infrastructure.

• Medical-cannabis cooperative

  Chief Farms

  A medical-cannabis cooperative planned for inclusion in Ida B. Wells Plaza. The available reference material identifies the project but does not provide further operating or product details.

• 2021Vermont land trust and regenerative agriculture project

  Vermont, United States

  Cooperation Jackson organizers began working with the Grassroots Center and local Indigenous partners on a land trust, regenerative agriculture, and food-resilience initiative.

  Outcome. The project was also conceived as a possible refuge for climate-displaced people from Mississippi, although the available material does not document its final outcome.

  Source
• Jackson-Kush Plan

  Jackson, Mississippi · Kush region

  Cooperation Jackson participates in the wider Jackson-Kush Plan, which links solidarity-economy development with people’s assemblies and an independent Black political party. The plan frames cooperative institutions as a foundation for racial equity, community wealth, and democratic self-determination.

  Outcome. The plan provides the network’s principal political and economic framework.

  Source
• COVID-19 mutual aid

  Jackson, Mississippi

  During the COVID-19 pandemic, network members produced and distributed personal protective equipment and operated an eviction-support hotline.

  Outcome. The projects provided emergency material and housing-related support during the pandemic.

  Source
• Community gardens and composting

  Jackson, Mississippi

  Cooperation Jackson members developed gardens and composting sheds on vacant land to strengthen local food production and ecological stewardship.

  Outcome. The work contributed to the network’s long-term food-sovereignty and vacant-land-reuse goals.

  Source

• 2024

  Development of Ida B. Wells PlazaStrategy

  Background

  The network needed a physical center to consolidate cooperative enterprises and advance its next phase of community economic development.

  Action taken

  Cooperation Jackson advanced Ida B. Wells Plaza as a planned business center for Eversville Design & Print Shop, Chief Farms, People’s Grocery, and related cooperative activity.

  Aftermath

  The plaza was nearing completion in 2024. The network stated that land acquisition and cooperative start-ups through Phase 2 had been completed without debt.

  Source

• Adoption of a three-tier cooperative development modelStrategy

  Background

  Cooperation Jackson sought to build more than a collection of standalone businesses and therefore organized its development approach around land security, worker ownership, and supporting institutions.

  Action taken

  The network defined three connected tiers: a community land trust as an anchor, worker-cooperative development, and solidarity institutions for training, services, and coordination.

  Aftermath

  The model guided subsequent land acquisition, cooperative start-ups, and the development of Ida B. Wells Plaza.

  Source

• Opposition to state intervention in JacksonOther

  Background

  Cooperation Jackson operates in a city facing severe economic pressures and has criticized state-level measures that organizers view as weakening local democratic control.

  Action taken

  Organizers opposed austerity measures, an attempted takeover of Jackson–Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport, and proposed legislation that would give Mississippi’s governor control over the city government.

  Aftermath

  These interventions reinforced the organization’s linkage of cooperative development with municipal democracy and racial justice.

  Source

1. 1Cooperation Jacksonen.wikipedia.org