Cooperation Jackson (CJ) works to improve the quality of life in Jackson, Mississippi. They believe that we can solve the overlapping environmental, climatic and human rights crises confronting us by organizing their communities to execute a comprehensive program that will protect their environment, curb their carbon emissions, stimulate employment, and democratically transfer wealth and equity. They call this comprehensive program a Just Transition program. The program is premised on ending systemic dependence on the hydro- carbon industry and the capitalist driven need for endless growth on a planet with limited resources, and creating a new, democratic economy that is centered around sustainable methods of production and distribution that are more localized and cooperatively owned and controlled. Cooperation Jackson contributes to a Just Transition through their Sustainable Communities Initiative, which has four primary components: 1. Green Worker Cooperatives, including: an urban farming cooperative; a landscaping, organic waste gathering, and composting cooperative; and a small-scale manufacturing cooperative; 2. Building a Fannie Lou Hamer Community Land Trust and an Eco-village – a sustainable live-work community providing affordable housing and integrated and interdependent cooperatives including urban farms, composting operations, childcare, solar-thermal installation and maintenance, security, arts and culture, and a grocery store; 3. Just Transition Policy Reform, which focuses on instituting policies that curb ecological destruction and climate change and incentivize the creation of sustainable jobs and cooperative enterprises.
