On Tuesday February 25th, 2014 Mayor Chokwe Lumumba unexpectedly passed away. The Jackson Rising: New Economies Conference was intended to be one of the primary initiatives and vehicles of the Lumumba administration to build a more equitable and democratic economy in Jackson. We intend to fulfill this mission.

Help us make Jackson, Mississippi a center of economic democracy where strong cooperatives along with other forms of worker owned enterprises and financial institutions will create jobs with dignity, stability, living wages, and quality benefits.

The Jackson Rising: New Economies Conference, and the Grassroots Economic Series leading up to the conference, aim to educate and mobilize the people of Jackson to build cooperatives and worker owned enterprises that can meet the economic and sustainability needs of the community. In the process, we aim to expand the discussion about alternative economic models and systems and to confront the harsh economic realities faced by low-income and impoverished communities.

As an initiative of the late Mayor Chokwe Lumumba, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Community Aid and Development, Inc., the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, and the Fund for Democratic Communities, the Jackson Rising Conference promises to be a major advance in the struggle for working class organization, wealth equity, economic democracy and self-determination in Jackson, Mississippi.

The success of the conference will help catalyze the struggle for economic justice in the South, which is critical for the transformation of the United States as a whole. Your contribution will help us ensure that the conference is accessible to poor and working class communities in Jackson and throughout the southern region.

Our goal is to raise at least $10,000 which will help offset food cost, provide housing scholarships for residents of Mississippi outside of Jackson, and provide stipends for local Jackson outreach staff. While this gathering will draw people from across the country, our goal is to have the Southeast, Mississippi and Jackson represented as the majority of attendees.

Not only will your contribution help make the Jackson Rising Conference affordable and accessible, it will have a major political impact as well. 

The success of the conference will help the social movements in Jackson and throughout Mississippi make critical policy shifts to support cooperatives and cooperative development in Jackson and Mississippi. It will also educate and mobilize a broader number of people in Jackson and Mississippi to get involved in cooperative production to help raise the standard of living in the Mississippi, which on average is the lowest in the country.

You may not be able to contribute, but that doesn’t mean you can’t support the campaign. Here's what you can do to help without making a donation. 

1. Send this campaign to 5 people you know. Remember to use the Indiegogo share tools.  

2. Promote the conference via social media – Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Tumblr, etc.

3.  Help generate media for the conference by organizing television and radio interviews with conference organizers.

4.  Organize, in your local area, meetings and discussion groups about the conference and the transformative and wealth producing possibilities of cooperatives and work-owned enterprises. Our website has a ton of resources.

5.  Organize a delegation from your city, state or region to attend, volunteer and participate in the conference.

If you would like to support the conference in these and other ways, please email JacksonRising@gmail.com.