8

social consciousness of all its cooperators and continually enhancing

their skills, abilities, and overall capacities to act as conscious actors in
improving their social context and environment.
4
A Cooperative Credit Union and Bank. Te Credit Union,
Bank, and other fnancial institutions will be used to start and
strengthen all of the operations of Cooperation Jackson and serve as a
means of self-capitalization and democratic investment to expand the
initiative.
COOPERATION JACKSON is the overall vision holder, coordinator, and
holding company leading the network initiative. As the vision holder
COOPERATION JACKSON ensures that every cooperative enterprise
created will adhere to, maintain and promote our principles and
mission. As the central coordinator it will ensure that every cooperative
enterprise and support institution has a sound business plan, quality
management and suf cient resources to operate successfully. As the
holding company
4
, Cooperation Jackson will maintain the overall
integrity of the network as an interconnected and interdependent
vehicle of democratic economic and social activity.
CONTACT INFORMATION
For more information on how you can join and/or support
COOPERATION JACKSON please email CooperationJackson@gmail.com,
call 601.208.0090 or mail P.O. Box 1932, Jackson, MS 39215.
4 A Holding Company is a company created to buy and possess the shares of other companies,
which it then controls. To main its democratic integrity and accountability, Cooperation
Jackson will be democratically owned and controlled by all of the worker-owners in its network
of federated cooperatives and fnancial institutions (credit unions, loan funds, banks, etc.).
HOW ARE WE
GOING TO MAKE
JACKSON RISE?
COOPERATIVE
ENTERPRISE!
EDUCATE,
MOTIVATE,
CO-OPERATE!
2 7
INTRODUCTION
COOPERATION JACKSON is an emerging cooperative network based
in Jackson, MS. Te network consists of four interconnected and
interdependent institutions: a federation of emerging local worker
cooperatives, a cooperative incubator, a cooperative education and
training center, and a cooperative bank.
Individuals deeply moved by the Jackson-Kush Plan who are
striving to see its vision of economic democracy realized launched
COOPERATION JACKSON in the fall of 2013.
MISSION AND
PURPOSE
Te broad mission of COOPERATION JACKSON is to advance the
development of economic democracy in Jackson, MS by building a
solidarity economy anchored by a network of cooperatives and other
types of worker owned and democratically self-managed enterprises.
Economic democracy provides economic empowerment for all workers,
distributors, suppliers, consumers, communities and the general public
by promoting universal access to common resources, democratizing
the ownership of the means of production, and democratizing all the
essential processes of production and distribution through worker self-
management and sustainable consumption.
Solidarity economy includes a wide array of economic practices and
initiatives that share common values cooperation and sharing, social
responsibility, sustainability, equity and justice. Instead of enforcing a
culture of cutthroat competition, it builds cultures and communities of
cooperation.
PRINCIPLES
Te cooperative principles are guidelines by which cooperatives put
their values into practice.
Voluntary and Open Membership
Democratic Member Control
Sovereignty of Labor
Autonomy and Independence
Instrumental and Subordinated
Character of Capital
Members Economic Participation
Self-Management
Pay Solidarity
Internal Cooperation
Cooperation within the
Federation of Cooperative
Jackson
External Cooperation
Cooperation among Cooperatives
Education, Training and
Information
Social Transformation
Universal Nature
STRUCTURAL
OVERVIEW
COOPERATION JACKSON is an integrated network of worker owned,
sustainable enterprises based in Jackson, MS. Te network consists of
four interconnected and interdependent institutions:
1
A Federation of emerging local worker cooperatives. Te
Federation will be composed of a number of interconnected and
interdependent worker and consumer cooperatives (see prospective list
below), cooperating as one overall, coherent, but democratic body.
2
A Cooperative Incubator. Te Incubator is the start-up
training and development center of Cooperation Jackson. Te
Incubator will help new cooperators with basic training, feasibility
studies, business plan development, fnancing, training in democratic
management, etc.
3
A Cooperative School and Training Center. Te primary purpose
of the School is to ensure that Cooperation Jackson serves as
an instrument of social transformation by constantly broadening the
6 3
DEFINITION AND
PRINCIPLES
COOPERATION JACKSON has crafted its own defnition, values and
principles of cooperatives and democratic organizations by drawing
on the defnitions, values and principles of Mondragon
2
and the
International Cooperative Alliance
3
that address our vision and
context.
DEFINITION
A cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united
voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs
and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled
enterprise.
VALUES
Co-operatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility,
democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. In the tradition of their
founders, co-operative members believe in the ethical values of honesty,
openness, social responsibility and caring for others.
2 See http://tradepractices.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/basic-principles-of-the-mondragon-
cooperative-corporation/ for more details.
3 See http://ica.coop/en/whats-co-op/co-operative-identity-values-principles for more details.
OUR PURPOSE IS TO CREATE:
1
A network of interconnected and interlinked cooperatives and
worker owned enterprises in Jackson, MS that will expand
economic opportunity, promote sustainability and build community
wealth by creating jobs with dignity, stability, living wages and quality
benefts.
2
A foundation for the revitalization of the working class
communities of Jackson, MS based on stable employment, wealth
equity and sustainable means of production and distribution.
3
An institutional vehicle to promote broad public understanding of
economic democracy, the foundations of solidarity economics and
the principles of cooperatives and how cooperative and worker owned
and self-managed enterprises work to beneft workers, their families
and their communities.
4
An institutional vehicle to educate and train working people in
Jackson, MS to successfully start, fnance, own, democratically
operate and self-manage a sustainable cooperative enterprise.
5
A model that will encourage and enable workers in other cities
and municipalities in Mississippi, the South and throughout the
United States to implement their own initiatives to promote economic
democracy, solidarity economics and cooperative development.
4 5
THE STORY OF
COOPERATION
JACKSON
COOPERATION JACKSON is the realization of a vision decades in the
making. Our roots lay deep within the struggle for democratic rights,
economic justice, self-determination, particularly for Afrikan people in
the Deep South, and dignity for all workers.
COOPERATION JACKSONs vision is a direct outgrowth of the Jackson-
Kush Plan
1
. Te Plan is a transformative vision developed by the New
Afrikan Peoples Organization, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement,
and the Jackson Peoples Assembly starting in 2007 to move Jackson,
and the state of Mississippi, from worse to frst in regards to income
inequality, wealth equity, health access, and the practice of democracy.
Te Jackson-Kush Plan puts forth a bold agenda to create jobs with
rights, dignity, and justice that generate wealth and distribute it
equitably based on the principles of cooperation, sharing, solidarity, and
democracy. Tis agenda is focused on building strong social movements
to upend the structural inequities that continue to plague Jackson and
the State of Mississippi.
1 See http://www.scribd.com/doc/218031046/Te-Jackson-Kush-Plan for more details.
OVERVIEW:
WHY COOPERATIVES?
Cooperatives put capital (wealth) in the service of working people,
rather than making working people subservient to capital. Tey do this
in part by:
Democratizing the processes of production, distribution and
consumption
Equitably distributing the surpluses produced or exchanged
Creating economies of scale
Increasing bargaining power
Sharing costs for new technology
Gaining access to new markets
Reducing individual market risks
Creating and obtaining new services
Purchasing in bulk to achieve lower prices
Providing credit under reasonable terms