Howdy folks,
Our next guest on the Redneck Gone Green video/podcast is Kali Akuno, co-founder of Cooperation Jackson. He will be joining us on Monday, March 3rd at 6pm Eastern, 3pm Pacific.
A friendly reminder that we broadcast live every Monday at the same time on the Democracy at Work YouTube channel. You can join the conversation and make live comments on YouTube by clicking here. Remember that Redneck Gone Green is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Kali Akuno’s prophetic essay from January 17, 2022 titled "Some Thoughts on What Can Be Done to Withstand the Neo-Confederate/Neo-Fascist Conquest of Power," is worth reading in full, but here is a high-level summary:
Three years ago Kali publicly expressed deep concern about the rise of ultra-right fascist forces in the United States, and that the Left was insufficiently organized to respond. Three years ago he correctly predicted how many would respond:
It is clear that the most immediate answer that will be provided by the liberals, progressives, and social democrats is going to be voter mobilization for November 2022 and November 2024, in the form of unprecedented voter registration drives, get out the vote operations (GOTV), and non-stop litigation. This will all be topped off by a massive fear campaign that will undoubtedly dwarf their 2020 efforts in this vein, both in terms of money spent and airtime provided by the likes of CNN, MSNBC, NBC, the NY Times, Washington Post, and other major liberal media outlets.
His prescient warning continues:
Further, I would caution against putting much stock in the efforts of progressives and social democrats, particularly those of the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America), to seed the Democratic Party with its members in the hopes of creating a left wing within the party or to take it over ultimately. Popular Front strategies, meaning strategies that call for and depend upon cross-class alliances such as this rarely if ever work to halt the advance of the right (Germany between the two world wars is not the only sad case to learn from). We only have to look at the recent debacle of the Progressive Caucus in its efforts to pass Biden’s flawed package of false solutions (such as the promotion of net-zero and market oriented solutions to the climate crisis) dubbed the “Build Back Better” initiative in the fall of 2021 to see the blatant shortcomings of this strategy. Failures to organize in one’s own self-interest always leads to the inability to act in one’s own self-interest. But, even if the strategy was more effective, it is clear that the present assortment of social democrats, progressives, and revolutionary nationalists that engage in running candidates either in the Democratic Party, the Greens, or as independents are in no position to field enough candidates, let alone win enough seats in the next two election cycles to make a quantitative shift at almost any level of government (save perhaps a few local areas on the municipal and county levels).
To address these challenges, Kali proposed several concrete and actionable steps:
Self-Protection and Fortification: He advised individuals to acquire essential tools and supplies, including self-defense items, communication devices, generators, fuel, and repair tools. Equally important is learning how to use these tools effectively.
Stockpiling Essentials: He recommended that everyone stock up on essential goods, supplies, and medicines to last at least three months.
Community-Based Mutual Aid and Self-Defense Networks: He stressed the importance of establishing mutual aid and self-defense networks within a 10-mile radius to address safety and material needs, and to foster intentional political communities.
Autonomous Food Production: Recognizing food as a potential weapon in times of conflict, he urged communities to engage in autonomous food production. This involves assessing caloric needs and scaling up existing food security and sovereignty networks.
Democratic Planning and Coordination: He advocated for democratic planning within accessible geographic areas, recommending the use of People’s Assemblies. These assemblies can coordinate collective production, mutual aid, and self-defense measures, while also fostering collective consciousness.
Kali and his comrades at Cooperation Jackson have been applying those principles in their own community, even as they are surrounded by neo-confederates in the heart of Dixie.
I am excited to share that they are now offering an educational series called where we can learn from. It is an educational series called Build and Fight, which is both an argument and a proposed methodology on how to build eco-socialism from below. Stated simply, this means through the self-organized activities and institutions of the working class and oppressed people.
This series airs live the second Tuesday of every month on their YouTube channel. There will be special guests who will share their experiences and learnings to add onto the formula, and discuss how it can be employed to build eco-socialism from below.
The series will provide organizers and activists with some critical analytical tools and methods to improve their practice and to encourage us to better coordinate and plan our productive activities, and to horizontally federate in order to build and aggregate our social and political power to advance our liberation.
Hope you can join us live!
Onward to the world we deserve,
David Cobb, The Redneck Gone Green