Shifting Focus: Organizing for an EcoSocialist Future
Great Hall at Saint James Place
St James Pl, Great Barrington, MA 01230, USA
Massachusetts
42.1929703
-73.3644925
Description
This year, we introduce the Annual Robert Swann Lectures, featuring Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson as the inaugural speaker. Kali will deliver his lecture, "Shifting Focus: Organizing for an EcoSocialist Future," on Sunday, March 26th, at 7pm EDT. The lecture will take place in the Great Hall at Saint James Place in Great Barrington, MA and will be followed by a Q&A. Registration is free and required for attendance.
About the Speaker:
Kali Akuno is co-founder and co-director of Cooperation Jackson, a network of worker cooperatives and community-led programs that sustain and grow a democratic, just and sustainable economy in Jackson, MS. Among these programs is the Fannie Lou Hamer Community Land Trust, which allows community members to collectively steward the land and creates opportunities for affordable property ownership.
Kali served as the Director of Special Projects and External Funding in the Mayoral Administration of the late Chokwe Lumumba of Jackson, MS. His focus in this role was supporting cooperative development, the introduction of eco-friendly and carbon reduction methods of operation, and the promotion of human rights and international relations for the city.
Kali is co-editor of “Jackson Rising: the Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, MS,” and the author of numerous articles and pamphlets including the Jackson-Kush Plan: the Struggle for Black Self-Determination and Economic Democracy,” “Until We Win: Black Labor and Liberation in the Disposable Era,” “Operation Ghetto Storm: Every 28 Hours report,” and “Let Your Motto Be Resistance: A Handbook on Organizing New Afrikan and Oppressed Communities for Self-Defense”.
As of August 2021, Kali has been working as Racial and Environmental Justice Coordinator at the Institute for Social Ecology, which provides community-based educational programs, popular education and organizing assistance to social and political movements, informed by a community-centered vision of positive, ecologically-oriented social change.
About the Series:
The series is named in honor of Robert Swann, founder of the E. F. Schumacher Society, now the Schumacher Center for a New Economics. Bob Swann brought the pragmatic skills of a builder to his lifelong commitment to community and decentralized economics. His 1960s civil rights work led to an effort to secure land for African-American farmers, serving as a model for the Community Land Trust movement.
Later on, in the Berkshires, Swann continued his work as a pioneer and advocate of Community Land Trusts as well as local currency initiatives— democratic tools for place-based economic transformation. The Swann Lectures will provide a platform to those who embody Swann’s practical activism and who lead by example, advancing community-based economic transformation toward a just and regenerative future.
This listing has no upcoming events
Start:
2023-03-26T19:00:00-04:00
End:
2023-03-26T20:30:00-04:00
Category
Other
Tickets
General Admission
0.0
USD
85
