People's Movement Assembly in Jackson, MS

Reflection on Jackson

This past weekend I had the opportunity to go to the People's Movement Assembly in Jackson, Mississippi to talk about Just Transition. The Assembly was held by Cooperation Jackson; a grassroots organization focusing in movement building away from the current capitalist system and to an economy based on cooperatives and worker owned enterprises for a more just society. It was my first time ever attending a space devoted to talking about issues, which particularly hurt marginalized communities. It was my first time in a space full of so many different community organizers.  

During the school year I work with a youth group, so I chose to sit in on the Youth Organizing workshop hoping to get ideas about how engage the youth I work with. In our workshop we talked about the world we do see and the world we want to see in the future. Two of the discussions that most struck me were talking about what education means and discussing the meanings of and feelings we get when we use certain environmental terms.    

It was interesting to see how the format of our discussion was a lot like a class I would take at my school. The workshop was mainly us sitting and sharing ideas with each other. A lot of classes at my college are similarly discussion driven for at least a portion of the class. The huge difference between these two being that one is accessible and the other is super inaccessible. And that was something that was talked about, redefining and revaluing education so that education can mean learning in community settings like that.

Then the discussion around words was interesting and important. Everyone responds to words differently but to have a movement that resonates with people you have to have functional dialogue. People often use words without really examining their meaning and I think discussions around language and really helpful. For example, we talked about people’s thoughts and feelings about the word “sustainability.” For me, I’m coming from a very formally educated background where it’s usually white people I’m talking to about sustainability and for me when I hear the word I think of how the more it’s used, the less it seems to mean. But a couple other people’s reactions in the group were things like “sustainability means love to me” and it really struck me how different our interpretations were.    

I occupy two very different spaces. I have the privilege of getting a fancy education at a school where most students are white and from the upper classes and I am a brown person from a low-income neighborhood. Environmental discussions at my school and aware from my school are super different. I feel like in the elite environment of my college there’s a lot of scientific understanding of climate change that is divorced from the realities of communities, especially those of color or poor communities. Whereas discussions in spaces like at Cooperation Jackson, talking about the importance of fighting climate change is rooted in addressing issues faced by frontline communities. 

The importance of knowing about climate change and environmental issues in general and making the connections to the larger oppressive system we live in is to get people angry. There’s a lot of apathy amongst people and that’s why the system functions. More people need to be aware of these injustices being perpetuated against certain peoples so that they’re angry enough to do something.

- Grace Obregon