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Friday, September 4
 

2:30pm CDT

Abolitionist Campaigns in Hostile Terrains: Fighting Against Immigrant Detention in NY
Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
We will be looking at the NY Dignity Not Detention (DND) campaign as a case study on abolitionist organizing that builds the power of migrant communities. We will discuss the hostile conditions of the moment and how we worked with communities & groups resisting ICE to achieve victory. Join us to learn about DND and develop and strengthen your abolitionist anti-deportation campaigns.
Speakers
VM

Viju Mathew

Viju is a member of Critical Resistance and has been fighting abolitionist campaigns in coalitions across California & New York for the past few years. Viju & Critical Resistance see the abolition of ICE as Part and Parcel of prison industrial complex abolition.
SG

Sophia Gurule

Sophia Elena Gurulé (she/her/ella) is a member of Critical Resistance based in Brooklyn, New York with experience organizing at the intersection of prison industrial complex (PIC) abolition, migrant justice, and organized labor. A long-time member of the Dignity Not Detention coalition, Sophia has... Read More →
Sponsors
Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
TBA

2:30pm CDT

Confronting Colonialism: Race, Indigeneity, and Liberation
Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
In a period marked by the rapid expansion of U.S. empire at home and abroad, how can the left build a real fight back beyond white supremacist ideas of justice? What does meaningful solidarity between Indigenous, Black, and working-class struggles look like? How can movements confront colonialism while building collective liberation? Join Kyle T. Mays and Michael Staudenmaier as they examine these questions and envision a path toward organizing beyond colonial structures.
Speakers
KT

Kyle T. Mays

Kyle T. Mays is an Afro-Indigenous (Saginaw Chippewa) writer and scholar. He is a professor of African American studies, American Indian studies, and history at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author or co-author of four books, including Rethinking the Red Powe... Read More →
MS

Michael Staudenmaier

Michael Staudenmaier is an independent scholar living in Chicago.  He received his PhD in history from the University of Illinois and taught for more than a decade at various universities in Illinois and Indiana.  He is the author of White, Black, Brown:  Becoming Puerto Rican in Chicago (University... Read More →
Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
TBA

2:30pm CDT

The Threat of Geoengineering and the Socialist Response
Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
As the climate crisis intensifies, capital is turning to geoengineering, technologies capable of directed perturbation of Earth systems. Here, we’ll explain what geoengineering is and why socialists should be opposed to its development. We will also discuss large-scale visions of ecosocialist transformation that challenge the urgency of intentional climate modification.
Speakers
TC

T Callahan

T Callahan is a freelance science writer based in Chicago and author of The Stranded Asset on Substack. An editor of the forthcoming third edition of the Ecological Economics textbook and passionate advocate for eco-socialism, T strives to reveal capital's root-level complicity and... Read More →
AS

Ashwin Shantha

Ashwin Shantha (they/them) is a Ph.D. student at York University in Toronto, CA. They are a scholar of political economy, focused on exploitation and development in the Global South. Ashwin also maintains the Journal of International Solidarity Substack and podcast.
Sponsors
Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
TBA

2:30pm CDT

Sing, Struggle, Organize: Movement Songs, Political Education, and Collective Power
Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
From picket lines to protest movements, songs have always been weapons of struggle. This interactive workshop teaches movement songs while unpacking their histories and political function, showing how culture builds consciousness, collective identity, and power. Participants will actively practice using culture as a tool for organizing.
Speakers
avatar for Steff Reed

Steff Reed

Steff Reed is an award-winning musician, cultural organizer, scholar, and liberation theologian whose work uses music and faith as tools to build culture, consciousness, and collective liberation. Find Steff on Instagram at @iamsteffreed.
Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
TBA

2:30pm CDT

A University Fit For Our Dreams: Abolitionist Higher Education
Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
This session will situate the university as a key site of ideological and material struggle within the United States’ racial-gendered-colonial-capitalist political economy. Participants will be introduced to the challenges impacting higher education, be guided in critically appraising the frameworks influencing our Universities’ actions in this moment of perpetual “crisis” and collectively find solutions that generate greater well-being and real safety on campus.
Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
TBA

2:30pm CDT

Community Lessons for Fighting Fascism: In Honor of Amisha Patel
Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
Organizers and storytellers from across Chicago’s movements speak to what our people will need to carry into the fights against fascism: deep relationships, courage to act amidst uncertainty, self-reflection and healing, and a long-arc strategy to move us past the short-term pain. This session is held to honor the legacy of our sister and comrade, Amisha Patel.
Speakers Sponsors
Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
TBA

2:30pm CDT

From a Marxist Feminist Point of View: Freedom, Rationality and Human Nature
Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
This panel explores the fruitfulness of approaching key philosophical questions from a Marxist-feminist perspective. It will examine how different modes of production (such as capitalism or feudalism) have structures which shape and limit potentials for human emancipation, particularly women’s freedom. In the process, panelists will articulate how capitalism should be understood as a framework within which other relations of oppression are structured and hierarchized.
Speakers
NH

Nancy Holmstrom

Nancy Holmstrom, Prof Emerita Philosophy Rutgers, New Politics Editorial Board
PG

Phil Gasper

Phil Gasper is co-editor of New Politics, editor of an annotated edition of The Communist Manifesto, and a member of the Tempest Collective.
AH

Alex Holmstrom-Smith

Alex Holmstrom-Smith, labor lawyer
RL

Rose Lenehan

Rose Lenehan, PhD Philosophy, tenant organizer
Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
TBA

2:30pm CDT

From Prairie to Poppy: How Struggles for Land, War, and Farming Are Connected from Chicago to Palestine
Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
You're walking through the produce section and spot your favorite fruit! But how did it get to this grocery store? Whose labor, land, and future is tied up in the farming, packaging, and shipping of that fruit? In this workshop, participants will learn about how the struggles for food sovereignty are intertwined with struggles against imperialism and militarism. Join Chicago Dissenters and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) for an interactive session where participants will discuss, research, and leave with tools for how to divest from capitalist food systems.
Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
TBA

2:30pm CDT

Inside Organizing 101
Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
Are you interested in organizing your workplace? Join Jaz Brisack, co-founder of Starbucks Workers United, for an inside look at the skills, tactics, and practices that make inside organizing most effective, and gain hands-on practice in mapping a workplace and untangling workplace dynamics.
Speakers
JB

Jaz Brisack

Jaz Brisack is a union organizer and the co-director of the Inside Organizer School, which trains workers to unionize their workplaces. They have worked on campaigns at companies ranging from Nissan to Starbucks to Tesla to Ben & Jerry's. They are the author of Get on the Job and... Read More →
Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
TBA

2:30pm CDT

Mother Jones and the Early Socialist Movement: Lessons for Today
Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, one of the Socialist Party's most successful organizers, a founder of the Industrial Workers of the World and the most successful labor organizer of the early 20th century constantly turned to her socialist beliefs in constructing innovative organizing strategies and tactics. What lessons does she leave us for struggle today?
Speakers
RF

Rosemary Feurer

Rosemary Feurer is Distinguished Professor of History at Northern Illinois University specializing in labor and social movements. A key organizer in the effort to successfully organize the faculty at her university, Feurer was a founding member of DSA and is the Director of the Mother... Read More →
JR

Joseph Rathke

Joe Rathke is a PhD student in labor history at the University of Chicago. He was a lead organizer in the successful effort to organize the 3000 member Graduate Students United-UE Local 1103, on the bargaining team for the groundbreaking first contract and is serving his second term... Read More →
Sponsors
Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
TBA

2:30pm CDT

We Keep Us Safe: De-Escalation Training
Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
With growing political turbulence making the future unpredictable, now more than ever it is crucial that we take responsibility for developing the skills and knowledge to protect our communities. This workshop is an active training in de-escalation skills for social movement activists, and all are encouraged to attend.
Speakers
BB

brian bean

brian bean is a Chicago-based socialist organizer, writer, and agitator originally from North Carolina. They are one of the founding editors of Rampant magazine. Their work has been published in Truthout, Jacobin, Tempest, Spectre, Red Flag, New Politics, Socialist Worker, International... Read More →
Sponsors
Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
TBA

4:30pm CDT

Life After Death Row
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
In the late 1990s, death row prisoners and their supporters hosted a series of live unscripted conversations between death row prisoners and audience members in forums around the country, reshaping the national debate on capital punishment and helping to force the overturning of capital punishment in IL, MD, and CA. Join two former death row prisoners who spearheaded the historic campaign and their “outside” allies for a conversation on their remarkable story and how their struggle for justice continues after death row.
Speakers
MA

Mumia Abu-Jamal

Mumia Abu-Jamal is an African-American journalist, advocate for racial and economic justice, and former Black Panther. He is currently serving life without parole in Pennsylvania.
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
TBA

4:30pm CDT

Confronting Zionism: Decolonizing Palestine and Building the World Anew
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
For over one hundred years, Palestinians have struggled for liberation in their homeland. This session will take direct analytical aim at the ideology and institutional structures animating Israel’s brutal rule over Palestinian lives, and argue that Zionism is colonial and racist in essence and practice and that decolonization in Palestine predicated on redistribution, reparations and refugee return remains the only just way forward.
Speakers
NE

Noura Erakat

Noura Erakat is Professor of Africana Studies and Criminal Justice at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. She is the author of Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine (Stanford University Press, 2019), which received the Palestine Book Award and the Bronze Medal for... Read More →
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
TBA

4:30pm CDT

Introduction to Theatre of the Oppressed
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
Play Time! Brazilian Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed provoked director Augusto Boal to develop the Theatre of the Oppressed. He wanted a theatre that the working class could use as community building and as a weapon for revolution. This workshop invites all to participate in TO’s very fun game structures that create instant working relationships. No experience in performance or theatre is required.
Speakers
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
TBA

4:30pm CDT

Why Does Capitalism Suck and Why Does it Fail? An Introduction to Marxist Economics
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
Why does capitalism produce lousy jobs, long hours, unemployment, racism, sexism, homo/transphobia, xenophobia and periodic economic crises that make things even worse? Marx's analysis of capitalism provides some key answers.
Speakers
CP

Charlie Post

Charlie Post is a long-time revolutionary socialist and writer, and a member of the Tempest Collective.
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
TBA

4:30pm CDT

Femme-inism Against Cisness: Bread, Roses, and Hormones, Too
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
Why must our struggles against capitalism combat “cisness” (the naturalization of assigned sex), and how can the political distinction between femininity and the “femme” assist us in this task? Join Sophie Lewis for a conversation about “femmunism,” life-making labor, whorish artifice, gender-maximalism, transfeminist abolitionism, and the class war from above waged upon us by contemporary misogynist and femmephobic enemy feminisms.
Speakers
AB

A.J. Bohrer

A.J. Bohrer is a theorist, activist, and translator based in Chicago. Their first book, Marxism and Intersectionality: Race, Gender, Class, and Sexuality under Contemporary Capitalism (Transcript Verlag, 2019) was short-listed for the Deutscher Prize and has been translated into Spanish... Read More →
SL

Sophie Lewis

Sophie Lewis is a writer, utopian, feminist, and ex-academic scholar based in Philadelphia, hailing originally from the UK, France, and Germany. She is the author of Femmephilia, Enemy Feminisms, Abolish the Family, and Full Surrogacy Now. Lewis’s essays and articles appear routinely... Read More →
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
TBA

4:30pm CDT

How Veterans & Labor Are Fighting VA Union Busting And Privatization
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
The murder of VA nurse member Alex Pretti drew national attention to federal worker resistance to Trump. On this panel, a VA care-giver, VA patient, and healthcare activist will report on labor/community campaigning to keep our best working model of socialized medicine from being privatized and dismantled.
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
TBA

4:30pm CDT

Unveiling the Prophet: Anti-Labor Secret Societies and Their Activist Enemies
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
Every December, St. Louis elites crown one of their daughters the Queen of Love and Beauty in a ceremony that celebrates the breaking of strikes and the enforcement of racial hierarchies. The Veiled Prophet Society has shaped the course of American history, and is an important example of how shadowy elites organize themselves against working-class power. Join Devin Thomas O’Shea as he explores the history of the secret society that has controlled St. Louis for over a century, and the lessons learned by the local activists who have pushed back against its power.
Speakers
DT

Devin Thomas O'Shea

Devin Thomas O’Shea is the author of The Veiled Prophet: Secret Societies, White Supremacy, and the Struggle for St. Louis. His writing has appeared in The Nation, Slate, The Iowa Review, Jacobin, Boulevard, and elsewhere.
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
TBA

4:30pm CDT

Transformative Rural Organizing
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
Rural communities are often written off as politically unreachable, but organizers across the country are building power through relational networks, trusted institutions, and local leadership. This session explores practical strategies for rural organizing and introduces a toolkit designed to help organizers build trust, grow a base, and develop leaders in rural communities.
Speakers
BB

Bo Belotti

Bo Belotti is a community organizer from Virginia and first year Masters of Public Policy student at Georgetown University.  Bo has spent the last 10 years engaged in movement work, starting with their local school board while they were still in high school.  They attended Virginia... Read More →
JK

Jake Krug

Jake Krug is an organizer based in Staunton, VA. Jake began organizing as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America before co-founding the Shenandoah Socialist Collective and Shenandoah Mutual Aid. He is a member of the United Campus Workers of Virginia, CWA Local 2265, where... Read More →
VR

Vida Rangel

Vida is a community organizer and public servant with a long history of working to improve the lives of those in her communities and improving the systems we all live under. As an autistic queer nonbinary transgender Latina woman, her commitment to community and to working families... Read More →
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
TBA

4:30pm CDT

Workers Deserve More! A Program for a Future Beyond Capitalism
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
This summer, DSA released “Workers Deserve More,” our political program for a free, equal, and democratic society that prioritizes human flourishing and peace instead of exploitation, oppression, and war. We’ll discuss how we developed Workers Deserve More, its contents, the reactions so far, and its role in organizing for democratic socialism in our current moment, and for our future. program.dsausa.org
Speakers
AS

Ashik Siddique

Ashik Siddique is national co-chair of Democratic Socialists of America, and has served on DSA's National Political Committee since 2021. He has organized with DSA’s campaign for Bernie in 2020, for campaigns against the climate crisis and for labor rights, with protests at the... Read More →
MB

Michaela Brangan

Michaela Brangan is an educator and researcher, chair of DSA’s National Political Education Committee, and a member of North New Jersey DSA. She cochairs DSA’s Workers Deserve More program committee.
FG

Frances Gill

Frances Gill is cochair of DSA’s Workers Deserve More program committee, and a member of DSA’s National Political Committee from Los Angeles. She is a health care worker and rank-and-file member of the Union of American Physicians and Dentists (UAPD).
MR

Megan Romer

Megan Romer is a mom, a writer, a PTA volunteer and an erstwhile Sunday School teacher from rural Central New York. She's been organizing with DSA since 2018, is a former co-chair of Southwest Louisiana DSA, and served three terms on steering of the DSA national Mutual Aid Working... Read More →
Sponsors
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
TBA

4:30pm CDT

What We Saw in Chicago: From Midway Blitz to New Forms of Community Defense
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
When hundreds of Border Patrol agents came to Chicago to carry out warrantless arrests and racialized sweeps, Illinoisans mobilized to protect their neighbors and document abuses. But the response from Chicago and its suburban neighbors did not begin with the raids. It was built through decades of organizing, relationship building, and community infrastructure. As immigration enforcement continues to evolve, this panel explores what Chicago’s experience offers organizers confronting expanding state repression and building collective power in their own communities.
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
TBA

4:30pm CDT

People Over Mega-Events: Organizing for Housing, Workers, and Communities Beyond the World Cup
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
Cities increasingly chase global events like the Olympics and World Cup while working-class communities face displacement, policing, and exploitation. This session explores how organizers in Atlanta built Play Fair ATL to fight back—and how socialists can organize coalitions that turn mega-events into battlegrounds for housing justice, labor rights, and community power.
Speakers Sponsors
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
TBA

4:30pm CDT

Why Eugene Debs Matters
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
Eugene V. Debs died 100 years ago, but the radical vision of this five-time Socialist presidential candidate, is more relevant than ever. This session is a conversation with Shawn Gude, the author of a new biography of Debs, who in 1920 received a million votes while running from prison.
Speakers
AD

Allison Duerk

Allison Duerk has served as the director of the Eugene V. Debs Museum since 2016. Originally from rural northeast Indiana, Allison studied political science and music at Indiana State University in Terre Haute. Allison's work at the museum connects the Debs legacy to ongoing movements... Read More →
SG

Shawn Gude

Shawn Gude is the author of American Socialist: The Life and Legacy of Eugene V. Debs (October 2026, Simon & Schuster).
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
TBA

4:30pm CDT

Abolition Judaism: The Revolutionary Possiblities of Diaspora
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
Everyone is made in the image of the divine—even (maybe especial)y) when you don't believe in God, or aren't sure. To take this seriously, to explore ira imication for a revolutionary horizon - we are making Abolition Judaism, continuing the proud tradition finding spiritual sustenance for our solidarity in our religious practice. Come co-create it, and hear what we are learning about sifting through the ashes of the old.
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
TBA

4:30pm CDT

Political Education 1: What Are We Up Against?
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
Political education begins from reality: we need to first understand the world in order to change it. This workshop provides a basic grounding in principles of participatory education, the dynamic relationship between our ideas and material reality, and an understanding of Gramsci’s concept of hegemony before inviting participants to collectively map the interlocking repressive and carceral structures we confront every day.
Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
TBA

7:30pm CDT

Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Palestine, Internationalism, Abolition
Friday September 4, 2026 7:30pm - 9:00pm CDT
The struggle against state terror extends from the occupied lands and bombed homes of Palestine to the prisons and detention camps of Trump’s America. Join Angela Y. Davis for a conversation on Palestine solidarity, Black feminism, and the abolitionist fight for the future.
Speakers
avatar for Angela Y. Davis

Angela Y. Davis

Angela Y. Davis is Professor Emerita of History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies at UC Santa Cruz. An activist, writer, and lecturer, her work focuses on prisons, police, abolition, and the related intersections of race, gender, and class. She is the author of many books, f... Read More →
avatar for Naomi Murakawa

Naomi Murakawa

Naomi Murakawa is an associate professor of African American Studies at Princeton University. She is the author of The First Civil Right: How Liberals Built Prison America and the editor of the Abolitionist Papers book series at Haymarket Books... Read More →
Friday September 4, 2026 7:30pm - 9:00pm CDT
TBA
 
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