Socialism 2026: Full Schedule

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12:00pm CDT

AI Extractivism: Global Systems, Local Processes

Saturday September 5, 2026 12:00pm - 1:30pm CDT

From colonial cattle economies to gold, critical minerals, and data centers, this session presents AI as an evolving extractive regime of global capitalism that reorganizes governance frameworks. It examines how system logics within emerging geopolitical structures translate into local politics and collective responses, exploring possibilities for transnational resistance and solidarity.

Speakers

Shiera S. al-Malik

Shiera S. el-Malik is Professor of International Studies at DePaul University in Chicago. She teaches and writes on themes of coloniality, politics, and theory. Her research is guided by an interest in the intersection of politics of knowledge and lived experience, particularly in... Read More →

V'cenza Cirefice

Dr. V’cenza Cirefice is an ecofeminist researcher, organiser and artist from the Mourne Mountains in the North of Ireland. She works on themes of resistance to extractivism and feminist political ecology. Currently she organises with CAIM, Communities Against the Injustice of Mining... Read More →

Marta Cook

Marta Cook is a researcher, writer, and widely recognized as one of the foremost harpists in Irish traditional music. Her article Subjects of Tradition: Cultural Construction and Irish Comprador Capitalism appeared in Irish Studies Review Volume 32, 2024. Her work on cultural extractivism... Read More →

Fawn E. Pochel

Fawn E. Pochel (they/she), a gender-queer urban Native, works closely with communities across Chicago to incorporate land-based pedagogies and Indigenous worldview into curricula and policy while working towards dismantling systems of white supremacy. Their father, a member of the... Read More →

Saturday September 5, 2026 12:00pm - 1:30pm CDT
Clark ABC

Science and Tech

1:30pm CDT

Labor for Palestine National Network Meet-Up

Saturday September 5, 2026 1:30pm - 3:00pm CDT

Clark ABC

Join Labor for Palestine activists to strategize about how we can collectively organize workers' power to shut down genocidal wars, from LA to Palestine, Iran, and beyond.

Saturday September 5, 2026 1:30pm - 3:00pm CDT
Clark ABC

Meet-up

3:00pm CDT

Connecting with Coworkers to Form Your Union

Saturday September 5, 2026 3:00pm - 4:30pm CDT

Clark ABC

Trying to organize your workplace? Want to learn how to have conversations that move people to action? Join the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) for a training on tried and true methods of organizing: how to build relationships, ask good questions, and bring your coworkers in to join the campaign.

Speakers

Dawn Tefft

Dawn Tefft works as a union representative and organizer, volunteers as a Lead Organizer and Advanced Organizer for the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC), and volunteers with the Federal Unionists Network (FUN). She has helped develop and facilitate labor trainings... Read More →

Araya Barnes

Araya is a trainer and organizer for EWOC and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. They most frequently work at the intersection of the labor and electoral arms of the DSA.

Rumin

Rumin supports trainings at EWOC that help workers launch efforts to organize their workplace. In her day job, she conducts public health research.

AK Alilonu

AK is a Southsider, an organizer with EWOC and one of the coordinators for its Chicago local, CHIWOC. He works as a union lawyer at the Illinois Nurses Association.

Atulya Dora-Laskey

Atulya was an organizing and bargaining committee member for the first-ever unionized Chipotle. She is now an EWOC volunteer and a staff organizer for the University of Illinois Chicago United Faculty. She is trying to read more.

Sponsors

EWOC

Saturday September 5, 2026 3:00pm - 4:30pm CDT
Clark ABC

Labor Movement

5:00pm CDT

Who Moves America: Film Screening and Discussion

Saturday September 5, 2026 5:00pm - 7:00pm CDT

Clark ABC

As the deadline for a historic strike looms, UPS workers across the country navigate the challenges of building solidarity with their 340,000 co-workers. Feature documentary Who Moves America joins Teamsters in New York, California, and Kentucky. Join us for a conversation with Teamsters organizer Antonio Rosario.

Moderators

Jesse Sharkey

Jesse Sharkey is the former president of the Chicago Teachers Union.

Speakers

Yael Bridge

Saturday September 5, 2026 5:00pm - 7:00pm CDT
Clark ABC

Labor Movement

12:00pm CDT

1:30pm CDT

3:00pm CDT

5:00pm CDT

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