Socialism 2026: Full Schedule

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10:00am CDT

Mayor Mamdani vs. Wall Street. Sewer Socialism and Municipal Financing—Which Way Forward?

Monday September 7, 2026 10:00am - 11:30am CDT

Wall Street has cities in a financial straight jacket. Yet with the recent elections of socialist mayors and council members, notably New York's Zohran Mamdani, financing new social programs will be essential. This panel explores both the ways in which private financing and the municipal bond market can restrict what is politically possible, and what an inventive new generation of municipal socialists can do to escape the straight jacket.

Speakers

David Backer

David Backer is a professor at Seton Hall University who studies debt and education.

Sylvia Kidder

Sylvia Kidder is an organizer with The People's Lobby who has worked in municipal finance for a decade.

Michael Reagan

Michael Reagan is a member of Black Rose / Rosa Negra.

Monday September 7, 2026 10:00am - 11:30am CDT
TBA

Left Strategy

12:00pm CDT

We Want it All: Reclaiming the World from the Rich and the Right

Monday September 7, 2026 12:00pm - 1:30pm CDT

There is nothing inevitable about how the next year or five years or ten years unfold. While billionaire oligarchs and their friends on the far right attempt to build a fortress around the future for themselves, glimmers of a brighter future have been fanned into flames by socialists, abolitionists, and working people all around the world. Join the closing plenary of Socialism 2026 for a reminder of what we are fighting for and our collective power to achieve it.

Speakers

Kelly Hayes

Kelly Hayes is a Menominee author, organizer, movement educator and photographer. She is the host of Truthout‘s podcast Movement Memos and the creator of Organizing My Thoughts, a weekly newsletter about politics and justice work. She is co-author of the book Let This Radicalize... Read More →

Beth Howard

Beth Howard is the Cultural Strategist for Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), the largest national organization bringing white people into the fight for racial and economic justice. She grew up in a rural white working-class community in Eastern Kentucky and has organized in the... Read More →

TBD