Socialism 2026: Full Schedule

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.

Attendees will receive a free zine (by Tanuja Jagernauth) distilling the highlights of the last piece Amisha Patel wrote, sharing wisdom and resources for facing down fascism together.

Speakers

Maya Schenwar

Maya Schenwar is director of the Truthout Center for Grassroots Journalism. She is also Truthout’s board president. She is the co-editor of We Grow the World Together: Parenting Toward Abolition; co-author of Prison by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reform... Read More →

Juliet DeJesus Alejandre

Juliet De Jesus Alejandre is executive director of the Logan Square Neighborhood Association.

Tanuja Jagernauth

Tanuja Devi Jagernauth is an Indo-Caribbean prison-industrial-complex abolitionist, writer, theater maker, conflict tender, and yoga educator who believes in the necessity of creation during times of destruction. Tanuja's writing is inspired by healing justice, caste abolition, and... Read More →

Katelyn Johnson

Katelyn Johnson is executive director of the Chicago Racial Justice Pooled Fund. Previously, she was executive director of the Blackroots Alliance.

Rocío García

Rocío García is currently the Senior Organizing Director at Grassroots Collaborative, a coalition of community and labor groups across Chicago and Peoria. She leads the People’s Unity Platform–created to bring together the people’s agenda ahead of the 2024 municipal... Read More →

Sponsors

Truthout

Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
Erie

Fighting the Right

10:00am CDT

Journalism, Authoritarianism and Struggles Against ICE

Saturday September 5, 2026 10:00am - 11:30am CDT

Hyde Park A

This panel will explore journalism and other writing about the solidarity networks and mutual aid efforts that emerged in Minneapolis, Los Angeles and other US cities in response to the Trump administration's ICE surge. Speakers include the 2026 Daniel Singer Prize winner Diane de Vignemont, whose winning essay is entitled "Minneapolis Protests Sound a Lot Like the French Resistance," as well as Adam Goodman (Professor at University of Illinois Chicago and author of The Deportation Machine) and Memo Torres (journalist with L.A. TACO and host of the "Daily Memo").

Speakers

Adam Goodman

Adam Goodman, Professor at University of Illinois Chicago and author of The Deportation Machine

Memo Torres

Memo Torres, journalist with L.A. TACO

Diane de Vignemont

Diane de Vignemont, journalist and winner of this year's Daniel Singer Prize

Sponsors

Daniel Singer Foundation

Saturday September 5, 2026 10:00am - 11:30am CDT
Hyde Park A

Fighting the Right

12:00pm CDT

Weaponizing Antisemitism: An Interactive History

Sunday September 6, 2026 12:00pm - 1:30pm CDT

Michigan

In a moment where pro-Israel watchdogs are weaponizing antisemitism to attack organizers, students, educators, public schools, and the broader infrastructure of the left, this session will explore the historical roots of how antisemitism began to be weaponized against the left in the late 1960s through a participatory mixer.

Speakers

Adam Sanchez

Adam Sanchez is the managing editor of Rethinking Schools. He is also the editor of Teaching a People's History of Abolition and the Civil War and a forthcoming book about teaching Reconstruction. He is a co-editor of Teaching Palestine: Lessons, Stories, Voices.

Sponsors

Rethinking Schools

Sunday September 6, 2026 12:00pm - 1:30pm CDT
Michigan

Fighting the Right

5:00pm CDT

Socialism Beats Fascism: Organizing for a Post-Trump America

Sunday September 6, 2026 5:00pm - 6:30pm CDT

W190B

Against Trump, how can we keep building antiwar and migrant rights movements? As social forces grow in the US behind the May Day movement, No Kings protests, and Minnesota’s general strike against ICE, what will it take to keep building movements from the streets to transform our whole political landscape?

Speakers

Griffin Mahon

Griffin Mahon is a DC-based union organizer and a cochair of DSA's National Labor Commission. 

Eleanor Babaev

Eleanor Babaev is a member of DSA’s National Political Committee from NYC, and chair of the DSA’s Trump Admin Response Committee.

Bol B

Bol is Political Action Coordinator of Twin Cities DSA. He has been a long time labor and electoral organizer in the Twin Cities area, and a DSA member since 2018.

Eman Abdelhadi

Eman Abdelhadi is a scholar, organizer and writer. She is an assistant professor and sociologist at the University of Chicago, writes a column for In These Times Magazine and is co-author of Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052-2072, a sci-fi novel... Read More →

Sponsors

DSA

Sunday September 6, 2026 5:00pm - 6:30pm CDT
W190B

Fighting the Right

10:00am CDT

RePRESSion: Press Censorship in the Time of Fascism and Increasing Media Illiteracy

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

Burnham ABC

RePRESSion examines media censorship from South to South and how fascism, genocide, and incarceration intensify repression. This panel shares strategies for press organizing amid media consolidation, AI, and declining literacy—media and illiteracy. Panelists will center abolitionist publishing and amplify incarcerated writers’ perspectives on censorship from inside.

Speakers

Socialism 2026

2:30pm CDT

Maya Schenwar

Juliet DeJesus Alejandre

Tanuja Jagernauth

Katelyn Johnson

Rocío García

Truthout

10:00am CDT

Adam Goodman

Memo Torres

Diane de Vignemont

Daniel Singer Foundation

12:00pm CDT

Adam Sanchez

Rethinking Schools

5:00pm CDT

Griffin Mahon

Eleanor Babaev

Bol B

Eman Abdelhadi

DSA

10:00am CDT

Sherronda J. Brown

Da'Shaun L. Harrison

Aarohi Sheth

Tea Troutman

Scalawag

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