Socialism 2026: Full Schedule

10:00am CDT

Crisis in Venezuela: Socialist Perspectives

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

This session features contributors to the book Venezuela in Crisis, presenting Venezuelan socialist analyses of the country’s collapse and advancing an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, and anti-authoritarian critique of the Maduro regime. It will also assess the post–January 3 U.S. military intervention and the reconfiguration of power, sovereignty, and class relations in its aftermath.

Speakers

Simón Rodríguez

Simón Rodríguez, Venezuelan socialist, member of Partido Socialismo y Libertad, and author of Por Qué Fracasó el Chavismo

Anderson Bean

Anderson Bean is a North Carolina–based activist and editor and contributor of the book Venezuela in Crisis: Socialist Perspectives from Haymarket Books, and the author of Communes and the Venezuelan State: The Struggle for Participatory Democracy in a Time of Crisis from Lexington... Read More →

Gonzalo Gómez

Gonzalo Gómez is a Venezuelan socialist activist and writer who played a key role in the regroupment of Trotskyism in Venezuela and provided critical support to the Bolivarian Revolution during the Chavez era. He is a cofounder of both Aporrea and Marea Socialista, a current that... Read More →

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

International Politics

10:00am CDT

En español: El levantamiento de Bolivia: causas, contradicciones y lecciones

Sunday September 6, 2026 10:00am - 11:30am CDT

Dusable ABC

Este panel en español analiza la explosiva revuelta de la clase trabajadora y los pueblos indígenas de Bolivia contra el choque neoliberal de Paz Pereira. Investigaremos la profundidad y las contradicciones del levantamiento en medio de la rivalidad interimperialista, y apuntamos lecciones para los socialistas en Estados Unidos y abogamos por una solidaridad que se centre en el poder popular boliviano —y no en agendas extranjeras ni en la cooptación por parte de las élites nacionales—.

Lena, Movimento Mulheres em Luta (MML)/ CSP Conlutas-Brasil, PSTU — Emilio, activista y militante socialista en Bolivia - Blanca Misse — La Voz de los Trabajadores

This panel traces Bolivia's explosive working-class and indigenous revolt against Paz Pereira's neoliberal shock. We dissect the uprising's depth and contradictions amid interimperialist rivalry, extract lessons for US socialists, and argue for solidarity that centers Bolivian popular power—not foreign agendas or co-optation by national elites.

Speakers

Lena

Lena, Movimento Mulheres em Luta (MML)/ CSP Conlutas-Brasil, PSTU

Emilio

Emilio is an activist and socialist militant in Bolivia

Blanca Misse

Sunday September 6, 2026 10:00am - 11:30am CDT
Dusable ABC

International Politics

10:00am CDT

Russian Neofascism: Imperialism Abroad & Repression at Home

Sunday September 6, 2026 10:00am - 11:30am CDT

Erie

Vladimir Putin responded to democratic uprising in Russia’s former empire by repressing domestic dissent and launching an imperialist war on Ukraine. In a discussion of their new book, Russia’s New Imperialism, Ilya Budraitskis and Ilya Matveev will be joined by Robert Brenner and Daria Saburova to examine Putin’s neofascist project, Ukraine’s struggle for self-determination, and today’s inter-imperial rivalries.

Speakers

Ilya Budraitskis

Ilya Budraitskis, co-author of Russia’s New Imperialism

Ilya Matveev

Ilya Matveev, co-author of Russia’s New Imperialism

Robert Brenner

Robert Brenner, professor Emeritus UCLA, editor at New Left Review, author of Economics of Global Turbulence

Yulia Yurchenko

Sponsors

Boris Kagarlitsky International Solidarity Campaign

Sunday September 6, 2026 10:00am - 11:30am CDT
Erie

International Politics

10:00am CDT

The Old Being Reborn: The Revival of Socialist Organizations in US and Belgium

Sunday September 6, 2026 10:00am - 11:30am CDT

Superior

What is the throughline between the Belgian Worker’s party and the Democratic Socialists of America? British socialist, Joe Todd and DSA member David Duhalde will examine the new DSA and Belgian Workers Party's structures over the past decade, their developments and differences. This panel will reflect on the historical labor, electoral, and factional dynamics, of the Socialist party that have led us to today.

Speakers

David Duhalde

David Duhalde is a lifelong democratic socialist organizer who has held positions in both the Democratic Socialist of America and its sister nonprofit the DSA Fund at the staff and volunteer leadership levels. He is an author on numerous topics including DSA history, which have appeared... Read More →

Joe Todd

Joe Todd is a researcher, organiser and political strategist. He writes on left parties for the Guardian, Novara Media and his Substack, and co-hosts the top 50 UK podcast Life of the Party. He is the author of "Between Autonomy and Control," a comparative study of the Belgian Workers... Read More →

Sponsors

RLS

Sunday September 6, 2026 10:00am - 11:30am CDT
Superior

International Politics

12:00pm CDT

Cuba Under Siege: A Round Table Discussion

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

Clark ABC

During the 1990s, Cuba survived an economic crisis following the collapse of the Soviet bloc. Now, after 67 years of US economic/trade sanctions and a fuel blockade, the nation faces far greater challenges. What lessons can be drawn from the past? How will Cuba survive? What can Cuba solidarity activists do?

Speakers

Reed Lindsey

Reed Lindsey, Founder of Belly of the Beast, independent media outlet with reporting team in Havana, Cuba

Helen Yaffe

Helen Yaffe, Latin American and Political Economy, Univ. of Glasgow; Author, We Are Cuba, How a Revolutionary People Have Survived in a post- Soviet World;

Justine Medina

Justine Medina, Cuban-Americans For Cuba, participant in Nuestra America Convoy, founding member and former organizer of Amazon Labor Union.

Sponsors

Chicago Cuba Coalition

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

International Politics

3:00pm CDT

Inquilab Zindabad: Bhagat Singh and the Revolutionary Left during South Asian Independence

Sunday September 6, 2026 3:00pm - 4:30pm CDT

Superior

Mainstream narratives of the South Asian independence movement often erase radical figures like Bhagat Singh, who articulated critiques of colonialism, capitalism, and religion, and was unafraid to embrace a diversity of tactics - including “violent” struggle. This session will shine light on his underappreciated history, and why it still matters today.

Speakers

Viral Mistry

Sunday September 6, 2026 3:00pm - 4:30pm CDT
Superior

International Politics

3:00pm CDT

Our International Struggles Cannot be Confined to the Capitalists’ National Elections

Sunday September 6, 2026 3:00pm - 4:30pm CDT

Michigan

Under heightened imperialist rivalries, with global climate catastrophe and war destroying our world, the international issues we face cannot be solved within national borders. We are told that the elections are necessary to fight these issues and to counter the growing far right. But our everyday problems, like rising costs of living, can only be solved through collective class struggle. How do socialists trying to address these problems approach bourgeois elections knowing that our resistance must be international? How do we avoid the pitfalls of nationalism in a time of heightened nationalist rivalries?

Speakers

Laura R

Laura is an activist with the Revolutionär Sozialistische Organisation (RSO), based in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Tom T

Tom T, Nouveau Parti Anitcapitaliste-Révolutionnaires (NPA-R)

Jolene S

Jolene S, Speak Out Socialists

Sponsors

Speak Out Socialists

Sunday September 6, 2026 3:00pm - 4:30pm CDT
Michigan

International Politics

10:00am CDT

The Left and the National Question: Building Solidarity without Exception

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

Jackson Park C

Imperialist powers from the US to Russia and China oppress nations and national minorities. That reality has put question of the left and the right of oppressed nations to self-determination back on the table. How can the left practice solidarity without exception from Palestine to Ukraine, oppose all great powers, and build internationalism from below?

Speakers

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 →

Socialism 2026

10:00am CDT

Simón Rodríguez

Anderson Bean

Gonzalo Gómez

10:00am CDT

Lena

Emilio

Blanca Misse

10:00am CDT

Ilya Budraitskis

Ilya Matveev

Robert Brenner

Yulia Yurchenko

Boris Kagarlitsky International Solidarity Campaign

10:00am CDT

David Duhalde

Joe Todd

RLS

12:00pm CDT

Reed Lindsey

Helen Yaffe

Justine Medina

Chicago Cuba Coalition

3:00pm CDT

Viral Mistry

3:00pm CDT

Laura R

Tom T

Jolene S

Speak Out Socialists

10:00am CDT

Eman Abdelhadi

Reza Rezaian

Simón Rodríguez

Tanya Vyhovksy

The Ukraine Soilidarity Network (US)

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