Socialism 2026: Full Schedule

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

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 →

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
Field ABC

Gender-Sexuality-Liberation

10:00am CDT

Labor at the Margins

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

Field ABC

While union representation in the US remains at an all time low, labor organizing is resurgent. But as the US economy shifts from an industrial to a high-tech and service economy, and as the working class confronts intensified forms of criminalization, the sites of worker agitation have expanded beyond the factory floor. In the process, workers traditionally at the “margins” of the labor movement—such as sex workers and formerly incarcerated workers—are reshaping the struggle for worker power and deepening our understanding of how capitalism exploits and punishes workers in the twenty-first century. Moderated by journalist Kim Kelly, this panel will hear from Maya (Sex Worker Organizing Project—Chicago) and Kat (Beyond the Bars) about their organizing and the ways the wider labor movement can learn from labor at the “margins.”

Speakers

Maya Tatum

Katherine Passley

Kim Kelly

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

Labor Movement

12:00pm CDT

Break the Board: Neoliberalism in Crisis and the Popular University as Abolition

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

Field ABC

This panel introduces the Board of Butchers framework, an abolitionist project in opposition to the neoliberal university, actualized through the pursuit of the Popular University. The panel further strategizes how academics and intellectuals can use their skills to effectively support the Palestinian liberation movement and the abolition of the university.

Speakers

Adam

Alex

Fiona

Laith

Sponsors

National Students for Justice in Palestine

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

Education Justice

3:00pm CDT

All Socialism, No Government: An Introduction to Anarchist Theory and Strategy

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

Field ABC

Anarchism is often the least understood branch of socialism. Anarchists walk a revolutionary path separate from the brutality of state systems, whether social democratic or Stalinist. Join us to discuss how anarchists are organizing and building toward a directly democratic world without capitalism, the state, and systemic oppression.

Speakers

Heb Braggs

Heb Braggs is a writer, artist, and organizer in Chicago, Illinois.

Ben Eager

Ben Eager is an independent academic and activist in Chicago, Illinois.

Jeremy Jewitt

Jeremy Jewitt is a tenant organizer in Chicago, Illinois.

Juan Gonzalez Valdivieso

Juan Gonzalez Valdivieso is a law student, organizer, and writer in Queens, New York City

Sponsors

Black Rose / Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation

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

Left Strategy

5:00pm CDT

The Young Lords Speak: Building Revolution on the Streets of Chicago

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

Field ABC

In their field jackets and signature purple berets, the Young Lords mobilized their community for liberation and against gentrification, poverty, racism, and police brutality. Join historian Jacqueline Lazu and Chicago 33rd Ward Alderperson Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez as they explore how the Young Lords grew into one of the most dynamic revolutionary community organizations of the late 1960s and early ’70s.

Speakers

Jacqueline Lazú

Jacqueline Lazú is a professor of Spanish and Latin American studies at DePaul University and the author of numerous scholarly articles on the Young Lords in Chicago.

Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez

Saturday September 5, 2026 5:00pm - 6:30pm CDT
Field ABC

Radical History

10:00am CDT

From Exploitation to Replacement? Workers in the New Political Economy of AI

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

Field ABC

In this workshop, we’ll use Marx’s analysis of political economy to understand how "AI" technologies—such as chatbots and image generators—rapidly accelerate worker exploitation and shift the relations of production between capital and labor. Participants will discuss how "AI" is reinscribing the conditions for technofeudalism and how workers are resisting the harms of automation, workplace surveillance, and algorithmic management.

Speakers

Alex Hanna

Dr. Alex Hanna is Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR)

Nathan Kim

Nathan Kim is a PhD candidate at the University of Michigan. He’s interested in the political economy of tech production, and in particular Silicon Valley’s relationship to state violence after the Cold War.

Thomas Mariadason

Thomas Mariadason is the Executive Director of the Center for Political Education

Chika Okoye

Chika Okoye is the Lead Educator for the Center for Political Education

Sponsors

Center for Political Education

Distributed AI Research Institute

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

Science and Tech

12:00pm CDT

The State of Worker Organizing in the South and the Southern Workers Assembly

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

Field ABC

The level of organization of workers in the U.S. South is at a crossroad. This crossroad meets at the current motion of workers who are finding ways to wage struggle alongside various social movement formations and the necessity of building a unified front. The unification of these movements into an advanced worker’s movement is necessary. This session will explore the role of the Southern Workers Assembly within this struggle.

Speakers

james pope

Abdul Alkalimat

Destiny Blackwell

Mike Goldfield

Sponsors

Southern Workers Assembly

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

Labor Movement

3:00pm CDT

Protecting Our Neighbors: DIY Community Defense Street Tactics from Midway Blitz

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

Field ABC

Adapted from street tactics popularized by the leading edges of anti-police struggles, this fantasy reenactment outlines several tactics community members could use to protect their neighbors from abduction. Trainers will first demonstrate these tactics, after which participants will practice in pairs and in full-group role-play scenarios.

Speakers

G.R.I.P.

Sponsors

G.R.I.P.

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

Skill Sharing

5:00pm CDT

The Strike that Shook the Bay: San Francisco’s Historic 2026 Educator Strike and the Coming California Strike Wave

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

Field ABC

Earlier this year, United Educators of San Francisco led six thousand members out on the first SF public school strike in half a century. In a city seemingly dominated by big tech capital and real estate, and against the opposition of the leaders in the SF and California Democratic Party, UESF won a historic contract for teachers and the community. Join us for a discussion of how this strike was built through years of organizing, a big democratic bargaining team, and bold left-wing politics, and what’s next for California educators.

Speakers

Yajaira Cuapio

Yajaira Cuapio is a school social worker and lead negotiator for UESF.

Ilan Desai-Gellar

Ilan Desai-Gellar is a classroom teacher and regional picket captain in UESF.

Alex Schmaus

Alex Schmaus is a special education instructional aide and COPE director for UESF.

Sponsors

United Educators of San Francisco

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

Labor Movement

8:00pm CDT

Cultural Worker Meet-Up

Sunday September 6, 2026 8:00pm - 9:00pm CDT

Field ABC

If you are an artist or someone who is curious about realizing the revolutionary possibilities of art, please join us at the Cultural Workers Meet-Up. This will be a space where artists and creatives can exchange ideas about how to meaningfully connect their creative labor to organized struggle and discuss what it means to create with radical intent.

Sunday September 6, 2026 8:00pm - 9:00pm CDT
Field ABC

Meet-up

10:00am CDT

Insurgent Spiritualities for Revolutionary Struggle

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

Field ABC

From Indigenous land defense to anti-slavery abolitionism to prison organizing and Stop Cop City, insurgent political spiritualities have been foundational to revolutionary struggles for another world. How do we train ourselves and our movements to discern and build upon the enduring unity of collective spiritual practice and political struggle?

Speakers

Benji Hart

Benji Hart is an interdisciplinary artist, author, and educator.‍ Their words have appeared in numerous anthologies, including No Cop City, No Cop World (Haymarket Books, 2025), Constellations of Care (Pluto Press, 2024), And the Category Is… (Beacon Press, 2022), and the second... Read More →

Joy James

Joy James is Ebenezer Fitch Professor of Humanities at Williams College. She is the author of Resisting State Violence; Shadowboxing: Representations of Black Feminist Politics, Transcending the Talented Tenth and Seeking the Beloved Community. James has published numerous articles... Read More →

Andrew Krinks

Andrew Krinks is a writer, educator, organizer, and movement builder working at the intersections of religion, racial capitalism, criminalization, abolition, and housing justice in Nashville, Tennessee. He is the author of White Property, Black Trespass: Racial Capitalism and the... Read More →

Belkis Terán

Rev. Belkis Teran is the mother of Manuel "Tortuguita" Teran, a queer, non-binary, Venezuelan forest defender who was killed by Georgia State Patrol in January 2023. She is an ordained minister and the founder of the Tortuguita Healing Center, an integral, environmentalist project... Read More →

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

Religion & Spirituality

4:30pm CDT

10:00am CDT

12:00pm CDT

3:00pm CDT

5:00pm CDT

10:00am CDT

12:00pm CDT

3:00pm CDT

5:00pm CDT

8:00pm CDT

10:00am CDT

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