Socialism 2026: Full Schedule

9:30am CDT

Friday September 4, 2026 9:30am - 4:00pm CDT

The Marxism Education Series at Socialism 2026 is a cluster of courses on Marxist theory designed to introduce and deepen the understanding of Marxism for activists and organizers. The four classes (Class, State, Crisis, Socialism) present key concepts of Marxist theory in a capacious way, and build on each other throughout the full MES program. Participants are expected to do the readings (included in a reader to be sent to those registered for the MES) and participate in all four courses starting in the morning on September 4.

Classes will have limited capacity and require registration through a special form (available here). You will still need to register for Socialism 2026 in order to access the conference.

Schedule

9:30am - 10:45am: Class
with Michael A. McCarthy
This course will present the basics of what capitalism is and how class works. Topics we will cover include capitalist competition and exploitation, as well as how racial, gender, and migrant status shape the labor market and class position.

11am - 12:15pm: State
with Amna Akbar
This course aims to explore the role that the state plays in reproducing capitalism and class exploitation. We will explore the ways that capitalists directly shape the state and the ways that capitalism itself indirectly constrains democratic politics, as well as the role of states in imperialism and colonialism.

1pm - 2:15pm: Crisis
with Michael A. McCarthy
In this course we will explore the ways that capitalism drives crises. First, we will examine the ways economic crisis are products of capitalism. Then we will examine the ways that environmental, social, and political crises are also created by capitalist dynamics.

2:30pm - 4pm: Socialism
with Eman Abdelhadi
This course aims to understand what Marxists are fighting for. We will explore different experiments in socialism and the anti-capitalist principles, such as freedom, democracy, and equality, that they aim to produce.

Readings will be sent out a few weeks before the conference.

Speakers

Michael A. McCarthy

Amna Akbar

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 →

Friday September 4, 2026 9:30am - 4:00pm CDT
Grant Park AB

Socialist and Marxist Theory

4:30pm CDT

Confronting Zionism: Decolonizing Palestine and Building the World Anew

Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT

Grant Park AB

For over one hundred years, Palestinians have struggled for liberation in their homeland. This session will take direct analytical aim at the ideology and institutional structures animating Israel’s brutal rule over Palestinian lives, and argue that Zionism is colonial and racist in essence and practice and that decolonization in Palestine predicated on redistribution, reparations and refugee return remains the only just way forward.

Speakers

Noura Erakat

Noura Erakat is Professor of Africana Studies and Criminal Justice at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. She is the author of Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine (Stanford University Press, 2019), which received the Palestine Book Award and the Bronze Medal for... Read More →

Brekhna Aftab

Friday September 4, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
Grant Park AB

Anti-colonial Politics

6:00pm CDT

New People Meet-Up, Find a Friend

Friday September 4, 2026 6:00pm - 7:30pm CDT

Grant Park AB

First time at Socialism? Or do you want to get to know others while you are here at the conference? Come to Grant Park AB on the first day of the conference to meet up with others like you and find some buddies for Socialism 2026!

Friday September 4, 2026 6:00pm - 7:30pm CDT
Grant Park AB

Meet-up

10:00am CDT

Health Fascism, Body Politics, and the Anti-State State (Health Fascism Series)

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

Grant Park AB

As governments retreat from care, and health increasingly becomes a signifier of discipline—rather than provision—fitness, disability, fatness, illness, Blackness, impairment, and bodily capacity are mobilized into measures of moral worth and political belonging. This panel examines how health, disability, body size, and race are instrumentalized by the state and being reorganized under health fascism. Da’Shaun L. Harrison, Beatrice Adler-Bolton, and Artie Vierkant will discuss what these transformations reveal about the changing relationship between capitalism, the state, and everyday life.

Speakers

Beatrice Adler-Bolton

Beatrice Adler-Bolton is a disabled and chronically ill agitator and independent researcher. She is the co-author of Health Communism: A Surplus Manifesto (Verso, 2022) and a co-host of the Death Panel podcast.

Da’Shaun L. Harrison

Artie Vierkant

Artie Vierkant is the co-author of Health Communism: A Surplus Manifesto (Verso, 2022) and a co-host, as well as the editor and producer, of the Death Panel podcast.

Sponsors

Death Panel

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

Health Politics & Disability Justice

12:00pm CDT

Art and Propaganda: On Learning from Paul Robeson, Why the Artist must Take Sides

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

Grant Park AB

Join award-winning poet and performer Saul Williams for a discussion of his new book, Song My Mother Taught Me: Why The Artist Must Take Sides, a clear-eyed exploration of radical poetry, art, and the role of the artist in these times.

Speakers

Saul Williams

For nearly three decades, writer, musician, poet, director, and actor Saul Williams has occupied a singular place in Black culture, resisting the confines of genre across music, literature and film, and using art as a transformative device.

Raised between church traditions, hip hop, revolutionary literature and the liberating chaos of downtown poetry scenes, Williams learned early that speaking over music could carry the same emotional force as singing. He traces the lineage through Black church sermons, through... Read More →

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

Culture and Art

3:00pm CDT

Black Left Feminism and the Fight Against Fascism: Lessons and Assignments

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

Grant Park AB

Black feminist thinkers and organizers have historically generated our most powerful frameworks and resources for defense against the far right and for remaking the world. Today, as neoliberal conditions give rise to new fascisms and attacks on our people, the Black feminist lineage provides strength and direction for struggles across a range of contexts, from the arts to municipal politics, public employment, and higher education. The ongoing work of Scholars for Social Justice is one important site of Black feminist organizing that will be discussed in this session.

Speakers

Barbara Ransby

Sarah Haley

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

Left Strategy

5:00pm CDT

Spirit of Justice: Building Beloved Community, Embodying Revolutionary Love

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

Grant Park AB

What is freedom struggle beyond resisting political systems and improving material conditions? This program, organized by Spirit of Justice - a new spiritual home outside of traditional religion for people committed to freedom - explores this question. Through live music, collective ritual, artistic expression, and intimate dialogue, we will celebrate, grieve, and be inspired to not only change the world but to transform ourselves.

Speakers

nyle fort

Rev. Dr. Nyle Fort is a minister, organizer, and scholar who believes in the transformative power of love, servant leadership, and beloved community. With over 15 years of experience in community organizing, faith-based activism, and large-scale social movements, he has organized in cities, on college... Read More →

Michelle Alexander

Michelle Alexander is a civil rights lawyer, legal scholar, and the author of the bestselling book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, which helped to shift the national discourse on the U.S. criminal punishment system and inspired racial justice organizing nationwide. She is a former associate professor of law at Stanford Law School and The Ohio State University, and the former director of the Racial Justice... Read More →

Saul Williams

Rami Nashashibi

Dr. Rami Nashashibi is a MacArthur Fellow, sociologist trained at the University of
Chicago, and the founding executive director of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network
(IMAN). Since its founding in 1997, IMAN has fostered health, wellness, and healing on
Chicago's South Side and... Read More →

Sponsors