Socialism 2026: Full Schedule

4:30pm CDT

Unveiling the Prophet: Anti-Labor Secret Societies and Their Activist Enemies

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

Every December, St. Louis elites crown one of their daughters the Queen of Love and Beauty in a ceremony that celebrates the breaking of strikes and the enforcement of racial hierarchies. The Veiled Prophet Society has shaped the course of American history, and is an important example of how shadowy elites organize themselves against working-class power. Join Devin Thomas O’Shea as he explores the history of the secret society that has controlled St. Louis for over a century, and the lessons learned by the local activists who have pushed back against its power.

Speakers

Kim Kelly

Devin Thomas O'Shea

Devin Thomas O’Shea is the author of The Veiled Prophet: Secret Societies, White Supremacy, and the Struggle for St. Louis. His writing has appeared in The Nation, Slate, The Iowa Review, Jacobin, Boulevard, and elsewhere.

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

Labor Movement

10:00am CDT

Chicago's Educators and Families Defending Communities Against ICE

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

Jackson Park A

Chicago public educators and community members reflect on lessons learned on the front lines defending our schools and neighborhoods during Operation Midway Blitz. We united to protect our communities in brilliant acts of multi-racial solidarity, providing a blueprint for the kind of critical resistance demanded in an era of unfettered state violence.

Speakers

Lisset G

Lizette G became involved with the southwest rapid response team during operation midway blitz and is now a key organizer at a day laborer hiring site in her neighborhood of Brighton Park. She is a mother to two CPS students.

Kobi Guillory

Kobi Guillory was born in Atlanta and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is a middle school science teacher on the South side and a CTU delegate. He is also a member of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and Freedom Road Socialist Organization

Raul Islas

Kathryn Zamarron

Kat Zamarrón teaches elementary school music and is a member of the Chicago Teachers Union and Caucus-of-Rank-and-File-Educators (CORE). She is a member of the union's Latine Caucus, PAC, and Executive Board. Outside of union activities, she is involved with community defense work... Read More →

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

Migrant Justice

12:00pm CDT

Class Struggle Infrastructure: Tenant Unions and Socialism

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

Jackson Park A

Under capitalism, housing is commodified — a primary site of extraction and exploitation of ordinary people. But the fundamental need for a home remains a shared human experience. From this contradiction the tenant struggle emerges: the fight for a dignified home against the profiteering landlords who control housing. Tenant unions are the infrastructure we use to transform isolated tenant fights into a collective class struggle. Come learn why socialism needs the tenant movement, why the tenant movement needs you, and how to get involved in tenant organizing where you live!

Speakers

Chicago Union of Tenants

Sponsors

Chicago Union of Tenants

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

Housing Justice

3:00pm CDT

Revolutionary Socialists and the Fight Against War and Authoritarianism

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

Jackson Park A

Organizers from the revolutionary and independent socialist left, from four different cities, share their experiences in helping build the broader anti-Trump movement while fighting for distinct strategies and perspective—based on the need for political independence, a strategic focus on social struggle and mass action, and democratic organizing—to defeat authoritarianism.

Speakers

Ndindi Kitonga

Ndindi Kitonga, a black activist in LA originally from Kenya who is founder of Palms Unhoused Mutual Aid, an abolitionist housing network. She has also been active in BLM and related community organizing.

Bill Mullen

Bill Mullen is a member of Socialist Horizon and the Committee to Defend Tom Alter.

Kirstin Roberts

Kirstin Roberts is a Chicago teacher and socialist activist, long standing member of the CTU and active in May Day Strong Chicago.

Pepper Macias

Pepper Macias is a hotel kitchen worker, UNITE/HERE activist who is part of Unidad Latina en Accion.

Meg

Meg is a grassroots activist organizing in working class neighborhoods of Baltimore for ICE defense, climate justice, and and other political coalitions.

Sponsors

United Left Platform

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

Left Strategy

5:00pm CDT

The False Choice Between Identity Politics and Class Struggle

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

Jackson Park A

Does building mass political coalitions against the right require us to abandon issues specific to minorities of the population? For many centrists and even some on the left, such a sacrifice has become the new common sense. But history and on-the-ground organizing show a left that ignores the differences within the working class will never build power.

Speakers

Michael A. McCarthy

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

Socialist and Marxist Theory

10:00am CDT

The Forgotten History of the Civil Rights Movement’s Fight for Economic Justice—and Why It Matters Today

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

Jackson Park A

Martin Luther King Jr.’s call for a “radical redistribution of political and economic power” offers a way to challenge the growing power and influence of the authoritarian right. Come hear historians in conversation about a lesser-known side of the civil rights movement — and its relevance to fighting Trumpism today.

Speakers

Brian Jones

Brian Jones is the author of Black History Is for Everyone

Nancy MacLean

Nancy MacLean, William H. Chafe Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University and author of Freedom Is Not Enough: The Opening of the American Workplace

Jeanne Theoharis

Jeanne Theoharis, Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York and author of King of the North: Martin Luther King Jr. 's Life of Struggle Outside the South

Elizabeth Todd-Breland

Elizabeth Todd-Breland, Associate Professor of History at the University of Illinois Chicago and co-author with the late Karen Lewis of I Didn't Come Here to Lie: My Life and Education

Sponsors

Hammer & Hope

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

Radical History

12:00pm CDT

Resisting MAHA & Building Environmental & Reproductive Justice

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

Jackson Park A

Gender oppressed people are raising questions about standard reproductive health interventions’ inability to address environmentally induced issues. In response, MAHA is organizing people to reject medical treatment and embrace individualistic “natural remedies.” This session explores how the Left can combat dis/misinformation while addressing environmental racism and reproductive oppression, in service to building a revolutionary alternative.

Speakers

Judith Clerjeune

Judith Clerjeune, (She | Li [Haitian Kreyol ]), moun Fond-Des-Blanc, is a Black Haitian immigrant. Judith has called the South home since moving to the United States in 2004. Judith’s work is grounded in the hope and resolution that we can and must build another world, one free... Read More →

Dr. Sydney Curtis

Dr. Sydney Curtis is a Black feminist scholar, educator, and leader. She contributes relational, spiritual, and Black feminist perspectives in postsecondary education, the nonprofit sector, and community-based organizations by leading programs, publishing critical scholarship, and... Read More →

Abhinaya Narayanan

Abhinaya Narayanan, MD, MPP is a family physician, abolitionist, reproductive justice advocate, and organizer with the People’s Care Collective based in Los Angeles, CA. She received her medical degree from UCLA, Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard, and completed residency... Read More →

Briana Perry

Briana Perry (she/her) is a Black Southern feminist with over a decade of movement building experience in racial justice and reproductive justice. Briana comes to this work as a former teacher, as it was during her time teaching that she became involved in local organizing efforts... Read More →

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

Health Politics & Disability Justice

3:00pm CDT

Organize or Burn: Sewer Socialism for Climate Survival in the 21st Century

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

Jackson Park A

“Sewer socialists” transformed Milwaukee into a thriving working class city a century ago, and today Zohran Mamdani is raising expectations as a socialist mayor of New York City. How are socialists across American cities organizing collective action to fight the climate crisis, defend immigrants, and expand democracy for all?

Speakers

Aber Kawas

Aber Kawas is a Palestinian-American organizer from NYC. She has worked in community and movement organizations fighting for racial and economic justice across NYC and the country since she was a teenager.

Ashik Siddique

Ashik Siddique is national co-chair of Democratic Socialists of America, and has served on DSA's National Political Committee since 2021. He has organized with DSA’s campaign for Bernie in 2020, for campaigns against the climate crisis and for labor rights, with protests at the... Read More →

Cihan Tekay Liu

Cihan Tekay Liu is an organizer with NYC DSA, and lecturer at City College of New York. She served as NYC-DSA’s electoral working group’s recruitment co-chair in 2025, overseeing the recruitment of the slate that won the 2026 primaries.

Kelsea Bond

Kelsea Bond is serving as a member of the Atlanta City Council for District 2 since 2026. They are the first Democratic Socialist of America to be elected to the Atlanta City Council.

Alex Brower

Alex Brower is alderman of District 3 Common Council in Milwaukee, the first open socialist elected to sit in City Hall since 1960, is an advocate for public utilities, tenants rights, and public education, and is a member of Milwaukee DSA.

Sponsors

DSA

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

Climate Justice

5:00pm CDT

Standing Up to the National Security State: Collective Defense against Political Repression

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

Jackson Park A

This panel brings together movement targets of Trump Administration repression and representatives of defense committee from the Minnesota 15, the Michigan 8, the Committee to Defend Tom Alter, and the Prairieland defendants. The panel will reflect the urgent need for a massive national, broad-based defense effort that can push back the regime’s offensive on political rights. The discussion will be followed by an organizing meeting that can involve new forces who can take these campaigns back to local areas and hold meetings, host fundraisers, and systematically seek the support of unions, faith organizations, and community groups.

Speakers

Tom Alter

Tom Alter is a member of Socialist Horizon and an organizer with the Texas State Employees Union. In September 2025 he was fired from his tenured position at Texas State University after speaking at a Socialism conference. He is suing the University.

Yarden Azoulay Katz

Diana Rueda

Diana Rueda is the sister of Prarieland defendant Maricela Rueda and a member of the DFW Support Committee for the Prarieland defendants. The defendants have been sentenced by a federal judge to a combined 450 years in prison for alleged "domestic terrorism."

Treasure Thoreson

Treasure Thoreson is a Minneapolis special education teacher currently facing federal charges of conspiracy for protesting ICE raids.

Sponsors

United Left Platform

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

US Politics

8:00pm CDT

Radical Healthcare Workers and Friends Meet Up

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

Jackson Park A

We all know our healthcare system is rotten at its roots due to its profit centered motive. It can feel isolating working under increasingly precarious conditions with patients' lives in our hands. Patients suffer and we do too. But we must build networks of solidarity because it is only through our collective power that we can win the healthcare system we all deserve. Come meet radical healthcare workers, medical debt abolitionists and disability justice activists to connect, scheme and dream!

Sponsors

Debt Collective’s Healthcare Worker Solidarity Collective

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

Meet-up

10:00am CDT

Creating Emotional and Spiritual Support Groups for Activists

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

Jackson Park A

Kelly Hayes and Tanuja Jagernauth discuss Understory, an emotional and spiritual support group for activists they co-facilitate. Hayes and Jagernauth will also share a toolkit to help others organize their own groups.

Speakers

Atena Danner

Atena O. Danner is a cultural worker who imagines Black liberation, engaged in boundless curiosity. Her poems range from kitchen-table specificity to expansive relatability, covering topics including neurodiversity, human connection, and collective liberation. Atena is also an experienced... Read More →

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 →

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 →

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

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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