Socialism 2026: Full Schedule

2:30pm CDT

Mother Jones and the Early Socialist Movement: Lessons for Today

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

Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, one of the Socialist Party's most successful organizers, a founder of the Industrial Workers of the World and the most successful labor organizer of the early 20th century constantly turned to her socialist beliefs in constructing innovative organizing strategies and tactics. What lessons does she leave us for struggle today?

Speakers

Rosemary Feurer

Rosemary Feurer is Distinguished Professor of History at Northern Illinois University specializing in labor and social movements. A key organizer in the effort to successfully organize the faculty at her university, Feurer was a founding member of DSA and is the Director of the Mother... Read More →

Joseph Rathke

Joe Rathke is a PhD student in labor history at the University of Chicago. He was a lead organizer in the successful effort to organize the 3000 member Graduate Students United-UE Local 1103, on the bargaining team for the groundbreaking first contract and is serving his second term... Read More →

Sponsors

Mother Jones Heritage Project

Friday September 4, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm CDT
Jackson Park D

Radical History

4:30pm CDT

Abolition Judaism: The Revolutionary Possiblities of Diaspora

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

Jackson Park D

Everyone is made in the image of the divine—even (maybe especial)y) when you don't believe in God, or aren't sure. To take this seriously, to explore ira imication for a revolutionary horizon - we are making Abolition Judaism, continuing the proud tradition finding spiritual sustenance for our solidarity in our religious practice. Come co-create it, and hear what we are learning about sifting through the ashes of the old.

Speakers

Rabbi Andrue Kahn

Rabbi Andy Kahn (he/they) is a Brooklyn-based rabbi and the executive director of the American Council for Judaism (ACJ). The ACJ was founded in 1942 to uphold Reform Judaism as a tradition dedicated to universal ethics and justice at a time when many Jewish institutions began centering... Read More →

Dania Rajendra

Dania Rajendra (she/her), an organizer and a writer, has worked at the intersection of racial and economic justice for twenty-five years. She is now the interim managing director of the In Our Name Fund and works with the American Council on Judaism. Dania was the founding director of Athena and has worked in unions, worker centers, academia, social enterprise, philanthropy, think tanks, and the arts. Her career-long commitment is to thinking and working across boundaries, disciplin... Read More →

Benjamin Balthaser

Benjamin Balthaser's (he/him) critical and creative work explores the connections among radical U.S. social movements, racial and class formation, internationalism, and culture. He is the author of Citizens of the Whole World: Anti-Zionism and the Cultures of the American Jewish... Read More →

Maurice BP-Weeks Balthazar

Maurice BP-Weeks (he/him) is a distinguished corporate campaigner, organizer, and advocate for economic and racial justice. Co-founder and former Co-Executive Director of The Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE), Maurice has collaborated with community organizations, labor... Read More →

Sponsors

JVP

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

Religion & Spirituality

10:00am CDT

Gender and Accumulation

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

Jackson Park D

Marxist historians note that “primitive” or “original” accumulation preceded capitalism. This early concentration of wealth depended on the theft of common lands, colonization, slavery, and the displacement of Indigenous peoples. It also required the imposition of a modern gender order. This presentation traces the role of gender discipline in both original accumulation and later moments of intensified capitalist accumulation.

Speakers

Eric Maroney

Eric Maroney is a socialist writer and member of the Tempest Collective. His first book, tentatively titled The Anti-trans Turn, is forthcoming from Haymarket Books.

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

Gender-Sexuality-Liberation

12:00pm CDT

Che’s “New Man” and The Bodhisattva Revolutionary

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

Jackson Park D

This panel will examine Che Guevara's concept of the "New Socialist Man" (person) and argue for the necessity of cultivating a revolutionary subjectivity through struggle. Using the lens of Buddhist meditation, it will explore how we can elevate consciousness through love, interdependence, and service to others in the world--creating a truly communist subjectivity in the process.

Speakers

Breht O’Shea

Breht is the host of Rev Left Radio, Co-Host of the Red Menace podcast, author of an upcoming book put out by the left wing publisher Iskra Books titled "A Letter to Young Revolutionaries", a founding member of Socialist Night School (a community based political education program... Read More →

Sponsors

Rev Left Radio

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

Radical History

3:00pm CDT

How to Close a Camp: Dispatches from the Fight Against Immigrant Detention

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

Jackson Park D

Masked federal agents are kidnapping and killing our neighbors, on the streets and behind the bars of hundreds of detention centers across the country. In spite of the decades-long growth of immigrant detention, communities have been fighting back against camps—and winning. Join award-winning journalist and translator John Washington and community advocate Johannes Favi as they discuss the community-led fights to shut down these camps.

Speakers

John Washington

John Washington is a journalist covering the border, climate change, democracy, and more. He has written for The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Nation, The Intercept, and other outlets. He is the author of The Case for Open Borders and The Dispossessed: A Story of Asylum... Read More →

Johannes Favi

Johannes Favi is a nationally recognized community leader, human rights advocate, and founder of Caged Dreams, a nonprofit organization advancing healing, leadership, and educational opportunity for immigrant communities. His work bridges lived experience, public policy, and community engagement... Read More →

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

Migrant Justice

5:00pm CDT

Fighting the Surveillance Apparatus: Connecting ALPRs to Larger Networks of Policing & How to Build Past Them

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

Jackson Park D

Panel discussion to contextualize the current anti-surveillance organizing landscape & build momentum towards utilizing local budget fights to take back resources currently going to policing/surveillance. Afterwards facilitators will lead a workshop so folks can connect across regions and build towards an anti-alpr or budget campaign.

Speakers

Austin Kral

Austin Kral (he/him) is an abolitionist organizer and geographer based in Atlanta. He is a member of Southerners Against Surveillance Systems & Infrastructure and the Atlanta Abolition Research Collective.

Tynetta Hill-Muhammad

Tynetta Hill-Muhammad (they/them) is an MPH candidate in the Community Health Sciences division at the School of Public Health and works on projects centered on policy and public health initiatives that aim to create meaningful impacts for Black, queer, and women communities, in particular... Read More →

Navjot Heer

Navjot Heer (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist and organizer of south asian-panjabi immigrant descent whose work spans architecture, urban planning, design, oral history, and more. they have supported local and national abolitionist campaigns, such as stop shotspotter in chicago... Read More →

nat palmer

Breanna Champion

Sponsors

Lucy Parsons Lab

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

Abolition

10:00am CDT

Fighting for Trans Liberation in the Midwest: Organizing Under Hostile State Governments

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

Jackson Park D

As Midwestern states escalate attacks on transgender people, organizers are building networks of resistance and care. This panel explores strategies for fighting back in hostile political environments—through coalition building, local organizing, and community infrastructure—and asks what it will take to win real liberation.

Speakers

Colleen McRoberts

Dr. Emerson Cram

Dr. Emerson Cram is a public educator & community storyteller located in Iowa City, Iowa. Their research, teaching, and advocacy focus on historical linkages between disability, sexuality, and race in environmental planning, and how stories of the past get in the way of cultural... Read More →

V Fixmer-Oraiz

V is the first transgender County Supervisor in Iowa. While they built their first campaign around inclusive economic development, V has found themselves working to advance human rights and better protect LGBTQ+ indivuals while championing racial and social justice.

Rev. Sean McRoberts

Sean is an interfaith leader in Iowa who withdrew from their denomination in 2018 due to the tension of being a trans person and religous leader in a homophobic denomination. They are now the Director of Operations and Development at Sacred Collective, "a place of belonging for spiritual... Read More →

Mandi Remington

Mandi Remington is a Johnson County Supervisor and organizer in Iowa working on trans rights and reproductive justice. A former Medicaid recipient and parent of transgender youth, she also organizes around healthcare and basic needs while working to expand community-based public safety... Read More →

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

Gender-Sexuality-Liberation

12:00pm CDT

Rosa Luxemburg and Frantz Fanon on Imperialism—Its Lessons for Today

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

Jackson Park D

While Luxemburg and Fanon are rarely discussed together, placing them in dialogue provides important insights into how anti-imperialist struggles relate to efforts to develop alternatives to capitalism. Both viewed imperialism as a global system that was integral to racialized capitalism, and their perspectives on how to overcome both speak to today’s challenges.

Speakers

Alex Adamson

Alex Adamson focuses on decolonial philosophy, Marxism, and queer, trans, and feminist philosophy. He is a community organizer in the Greater Boston area and currently working on a co-authored book with Juliana Gleeson titled Dyke Dialectics. Recent and forthcoming publications include... Read More →

Peter Hudis

Peter Hudis is the general editor of The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg, of which six volumes have appeared so far, and is co-editor of The Rosa Luxemburg Reader. He is author of Frantz Fanon, Philosopher of the Barricades, Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism, and... Read More →

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.

Sponsors

International Marxist-Humanist Organization

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

Socialist and Marxist Theory

10:00am CDT

The Roots of Punishment, The Seeds of Abolition: Organizing Against State Violence From the Ground Up

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

Jackson Park D

This panel examines the throughline from slavery, lynching, and incarceration to the modern death penalty. Featuring organizers working across the South, it centers impacted leadership, abolitionist strategy, coalition building, and collective care. Participants will leave with historical framing and practical tools to build durable movements against state violence.

Speakers

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