Podcast Series
Socialism Conference
The Socialism Conference is a four-day conference bringing together thousands of socialists and radical activists from around the country to take part in discussions about social movements, Marxism, abolition, working-class history, and the debates and strategies for organizing today. Every year, the Socialism conference aims to be a place where activists can share lessons from their struggles—from the BDS campaign for Palestine to the fight for gender liberation, from strike organizing and support to the struggle to stop the destruction of the planet, the fight against racism, and more. Socialism 2025 took place in Chicago over July 4th weekend, July 3-6. Recordings from many sessions at Socialism 2025 will be released here. Socialism 2026 will take place in Chicago, September 4-7, 2026. Learn more: socialismconference.org
Episodes
Dec 20, 2023
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Divesting From Despair: Building a Liberatory Movement Media Ecosystem
Daniel Kisslinger, Damon WIlliams, Bill Ayers, and Eva Nagao speak in this session recorded at Socialism 2023. This session was sponsored by Respair Media.
https://www.respairmedia.com
The session will feature clips from a variety of media projects that exemplify this humanizing radical movement media approach, and connect each project to the larger framework of media as a source of activating people to participate in hands-on social movement work.
Learn more about the Socialism Conference at www.socialismconference.org.
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow Haymarket on Soundcloud for regular event recordings, book talks, political analyses and poetry readings: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Dec 19, 2023
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The Abolitionist International
brian bean speaks in this session recorded at Socialism 2023. This session was sponsored by Rampant Magazine.
https://rampantmag.com
Today’s global capitalism is underpinned by the competition of many states, each of which deploys expanding carceral violence through prisons, borders, and policing. Consequently, the abolitionist project for liberation has been and must be an international one. This session will highlight revolutionary movements to abolish the police and capitalist states spanning four continents, from Egypt to Ireland to Mexico to Russia and beyond, pointing toward the glimmers of an Abolitionist International.
Learn more about the Socialism Conference at www.socialismconference.org.
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow Haymarket on Soundcloud for regular event recordings, book talks, political analyses and poetry readings: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Dec 19, 2023
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Building City-Wide Tenants Unions: Strategies from the Autonomous Tenants Union Network
Esteban Girón, Michael Hollingsworth, Rose Lenehan, Hayden Harwood, and Joshua Taylor speak in this session recorded at Socialism 2023. This session was sponsored by Autonomous Tenants Union Network.
https://atun-rsia.org
Tenant organizers from several different autonomous (member-funded and member-run) tenants unions across the country will discuss how they started their organizations and the strategies they have used to move from small-scale campaigns in individual buildings towards militant and enduring regional tenant organizations.
Learn more about the Socialism Conference at www.socialismconference.org.
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow Haymarket on Soundcloud for regular event recordings, book talks, political analyses and poetry readings: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Dec 19, 2023
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The Longer Road To A New Green Deal
Elizabeth Oh, Johanna Bozuwa, Matt Haugen, and Grayson Flood speak in this session recorded at Socialism 2023. This session was sponsored by DSA.
https://www.dsausa.org
The climate crisis intensifies, but the prospects for transformative national legislation are grim. How do we reclaim public ownership and win clean public power at the state and city levels? The Build Public Renewables Act in New York outlines a possible pathway to win and sets the stage for public power, with coordination between socialist electeds and a mobilized base.
Learn more about the Socialism Conference at www.socialismconference.org.
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow Haymarket on Soundcloud for regular event recordings, book talks, political analyses and poetry readings: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Dec 18, 2023
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Neither Washington Nor Beijing: International Solidarity Against Inter-Imperial Rivalry
Zhang Mazi, Bonnie Jin, Dennis Kosuth, and Kang Yang speak in this session recorded at Socialism 2023. This session was sponsored by
The rivalry between the US and China lies at the heart of world imperialism. The US is determined to maintain its dominance, while China aims to claim its status a great power. This panel will argue that the international left must build international solidarity among workers and oppressed peoples against both powers and their intensifying conflict.
Learn more about the Socialism Conference at www.socialismconference.org.
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow Haymarket on Soundcloud for regular event recordings, book talks, political analyses and poetry readings: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Dec 18, 2023
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Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement
Barbara Ransby and Asha Ransby-Sporn speak in this session recorded at Socialism 2023.
Ella Baker (1903-1986) was a grassroots organizer who shunned the spotlight in favor of vital behind-the-scenes work that helped power the Black freedom struggle. What not everyone knows is that she was also a radical with socialist politics. Barbara Ransby discusses Baker's life and her political contributions, many of which hold lessons for organizers struggling for justice today.
Learn more about the Socialism Conference at www.socialismconference.org.
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow Haymarket on Soundcloud for regular event recordings, book talks, political analyses and poetry readings: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Dec 18, 2023
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Walter Rodney: A Revolutionary For Our Time
Leo Zeilig and Robert Cuffy speak in this session recorded at Socialism 2023. This session was sponsored by Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus.
https://www.dsausa.org/working-groups/afrosocialists-and-socialists-of-color-caucus
In recent years, Guyanese revolutionary Walter Rodney and his contributions to Marxist thought, history and political organizing have reached a larger audience. Rodney's books and political work have inspired a new generation of political activists in the Black Lives Matter movement, and in research and activism across Africa. This panel will bring together Robert Cuffy and Leo Zeilig to discuss the life, politics and relevance of Rodney's ideas today.
Learn more about the Socialism Conference at www.socialismconference.org.
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow Haymarket on Soundcloud for regular event recordings, book talks, political analyses and poetry readings: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Dec 16, 2023
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Lenin: Catastrophe and Revolution
Paul Le Blanc, Promise Li, and Cliff Connolly speak in this session recorded at Socialism 2023. This session was sponsored by Pluto Press.
https://www.plutobooks.com
Over the last century, the legacy of Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin has been fiercely contested. This discussion with acclaimed scholar of communist history Paul Le Blanc presents a modern take on the revolutionary icon, with an emphasis on the powerful democracy and collective struggles behind much of Lenin’s political thought.
Learn more about the Socialism Conference at www.socialismconference.org.
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow Haymarket on Soundcloud for regular event recordings, book talks, political analyses and poetry readings: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Dec 16, 2023
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Popular Science Fiction and Left Political Imaginations
Adam Kotsko, David K. Seitz, and Steven W. Thrasher speak in this session recorded at Socialism 2023.
What popular visions of emancipatory futures might the Left wrest from commercial science fiction mass entertainment? This session will investigate the contradictions and possibilities of Hollywood allegory for critiquing racial capitalism, heteropatriarchy, and U.S. empire as well as imagining liberatory alternatives.
Learn more about the Socialism Conference at www.socialismconference.org.
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow Haymarket on Soundcloud for regular event recordings, book talks, political analyses and poetry readings: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Dec 16, 2023
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The Far Right, Border Abolition, and Anti-fascism in Crisis
Brendan O'Connor speaks in this session recorded at Socialism 2023.
Echoing Angela Davis: it is not enough to be non-fascist; one must be anti-fascist. But what does it mean to be an anti-fascist in practice today? The forces of revanchism are not static, but rather shift and mutate: conjuring a moral panic here, inciting terror there. What might it take to stop reacting to reaction and begin building towards abolition?
Learn more about the Socialism Conference at www.socialismconference.org.
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow Haymarket on Soundcloud for regular event recordings, book talks, political analyses and poetry readings: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks