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 15, 2023
Season 0
Episode 0
The Role of Revolutionary Councils in the Kurdish Struggle
Saadat Hashamiyan and Sozan Savehilaghi speak in this session recorded at Socialism 2023.
A panel presentation and discussion led by multi-generational Marxist/anti-capitalist Kurdish feminists on what the Kurdish Freedom Movement can teach us about international organizing and what revolutionary neighborhood/community councils can teach us about liberatory governance. The presentation will thread together regional historical context, reflections on movement organizing and the role of decentralized local governance as experiment and practice within Kurdish peoples' resistance movements.
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 15, 2023
Season 0
Episode 0
Understanding the IPO Movement in Chicago: New Models of Organizing
Simon Swartzman and Sandra Puebla speak in this session recorded at Socialism 2023. This session was sponsored by 33rd Ward Working Families.
https://www.workingfamilies33.org
A third straight election expanded both socialist and progressive blocs on Chicago’s city council, and elected a Black, progressive union organizer as mayor. The balance has shifted towards working class organizations, including local Independent Political Organizations (IPOs). What are IPOs? What can we learn from their successes and challenges? Discuss with IPO organizers from Chicago’s “Red Kedzie Corridor.”
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 14, 2023
Season 0
Episode 0
Enemies to Lovers: The Long Relationship Between Nazism and Silicon Valley w/ Malcolm Harris
Malcolm Harris speaks in this session recorded at Socialism 2023. This session was sponsored by The New Inquiry.
https://thenewinquiry.com
Silicon Valley is commonly described as a recent phenomenon, a product of postwar defense spending, neoliberalism, or even the contemporary zero-interest rate policy. Drawing on his book Palo Alto, Malcolm Harris recasts the SF Bay as a center for the world-capitalist epoch, with implications for today’s struggles.
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 14, 2023
Season 0
Episode 0
Sex Work, Policing And Border Abolition
Harsha Walia, Chanelle Gallant, Elene Lam, and Robyn Maynard speak in this session recorded at Socialism 2023. This session was sponsored by Butterfly and Red Canary Song.
https://www.butterflysw.org
https://www.redcanarysong.net
For over a century, Western states have scapegoated Asian migrant sex working women as “temptations” or victims to justify tighter borders, anti-immigrant restrictions and more policing–yet these workers have been left out of social movements. We explore how solidarity with migrant sex workers can strengthen movements for migrant justice, and the abolition of police, prisons, borders and racial capitalism.
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 14, 2023
Season 0
Episode 0
Battleground Higher Ed: Strikes and Labor Organizing at Universities
Steven Lazarov, Donna Murch, and Adam Cooper speak in this session recorded at Socialism 2023.
Labor organizing and even strikes in higher ed have been a prominent feature of recent labor upsurges more broadly. Strikes at Rutgers and the University of California system in the last year featured massive numbers and innovative tactics. This session will explore the significance of recent higher ed labor organizing in several contexts and the impact on future struggles in higher education.
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 9, 2023
Season 0
Episode 0
Resisting Russian Imperialism: Ukraine’s Struggle for Self-Determination
Ilya Budraitskis, Hanna Perekhoda, and Denys Bondar speak in this session recorded at Socialism 2023.
In a brazen act of imperialist aggression, Russia attempted to conquer Ukraine. But Ukrainians stopped them in their tracks, mounting a mass military and civilian resistance. Ukrainian socialists Denys Bondar and Hanna Perkhoda and Russian socialist Ilya Budraitskis will analyze the nature of the war and argue for the left to support Ukraine’s struggle for self-determination and a progressive reconstruction of their country.
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 9, 2023
Season 0
Episode 0
Building a Democratic Rank-and-file Caucus in the UAW
Andrew Bergman and Judy Wraight speak in this session recorded at Socialism 2023.
Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD), the rank-and-file caucus in the United Auto Workers (UAW), made history by challenging long-entrenched business unionists and winning the campaign for top UAW leadership. With a possible strike looming at the Big Three automakers (Ford, GM, Chrysler), UAWD members — newly elected leaders and rank and file — speak about their organizing for militant unionism and how building democratic caucuses can politicize union decision-making and advance socialist strategy.
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 9, 2023
Season 0
Episode 0
The Conspiracy is Capitalism with Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor speak in this session recorded at Socialism 2023.
Join renowned author Naomi Klein for an exploration of our surreal moment in history—with politics plagued by conspiracy theories, anti-vaxxers, and demagogue hucksters—and what the right’s uncanny mirror world means for the left’s analysis and strategy.
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 8, 2023
Season 0
Episode 0
Organizing Tenants: Lessons from the Field
Zafiro Patino, Frances Amador, Cheryl Looney, Eric Kobesak, and René Christian Moya speak in this session recorded at Socialism 2023. This session was sponsored by Solidarity.
https://solidarity-us.org
In this workshop, City Life/Vida Urbana, KC Tenants and Los Angeles Tenants Union will provide hands-on experiences about what it takes to build tenant power. We will focus on two questions: First, how do tenant organizers form the deep relationships that sustain activism over the long haul? Second, how do we organize with poor and working class folks across the many divisions that keep working-class communities apart and undermine our power.
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 8, 2023
Season 0
Episode 0
Abolishing the Death Penalty: Lessons from Illinois
Renaldo Hudson, Alice Kim, and Damon Williams speak in this session recorded at Socialism 2023.
Abolition of the death penalty in Illinois in 2011 was the result of decades of organizing and mobilizing by grassroots groups, and most important, the intrepid work of Death Row activists themselves as well as their families. Join us to discuss how an abolitionist movement was built step by step as various campaigns and organizations came together to defeat a thoroughly racist system, judicial corruption, and police violence, even while the struggle continues to end “death by incarceration.”
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