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Podcast

Revolutionary Defeat and the Future of Struggle in Syria —and Beyond

Join us for the live stream of a conversation with Syrian writer & former political prisoner Yassin al-Haj Saleh moderated by Wendy Pearlman & Danny Postel. Broadcasting from Haymarket House. This event took place on October 17, 2023. Join us for the livestream of a conversation with Yassin al-Haj Saleh, the leading intellectual voice of the Syrian uprising and one of the key thinkers in the Arab world today, during his first visit ever to the U.S. Among al-Haj Saleh’s nine books is The Impossible Revolution (Haymarket Books, 2017), which makes sense of both the nature of authoritarian domination in Syria and the historic popular struggle to topple it. Moderated by Wendy Pearlman, author of We Crossed a Bridge and it Trembled: Voices from Syria and Danny Postel, co-editor of The Syria Dilemma and The People Reloaded, this dialogue will explore the origins and trajectory of the Syrian uprising, the internal and external forces that thwarted it, what comes next in the quest of emancipatory change, what lessons the Syrian experience might have for other struggles, and what lessons other struggles might have for Syria. This public event is co-sponsored by Northwestern University’s Middle East and North African Studies Program, New Lines Magazine, and Haymarket Books. Speakers: Yassin al-Haj Saleh is the leading intellectual voice of the Syrian uprising and one of the key thinkers in the Arab world today. Born in the city of Raqqa in 1961, he was arrested in 1980 in Aleppo for his membership in a left-wing political organization and spent 16 years in prison. His wife, Samira al-Khalil, was abducted by an armed Islamist group in 2013. He is the author of nine books, including The Impossible Revolution: Making Sense of the Syrian Tragedy (2017) and The Atrocious and its Representation (English edition forthcoming). One of the founders of the bilingual Arabic-English platform Aljumhuriya.net, he writes for a variety of international publications and is a Contributing Writer for New Lines Magazine. He is now based in Berlin. Wendy Pearlman is Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University, where she also holds the Crown Professorship of Middle East Studies and is currently director of the Middle East and North Africa Studies program. She is the author of Occupied Voices: Stories of Everyday Life from the Second Intifada (2003); Violence, Nonviolence, and the Palestinian National Movement (2011); We Crossed A Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria (2017); Triadic Coercion: Israel’s Targeting of States that Host Nonstate Actors (with Boaz Atzili, 2018); and Muzoon: A Syrian Refugee Speaks Out (with Muzoon Almellehan, 2023). Her sixth book, The Home I Worked To Make: Voices from the New Syrian Diaspora, is forthcoming from Liveright Books in 2024. Danny Postel is Politics Editor of New Lines Magazine, an award-winning global affairs publication which the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard says has “built a home for long-form international reporting.” He is the author of Reading “Legitimation Crisis” in Tehran (2006) and co-editor of The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran’s Future (2010), The Syria Dilemma (2013), and Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East (2017). His current book-in-progress, “Critical Solidarity,” explores the legacies of the late international relations theorist, Middle East scholar and internationalist Fred Halliday. This event is co-sponsored by Northwestern University’s Middle East and North African Studies Program, New Lines Magazine, and Haymarket Books. Watch the live event recording: https://youtube.com/live/qfmjwRD_ho4 Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks

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Mar 3, 2026

Stanford 11 on Trial: Defending the Student Movement for Palestine

As the new year begins, the student movement for Palestine is facing its first felony trial for a 2024 demonstration at Stanford University. If convicted of the felonies brought against them, the Stanford 11 face the possibility of over three years in prison and over $300,000 in restitution to Stanford University. On January 9, 2026, opening arguments commenced, marking the beginning of a lengthy trial anticipated to last between two to six weeks.

In recent years we have witnessed the criminalization of dissent ramp up nationwide, threatening both students and everyday people with detention, deportation, and political prosecutions. The chilling effect on our movements has been palpable, raising questions about what it means to act and sacrifice for our principles today. Amidst heightened repression, the US government's increasing impunity at home and abroad, and the genocide in Gaza still unabated by a 'ceasefire'—how can we continue to act in solidarity and defend our movement?

Speakers:

Mahmoud Khalil is a Palestinian student organizer and Columbia graduate student who was abducted from his home and from his then 8-month pregnant wife by ICE agents in March 2025. He spent three months in immigration detention, continuing to speak out from behind bars for Palestine as well as others held alongside him in ICE custody. A judge ordered his release in June 2025. However, Mahmoud's case remains pending: the federal government immediately appealed the decision, and is still fighting to deport him. Since his release, Mahmoud has filed a lawsuit demanding the Trump administration release its communications with the Zionist groups that contributed to his arrest, detention, and attempted deportation.

Germán González is an organizer with Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a fourth year student at Stanford University, and a defendant with the Stanford 11. They are completing a degree in Urban Studies, with hopes of working in local government and continuing his revolutionary organizing.

Hatem Bazian is a longtime Palestinian community activist and academic. He is the co-founder and Professor of Islamic Law and Theology at Zaytuna College, the first accredited Muslim Liberal Arts College in the United States. Professor Bazian is a lecturer in the Departments of Near Eastern and Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies at UC Berkeley. For decades, his leadership and community work have helped nurture and build up the national solidarity movement for Palestine: Professor Bazian was also a founding member of the first Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at UC Berkeley, and he continues to lend his support and guidance as the movement grows.

Loubna Qutami is a Palestinian community organizer and Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian American Studies at UCLA. She is a member of the Palestinian Feminist Collective.

Tori Porell is a senior staff attorney at Palestine Legal. She provides legal advice and advocacy support to activists in the movement for Palestinian liberation on issues ranging from free speech violations, discrimination and disciplinary charges to doxxing, threats, and academic freedom.

This event is organized by Haymarket Books, Stanford 11 Defense Committee, Palestine Legal, Palestinian Youth Movement, Palestinian Feminist Collective, and Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine.


Mar 4, 2026

War in the Caribbean: US Imperialism and the New Monroe Doctrine

The US military build up in the Caribbean and its aggression towards Venezuela are part of the Trump regime’s strategy of renewed American dominance and interventionism in the Western Hemisphere. Join Center for Political Education, W.E.B. Du Bois Movement School for Abolition & Reconstruction, and Haymarket Books for an important conversation on the new “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine and how US imperialism threatens to bring war and economic instability across the region.

Speakers:

Marisol LeBrón is an Associate Professor in Feminist Studies and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research and teaching focus on social inequality, policing, violence, and protest. She is the author of Policing Life and Death: Race, Violence, and Resistance in Puerto Rico (University of California Press, 2019) and Against Muerto Rico: Lessons from the Verano Boricua (Editora Educación Emergente, 2021).

Jorge E. Cuéllar is an interdisciplinary scholar who focuses on the histories, politics, and daily life of modern Central America. At present, he is finishing his first book titled, Everyday Life and Everyday Death in El Salvador (Duke UP), a grounded study of the Central American nation's postwar to "post-postwar" transition. Cuéllar is appointed Assistant Professor of Central American Studies in the Department of Latin American, Latino & Caribbean Studies at Dartmouth College and is a member of the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) Editorial Committee.

Alex Aviña is Associate Professor of History in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at Arizona State University (ASU). His research focuses on twentieth-century Mexico, with an emphasis on revolutionary movements, the Mexican Left, state violence and terrorism, immigration, and the history of narcotics production and trafficking.

This event is sponsored by Haymarket Books, W.E.B. Du Bois Movement School, and Center for Political Education.

Watch the live event recording: https://www.youtube.com/live/GehPn9o3_cQ

Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org

Mar 5, 2026

What We Saw in Chicago: Lessons from the CBP Surge

Join us for a conversation with local organizers about how our community pushed back against attacks on our neighbors from federal border patrol agents last fall.

Over the course of several months, more than 250 Border Patrol agents were flown into Illinois to assist ICE in carrying out warrantless arrests and racially targeted sweeps. Community organizations documented at least 615 people who were unlawfully detained — a number expected to grow as additional cases are reviewed.

Although this particular surge force has since left Illinois, federal officials have made it clear that similar operations are likely to return. That makes it essential to take stock of what happened here, how our communities responded in real time, and what it means for the months ahead.

Speakers include Rey Wences from Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), Antonio Gutierrez from Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD) and Illinois State Senator Celina Villanueva, with a special poetry reading from Juliet DeJesus Alejandre.

This event is cosponsored by ICIRR, OCAD and Haymarket Books.

Watch the live event recording: https://www.youtube.com/live/OJ4Kk4yARb4

Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org

Mar 6, 2026

Engineered Conflict: Structural Violence and the Future of Black Life in Chicago

Join David Omotoso Stovall and Tara Betts as they discuss Stovall's latest book Engineered Conflict: Structural Violence and the Future of Black Life in Chicago. Marginalized communities often become understandably preoccupied with a city’s structured attempt to deem them disposable, making it difficult to see people experiencing the same suffering as potential comrades in struggle. Enemies are manufactured as the result of continued displacement, hyper-segregation, and dispossession. Under these impossible circumstances people are often quicker to punch each other before they identify the enemy as white supremacy and capitalism, creating a society where conflict is engineered.

Examining the long fight of Black people in Chicago to claim their humanity and thrive in a city while facing school closings, the destruction of public housing and oppressive law enforcement, Stovall argues that marginalized communities face unique structural challenges while being blamed for interpersonal conflict and labeled “violent” and deemed disposable. With a novel approach to the question of how state-sanctioned violence and abandonment impacts low-income communities, Engineered Conflict uses examples from Chicago’s recent history to shed light on the politics of disposability through housing instability, criminalization, and school closures. Looking at all three phenomena together allows readers to see how state policies designate some neighborhoods as unviable, where disinvestment furthers a rationale to contain members of these communities.

Looking at the many ways Black communities have resisted state violence and the work of local organizations to address marginalization, Engineered Conflict calls for a powerful movement against the displacement, disinvestment, and disposability of Chicago’s Black population. --------------------------------------------------------------

Speakers:

David Omotoso Stovall is a professor in the Department of Black Studies and Criminology, Law & Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the author of Born Out of Struggle: Critical Race Theory, School Creation and the Politics of Interruption.

Tara Betts is the author of Refuse to Disappear, Break the Habit, and Arc & Hue. She is a professor in the Peace, Conflict Studies, and Social Justice program at DePaul University and part of the faculty at the Solstice MFA program at Lasell University. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including This is the Honey, Choice Words, and The Overturning. Her short stories and essays have also appeared in numerous publications, including Octavia's Brood, Red Line: Chicago Horror Stories, The Whiskey of Our Discontent, and The Breakbeat Poets.

Watch the live event recording: https://www.youtube.com/live/ZttfgSzf46I

Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org

Mar 9, 2026

What Justice on a Burning Planet? The Left and the Climate Emergency

It's clear, at this late hour of the climate crisis, that nothing short of revolution in some form can salvage the possibility of global justice. It's equally clear that a mere climate or climate-justice movement can't do this alone. What's required is not simply a more powerful "climate left" but a far more powerful left--a resurgent, revolutionary left--for which the total defeat of fascism and of fossil capital are understood as inseparable. Everything the left has fought for is now at stake.

Join Haymarket Books and Verso Books for an urgent conversation about climate catastrophe and the left, featuring:

Andreas Malm and Wim Carton, co-authors of The Long Heat: Climate Politics When It's Too Late

Thea Riofrancos, author of Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism

Host: Wen Stephenson, climate-justice correspondent for The Nation and author of Learning to Live in the Dark: Essays in a Time of Catastrophe

Speakers:

Wim Carton is Associate Professor of Sustainability Science at Lund University, Sweden. He's the author of over 20 academic articles and book chapters on climate politics. His work has appeared in top journals such as Nature Climate Change, WIRES Climate Change and Antipode. His latest book, with Andreas Malm, is The Long Heat.

Andreas Malm is Associate Professor of Human Ecology at Lund University, Sweden. He is the author of several acclaimed books, such as, with the Zetkin Collective, White Skin, Black Fuel: On the Danger of Fossil Fascism. His book How to Blow Up a Pipeline is an international bestseller and has been turned into a feature film. His latest book, with Wim Carton, is The Long Heat.

Thea Riofrancos is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Providence College, a Strategic Co-Director of the Climate and Community Institute, and a fellow at the Transnational Institute. Her research focuses on resource extraction, renewable energy, climate change, the global lithium sector, green technologies, social movements, and the Latin American left. She is the author of Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism (W.W. Norton, 2025) and Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador (Duke University Press, 2020), and the coauthor of A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal (Verso Books, 2019). Her publications have appeared in scholarly journals such as Global Environmental Politics, World Politics, and Perspectives on Politics, as well as in media outlets including The New York Times, Financial Times, Foreign Policy, n+1, Dissent, and more.

Wen Stephenson is the climate-justice correspondent for The Nation and a frequent contributor to The Baffler.. An independent journalist, essayist, and activist, he is the author of, most recently, Learning to Live in the Dark: Essays in a Time of Catastrophe (Haymarket, 2025). His previous book, What We're Fighting for Now Is Each Other (Beacon, 2015), is a personal account of the pivotal early years of the US climate-justice movement. He has written for many publications, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, Slate, The Boston Globe, Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. In 2010, he left his career in mainstream media and has since covered, engaged in, and helped organize nonviolent resistance to fossil capital.

This event is sponsored by Haymarket Books and Verso Books.

Watch the live event recording: https://www.youtube.com/live/ppW3UEaFGA0

Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org

Mar 10, 2026

Harry Haywood's Negro Liberation

Join Dr. Rebecca Hall and Kyle T. Mays as they discuss and celebrate the new edition of Negro Liberation, a major work in the Black Communist tradition by worker-intellectual Harry Haywood.

In 1948, Harry Haywood, a leading member of the Communist Party USA, published Negro Liberation, a pathbreaking book that lays out his argument that the Black Belt South constitutes a distinct nation and an internal colony of U.S. imperialism. Applying a Marxist-Leninist lens to questions of nationalism, colonialism, and land distribution, Haywood lays out the dire stakes of Jim Crow violence and oppression and critiques the emptiness and insufficiency of liberal solutions. Along the way, he makes a powerful case for Black self-determination.

Framed by Rebecca Hall’s moving meditation on her father’s legacy and Charisse Burden-Stelly’s clear-eyed case for how Haywood reveals the contradiction between ruling-class politics and Black liberation today, this new edition of Negro Liberation is a must-read for anyone fighting against oppression.

Order the book here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2616-negro-liberation

More on Wake Productions: https://www.rebhallphd.org/

Speakers:

Rebecca Hall, JD PhD is an independent scholar, activist, and educator. Her paternal grandparents were born enslaved and she is the daughter of Harry Haywood. Dr. Hall writes and publishes on the history of race, gender, law, and resistance as well as articles on climate justice and intersectional feminist theory. She is a graduate of Swarthmore College, Berkeley Law, and University of Santa Cruz. Her most recent book, Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts (Simon & Schuster, 2021) has won multiple awards, and was a finalist for the N.A.A.C.P. Image Awards and the Pen America Open Book Award. Wake has been listed as a Best Book of 2021 by NPR and The Washington Post, Forbes, Ms. Magazine, and has been released in eight languages. She has been a fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute (2022-23) The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and The Stanford Humanities Center 2023-24). Her work has been supported by numerous grants and fellowships.

Kyle T. Mays (he/him) is an Afro-Indigenous (Saginaw Chippewa) writer and scholar. He is a Professor of African American Studies, American Indian Studies, and History and the Associate Vice Provost of Inclusive Excellence at UCLA. In 2024 he was a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of five books, including When We Are Kin: The History and Future of Afro-Indigenous Solidarity (Haymarket, 2026), Rethinking the Red Power Movement with Sam Hitchmough (Routledge, 2024), City of Dispossessions: Indigenous Peoples, African Americans, and the Creation of Modern Detroit (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022), An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States (Beacon Press, 2021), and Hip Hop Beats, Indigenous Rhymes: Modernity and Hip Hop in Indigenous North America (SUNY Press, 2018).

Watch the live event recording: https://www.youtube.com/live/pNL0AZDbuBE

Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org