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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

All Seasons Season 0
Nov 17, 2022
Season 0 Episode 0

Building Debtor Power in the Age of Finance

René Christian Moya, Lindsey Muniak, and Ami Schneider speak in this session recorded at Socialism 2022. This session was sponsored by the Debt Collective. https://debtcollective.org As wealth continues to concentrate at the top, people are increasingly forced into debt to make ends meet. What could a debtors movement achieve in our financialized economy? This session will consider recent economic trends, examine different forms of household debt and their interrelation, and explore how indebtedness creates the conditions for new forms of political organization. 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
Nov 15, 2022
Season 0 Episode 0

The ABCs of Marxism

Phil Gasper speaks in this session recorded at Socialism 2022. This talk will explain key Marxist ideas about class, the state, economic crises, and revolution with the aim of showing how they remain relevant for socialists in the 21st century. The emphasis will be on Marxism as a method that requires creative application to the problems we face 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
Nov 15, 2022
Season 0 Episode 0

Monsters Against Moralism: The Politics of Our Golden Age of Horror

John McDonald speaks in this session recorded at Socialism 2022. Moralism has been the life blood of the horror genre for as long as there have been boogey-men in hockey masks stalking around murdering teenagers. And yet, on today's blood splattered celluloid, cheap morality tales have mostly been replaced by overt political/social anxieties. What do the rise of Family Horror, social thrillers, and anti-moralist monsters say about our cultural moment? 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
Nov 10, 2022
Season 0 Episode 0

Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else)

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò speaks in this session recorded at Socialism 2022. “Identity politics” continues to polarize public discourse, but the problem is not with identity politics itself. In this session, Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò will discuss how this and other radical concepts can be stripped of their political substance and liberatory potential by becoming the victim of elite capture—deployed by political, social, and economic elites in the service of their own interests. 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
Nov 10, 2022
Season 0 Episode 0

Socialist Politics in Tenant Organizing

Lizette Montes, Mason Andrew Kilpatrick, and Sabrina Davis speak in this session recorded at Socialism 2022. This session was sponsored by Solidarity, CLR James Forum for Socialist Organizing, and Against the Current. https://solidarity-us.org, https://againstthecurrent.org. *Note: Apologies for the audio quality for some segments of this recording. We included the poor-quality segments in the interests of keeping a complete recording that is publicly accessible. A dialogue among tenant organizers about connecting their grassroots project to building socialist consciousness/organization. Focus especially on strategies for overcoming shame/self-blame, developing members' capacities for engaging in difficult conversations around oppression, cohering community across differences in the political worldviews/cultural differences/languages that individuals bring into the organization, building confidence in the power of self-organization, 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
Nov 10, 2022
Season 0 Episode 0

Racial Capitalism, Deaths of Despair and the Black Working Class in the Post-Civil Rights Era

Donna Murch speaks in this session recorded at Socialism 2022. This talk will focus on the fate of Black working class people in the 1970s through the present, as a way to challenge mainstream understanding of the successes of the civil rights movement. While greater mobility and access became possible for a segment of black workers (especially in the public sector), targeted criminalization, the overlapping wars on drugs and gangs, deindustrialization and the neoliberal turn had devastating effects for the Black majority. 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
Nov 9, 2022
Season 0 Episode 0

Social Resistance in Contemporary China

Eli Friedman, Lu Yao, and Eric Chen speak in this session recorded at Socialism 2022. Although the space for explicitly leftist movements has become increasingly constrained in China in recent years, important developments have occurred. This panel will analyze linkages between three key areas of social oppression and resistance: labor, gender, and 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
Nov 9, 2022
Season 0 Episode 0

Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom

Derecka Purnell and Thomas Mariadason speak in this session recorded at Socialism 2022. The 2020 uprisings against police violence opened a new horizon for many people. In this session, Derecka Purnell details how multi-racial social movements rooted in rebellion, risk-taking, and revolutionary love pushed her and a generation of activists toward abolition, and what the new systems that work to address the root causes of violence and harm in society could do. 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
Nov 9, 2022
Season 0 Episode 0

Municipal Socialism in the US Midwest

Carlos Ramirez-Rosa and Anthony Joel Quezada speak in this session recorded at Socialism 2022. This session was sponsored by In These Times. https://inthesetimes.com Socialist electeds will discuss municipal socialism in the U.S. Midwest – from socialists elected to local office in the early 20th century to their current work as members of the Chicago City Council combating neoliberalism and fighting for social rights. 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
Nov 8, 2022
Season 0 Episode 0

Abortion Struggles Across the World

Martyna Jałoszyńska, Rayito Rocha, Natalia Tylim, and Lexi McMenamin speak in this session recorded at Socialism 2022. At this meeting we'll get an in depth look at the movements for abortion in Poland and Argentina, plus greetings from the Mexican movement. These struggles are ripe with lessons for a new generation of socialist feminists in the US coming to terms with why and how we have been losing so much ground, but more importantly, what inspiration we can draw to reverse that. 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