Socialism 2025: Full Schedule

4:30pm CDT

Ukraine Betrayed: Trump, Putin and the Struggle for Self-Determination

Thursday July 3, 2025 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT

Trump’s political alignment with Russia’s Vladimir Putin is reshaping international politics while posing a serious threat to the Ukrainian people’s resistance to colonial domination and occupation. This panel will discuss how we can generate further solidarity with Ukraine and other ongoing struggles for self-determination given this global turning point.

Speakers

Bill Fletcher Jr.

Bill Fletcher Jr., bill is former president of TransAfrica Forum, Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies, and co-author (with Peter Agard) of ‘The Indispensable Ally: Black Workers and the Formation of the CIO'.

Denys Bondar

Denys Bondar, a native of Ukraine, is a professor of physics at Tulane University and is a member of Ukrainian socialist group, Sotsialnyi Rukh.

Elias Seidel

Elias Seidel is a translator, artist, and socialist with experience on both the US and Russian left. Most recently, he has translated for Posle, Feminist Anti-War Resistance, and The February Journal, and appeared on Rabkor and the online roundtable “Inside the Aggressor.”

Sponsors

Ukraine Solidarity Network-U.S.

Thursday July 3, 2025 4:30pm - 6:00pm CDT
TBA

Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism

10:00am CDT

Bottom Up for Liberation: An Anti-Imperialist Strategy for our Movement

Friday July 4, 2025 10:00am - 11:30am CDT

TBA

We are an emerging cadre formation of social movement leftists, growing out of the LeftRoots process. Too often internationalism is an obligatory footnote to local and electoral struggles--but for us, anti-imperialism is essential to our daily and long-term work to win ecofeminist socialism, from our communities to the world.

Speakers

Sal Ami

Rebecca John

Carl Redwood

Sara Roschdi

Sponsors

Bottom Up for Liberation

Friday July 4, 2025 10:00am - 11:30am CDT
TBA

Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism

3:00pm CDT

An Injury To One Is An Injury To All: Intergenerational Reflections on International Solidarity

Friday July 4, 2025 3:00pm - 4:30pm CDT

TBA

This workshop will offer an intergenerational conversation and reflection on international solidarity. Speakers ranging from 60s and 70s activists to present day freedom fighters will highlight what solidarity looked like in the days of the anti-Vietnam war movement and Black Power, why this solidarity declined after 1990, and consider how the current resurgence of support for Palestinian freedom and rebellions of migrants and incarcerated individuals can contribute to a global left front against fascism.

Moderators

Mon Mohapatra

Mon Mohapatra (she/they) is a writer, organizer and artist originally from India, based on Canarsee Land (NYC) whose work involves building capacity for abolitionist organizing through political education, participatory research, and direct action. In particular, her work focuses... Read More →

Speakers

Safear Ness

Safear Ness (they/them) is a formerly incarcerated abolitionist, released from Pennsylvania State Prison in 2023. Their lineage is traced through Indigenous peoples (Apache Chiricahua), Spanish colonizers, and white settlers. They still organize against the PIC with incarcerated comrades... Read More →

Bill Ayers

Bill Ayers is the author, most recently, of When Freedom is the Question...

James Kilgore

James Kilgore is a Building Community Power Fellow at Community Justice Exchange. He is an activist and writer based in Urbana IL. He is the author of seven books, including the award-winning Understanding Mass Incarceration. He lived in Southern Africa for 18 years where he worked... Read More →

Dawn Harrington

Dawn Harrington, National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls & International Network of Formerly Incarcerated Women.

Sponsors

Community Justice Exchange

Friday July 4, 2025 3:00pm - 4:30pm CDT
TBA

Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism

5:00pm CDT

Reviving the Bandung Spirit: Why Anti-Imperialism Still Matters

Friday July 4, 2025 5:00pm - 6:30pm CDT

TBA

As U.S. empire decays and the world order becomes increasingly multipolar, internationalist solidarity is more important than ever before. In this talk, Pranay Somayajula will discuss the worldmaking legacy of the Third Worldist movement, and argue for the re-centering of genuine anti-imperialism as a core pillar of the Left's radical agenda.

Speakers

Pranay Somayajula

Pranay Somayajula is an Indian-American writer and organizer, based in Washington, DC. He currently serves as Organizing and Advocacy Director for Hindus for Human Rights. In his organizing and his writing, Pranay works to bring together diverse histories and struggles for justice... Read More →

Friday July 4, 2025 5:00pm - 6:30pm CDT
TBA

Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism

5:00pm CDT

State Violence and GI Resistance

Friday July 4, 2025 5:00pm - 6:30pm CDT

TBA

From within and outside the machine there is a long history of GIs rebelling against US militarism and facism. Through an abolitionist framework, this discussion highlights the legacy and revolutionary power of GI resistance against the backdrop of military mobilizations to violently suppress people’s movements.

Speakers

Arti Walker-Peddakotla

Arti Walker-Peddakotla (she/they) is a William H. Hastie Fellow at University of Wisconsin Law, a 2022 Soros Justice Fellow, and former Oak Park Village Trustee. As a local elected official, and cofounder of community organizing group Freedom to Thrive Oak Park, Arti organized abolitionist... Read More →

Aaron Hughes

Aaron Hughes is an artist, curator, organizer, and anti-war veteran. He works collaboratively in diverse spaces and media to create meaning out of personal and collective trauma, deconstruct and transform systems of oppression, and seek liberation. Hughes works with a range of art... Read More →

Sponsors

About Face: Veterans Against the War

Friday July 4, 2025 5:00pm - 6:30pm CDT
TBA

Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism

1:00pm CDT

The Battle for Global Hegemony: Trump and the US China Rivalry

Saturday July 5, 2025 1:00pm - 2:30pm CDT

TBA

Donald Trump’s regime has abandoned Washington’s grand strategy of superintending global capitalism for an America First imperialism targeting China first and foremost. This panel will explore the nature of the rivalry, its impact on the Asia Pacific, why the international left should not side with either power, and how we can build international working class solidarity against rising militarism and threats of great power war.

Speakers

Tobita Chow

Tobita Chow is the founding Director of Justice Is Global, a special project of People’s Action to build a just and sustainable global economy and defeat right-wing nationalism. He is an organizer, a political educator, and a leading progressive strategist and critic regarding the... Read More →

Carmen Phanuelle Delgra

Carmen Phanuelle Delgra is a climate justice activist currently engaged as a campaigner for the Asia-Pacific Movement on Debt and Development (also known as Jubilee South), a regional network of organizations working for social and ecological justice.

Ashley Smith

Ashley Smith works for Spectre Journal and is a member of the Tempest Collective. He has written in numerous publications including Socialist Worker (US), The International Socialist Review, Against the Current, Spectre, Truthout, Jacobin, New Politics, and Tempest. He is co-author... Read More →

JM Wong

JM Wong is a Seattle-based community organizer with the Massage Parlor Organizing Project. They have been active in international solidarity work with Chinese and other Sinophone activists for years.

Saturday July 5, 2025 1:00pm - 2:30pm CDT
TBA

Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism