Socialism 2016: Full Schedule

Visit our website at www.SocialismConference.org for full information!

9:30am CDT

Seven Shocking Facts You Need to Know about Hillary Clinton

With the threat of Donald Trump moving into the White House, the heat is on activists and the left to support the Democratic Party candidate. But does the Democratic Party establishment's choice, Hillary Clinton, really deserve your vote? What is her record? Does she represent a departure from what some see as the “liberal heart” of the Democratic Party? What would a Clinton White House look like?

Speakers

Elizabeth Schulte

Elizabeth Schulte is a journalist for Socialist Worker, writing frequently on the Democratic Party and Election 2016, as well as women’s liberation.

Saturday July 2, 2016 9:30am - 11:00am CDT
DuSable A/B

U.S. History and Politics

11:30am CDT

Trotsky's Their Morals and Ours

Leon Trotsky's essay “Their Morals and Ours” is a classic defense of revolution and Marxist explanation of the material and class basis of morality. This talk will look at the arguments Trotsky confronted in his time and the moral questions facing people who want to change the world today.

Suggested Readings:
“Their Morals and Ours” by Leon Trotsky

Speakers

Danny Katch

Danny Katch is a columnist for socialist worker and the author of America's Got Democracy! The Making of the World's Longest Running Reality Show and Socialism...Seriously: A Brief Guide to Human Liberation... Read More →

Saturday July 2, 2016 11:30am - 1:00pm CDT
DuSable A/B

Marxist Classics

2:00pm CDT

The Flight of Nez Perce

After the Civil War, U.S. policy was to force all Indians to live on reservations. In 1877, a group of Nez Perce Indians attempted to escape to Canada, fighting off hundreds of American troops over a 1,500-mile chase through Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, besting U.S. forces in every military engagement except the lastâ€”and finally surrendering thirty miles from the Canadian border. The Nez Perce War is one of the most famous wars in the history of conquest of indigenous peoples on this continent by the United States.

"Flight of the Nez Perce," International Socialist Review
Review by Paul D'Amato
http://isreview.org/issue/73/flight-nez-perce

Speakers

Sasha Scott

Sasha is a member of the International Socialist Organization living in Boston.

Saturday July 2, 2016 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT
DuSable A/B

Native Liberation and History

4:00pm CDT

Slavery and the Origins of Racism

This session will uncover the history of racism in America and how this legacy continues to shape our understanding of its persistence under capitalism.

Capitalism and Slavery (Eric Williams)
Slavery, Race and Ideology in the United States of America (Barbara Fields, article, can be found online)
Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life (Karen Fields and Barbara Fields)

Speakers

Ream Kidane

Ream Kidane is an anti-racist activist and long-time member of the Rochester branch of the International Socialist Organization.

Saturday July 2, 2016 4:00pm - 5:30pm CDT
DuSable A/B

History and Politics of Black Liberation

9:30am CDT

Disability and the Russian Revolution

Owing to the dearth of written history on the topic, it may come as a surprise to learn that the issue of disability figured quite prominently in the socialist workers' revolution of 1917 in Russia. In fact, disability was such a central component to the entirety of the revolutionary process that the history itself is a proof of the following Marxist-derived principle: The liberation of disabled people is impossible without the liberation of the entire working class, and the liberation of the entire working class is impossible without the liberation of disabled people.

Speakers

Keith Rosenthal

Keith Rosenthal lives in Boston, Massachusetts. He is a frequent contributor to the International Socialist Review. http://isreview.org/person/keith-rosenthal

Sunday July 3, 2016 9:30am - 11:00am CDT
DuSable A/B

Disability and Mental Health

11:30am CDT

The Return of Inter-Imperialist Rivalry: Are We Heading for a New World War?

From Ukraine to Syria to the South China Sea, new conflict are emerging between regional and international powers. This talk will look at debates among Marxist theories of imperialism to help us understand the current disputes and crises as a means to fighting back against them.

ISR #100, "Lenin and Bukharin on Imperialism" and "The Asymmetric World Order"

Speakers

Geoff Bailey

Geoff Bailey is a socialist activist and filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. He is the author of “Accumulation by Dispossession: A Critical Assessment,” “The Rise and Fall of SDS,” and “Anarchism and the Spanish Civil War” for the International Socialist Review... Read More →

Sunday July 3, 2016 11:30am - 1:00pm CDT
DuSable A/B

Imperialism

2:00pm CDT

The Privatization of Care: From Childhood to the Elder Years

From the attacks on public education, to the chipping away of medicare and medicaid, more and more responsibility for providing care for the very young and very old have been placed on private families. The impacts of these attacks are felt most acutely by women who are overwhelmingly viewed as "natural" care providers, but the weight is carried by the working class as a whole. Come to this talk to discuss the reasons behinds these assaults and also a vision for an alternative.

Speakers

Monique Dols

Monique Dols is a socialist, early childhood educator, and union activist living in New York City.

Sunday July 3, 2016 2:00pm - 3:30pm CDT
DuSable A/B

Education

4:00pm CDT

Contested Hollywood: Race, Gender, and Class in Tinsel Town

Cinema is one of the most popular and powerful art forms of our time, and it both reflects and shapes the class contradictions in our society. In that way, it has been and still is an ideological battleground.

Suggested Readings:
http://contestedhollywood.tumblr.com/post/146710932928/suggested-reading-on-women-in-hollywood.

Speakers

Laura Durkay

Laura Durkay is an activist, writer and filmmaker living in New York City. She has written about politics and culture for the Washington Post, AlterNet, Gay City News, Red Wedge Magazine and Socialist Worker.

Rigo Gogol

Rigo is an activist and filmmaker in Chicago.

Ryan Nanni

Ryan is a filmmaker in Los Angeles California. His short films have been shown around the country, including at the Socialism Conference!

Sunday July 3, 2016 4:00pm - 6:00pm CDT
DuSable A/B

Art Literature and Culture

8:00pm CDT

The benefits of perfumed paper: A reading by Wallace Shawn

Speakers

Wallace Shawn

Wallace Shawn is an Obie Award-winning playwright and a noted stage and screen actor (Star Trek, Gossip Girl, The Princess Bride, Toy Story). His plays The Designated Mourner and Marie and Bruce have recently been produced as films. He is co-author of the movie My Dinner with... Read More →

Sunday July 3, 2016 8:00pm - 9:30pm CDT
DuSable A/B

Art Literature and Culture

9:30am CDT

The Darker the Night, the Brighter the Star: Trotsky's Struggle Against Stalinism

Leon Trotsky was an organizer of the Russian Revolution and a major opponent of its bureaucratic degeneration into the anti-democratic regime identified with Joseph Stalin. Trotsky's revolutionary Marxist analyses help us understand the democratic meaning of socialism and also how the Stalin dictatorship was able to take power. These are vital tools for activists of today and tomorrow.

"The Russian Revolution - Timeline with John Rees": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VXGYlSblxU

Leon Trotsky, "In Defense of October" (1932) https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1932/11/oct.htm

Leon Trotsky, "Stalinism and Bolshevism" (1937)
https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/08/stalinism.htm

Speakers

Paul Le Blanc

"Paul LeBlanc is the author of a number of books on the labor and socialist movements, including "Leon Trotsky" (Reaktion Books) and recent Haymarket titles "From Marx to Gramsci" and "A Short History of the US Working Class."

Tom Twiss

Monday July 4, 2016 9:30am - 11:00am CDT
DuSable A/B

Revolutionaries

11:30am CDT

Labor in the Digital Age: How New Is the New Capitalism?

For every well-paid tech worker, there are countless workers who are intensely exploited, surveilled, and even enslaved. The digital age has proven to be no utopia. However, the Verizon strike and other struggles have shown the continuing power of the working class to turn the tables. This talk explores those prospects.

Speakers

Mukund Rathi

Mukund Rathi is a member of the International Socialist Organization. He recently graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied computer science and digital surveillance. He will be attending U.C. Berkeley Law, with plans to study information privacy law and acquire... Read More →

Monday July 4, 2016 11:30am - 1:00pm CDT
DuSable A/B

Science Technology and Capitalism