CHICAGO, September 7, 2026 – With Labor Day Weekend coming to an end in Chicago, many organizers, trade unionists, and radical activists flocked to the grand halls of the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place. The annual Socialism 2026 Conference organized by Haymarket Books from September 4 to September 7 saw South Martin Luther King Drive become a place of discussion, politics, and building a movement for change. More than 2,600 registered participants attended the event, clearly indicating how much hope the left has placed on 2026 and even further in the future.
This is important since radical political conferences are no longer mere academic events but real-life politics.
The program consisted of over a hundred workshops and panels during four days, covering issues like labor power, climate change, the anti-ICE movement, international solidarity, among many others. Participants packed the small meeting rooms and took notes while authors, historians, and activists analyzed the dynamics of modern activism. Among the many speakers, there were prominent activists such as Angela Y. Davis, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, and Michelle Alexander, alongside Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, philosopher; Saul Williams, poet-activist; Silky Shah, head of Detention Watch Network; and Chenjerai Kumanyika, podcaster. The standard ticket cost was about $155, but organizers allowed people to pay using sliding-scale tickets that could be as low as $65 for students and activists of low income.
Here’s the rub: organizing on this scale isn’t without its messiness or friction.
Whereas the atmosphere within the conference was full of optimism, conference-goers were dealing with complicated internal discussions concerning issues of strategy, labor unions, and translating the theory of Marxism into practice. Within the breaks in between discussions surrounding rank-and-file organizing, climate justice, and abolitionist approaches, people would gather for the unveiling of several new books. Haymarket Books presented the new book titled Read This When Things Fall Apart: Letters to Activists in Crisis, which generated talks about exhaustion, conflict within movements, and resilience. Beyond the conference halls cooled by air conditioning, union members who were hotel workers and other union delegates would discuss their current contract negotiations, thus showing that the gap between theory and practice can be a mere few blocks apart.
It remains uncertain how long that momentum will last during the next legislative session.
Between meetings, participants took the time to visit the restaurants in the neighboring Chinatown area and clogged all the transit stations in the Cermak-Chinatown Red Line area while continuing debates on cheap coffee and in the wrappers of takeout. Organizing thousands of activists, the logistics involved ensured that local hotels were fully booked, with participants having to stay in the guest rooms of their friends in the south side of Chicago.
This meeting in Chicago is indicative of the trend developing in urban cities, where the organizers of the socialist movement seek to create coalitions rather than temporary protests.
As delegates depart from Chicago at the end of the Labor Day weekend, whether these tactics that were developed will help transform the local politics still remains to be seen. In the meantime, those who have attended are returning to their own cities armed with new reading lists and contacts.
