June 30, 2017

So get started, if you haven't already, and we'll see you in Chicago. And if you haven't registered yet , you still can online through Sunday.

People who have attended the Socialism conference in past years often say that they learned as much in one weekend than they normally would in an entire year--and you can get even more out of the experience with a bit of preparation. Socialist Worker articles aren't a substitute for the books and pamphlets that the speakers at Socialism will be referring to--but they're a start. So the staff of SocialistWorker.org--one of the co-sponsors of the Socialism conference--has created a cheat sheet of SW articles that can help you prepare for almost all the scheduled meetings at this year's conference.

The Socialism 2017 conference taking place next weekend in Chicago looks like it will be the largest gathering of the revolutionary left held in the U.S. for a number of years. There are well over 150 forums, lectures and activist panels on topics ranging from the current fight against ICE deportations to the 100-year anniversary of the Russian Revolution.

THURSDAY | 1 p.m.

Laura Bartkowiak on How Capitalism Works and How It Doesn't

"The point is to change it" | Paul D'Amato

Paul Heideman on The Impact of the Russian Revolution on the Black Left in the U.S.

"The Black Bolsheviks" | Paul Heideman

Chris Dols and Bekah Ward on Their Science and Ours: STEM Workers' Resistance and the Fight Against Trump's War on Science

"Making science serve the people" | Eugene Dardenne

Anton Ford on Marx's Understanding of History

"Marx's theory of working class revolution" | Alan Maass

Alpana Mehta and Michele Bollinger on Manifest Destiny and the Conquest of North America

"A Manifest Destiny massacre" | Brian Ward

Kirstin Roberts on The Theory of United Front

"What do we mean by a 'united front'?" | Tyler James

Jon Van Camp on The Good War? Imperialism, Genocide and Resistance During the Second World War

"One of history's worst war crimes" | Khury Petersen-Smith

Elizabeth Dean on The 1919 Seattle General Strike

"Labor will feed the people" | Harvey O'Connor

In line to contribute to the discussion at Socialism 2016 (Josh On | SW)

Geoff Bailey on A Tale of Three Cities: Slum, Dispossession and Class Struggle in the Global South

"Why is South Africa being torn apart?" | Thandokuhle Manzi and Patrick Bond

Phil Gasper on Is It Too Late to Save the Environment?

"Does Trump's Paris pullout mean game over?" | Phil Gasper

Katie Feyh on Mapping the Enemy: What Is the "Alt-Right"?

"We'll honor Richard by standing up to the right" | Brendan Sulliva, Zakariya Uddin and Dave Zirin

Behzad Tehrani on Marxism and Law

"Crime and punishment under capitalism" | Paul D'Amato

David Whitehouse on Not Just Your Pay Grade: How Do Marxists Understand Class?

"Why the working class" | Hal Draper

Anthony Cappetta on A User's Guide to Marxism: Stalinism

"Socialism, Stalinism and Eastern Europe" | Phil Gasper

Nolan Rampy on Oil, Empire and Capitalism

"The deadly scramble for the world's oil" | Eric Ruder

Marlene Martin on Eugene Debs and the 1894 Pullman Strike

"How Debs became a socialist" | Paul D'Amato

Donna Murch on Assata Taught Me: The Black Panther Party and Popular Mobilization in the Trump Era

"The revolutionary legacy of the Black Panthers" | David Bliven and Alan Maass

Nicole Colson on Marxism and Cultural Appropriation

"Champion of racist mascots" | Dave Zirin

Socialist Worker-sponsored meeting

Dana Blanchard and Eric Ruder on Socialism 101

"Socialist organization in the time of Trump" | Todd Chretien

Yusef Khalil on Syria and the Left

"Anti-imperialism and the Syrian Revolution" | Ashley Smith

Eva María on Venezuela: The Impasse of Chavismo

"Did socialism fail in Venezuela?" | Eva María

Lee Sustar on Trump, Economic Nationalism and Imperialism Today

"Free trade, nationalism and the 2016 election | Lance Selfa

Amanda Achin and Claire Douglas on Sexuality and Socialism

"What should the LGBT movement fight for?" | Sherry Wolf

Mike Brown and Chris Zimmerly-Beck on Do Workers Still Have Power?

"The disappearing working class?" | Paul D'Amato

Bill Roberts on The Rise and Fall of the Socialist Party

"Socialism according to Eugene Debs" | Elizabeth Schulte

Jacobin-sponsored meeting

Bhaskar Sunkara and Paul Heideman on Building Our Party

"Which path to take from the People's Summit?" | Tyler Zimmer

Socialist Worker-sponsored meeting

Danny Katch on What Would Socialism Look Like?

"The specter that still haunts capitalism" | Danny Katch

Lucy Herschel and Diana Macasa on Building Emergency Response Networks

"How activists are confronting ICE's terror" | Christopher Baum and Alan Maass

Todd Chretien on A History of the Russian Revolution for the 21st Century

"The making of the Russian Revolution" | A Socialist Worker series

Nick Estes on The Lessons of Standing Rock

"How the water protectors won at Standing Rock" | Leia Petty, Edna Bonhomme, Emily Brooks, Sumaya Awad and Dorian Bon

Elizabeth Schulte on Misogynist in Chief: What's at Stake for Women's Rights in the Trump Era?

"The Misogyny Factor" | Elizabeth Schulte

Yasmeen Kamel and Moustafa Bayoumi on Islamophobia and the Ideology of the "War on Terror"

"Using terror as an excuse for more terror " | Socialist Worker editorial

Tim Goulet and Tristin Adie on How Do Workers' Ideas Change?

"The myth of the selfish workers" | Alan Maass

Jeremy Tully on Rehabilitating Imperialism: From Vietnam to the War on Terror

"Against amnesia: The empire under Obama" | Khury Petersen-Smith

Doniella Maher on The Factory Occupations and the Rise of Mussolini

"The Comintern and the united front" | Duncan Hallas

Natalia Tylim on Strikes, Protests and Revolutionaries: The First May Day

"It is a subterranean fire" | Elizabeth Schulte

Flynn Murray on Luxemburg's Reform or Revolution

"Reform or Revolution" | Helen Scott

Neil Loehlein and Brian Sullivan on Gentrification and the Neoliberal City

"What drives gentrification?" | Ronnie Almonte

Coco Smyth on A User's Guide to Marxism: Anarchism

"Organization without authority" | Paul D'Amato

Paul Le Blanc on Lenin and the Bolshevik Party

"How is Leninism relevant today?" | Paul Le Blanc

Samuel Farber on The Cuban Revolution and the Legacy of Fidel Castro

"The Cuba that Castro created" | Samuel Farber

Jacobin-sponsored meeting

Lichi D'Amelio and Jenny Brown on How to Lose the Fight for Reproductive Justice

"Why we need protest to stop the anti-choicers" | Lichi D'Amelio

David B. on Trump, Business and the "Deep" State: Who's in Charge?

"Is there a pro-Putin clique in the Trump White House" | Lee Sustar

Eric Ruder on The Mirage of Socialist Zionism

"Zionism's colonial project" | Lance Selfa

Socialist Worker-sponsored meeting

Amanda Michelle and Alexander Buckingham on The Case for a Revolutionary Newspaper

"What Is To Be Done?" | Paul D'Amato

Eli Friedman on Class Struggles in China: Strikes, Protest and Workers' Resistance

"Contours of the class struggle in China" | Interview: Ellen David Friedman

Kay Sweeney and Owen Hill on Where Does Profit Come From? How the Boss Rips You Off

"How free is 'free' labor?" | Leela Yellesetty

Alan Maass on What Do Socialists Say About Nationalism and National Liberation?

"What do we say about the national question?" | Paul'D'Amato

Gerardo Molinari and Anderson Bean on "Good Neighbors"? U.S. Intervention in Latin America

"The coup that crushed democracy in Chile" | Lance Selfa

Sharon Smith and Sarah Jaffe on "Rust-Belt Reactionaries"?: The U.S. Working Class Today

"Who's to blame for Trump's victory?" | Lance Selfa

Sotiris Martalis and Katerina Sergidou on Crisis and Resistance: The Struggle Continues in Greece

"Greece's radical left after SYRIZA" | Antonis Davanellos

Jesse Hagopian and Wayne Au on Education and Capitalism

"Pedagogy and capitalism" | Adrienne Johnstone and Elizabeth Terzakis

Rebecca Vilkomerson and Stephanie Schwartz on Understanding Antisemitism

The uses and abuses of anti-Semitism | Interview: Rebecca Vilkomerson and Rabbi Brant Rosen

Jason Farbman and John McDonald on Strategies for Anticapitalists

"A new kind of anti-capitalism?" | Shaun Harkin

Ben Davis and Grant Mandarino on Art and Politics: Thinking with John Berger

"The ways John Berger saw" | Sarah Levy

Justin Akers Chacón on The Border Crossed Us: Economics and Politics of the U.S.-Mexico Border

"Children forced on a dangerous journey" | Justin Akers Chacón

Brian Erway on A User's Guide to Marxism: Maoism

"Who made China's revolution?" | Dennis Kosuth

Paul D'Amato on Lenin's State and Revolution

"State and Revolution" | Shaun Harkin

Alessandro Tinonga on From Rebel Soldiers to the Red Army: Defense of the Russian Revolution, 1917-1921

"The legacy of 1917" | Alan Maass

Scott McLemee on A Meeting of the Minds: C.L.R. James and Richard Wright

"The centrality of the Black struggle" | C.L.R. James

Lee Wengraf on Land Grabs to Big Oil: The New Scramble for Africa

"The West and 'African corruption'" | Lee Wengraf

Paul Fleckenstein on Why Capitalism Goes into Crisis

"The senseless cause of crisis under capitalism" | Tyler Zimmer

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Alicia Garza, Barbara Ransby, Demita Frazier, Sharon Smith and Barbara Smith on The 40th Anniversary of the Combahee River Collective

"What would a 'radical reconstruction' mean? | Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Michael Smith, Ajamu Baraka, Ron Reosti, Paul Le Blanc and Diane Feeley on Imagine Living in a Socialist USA

Imagine all the people... | Phil Gasper

Mick Armstrong, Sotiris Martalis, Andrea Raboso and Antonello Zecca on SYRIZA, Podemos and Beyond: Success and Failure of New Left Party Initiatives

"The broad left party question after SYRIZA" | Mick Armstrong

Sherry Wolf, Fainan Lakha and C.J. Miller on The Struggle for Trans Liberation: Perspectives on a Marxist Approach

"An epidemic of deadly anti-trans violence" | Rachel Cohen

Alex Schmaus and Aaron Amaral on A User's Guide to Marxism: Social Democracy

"Can socialism be elected into power?" | Eric Ruder

Lauren Fleer, Zach Zill and Todd St Hill on Environmental Racism and the Origins of the Environmental Justice Movement

"We need a unified environmental movement" | Nikeeta Slade

Jonah ben Avraham, Sam Peiffer and Erica West on Fighting Back on Campus

"Who's behind the free speech crisis on campus?" | Dorian Bon

Hannah Utain-Evans, Frankie Cook and Nico Judd on Introduction to the International Socialist Organization

"The ISO and the soul of international socialism" | Alan Maass and Todd Chretien

Denise Romero, Rigo Gogol and Fermin Valle on From Sensenbrenner to Trump: History and Lessons of the Immigrant Rights Movement

"When immigrants marched out of the shadows" | Bridget Broderick and Orlando Sepúlveda

Akunna Eneh, Michelle Farber and Becca Bor on Abortion Without Apology

"Time to end the compromises on abortion" | Elizabeth Schulte

Dennis Kosuth on U.S. Health Care: Your Money and Your Life

"Trump prescribes poison for a failing system" | Dennis Kosuth and Alan Maass

John Cusack and Dave Zirin on Things That Can and Cannot Be Said

"Telling truths that can't be said" | Anthony Arnove

Barbara Smith, Demita Frazier and Megan Behrent on The Combahee River Collective and the Black Feminist Tradition

"Marxism and the fight for women's liberation" | Sharon Smith

Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! Twenty Years of Covering the Movements Changing America

"Inside the media propaganda mill" | Nicole Colson and Alan Maass

Jen Roesch on Marxism, Exploitation and Oppression

"Can the working class unite?" | Jen Roesch

Wael Elasady on States of Resistance: the Future of Palestinian Liberation

"Timely lessons about Palestine" | Wael Elasady

Jacobin-sponsored meeting

Kevin Prosen on Lean Production: Inside the War on Public Education

"Ed Sec wanted, no experience required" | Brian Jones

Eric Kerl on How the Russian Revolution Was Lost

"What happened to the Russian revolution?" | Paul D'Amato

Ashley Smith on A Newer World Order? Imperialism and the Rise of China

"Washington's Trans-Pacific Power Play" | Ashley Smith

Bill Keach on Palmyra: Violence in Syria and the Ruins of Empire

"How did Syria become a burning country?" | Interview: Robin Yassin-Kassab

Caitlin Sheehan and Melissa Rakestraw on What Do Socialists Say About Unions?

"Socialists and trade unions" | Paul D'Amato

Charlie Post on Is America Great Again?: The First Six Months of the Trump "Insurgency"

"Has Trump made the economy great again?" | Lance Selfa

Karen Fields on Racecraft in 2017

"Breaking the spell of race" | Leela Yellesetty

Elizabeth Terzakis on The Political Economy of Food

"A disaster caused by the free market" | Elizabeth Terzakis

Keith Rosenthal and Claire Baldi on What Do Socialists Say About Disability?

"Bringing Marxism to discussions of disability" | Keith Rosenthal

Haley Pessin on Race, Class and Feminism

"How will women win their liberation?" | Jen Roesch

Benoit Renaud and Nick Estes on Keep the Oil in the Soil: Fighting Against the Pipelines

"Fighting the pipeline menace" | Brian Ward

Keeagan O'Brien and Rebecca Anshell Song on How We Won Marriage Equality

"How our protests won marriage equality" | Keegan O'Brien

Yurii Colombo on The Russian Menace? Putin's Foreign Policy

"Where is Putin's Russia going?" | Ilya Budraitskis

Jim Plank on Why We Need a Revolutionary Party

"Marxism and political organization" | Elizabeth Schulte

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on Continental Imperialism and the Origins of the U.S. Way of War

"Unraveling America's founding myths" | Brian Ward

Edna Bonhomme on From Pan-Arabism to Internationalism: Socialist Movements in the Middle East

"From Nasser to Mubarak" | Eric Ruder

Sean Larson on The Comintern and the German Revolution

"Revolution in Germany" | Todd Chretien

Sasha Scott on Trotskyists and Teamsters: Socialist Strategy in the Minneapolis General Strike of 1934

"The Teamster rebellion of 1934" | Phil Gasper

Dave Zirin on The Year of Kaepernick

"Why I sat with Colin" | Interview: Rory Fanning

Brais Fernandez, Andrea Raboso, Camille Jouve and Eliana Como on Spain, France and Italy: Crisis and Struggle in Europe

"Building a left alternative in Macron's France" | Interview: Léon Crémieux

Annie Zirin, Sarah Levy on Art and the Russian Revolution

"Imaginers of a new future" | Amy Muldoon

Anand Gopal on Revolution and Counterrevolution in the Middle East

"Palestine and the Arab counterrevolution" | Corey Oakley

Jeanne Theoharis on Challenging the Myths of Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement in the Age of Black Lives Matter

"The Montgomery bus boycott" | Marlene Martin

Amy Muldoon on Workers' Power in Revolutionary Russia

"How workers power was organized" | Amy Muldoon

Ronnie Almonte on "Nothing Can Be Changed Until It Is Faced": The Life and Work of James Baldwin

"Nothing can be changed until it is faced" | Alan Maass

Rachel Reiser and Emily Brooks on How Did Women's Oppression Begin and How Will It End?

"Marxism, feminism and women's liberation" | Sharon Smith

Sean Petty and Elizabeth Lalasz on Labor and Environmental Justice: History, Debates and Possibilities

"Tackling the jobs vs. the environment myth" | Michael Ware

Pranav Jani on M.N. Roy, the Comintern and the Politics of National Liberation

"Class, nation and the socialist struggle" | Lance Selfa

Dana Blanchard on Women in the U.S. Labor Movement: 1840 to the Second World War

"A strike for bread and roses" | Elizabeth Schulte

Mike Ehrenreich on The Civil War and Reconstruction: The Second American Revolution

"Reconstruction after the war" | Bill Mullen

Lily Hughes on Incarceration Nation: Drugs, Detention and Discrimination

"Forty years of drug war failure" | Helen Redmond

Jacobin-sponsored meeting

R.L. Stephens on What Should Socialists Say About Privilege?

"Why checking your privilege isn't enough" | Sharon Smith

Neil Davidson on From Brexit to the 2017 General Election: Corbynism and the Return of Class to British Politics

"Corbyn's triumph and what it means for the left" | Interview: Neil Davidson

Devin Allen and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on A Beautiful Ghetto

"The Baltimore Rebellion" | Socialist Worker editorial

Leonard Klein on Resisting the Rise of Right: Lessons from the Midwest Anti-Klan Network

"What we did in Iowa to chase away the Klan" | Leonard Klein

Sherry Wolf on Act Up, Fight Back: The AIDS Crisis and the LGBTQ Movement

"The birth of gay power" | Sherry Wolf

Fred Magdoff and Michael Ware on Creating an Ecological Society: Toward a Revolutionary Transformation

"What must be done to stop climate change?" | Chris Williams

Joel Geier on Socialists and Movements

"Are movements enough to make socialism?" | Dorian Bon

brian bean on The Left Ain't White: Multiracial Communist Organizing in the 1930s and '40s

"Communists in Harlem" | Adam Turl

Jeffrey Webber on Assessing the Pink Tide in Latin America

"Venezuela and the turning of the 'Pink Tide'?" | Eva Maria

Lance Selfa on Party Politics in the New Gilded Age: The Crisis of Democracy in the U.S. Today

"The world's greatest democracy? Really?" | Danny Katch

Leia Petty on Reversing the Backlash: Building a New Women's Movement

"How do we push sexism back to the fringe?" | Elizabeth Schulte

Eli Smith and Ernesto Gomez on Songs of Struggle: Protest Songs in American History

"We Shall Overcome" | Interview: Dave Marsh

Dorian Bon and Nisha Bolsey on Marxism, Imperialism and War

"Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism" | Phil Gasper

Michael Bennett, Wyomia Tyus, Craig Hodges and Dave Zirin on Three Generations: Athletes and Activism

"Taking a knee with Kaepernick" | Dave Zirin

Wallace Shawn on Night Thoughts: A Conversation with Wallace Shawn on Politics, Socialism and Art

"A fever for a better world" | Sherry Wolf

John Riddell, Mike Taber and Jen Roesch on How Marxists Responded to the Rise of Fascism

"Confronting the fascist threat" | Shaun Harkin

Brian Jones and Jeralynn Blueford on Making Black Lives Matter in the Trump Era

"A crackdown on our right to stand up" | Nicole Colson

Antonello Zecca, Katerina Sergidou and Brais Fernandez on The World Refugee Crisis

"The refugee 'crisis' of a decaying system" | Sandra Bloodworth

Neil Davidson, Shaun Harkin, Camille Jouve, Jeroen van der Starre and Duncan Thomas on The Rise of the Right--and the Left--in Europe

"Corbyn's triumph and what it means for the left" | Neil Davidson

Ty Briggs and Sumaya A. on Academic Freedom, Anti-Left Witchhunts and the Palestine Exception

A history of intimidation at Columbia | Monique Dols

Emily Giles, Joe Richard and Lillian Cicerchia on Fighting to Survive, Fighting to Win: Unions in Right-to-Work America

"The burger bosses' dreams come true" | Joe Richard

Lauren Bianchi, Anna Winston and Rachel Cohen on Struggles Against Sexual Assault in the United States

"The Trump of the iceberg of sexual assault" | Jen Roesch

Amy Gaidis, Brandon Daniels and Ryan Powers on Starting an International Socialist Organization Branch

"The building blocks of Socialism" | Socialist Worker editorial

Derek Wright and Jon Kurinsky on Shut It Down? How to Fight the Right

"Making sense of what happened at Berkeley | Derek Wright

Socialist Worker-sponsored meeting

Dana Cloud on Lies, Damn Lies and Fake News

"Separating facts from fake news" | Danny Katch

Jessie Muldoon on Women, the Family and Social Reproduction

"What is social reproduction theory?" | Tithi Bhattacharya

Jessica Hansen-Weaver and Don Lash on Managing Inequality: How Welfare Systems Regulate the Poor

"A system that entraps the poor" | brian bean

Sarah Z. Mamo on Marxism, Race and Class

"Race, class and Marxism" | Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Mukund Rathi on The Berkeley Free Speech Movement

Series: "The Free Speech Movement" | Dan Russell, Nicole Colson and Joel Geier

Brian Ward on Custer Died for Your Sins: Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull and the Lakota Struggle for Freedom

"Remembering the Wounded Knee occupation" | Brian Ward

Julian Guerrero on Labor's Giant Step: The Flint Sit-down Strike of 1936-37

"The sit-down strikes" | Sharon Smith

Laura Snedeker on Trotsky's Their Morals and Ours

"Do the ends justify the means?" | Paul D'Amato

Jacobin-sponsored meeting

Jonah Birch on Why Should We Care About Social Democracy?

"Can socialism be elected into power?" | Eric Ruder

Socialist Worker-sponsored meeting

Paul D'Amato on Forty Years: History and Politics of the International Socialist Organization

"The ISO and the soul of international socialism" | Alan Maass and Todd Chretien

Megan Behrent on The Revolutionary Approach to Fighting Oppression

"What solidarity meant to Marx" | Aaron Petcoff

Daphna Thier on What's the Matter with the Israeli Working Class?

"The making of Israel's apartheid" | Phil Gasper

Khury Petersen-Smith on Black Power vs. Corporate America: The Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement

"Labor and Black Power" | Lee Sustar

David Russitano and Leela Yellesetty on Marxism and Alienation

"Rekindling the human spirit" | Todd Chretien

David Crawford Jones on Exhuming Thomas Sankara: Anti-Imperialism and the Legacy of Afro-Stalinism

"What's next in Burkina Faso?" | Andy Wynne

Kyle Brown on Lenin's Left-Wing Communism

"How they saw Lenin" | Paul Le Blanc

Larry Bradshaw on Labor's Rank-and-File Rebellion: 1968-74

"The workers' rebellion of the 1960s" | Sharon Smith