Socialism 2026 Trains Activists to Target Arms Suppliers, University Boards and Schools

The Chicago conference will train attendees to map arms subcontractors, identify local targets, pressure university boards and organize K-12 schools around pro-Palestine campaigns

Jewish Onliner is an independent publication. If you find our work valuable, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You can also subscribe to us on WhatsApp and Telegram. Follow us on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Discord, and X.

Credit: socialismconference.org

The Socialism 2026 conference will bring thousands of activists to Chicago from September 4 through 7 for a program that combines socialist political education with practical training on targeting military suppliers, pressuring university boards, organizing inside K-12 schools and building support networks for activists facing prosecution. The four-day gathering at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place features more than 100 discussions, lectures and workshops, according to Haymarket Books, which organizes the event.

The official schedule includes sessions titled “Confronting Zionism,” “Building the People’s Embargo for Palestine,” “Weaponizing Antisemitism” and “Break the Board.” The conference’s partner page lists more than 80 organizations and media outlets, including the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), the Democratic Socialists of America, Jewish Currents and The Intercept.

Workshops Move From Analysis to Campaign Building

One workshop, “Building the Anti-War Movement,” will teach participants how to identify hundreds of lesser-known U.S. military subcontractors. Its description points to a campaign against Pittsburgh-based Howmet Aerospace and says local movements can organize against secondary contractors to “dismantle their power.”

PYM’s “Building the People’s Embargo for Palestine” workshop similarly promises to help attendees identify targets in their own communities. The session will share an organizing framework and lessons from campaigns in the United States and Europe intended to disrupt weapons-supply chains. PYM has already led pressure campaigns against shipping company Maersk, including protests at company offices, according to an ADL profile.

NSJP is organizing “Break the Board,” which introduces a “Board of Butchers” framework and asks academics to strategize around university governance and the “abolition of the university.” The panel extends the campus movement’s attention from protests and encampments to university governing boards. After October 7, NSJP described the Hamas-led attack as a “historic win” and called for “armed confrontation with the oppressors.”

K-12 Schools Become an Organizing Arena

The conference also extends pro-Palestine organizing into public education. “Resisting Attacks on Schools, from Gaza to Chicago” identifies K-12 schools as sites of what organizers call “imperial violence” and pledges to provide participants with knowledge to organize schools “for Palestine.”

Participating groups include Chicago Educators for Palestine, Drop the ADL from Schools and the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism. A separate session organized by Rethinking Schools is titled “Weaponizing Antisemitism: An Interactive History.”

The Xicanx Institute for Teaching and Organizing is also listed among the conference partners. XITO previously worked as an outside consultant to California’s Santa Ana Unified School District on ethnic-studies programming. In February 2025, the district settled a lawsuit brought by Jewish organizations and agreed to suspend three courses pending an open redesign process, disband its Ethnic Studies Steering Committee and stop working with an outside consultant accused of expressing antisemitic views.

The Intercept Appears as an Institutional Partner

The Intercept’s inclusion is particularly notable because it is a national investigative news organization, not an activist coalition, union or political membership group. The conference does not merely identify the outlet as attending or covering the gathering. Its partner page states that Socialism 2026 is presented by Haymarket Books “in partnership with” the listed organizations and media. The conference FAQ calls the listed groups endorsers and says organizational partners play a crucial role in mobilizing organizers to attend.

Credit: socialismconference.org/endorsing-organizations/

Drop Site was founded in 2024 by former Intercept journalists Jeremy Scahill, Ryan Grim and Nausicaa Renner. Beyond its interviews with senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad officials, Drop Site has repackaged Hezbollah communiqués, propaganda videos and military claims for Western audiences.

The watchdog HonestReporting also reported that Drop Site published contributors have included individuals linked to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad media, including Abdel Qadder Sabah, Hossam Shabat and Mujahed Al-Saadi.

Speakers Bring Records of Controversy

Socialism 2026 has promoted Twitch commentator Hasan Piker as a speaker, although no session for him appeared on the public schedule as of August 5, 2026. In an April 2026 Pod Save America interview, Piker said he would choose Hamas over Israel “every single time” and stood by his statement that Hamas was “a thousand times better.”

Scheduled presenters include legal scholar Noura Erakat, whose “Confronting Zionism” session describes Zionism as colonial and racist “in essence and practice.” Psychologist Lara Sheehi will lead “Psychic Militancy.”

The schedule also lists “Life After Death Row” with Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is serving life without parole for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. Former Guantánamo detainee Mansoor Adayfi will appear in “Refusing Erasure.”

A Network Built for Replication

PYM, NSJP and JVP bring established organizing networks to the conference. The ADL says PYM has co-sponsored at least 450 U.S. rallies since October 7 and quotes a PYM organizer describing political, strategic and logistical support for campus encampments. JVP, meanwhile, reorganized in 2026 around a 501(c)(4) capable of legislative and limited electoral work. Its latest filing reported approximately $10.66 million in revenue for the fiscal year ending June 2025.

“Standing Up” to the National Security State will conclude with an organizing meeting intended to help attendees establish local campaigns, hold fundraisers and seek support from unions, religious institutions and community organizations.

Conference organizers say Socialism 2026 itself costs hundreds of thousands of dollars annually and is funded almost entirely through registration revenue. What the schedule documents is a shared venue where national organizations can teach radical activism as designed for replication in workplaces, universities, schools and local communities, while established publications appear as formal partners in the same conference network.