By Vince Gaynor
The Socialism 2026 conference that took place in Chicago from September 4 to 7 showcased the challenges, opportunities and contradictions of the US left.
Trump has intensified attacks on immigrants, activists, unions and the broader left. Political repression is becoming more concrete. At the same time, resistance continues to develop, and socialist organizations and ideas continue to grow. But the conference did not seem to register the urgency, dangers, opportunities or responsibilities of the moment.
Disconnected from reality
The repression facing the left is no longer abstract.
The Prairieland defendants received sentences ranging from 30 to 100 years for organizing a Fourth of July fireworks show near an ICE Detention Center in Texas. The Minnesota 15 face charges of conspiracy to injure or impede federal officers for their participation in peaceful protests and rapid-response activity against the military occupation of the city by ICE during Operation Metro Surge.
The FBI raided the homes and arrested the Michigan 8 activists, who face federal conspiracy and related charges for street art related to Palestine solidarity organizing at the University of Michigan.
Tom Alter, a Socialist Horizon member and tenured historian at Texas State University, was fired for remarks he made at an online socialist conference.
The Trump administration’s escalating state repression, political persecution and criminalization of protest targets anti-ICE and Palestine solidarity activists, labor unionists, and socialists. Its aim is to crush any resistance to its profit hungry, authoritarian, imperialist project. But resistance is still growing and pushing back.
Entire communities across the country have organized to face ICE operations. Labor unions are experiencing a revival of activism and thousands of people are entering socialist organizations and millions more are becoming open to socialist ideas. Millions have shifted their views in favor of Palestine against Zionism, in favor of unions against billionaires, and in favor of socialism against capitalism and imperialism.
A Gallup poll released shortly after the conference found that 43 percent of Americans now view socialism positively, the highest figure since Gallup began asking the question in 2010. And a majority of 18-to-34-year-olds, 57 percent, view socialism positively against 43 percent who still favor capitalism.
One of the conference’s main sponsors DSA reached 120,000 members in July, up from around 50,000 in late 2024. And the conference attendance grew by roughly 50 percent from last year.
So, the largest socialist conference in the US, organized by the largest socialist organization in the country, took place amid both a growing authoritarian offensive and a growing audience for socialism. That reality should have been central to Socialism 2026. Instead, the two headline events pointed elsewhere.
The official opening plenary was “Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Palestine, Internationalism, Abolition,” featuring Angela Davis and Naomi Murakawa. Another major evening event featured Amy Goodman and Juan González at a screening of a documentary about Democracy Now!.
The problem was not Angela Davis or Amy Goodman, nor the political struggles with which they are associated. The problem was the decision about what to place at the political center of the conference.
Timeless advice from veteran activists is fine, but the event was a great opportunity to address the urgent and strategic questions of the day. How can the Trump offensive be resisted? How can those facing political persecution be defended? How can labor, anti-ICE, Palestine, feminist, LGBTQ and anti-racist struggles reinforce one another? What should be done with the thousands of people moving toward socialist organization? What kind of socialist organization is needed for the struggles ahead?
The opportunity was mostly lost. The issues that the conference should have centered on were instead addressed by a number of smaller sessions.
The Conference that could have been
The United Left Platform hosted session “Standing Up to the National Security State” brought together representatives and supporters of the Prairieland defendants, the Minnesota 15, the Michigan 8 and the campaign to defend Tom Alter.
The room was packed. People stood along the walls. Others were turned away after the room exceeded capacity. That response showed how strongly the question resonated with conference participants.
The four cases represent the front lines of resistance. They involve struggles against ICE, solidarity with Palestine, opposition to the far right and the right to openly organize socialist politics.
The meeting’s significance was not only its size, but also that it led directly toward organization. Many participants stayed after the panel ended for an organizing meeting to begin planning a broad national campaign against political persecution.
The aim is to bring these four existing campaigns together and build an infrastructure capable of including other cases that emerge.
In that sense, the session looked much closer to what a central plenary at Socialism 2026 could have been. It brought together people confronting repression, connected different struggles and began discussing a common response.
United front and revolutionary regroupment
The ULP’s “Building Revolutionary Socialism in Times of War and Authoritarianism” session also contributed a key debate that was otherwise largely absent from the conference: What possibilities, opportunities and responsibilities do revolutionaries have in the present situation? What are our central tasks and priorities? Concretely, what should we be doing and what should we be building?
There is a range of opinions among ULP member organizations on the characteristics of the political organizations revolutionaries should be building and on how to intervene in the class, social and political struggles. But there is a general agreement that revolutionaries today need to both work towards building a revolutionary working class party and contribute to strengthening the organizations and fighting capacity of the working class and social movements.
As its Principles and Guidelines state, “The United Left Platform (“ULP”) began as an initiative of several socialist groups who came together at the Socialism 2025 conference in July to discuss internal protocols for security and mutual defense agreements, joint defense campaigns, and the project of building a united front to organize the working-class resistance to the Trump administration.”
In its first year, the ULP has advanced significantly in its objectives, building the Campaign to Defend Tom Alter, extending collaboration with many unions and organizations, expanding in member organizations, and beginning to work on a broader national defense campaign. The contribution revolutionaries in the ULP’s organizations are making toward strengthening the fighting capacity of the resistance is evident.
The issue of how the ULP can aid in the building of stronger revolutionary organizations sparked a debate in the Building Revolutionary Socialism session that spilled over into the posterior ULP Meet Up.
Socialist Horizon argued that the valuable coalition work we are carrying out in the ULP can also help develop political relations, mutual trust and the perspective of regroupment among some of the member organizations. We stress this point because we believe there is sufficient agreement among various revolutionary organizations in the US that makes a perspective of unification possible. And because we are convinced that taking strides instead of baby steps in building a stronger revolutionary socialist organization can make a very real difference in the near future.
Some comrades stressed that the ULP is a united front not a regroupment project. They argued that this is not a debate for today, and that taking on regroupment efforts would distract us from the urgent tasks of building the defense campaigns we are working on.
The ULP is not a regroupment project, nor can it be. It is also not a united front as such. It is a coalition of revolutionary socialist organizations to work together to promote common campaigns that aim to build broader united fronts. It can also facilitate the regroupment efforts of organizations that intend to build deeper levels of unity.
Our joint work in the ULP creates conditions in which deeper political discussion becomes possible. Campaigning together, our organizations will learn more about one another, test agreements and differences against events, and build mutual trust. This does not mean every organization in the ULP should aim to regroup. It does not mean that fusion is immediately possible or desirable among all of them. It means that the possibility should not be postponed automatically to an undefined future.
In so far as there are real possibilities, regroupment is just part of the strategic task of building revolutionary organizations. It should not be counterposed to building united fronts or movements at all. The simultaneous tasks of building revolutionary organization and building the broader movement should feed back into each other. The stronger our revolutionary socialist organizations are, the stronger our united front efforts will be.
Socialist Horizon at Socialism 2026
Socialist Horizon’s participation at Socialism 2026 highlighted the organization’s growth since it was launched a year back. In addition to the central role the organization played in the ULP sessions, its members also contributed to and participated in other sessions. Key among them was the South Asia Solidarity Network session on Kashmir, which brought into the conference an important struggle that receives relatively little attention.
The Socialist Horizon Meet Up held at the conference showcased the organization’s development and range of activity. Over the previous year, the organization has doubled both its membership and the number of its branches. Its members are involved in work across the country around anti-ICE organizing, Palestine solidarity, labor and community struggles, the defense of Tom Alter and the United Left Platform.
Two paths for socialists
Socialism 2026 confirmed the lack of vision of mainstream democratic socialists that can only lead to new disappointments and frustration. But it also showed that there is a huge space for revolutionary politics to grow and offer an alternative way forward. The ULP showed that the potential to advance is there, and Socialist Horizon is wholly committed to the challenge.
