Socialists are all about “the worker,” right? That is what they spout again and again. So the irony of what is happening at the Socialism 2026 conference being held this weekend in Chicago is rich and lays bare the labor rhetoric vs. how champagne socialists actually behave.
The communist, Mao Zedong-loving influencer Hasan Piker is a featured speaker at the event.
The gathering is endorsed by groups including the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Organized Communities Against Deportations, and the Black Rose Anarchist Federation.
While good little Bolsheviks entered the venue to plan the demise of the American way of life, they walked right into a hotel where union workers have been working without a contract since midnight on September 1.
The annual conference, sponsored by Haymarket Books and other co-sponsors, is a weekend full of Marxism, Palestine cheerleading, ICE bashing, climate handwringing, and, of course, performative conversations about the labor force. This year’s event is being held at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place with about 2,600 registered.
The same weekend, UNITE HERE Local 1 hotel workers at 46 Chicago hotels, representing more than 7,000 people workers, have been working without a contract since midnight on September 1. The union marched on Michigan Avenue on September 2 and said they could strike at any time.
Holding a socialist conference inside a Hyatt, tied to Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s (D) family during an active citywide hotel contract fight doesn’t say much about how seriously the socialists take their fight for worker’s rights.
Hellbound and Down 