AN ENTIRE U.S. city is nearly destroyed while the Bush administration fiddles. Politicians in Washington cut Medicaid and student loans while they add to the nearly $500 billion tab for an overwhelmingly unpopular war in Iraq. Bigots like the Minutemen scapegoat immigrant workers while anti-abortionists try to strip women of the right to choose. Meanwhile, the Democrats seem to offer no alternative to Bush’s attacks.

Clearly, the need for an alternative on the left—an alternative that speaks to the millions of ordinary people who are fed up with war, attacks on workers, and threats to our civil rights—is more pressing than ever. Building that alternative is up to us—and Socialism 2006 is a great place to start.

Socialism 2006 provides a place where activists from today’s fights against the Right can come together to discuss how we can rebuild the Left and win a world where ordinary people will decide the priorities of our society. Join us in New York for a weekend of nearly 100 meetings, plus a book fair, activists’ tables, parties, and entertainment!

FEATURING:
** Voices of a People"s History of the United States -- dramatic readings from Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove"s book featuring leading actors from Hollywood and Broadway, including Lili Taylor, Wallace Shawn, Christina Kirk, Josh Hamilton, John Sayles, and many others; introduced by Anthony Arnove
** Friendly Fire: A conversation between Giuliana Sgrena and Amy Goodman -- in which the Italian journalist who was kidnapped in Iraq, then almost killed when fired upon by U.S. forces, speaks in the U.S. for the first time
** Soldiers Speak Out Against the War -- featuring Kelly Doughtery, Camilo Mejia, and Pablo Paredes
** The New Immigrant Rights Movement -- led by Nativo Lopez, president of the Mexican American Political Association, and Justin Akers Chacon, co-author with Mike Davis of No One Is Illegal!
** Impeach Bush? ?A debate between Jeffrey St Clair and Dave Lindorff
** Sports and Resistance -- with sportswriter Dave Zirin, Washington Wizards forward Etan Thomas, and basketball player and activist Toni Smith
** 30 Years is Enough: We Can Stop the Death Penalty -- with exonerated death-row prisoner Shujaa Graham, exonerated Central Park 5 member Yusef Salaam, and Alice Kim of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty
** Red, Black, Blue Green: Electoral Challenges to the Democrats ?with Green Party leaders Peter Camejo, Todd Chretien, Aaron Dixon, and Howie Hawkins, currently running against Arnold Schwartzenegger, Dianne Feinstein, Maria Cantwell, and Hillary Clinton respectively
?br> ... and nearly 100 more workshops led by Lynne Stewart, Jeremy Scahill, Josh Frank, Sharon Smith, Ahmed Shawki, Robert Robideau, Mike Marqusee, Alan Maass, Ron Jacobs, Paul D"Amato, Sam Farber, Dennis Brutus, Luciana Genro; activists from around the U.S., the Middle East, Latin America, and Europe; and many others.?See http://www.socialismconference.org for the full conference details
?br> 쟋ILLIONS OF PEOPLE felt their power in the streets on May Day 2006, when immigrants and their supporters shut down businesses and staged massive protests across the U.S and South of the border. The government and the Right have a vision of the world -- one of endless wars, racist scapegoating, and continuing to enrich the few while the rest of us pay the price. Bigots like the Minutemen line up at the border as hate crimes against immigrants rise, while anti-abortionists try to strip women of the right to choose. An entire U.S. city is nearly destroyed while the Bush administration fiddles. And the Democrats seem to offer no alternative to Bush"s attacks.

But the new movement for immigrant rights ?and struggles around the world, from France to Bolivia to Nepal -- offer a different vision. They show that an
alternative on the left -- an alternative that speaks to the millions of ordinary people who are fed up with war, attacks on workers, and threats to our civil rights -- is not only necessary, but possible. Building that alternative is up to us -- and Socialism 2006 is a great place to start.

REGISTRATION

Registration Rates
Whole conference $100
Two day pass $70
Single day pass $35
Single session $10

Online Registration
Visit http://www.socialismconference.org/register.html

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Write: Socialism 2006, c/o ISR, P.O. Box 258082,
Chicago, IL 60625
Call: 773-583-8665
E-mail: info@socialismconference.org
Website: http://www.socialismconference.org

This website is being updated often, so check back soon for even more speakers and events!

Free on-site childcare and Spanish translation are available; see website for details.

Featured Events Include:

"Voices of a Peoples" History of the United States" - The conference will kick off with a performance of "Voices," readings from the words of fighters for social justice in U.S. history. This special performance will include leading actors from Broadway and Hollywood interpreting the words of great fighters like Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth and Leonard Peltier. If you would like to attend, please order tickets at the special conference price of $10. Only a limited number will be available. Tickets will be delivered when you register for the conference. The performance will be held at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, 64th Street at Central Park West, at 8PM, Thursday, June 22.
?br> UPDATE: The performance will include readings from Lili Taylor, Wally Shawn, Amy Goodman, John Sayles, Christian Kirk, Josh Hamilton, and many other stage and screen actors; and will be introduced by Anthony Arnove, who co-edited the book with Howard Zinn. For a full list of actors and their bios, see
http://www.socialismconference.org/voices.shtml
?br> "Friendly Fire: A conversation between Amy Goodman and Giuliana Sgrena" Leading Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, whose personal story was featured on 60 Minutes and in other major media worldwide, describes the real story of her capture, dramatic release, and shooting in 2004. While reporting for the Italian daily newspaper Il Manifesto in Iraq, Sgrena was taken hostage by a group of Iraqis on February 4, 2004, and held until March 4, 2004. On the day of her release, as she was being escorted to Baghdad International Airport by Italian security, US forces fired on her vehicle. The attack killed Major General Nicola Calipari, the number-two man in Italian military intelligence, as he shielded Sgrena. The remarkable story of a journalist kidnapped in Iraq, rescued by an Italian secret service agent and shot at by U.S. forces will be recounted in person for the first time in the U.S. at Socialism 2006. Sgrena"s book, Friendly Fire (Haymarket, 2006), to be released at this event, describes her experience as a hostage and provides unique insights into the situation in Iraq under occupation, exposing U.S. war crimes there. This event is free as part of the conference, or $10 for non-conference attendees.

Featured Speakers Include: (See fuller list of speakers, with bios, at http://www.socialismconference.org/speakers.html )
Justin Akers Chac?, author, No One Is Illegal!
Anthony Arnove, author, Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal
Dennis Brutus, author, Poetry and Protest
Peter Camejo, Green Party, California
Todd Chretien, Aaron Dixon, and Howie Hawkins, Green Party candidates from U.S. Senate from California, Washington, and New York
Kelly Dougherty, Iraq Veterans Against War
Sam Farber, author, The Origins of the Cuban Revolution Reconsidered
Joshua Frank, author, Left Out!
Phil Gasper, editor, The Communist Manifesto: A Road Map to History"s Most Important Political Document
Amy Goodman, host, Democracy Now!
Shujaa Graham, former death row prisoner and activist against the death penalty
Luciana Genro, member of Brazilian parliament, Party of Socialism and Liberty
Suheir Hammad, poet and spoken-word artist
Toufic Haddad and Tikva Honig-Parnass, authors, Between the Lines, an analysis of the current political situation in Israel and Palestine
Ron Jacobs, author, The Way the Wind Blew: A history of the Weather Underground
Nativo L?ez, Hermandad Mexicana and Mexican American Political Association
Mike Marqusee, author, Wicked Messenger: Bob Dylan in the 1960s
Marlene Martin, national director, Campaign to End the Death Penalty
Camilo Mej?, first U.S. soldier to refuse to return to Iraq
Pablo Paredes, U.S. war resister
Phyliss Prentice, Maryland Campaign to End the Death Penalty
Robert Robideau, American Indian Movement and co-director, Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
Yusef Salaam, wrongly convicted as a teenager in the Central Park jogger case; now a criminal justice activist and advocate
Michael Schwartz, Sociology professor who has written extensively on the Iraqi resistance
Giuliana Sgrena, journalist, Il Manifesto and author of Friendly Fire
Ahmed Shawki, editor, International Socialist Review, and author of Black Liberation and Socialism
Lorrie Beth Slonsky and Larry Bradshaw, eyewitnesses from Hurricane Katrina
Sharon Smith, columnist, Socialist Worker, and author of Subterranean Fire
Toni Smith , Manhattanville College basketball player who protested the Iraq War on court
Jeffrey St. Clair, author, Grand Theft Pentagon and co-editor of Counterpunch
Lynne Stewart, radical human rights lawyer facing 30 years in prison for unjust conviction of "aiding terrorists"
Etan Thomas , Washington Wizards" center/power forward and author, More Than an Athlete
Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, national coordinating committee, Campus Antiwar Network
David Williams, author, A Peoples" History of the Civil War
The Welfare Poets, hip hop artists and activists
Dave Zirin, TheNation.com sports columnist and author, What"s My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States
*affiliations for identification only

Meetings Include:
(full schedule is available at
http://www.socialismconference.org/schedule_en.shtml )

U.S. politics
Generation "Debt": the criminalization of Youth
Monkey trials: Evolution under attack
Under Attack, Fighting Back: Free speech and the movement against military recruitment
Addicted to profit: The politics of drugs
Free Leonard Peltier!
The crisis in education
Red, Black, Blue and Green: Electoral Challenges to the Democrats
The antiwar movement inside the military
Grand Theft Pentagon
30 Years is Enough: We can stop the death penalty
Eye of the storm: Eyewitness reports from Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath
Debate: Should our movements call for impeaching Bush?
America"s radical history
Slave revolts in the U.S.
The populist movement
The rise and fall of SDS
George Jackson and Attica Revolt
America"s radical working class history
Are US workers different?
Labor"s Giant Step: Class war in the 1930s
Big Bill Haywood and American Socialism

Women"s and Gay Liberation
Gay oppression: A prop for the family
"You can"t understand my oppression": The politics of identity
Capitalism and sexuality
When abortion was a crime
That"s so "reductionist": Do Marxists reduce everything to class?

Black Politics
Is there a white skin privilege?
From Civil Rights to Black Power
Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary
The politics of blame: Is Bill Cosby right

Latino and immigration politics
A history of farmworkers" struggles in the U.S.
The Young Lords
Give us your poor huddled masses: the history of U.S. immigration
The new immigrants rights movement
No One is Illegal! Immigrants are welcome here

The ABC"s of Marxism
Marx"s historical materialism
Marx"s theory of alienation
Marx"s theory of revolution
Marx"s critique of other socialisms

Questions about socialism
Socialism and War: Are All Wars Bad?
Is Human Nature a Barrier to Socialism?
Are Prisons Necessary?
Is Marxism pro-violence?
Outside agitators? Socialists and movements

Marxist Classics
Lenin"s What is to be Done
Luxemburg"s Reform or Revolution
Explaining Marx"s Capital
Engels" Origin of the Family
Gramsci"s Prison Notebooks

The lost revolutions
Germany 1918-1923: the lost revolution
Hungary 1956: workers" against the monolith
Iran: Islam and revolution, 1979

The Russian Revolutionary Movement
Ten Days that Shook the World뾲he 1917 revolution
Original Sin? Why did the Russian Revolution Fail?
A Party like no other: Lenin and the party
Anarchists and the Russian Revolution

Trotsky
Trotsky and fight against Fascism in Germany
Trotsky, the Chinese revolution, and the roots of Maoism
Debate on Trotsky"s theory of permanent revolution

Imperialism and war
Iraq: Graveyard of U.S. imperialism?
The classical Marxist theory of Imperialism
Should socialists support intervention in Darfur?
Lords of Poverty: The economics and politics of international aid
Is the earth overcrowded?
Lenin and Right of Nations to Self-Determination

Latin America in transition
Venezuela: from populism to revolution
Bolivia: the end of neoliberalism?
Land Struggles in Latin America
Cuban Revolution reconsidered
Latin America on fire

Culture and art
Dennis Brutus on Poetry and Protest
Myth and reality of Van Gogh
International music of protest
The Juice: Capitalism and Steroids
The politics of sports
Bob Dylan
Woody Guthrie

Marxist Economics
Will capitalism collapse? The Marxist theory of Crisis
The U.S. economy: when will the bubble burst?
Is the US Becoming a Post-Industrial Society?
The Walmartization of America
India, China, and the changing world economy
Despoiling our earth: have we passed the tipping point?

Middle East
Israel: a colonial/settler state
Hamas and the future of Palestine
The coming war with Iran?
Myth and reality of Islam

Our tradition and theirs
The "people"s front" and the tragedy of American Communism
Ending the madness of the market: In defense of socialist planning
"I only drink fair trade coffee": The politics of alternative lifestyle
What Kind of Party do we need?
Change the world without taking power? The new anarchism
Is Marxism a Science?