Join Tempest at the Socialism 2024 Conference in Chicago!

We live in stormy times.

We have participated in huge, transformative protests against genocide, in defense of the new seeds sprouting in the labor movement, and in the Movement for Black Lives. A generational radicalization and questioning of the system and its structures remain constant, even as struggles ebb and flow.

Still, ideologically and organizationally, the Left remains at an impasse. Attempts to gain footing though an electoral strategy focused on using Democratic Party candidates as leaders to advance socialist demands have been exhausted, with the figures who most advocated that path now throwing all of their weight behind a rightward-moving Democratic Party establishment led by Kamala Harris. The Left is atomized and without a clear orientation that could guide the high points of organizing over these last several years into a clear, national platform and strategy.

In the absence of a strong and visible independent Left, the far right is outpacing us, and destroying the ties of solidarity with its vitriol.This is showing up at the policy level, as well as at the center of state institutions, in chilling ways. The Democrats are incapable of stopping this rot; in fact, they enable its spread.  To move the needle towards liberatory, anti-capitalist solutions to the crises of neoliberalism, the Left must develop its own platform and advocate a strategy built on the development of independent organizations and struggle.

This is the context in which thousands of socialists from around the country and the world will convene in Chicago for the Socialism Conference. Tempest is a sponsor of this year’s conference because we believe it is an invaluable space for activists and socialists of different stripes to redouble and strengthen our efforts to change the world. The conference provides a forum for people to meet and forge connections across locales. To strategize with others from different places engaged in similar areas of organizing. And to take stock of our shared challenges— including  staving off the far right’s progress and challenging a bipartisan and bloodthirsty,imperial project led bythe Democrats—through the creation of new organs of political organizing.

Without collective organizing, there is no way out of this storm. This is why Tempest is committed to creating and supporting spaces that foster the ability for working class and oppressed people to become participants and actors in their own struggles. The reality is that we have had no shortage of uprisings in our political lives. But those high points are never endless or linear. The purpose of organization is to crystalize the gains that are won in those highpoints, and ensure that the struggle advances. Otherwise, we have seen repeatedly the way demands can vanish or become co-opted once the movement recedes.

The Socialism Conference is one such institution that is a valuable resource towards the development of the organizations this moment requires us to build. We encourage all who are able to to attend, network, and be part of discussions and debates that can help us rise to the tasks that this terrifying moment presents..

Tempest will be in Chicago to participate in the discussions and debates. We are hosting a panel on The Genocidal Returns of Lesser Evilism which will be held Saturday, August 31 at 10am CT where we will take up the question of the 2024 elections through the prism of the pressing need to organize and build forces capable of fighting for an alternative, socialist future. We are hoping it can be a space for activists to come together to discuss and debate socialist strategy in the context of the two party system. Bring your questions and ideas.

Tempest members are also speaking on a variety of sessions including:

• 175 Years Since the Communist Manifesto: Why Marxism (still) Matters
• We Keep Us Safe: De-escalation Training
• From Chavez to Maduro: Understanding Venezuela today
• Capital and Abolition
• Killer Debt: Global North and Global South (co-sponsored with Solidarity)
• Workplace and Union Activists Organizing in Solidarity with Palesinte
• Solidarity without Exception: the Left and the Struggle for National Self-Determination (co-sponsored with Against the Current, The Real News Network and Ukraine Solidarity Network)
• Religion at the Encampments
• China in Global Capitalism: Building Solidarity Against Imperial Rivalry
• Building Democratic Rank-and-File Caucuses: Radicalizing the Labor Movement Beyond Reform to Class Struggle
• Printmaking for the Masses
• Palestine and Global Liberation

For informal spaces to chat with Tempest members and find out more about becoming a member of Tempest, stop by our table. We’ll be outside the Haymarket book room with t-shirts, zines, and pins, oh my! And we’re hosting a mixer at 9pm on Saturday, August 31st, where you’ll get to meet Tempest members from across the U.S. for snacks and drinks. We’ll debrief the day, get to know each other, and you can think about whether Tempest is your future political home.

Featured Image credit: Danny Chan; modified by Tempest.

Opinions expressed in signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of the editors or the Tempest Collective. For more information, see “About Tempest Collective.”