Radical activists and organizers from across the U.S. and around the world descended on Chicago over Labor Day weekend to attend the Socialism 2026 Conference. The four-day summit was touted as a “place for both seasoned radicals and new activists to sharpen analysis, hone strategy, and build community.” Its more than 100 workshops included a Marxism Education Series, along with sessions bearing titles such as “Confronting Zionism: Decolonizing Palestine and Building the World Anew” and “Trans Care in the Age of Health Fascism.”

But the conference’s central purpose was unmistakable: to chart the socialist movement’s next steps in its pursuit of power — and prepare a new generation of revolutionaries for battle.

Perhaps the weekend’s most memorable remarks came from University of California, Santa Barbara, professor Butch Ware, who told attendees that the Democratic establishment “must be destroyed” and warned they must get ready for “war in the streets.”

For Ware, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed are not radical enough:

We have a tremendous opportunity. But they [the Democratic establishment] are going to keep giving us the Mamdanis and the Abdul El-Sayeds — and in my generation, the Obamas — because they are there to contain radicalism. They are there to destroy it and to diffuse it and to co-opt it and to purchase it.

Despite the false bravado of Democratic leaders such as Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries who persist in peddling the fiction of the party’s “big tent,” Ware was very clear: “The Democrats cannot be reasoned with. They must be destroyed.”

The audience loved it.

UC Santa Barbara professor Dr. Butch Ware at ‘Marxism conference’ says Democrats “must be destroyed.”

“They are going to keep giving us the Mamdanis and the Abdul El-Sayeds…because they are there to contain radicalism.”

“The Democrats cannot be reasoned with. They must be… pic.twitter.com/USKxfFSkZc

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) September 6, 2026

In the next video, Ware tells attendees to get ready for “war in the streets.”

Y’all ain’t dreamed big enough yet. And also, some of these clickety-clack revolutionaries have never been in a f***ing gunfight. But some of us that grew up in the hood know what guns are like. Outcasts said it best, ‘N****s ranting and raving about gas. N****, they made them gas. They got some sh** that’ll blow out our backs.

You are ready for a war in the streets? No, you ain’t. Y’all ain’t nowhere near ready for a war in the streets. You better get ready for both kinds of war.

And if you stay ready, you ain’t got to get ready.

UCSB prof Dr. Butch Ware tells ‘Marxism’ conference: Be ready for “war in the streets.”

“Some of these clickety-clack revolutionaries have never been in a f*cking gunfight.”

“Y’all ain’t nowhere near ready for a war in the streets. You better get ready for both kinds of war.”… https://t.co/Gw4bLlEbWp pic.twitter.com/gOZQTAPYH2

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) September 7, 2026

Responding to Ware’s remarks on X, podcast host Michael Shermer stated the obvious:

If Marxism requires armed violent action, doesn’t that mean that “the people” don’t actually want it (so you have to force it upon them at gunpoint)? For over a century Marxism has failed everywhere it has been tried & resulted in >100 million dead. Enough @ButchWare&

City University of New York Professor Ruth Gilmore drew considerable attention after declaring that capitalism is inherently racist.

There is no good capitalism. There isn’t a capitalism that is somehow not racial. There isn’t a capitalism that does not produce and reproduce all kinds of sexual and gender boundaries.

…

But make no mistake: It’s capitalism we’re after.

We believe you.

Also Ruth Wilson Gilmore: “It’s capitalism we’re after.” pic.twitter.com/0fPBTvvYUf https://t.co/H42I9eX5Ek

— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) September 7, 2026

During a Saturday interview with Newsmax, former White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley discussed what may have drawn so many young voters to the Marxist conference. He noted that the socialist message resonates particularly strongly with those “who are carrying college debt and squeezed out of housing.”

In Gidley’s telling, young socialists have been sold the idea that prosperity should be theirs immediately, without the years of sacrifice traditionally required to attain it:

You should be able to afford a penthouse in Manhattan. And because you can’t, it must be because of the man.

Instead of saying, ‘Hey, pay your dues, stay with roommates, live, scrape, claw, work to get where you are.’ No, you should be given that on day one.

Democrats have done an outstanding job selling this lie to so many young people in this country.

Young voters, he added, are largely “ignorant” of Marxism’s history and consequences. They simply “don’t know any better.”

Whatever appeal socialism may hold for disaffected young Americans, the rhetoric coming out of Chicago should not be dismissed as youthful idealism. A conference billed as a forum for sharpening strategy and building a movement featured prominent speakers calling for the destruction of the Democratic establishment, preparation for “war in the streets,” and the end of capitalism. When self-described revolutionaries tell the public exactly what they intend to do, it would be foolish not to take them seriously.

Elizabeth Stauffer, Legal Insurrection