Evan Popp
CHICAGO — Rousing speeches in front of raucous crowds. Panels featuring voices from across the movement. Workshops on where we go from here. The People’s Summit had something for just about everyone.
The summit, which took place in Chicago on June 9-11, brought together progressive movement leaders and organizers to discuss the future of left-wing political change. Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, Naomi Klein, and Van Jones made appearances, as did Bernie and Jane Sanders, law professor Zephyr Teachout, and former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner. Event organizers estimated turnout to be around 4,000 people.
The summit originally launched in 2016 to continue the grassroots momentum spurred by Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign. It was no surprise, then, that the Senator from Vermont was omnipresent in this year’s gathering. Around half of the attendees sported some sort of Sanders paraphernalia, including one participant who wore a Bernie onesie.
Speakers and panelists frequently cited the Sanders campaign as a blueprint for how progressives should run for political office. And when it came time for the Senator to deliver the conference’s keynote address on Saturday in front of an overflow crowd, he was greeted with an extended standing ovation, loud chants of his name, and shouts of the ever-present refrain, “Bernie would have won.”
In his speech, Sanders gave his usual frank take on challenges facing the country and the damage being done by President Donald Trump and the Republican Congress. But Sanders urged progressives not to give up, noting that they have won a series of down-ballot races and put ideas like a $15 minimum wage, paid family leave, debt-free college tuition, and single-payer health care into the political lexicon.
“We may have lost the election, but we are continuing to win the battle of ideas,” Sanders said. “And brothers and sisters, that is no small thing.”
But the summit was about much more than Sanders, as the Senator himself admitted. When the crowd started chanting his name, Sanders retorted “It’s not Bernie. It’s you.”
Saturday’s schedule began with a “Voices of Resistance & Power” panel, which highlighted the diversity of progressive activism. Belen Sisa, an immigration rights activist born in Argentina, spoke about how Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), signed into law by Barack Obama in 2012, changed her life.
But it wasn’t Obama who inspired her, she said: “It was the brave and undocumented youth who made it happen.”
Another major topic at the summit was the media. Amy Goodman spoke about the importance of having an independent media. With corporate-owned outlets often ignoring movements or belittling them, Goodman said the job of an independent press is to go to where the silence is and say something.
“When the media spotlight shines in the right place, what a difference it can make,” she said.
Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, said activists must fight to protect the vitality of independent media, even if media isn’t the primary issue they’re focused on.
“Your first issue may be Medicare for all or $15 minimum wage,” vanden Heuvel said. “Your second better be media. Because that's how people learn about these things.”
The People’s Summit drew participants from all across the country. Christina Garcia of southern Texas said she came because she wants to get more involved in progressive organizing. One benefit for her was meeting other Texans.
“When you're a progressive or when you’re looking to back a cause, you can sometimes feel alone,” Garcia told The Progressive. “It’s nice to know there are people from your state here along with you.”
Sam Aresheh, a veteran of Occupy Wall Street and a Sanders volunteer from California, said the event brought together like-minded people who want what’s best for the country. He was particularly appreciative of the summit’s “Beyond Resistance” theme.
“A lot of us have been doing resistance even during the Obama Administration,” he said. “The progressive movement needs to take it a step further, and I think we are by electing down-ballot candidates who have the same goals as us, and bringing the basics of grassroots organizing to our local communities.”
Not everyone in attendance agreed that the People’s Summit was on the right track. The World Socialist Web Site distributed an article arguing that “opposition of the working class to the Trump Administration must not be contaminated by any association with the Democratic Party and its various affiliates.”
But many summit attendees said that while the current Democratic Party strategy is bankrupt, working within the party is the most effective strategy for creating change. They argued that a progressive takeover of the party will be easier and more effective than trying to build a viable third party. And efforts to re-engineer the party are already underway through Our Revolution, Justice Democrats, and others.
As Nomiki Konst—a progressive activist and investigative reporter for The Young Turks—put it: “We are this close to taking over the levers of the [Democratic] Party. Why would we give that up now?” Some at the conference brought up Jeremy Corbyn’s takeover of the Labour Party in the United Kingdom as a blueprint to follow.
Despite pockets of criticism, the overwhelming sentiment at the summit was one of excitement and determination. Speakers implored organizers to stay focused and committed.
As Naomi Klein put it, “In times of crisis we either fall apart or we grow up fast. Let's choose that second option.”