On September 4–5, the American Communist Party will host its inaugural “Marxism Conference” in Chicago. The venue address will remain secret until one week before doors open. What organizers have disclosed is a speaker roster that includes party leaders who co-founded a Kremlin-backed international in Moscow this spring, attended the funerals of Ayatollah Khamenei and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and promote support for China, North Korea, Iran, and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The conference is co-organized by Midwestern Marx Institute and will feature keynote addresses, panel discussions, and what organizers describe as “education sessions” on Marxist theory. Ticket sales are hosted on Sellfy, an e-commerce platform typically used for merchandise, not professional conference registration. The event coincides with the one-year anniversary of the party’s founding in July 2024.
The Speaker Roster
The conference’s keynote speakers share more than ideology. Jackson Hinkle was banned from Twitch in 2022 for spreading pro-Russia disinformation about Ukraine and from Instagram in 2024 for pro-Hamas content. In 2023, he used AI to generate images depicting “a satanic George Soros” and monetized a premium subscription promising to “defeat the Zionist lies.”
Christopher Helali was accused in 2016 of embezzling $4,510 from the Boston Industrial Workers of the World while serving as Secretary-Treasurer. He denied the charge, claiming the money was used “during a local IWW feud.” He told a reporter he has “been detained off and on since 2013” and said he was placed on a Department of Homeland Security watch list in 2020. Russia awarded him its “Medal Participant of the military operation in Syria” in December 2024.
Also speaking: Rathbone, a New Orleans musician banned from TikTok and Instagram for “anti-imperialist, anti-American” content; Slava Jalili, a Ukrainian-American who spoke against “Kiev’s Regime and NATO” on the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion; Grayson Walker, who published “The Marxist Position on Iran: Reactionary or Revolutionary?” in the party’s journal; Nick Cruse, co-founder of Revolutionary Blackout Network; and 2024 Green Party vice presidential candidate Butch Ware. The conference includes Andrew Hartman, a Distinguished Professor at Illinois State University whose recent book Karl Marx in America was published by the University of Chicago Press. The roster includes no speakers critical of Russia, China, or Iran.
The Moscow Connection
Six of those speakers traveled to Moscow on April 27, 2026, for the inaugural forum of Sovintern—”for socialism in the twenty-first century.” The organization brought together representatives from more than seventy countries to establish what a Lansing Institute analysis describes as a modern Comintern designed to “undermine European unity, spread anti-Western narratives, and legitimize Russia’s war in Ukraine.” Vladimir Putin sent a greeting praising attendees for their commitment to “social justice, sovereign development, and traditional spiritual and moral values.”
American Communist Party chairman Haz Al-Din gave a keynote address. Co-founder Jackson Hinkle posted: “I spoke at the inaugural SOVINTERN International Socialist Forum in Moscow yesterday on behalf of the American Communist Party.” Party International Secretary Christopher Helali, who won election as a Vermont High Bailiff in November 2024, relocated to Moscow after the election and now works for DD Geopolitics, a pro-Russia media outlet. In July, Helali and Hinkle both traveled to Iran for Khamenei’s funeral. Hinkle was filmed chanting “down with the USA.” Conference speakers Carlos Garrido and Edward Liger Smith co-direct Midwestern Marx and serve as ACP Secretary of Education and co-founder, respectively. Both have written extensively supporting “socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
Who’s Behind the American Communist Party?
The American Communist Party split from the Communist Party USA in July 2024. The party’s Wikipedia page states it “voiced support for China, North Korea, Iran, Nicaragua, Nicolás Maduro, and the Russian ‘Special Military Operation.’” It claims three hundred members across thirty states and promotes what it calls “MAGA Communism”—a strategy to recruit Trump supporters by reframing populist grievances as achievable only through communism.
The party operates a “build and rebuild” program that uses community gardens, food drives, and disaster relief to gain local trust before introducing Marxist ideology. An academic analysis documented the party conducting nearly one hundred charity drives in six months since its founding. Christopher Helali won his Vermont election in November 2024, which the same academic analysis described as making the ACP the second communist party in U.S. history to hold public office. The party has no IRS nonprofit registration and files no public financial disclosures.
Next Month in Chicago
The conference overlaps with Socialism 2026, a separate event organized by Haymarket Books at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place. That conference lists its venue publicly and is endorsed by established left-wing publishers. The Marxism Conference does not. Organizers state the address “will be released a week before the event.” No security concern is cited. No reason is provided. Neither the party nor Midwestern Marx responded to requests for comment. The FBI has not commented on whether it is monitoring the event.