Our event will challenge the dominant narratives around democracy, will highlight the democratic systems prevailing in socialist societies, will discuss the plutocratic nature of neoliberal capitalism, and will expose how the concept of democracy is leveraged in support of a deeply undemocratic and violent imperialism.

Cheng Enfu (Principal Professor, University of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

Carlos Ron (Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for North America, Venezuela)

Isabel Monal Rodríguez (Director of the Department of Marxist Studies, Academy of Sciences of Cuba)

Luna Oi (Vietnamese blogger and broadcaster)

Kiyul Chung (Visiting Professor, Tsinghua University, China; Korea University, Tokyo, Japan)

Layla Brown (Assistant Professor, Northeastern University, US)

Zhai Guoqiang (Deputy Director of the Institute of International Law, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

Elias Jabbour (Professor, Rio de Janeiro State University, Brazil)

Roland Boer (Professor, Dalian University of Technology, China)

Danny Haiphong (Co-editor, Friends of Socialist China; Contributing editor, Black Agenda Report)

Ju-Hyun Park (Writer and organizer, Nodutdol)

Moderator: Radhika Desai (Professor, University of Manitoba, Canada)

The event is organised jointly by Friends of Socialist China and the International Manifesto Group, and is co-sponsored by the Morning Star, the International Action Center, Nodutdol and Qiao Collective.