Ida B. Wells Media Defense Network Presents: Defending Political Expression, Defeating the New McCarthyism
We Will Not Be Silenced! Defending Dissent & Building Resistance to Political Repression
Secure your spot today to join the Ida B. Wells Media Defense Network either in person in NYC or online via Zoom. GET YOUR TICKETS / REGISTER NOW.
“An informed people cannot be oppressed.” — Ida B. Wells
Saturday, October 24, 2026 • 3:00–6:00 PM ET
The People’s Forum, 320 W. 37th Street, New York City • Hybrid — Attend In Person & Online
REGISTRATION: $15 — NO ONE TURNED AWAY
At a time of escalating censorship and attacks on protest, political expression, immigrant and labor rights, Palestine solidarity, and movements challenging racism, war and repression, the Ida B. Wells Media Defense Network brings together powerful voices to examine the history and present-day machinery of political repression — and, most importantly, how we build the solidarity and collective resistance necessary to fight it.
The network is thrilled to welcome Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly, renowned historian, political economist, and author of Black Scare/Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United States. Her work examines the connections among capitalism, anti-Black racial oppression, anti-radicalism and imperialism — and how histories of political repression continue to resonate today.
Dr. Burden-Stelly joins Vijay Prashad, historian, journalist, author and Executive Director of Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, and Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party and a defendant in the Uhuru 3 political repression case.
Together, the speakers will examine the historical and contemporary suppression of dissent — from the Black Scare and Red Scare to attacks on anti-colonial movements, labor and immigrant organizing, Palestine solidarity, independent media and political speech — while confronting the urgent question: How do we organize across movements to defend one another and make political repression ineffective?
Register for We Will Not Be Silenced
