Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will headline a major progressive conference later this spring that aims to galvanize the resistance to President Donald Trump into a larger movement for a just world.
The People's Summit will be held in Chicago from June 9-11 at McCormick Place, and is expected to feature a line-up of numerous progressive icons, including author and activist Naomi Klein; lawmakers Kshama Sawant of Seattle, Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, and former Ohio State Sen. Nina Turner; journalists Shaun King and Sarah Jaffe; Honor the Earth cofounder Tara Houska; and activist and CNN commentator Van Jones, among dozens of other organizers and artists.
Sanders will deliver the keynote speech for the conference, which is organized under the theme of "moving beyond the resistance."
"There is no force more powerful than a community on the move for justice. We will protest, we will plan, and we will preserve in the building of political power from the ground up. This is our moment," said Turner, who was also a Sanders surrogate during the 2016 Democratic primary.
RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United, a major convener of the event, added, "What has consistently unified us is a common vision of opposition to policies of austerity and neo-liberalism, and solidarity in supporting each others' work on health care, environmental, racial, social, and economic justice, and breaking the corporate grip on our political and economic system."
Sanders' involvement in the summit was announced soon after a poll declared him the most popular politician in the country.
On Monday, he published an op-ed for USA Today that called Trump's maligned budget proposal "one of the cruelest in American history."
"This budget, and its absurd priorities, must be soundly defeated," he wrote.
