Friday, October 5, 10am-2pm, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law [Moot Courtroom (Room 101)], 1801 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, Ohio; Saturday, October 6, 10am-4pm, Cleveland Public Library [Louis Stokes Wing Auditorium], 525 Superior Ave., Cleveland. Ohio

Commemorate labor and socialist activists Eugene Debs’ famous Canton, Ohio anti-war speech and trial. Tour of actual courtroom. Friday night keynotes and dinner. Saturday workshops, panel and lunch. Columbus Free Press editor Bob Fitrakis will speak on the history of American Socialism.

• The topic for the Friday session will be on the question of the Espionage Act of 1917 and the fight for free speech, both then — versus Debs — and now with the war against whistleblowers, journalists, and the alternative media. Speakers include: Ernest Freeberg, Ahmed White, Sue Udry, and Kevin Frances O’Neill. The proceedings will include a tour of the East Courtroom in the Howard M. Metzenbaum U.S. Courthouse where Debs was tried on the charge of sedition.

• Questions to be submitted to the Saturday Assembly at the library for consideration include: (1.) Eugene Debs and American Socialism; (2.) The Espionage Act and its censorship of domestic free speech and the right to dissent; (3.) U.S. militarism and its drumbeat for endless war; and (4.) “What is to be done?”; discussion on the question of an independent political party based in the labor movement in the manner of Debs.

Speakers include: Allison Duerk, Ernest Freeberg, Robert Fitrakis, Sue Udry, Dan Kovalik, David Goldberg, Margaret Kimberley, and Mark Dimondstein (tentative).