The 2026 LRAN conference will gather to hold space for a broad range of labor activists, practitioners, scholars, and others to connect, learn, and strategize together. Over the past year, we have come face to face with remarkable vulnerabilitie​s in the protective institutions of our society. The already fragile safeguards won to protect workers in the U.S. have been further eroded, manipulated, or erased, leaving an unrecognizable landscape for the labor. Workers are on the front lines in the battle against unrestricted capitalism and authoritarianism, from the shop floor to Capitol Hill. Bolstering collective community and worker power is critical if we are to revive our democracy.