https://znetwork.org/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Fri, 23 Oct 2026 16:04:22 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/tenant-power-on-display-in-jersey-city/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/tenant-power-on-display-in-jersey-city/#comments Fri, 23 Oct 2026 16:04:16 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306812 On Sunday, September 13th, a crowd of a few dozen organizers and tenants living at 150 and 154 Belmont Ave. swelled outside their buildings. Their voices rang out in unison: “West of Hudson, you can’t hide—tenants here are organized!”  This was the chant of working class people who were fed up with their dilapidated living [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/tenant-power-on-display-in-jersey-city/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-empty-stadium-illusion-why-banning-israeli-fans-is-not-enough/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-empty-stadium-illusion-why-banning-israeli-fans-is-not-enough/#respond Fri, 23 Oct 2026 15:54:54 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306778 The stadium is empty, but Israel is still in the game. Though any form of isolation of those responsible for genocide is welcome, the growing movement for a sports boycott of Israel has yet to translate solidarity into meaningful sporting isolation. Two recent developments illustrate this contradiction. The first is the decision by Alkmaar, a [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-empty-stadium-illusion-why-banning-israeli-fans-is-not-enough/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-stop-trumps-coup-lessons-from-south-korea/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-stop-trumps-coup-lessons-from-south-korea/#respond Fri, 23 Oct 2026 15:51:04 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306779 How do you stop a would-be dictator? The first requirement is knowing that it’s possible. In 2024, the people of South Korea took to the streets and stopped a would-be coup in its tracks. Their example offers lessons for how Americans can counter Donald Trump and his allies if they disrupt or defy the results [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-stop-trumps-coup-lessons-from-south-korea/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/jekyll-and-hyde-justice-stays-on-the-street/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/jekyll-and-hyde-justice-stays-on-the-street/#respond Fri, 23 Oct 2026 15:48:01 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306781 “What does democracy look like?” As the Supreme Court formally takes up the legal challenges against the state, the streets of New Delhi offer a grim answer to that question: anti-riot vehicles, concrete blockades, forty-three thousand police and security personnel aggressively deployed, internet services abruptly suspended, massive restrictions choking metro and railway hubs, and, most [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/jekyll-and-hyde-justice-stays-on-the-street/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/russias-peripheral-imperialism-class-ideology-and-war/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/russias-peripheral-imperialism-class-ideology-and-war/#respond Fri, 23 Oct 2026 15:43:16 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306786 Russia’s invasion of Ukraine presents a problem for analyses that identify imperialism exclusively with the dominant centres of global capitalism. How can a country dependent on commodity exports, imported technology and external financial networks itself act as an imperialist power? In our contribution to the forthcoming Suhrkamp anthology on contemporary imperialism and anti-imperialism, Boris Kagarlitsky and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/russias-peripheral-imperialism-class-ideology-and-war/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/inside-the-resistance-to-spains-crackdown-on-migrants-in-ceuta/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/inside-the-resistance-to-spains-crackdown-on-migrants-in-ceuta/#respond Fri, 23 Oct 2026 15:42:19 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306788 On July 30, images streamed across TVs, social media feeds and newspapers of thousands of people approaching a fence along the beach, in boats and by foot. Migrants, including children and families, were attempting to cross into Ceuta, a Spanish enclave bordered by Morocco. Facing violent border guards and the threat of drowning, over 70,000 [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/inside-the-resistance-to-spains-crackdown-on-migrants-in-ceuta/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/u-n-presses-meta-over-manipulation-in-brazils-election/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/u-n-presses-meta-over-manipulation-in-brazils-election/#respond Fri, 23 Oct 2026 15:40:45 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306777 “Online platforms are key actors in democratic debate. Preventing people from expressing themselves or reaching audiences without explanation affects who gets heard,” they wrote. In their statement, the U.N. rapporteurs asked Meta to assess whether its moderation, recommendation and artificial intelligence systems had disproportionately restricted one side of Brazil’s election debate. They also asked the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/u-n-presses-meta-over-manipulation-in-brazils-election/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/retreat-ho/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/retreat-ho/#respond Fri, 23 Oct 2026 15:36:59 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306783 As always, the Trump administration is setting ever stranger records for public “entertainment” (and yes, I certainly do have to put that word in quotation marks). Only recently, Secretary of — you choose — War/Defense (I certainly know which I’d choose) Pete Hegseth made it clear that Nidal Hassan, a former U.S. Army psychiatrist and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/retreat-ho/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/crypto-ai-u-s-elections/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/crypto-ai-u-s-elections/#respond Fri, 23 Oct 2026 15:32:37 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306785 Follow the Money: PACs Lead Spending in the 2026 Midterms October 5, 2026—Campaign finance is where powerful interests intersect with government. The money spent does not just influence elections, it can also shape policies affecting society as a whole. In terms of money flowing through the campaign-finance system, political action committees (PACs) direct nearly three [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/crypto-ai-u-s-elections/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumps-invasion-of-memphis-and-another-unexplained-death/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumps-invasion-of-memphis-and-another-unexplained-death/#respond Fri, 23 Oct 2026 15:27:15 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306784 Each time Brittany Johnson presses play, her son is alive and running. He sprints down Ida B. Wells Street, a slight silhouette fleeing something that’s out of the frame. “Oh, that’s the National Guard right there!” shouts the girl who is recording as he makes a right on Union, then quickly darts left after a black [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumps-invasion-of-memphis-and-another-unexplained-death/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/if-we-burn-you-burn-with-us-frances-youth-ignite-a-massive-revolt/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/if-we-burn-you-burn-with-us-frances-youth-ignite-a-massive-revolt/#respond Thu, 22 Oct 2026 15:58:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306708 “Make sure you tell the Americans that trash cans aren’t the only things burning in France,” 16-year-old Ewen told Truthdig as protesters gathered on the Place de la République on Saturday. Tear gas canisters had been falling into the growing crowd for about an hour, and the teen struggled to make himself heard with his mask. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/if-we-burn-you-burn-with-us-frances-youth-ignite-a-massive-revolt/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/interviewing-chat-gpt-part-one/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/interviewing-chat-gpt-part-one/#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2026 15:58:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306704 This article, the first of two parts, is an interview I conducted of an entity that goes by the initials GPT. Yes, Open AI’s AI answered questions I put to it. I hope it proves helpful…albeit unusual.  Some context first. I did not ask GPT questions based on my own interests or, in many cases, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/interviewing-chat-gpt-part-one/feed/ 2 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/france-is-at-war-with-itself/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/france-is-at-war-with-itself/#respond Thu, 22 Oct 2026 15:56:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1306749 In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau dissect the catastrophic collapse of Emmanuel Macron’s ‘revolutionary centrist’ experiment in France, exposing how a decade of technocratic austerity and underinvestment has fuelled widespread social unrest and pushed the country to the brink of insolvency, while revealing the cowardice and hypocrisy of the EU’s [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/france-is-at-war-with-itself/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/beyond-borders-building-community-in-the-face-of-displacement/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/beyond-borders-building-community-in-the-face-of-displacement/#respond Thu, 22 Oct 2026 15:55:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306706 [Norbert Byambo Kagosi]: Forced and involuntary displacement can have many causes. I fled my country for many reasons, including insecurity, persistent conflict, and hatred in my village. In my hometown of Kiliba, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), life had become unbearable. People could be killed brutally, as if their lives had no value. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/beyond-borders-building-community-in-the-face-of-displacement/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/defective-products-openai-dangerous-chatbots-and-deception/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/defective-products-openai-dangerous-chatbots-and-deception/#respond Thu, 22 Oct 2026 15:54:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306720 It was bound to come. With the relentless, remorseless march of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots pullulating the internet and snatching the attention and mindless devotion of unwitting users, the legal suit is becoming common fare. These initially lay in the field of copyright breaches and intellectual property violations. Attention is now turning to matters of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/defective-products-openai-dangerous-chatbots-and-deception/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/washington-think-tank-warns-of-us-interference-in-brazilian-elections/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/washington-think-tank-warns-of-us-interference-in-brazilian-elections/#respond Thu, 22 Oct 2026 15:54:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306702 “They have interfered repeatedly to undermine Lula and clearly want Flávio Bolsonaro to win and be another faithful ally in the region,” says the Center for Economic and Policy Research’s Alex Main. Ahead of Brazil’s presidential run-off election on Sunday, the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) warned of interference by the Trump administration [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/washington-think-tank-warns-of-us-interference-in-brazilian-elections/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-militarization-of-germanys-car-industry/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-militarization-of-germanys-car-industry/#respond Thu, 22 Oct 2026 15:53:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306709 Despite all the apocalyptic news, the European automotive industry might still have a future. But not by leaving the industry to those who have missed the industrial change, or to those who want to save the industry through militarization. Corporate bosses want Germany’s car factories to change direction, merging the car industry with the military [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-militarization-of-germanys-car-industry/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/war-is-about-power-not-just-prices/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/war-is-about-power-not-just-prices/#respond Thu, 22 Oct 2026 15:52:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306707 As the midterms approach, the debate over the Iran war must move beyond household costs to who authorizes military force and who can stop it. At his October 16 rally in Dalton, Georgia, Donald Trump boasted that the country had “the highest stock market in history” despite the war with Iran, then brushed aside the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/war-is-about-power-not-just-prices/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-framework-for-peace-in-ukraine/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-framework-for-peace-in-ukraine/#respond Thu, 22 Oct 2026 15:51:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306755 The war in Ukraine can be ended permanently on terms that protect Ukraine’s statehood, meet Russia’s security concerns, and lay the foundation for a durable European security order. As another round of negotiations gears up in Norway, I propose a settlement concluded as a single package, signed by Ukraine and Russia, adopted by a vote [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-framework-for-peace-in-ukraine/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-logic-of-violence-cant-be-overcome-from-within/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-logic-of-violence-cant-be-overcome-from-within/#respond Thu, 22 Oct 2026 15:49:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306766 It was Shabbat on 7 October 2023, a Saturday. Where were you when the attack began? I was with my family in our apartment in Tel Aviv. We didn’t wake up when the first sirens went off at 6:30, and we didn’t notice anything unusual even after that. Shabbat and holidays are also generally pretty [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-logic-of-violence-cant-be-overcome-from-within/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/blue-spots-in-a-murky-global-sky-gen-zs-revolt-against-power/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/blue-spots-in-a-murky-global-sky-gen-zs-revolt-against-power/#respond Thu, 22 Oct 2026 15:48:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306745 What irks India’s current-day rulers is the fact that the protesting Gen Z of the day are less amenable to the seductions of religiosity and are less taken in by the subterfuges spawned by ‘mainline’ corporate media houses. When a famished population in France rose against the lavish and brutal disdain of the Bourbon monarchy [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/blue-spots-in-a-murky-global-sky-gen-zs-revolt-against-power/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/shadow-at-the-door-death-and-dying-in-palestine/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/shadow-at-the-door-death-and-dying-in-palestine/#respond Wed, 21 Oct 2026 18:24:04 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306666 The recent death in my family underscored for me the devastating impact of personal grief, illuminating the deep loss and constant state of mortality that Palestinian families endure every day.   To be Palestinian is to carry an inherited archive of loss. After nearly a century of forced displacement, military occupation and relentless aggression at the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/shadow-at-the-door-death-and-dying-in-palestine/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-a-canadian-union-finally-bested-walmart/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-a-canadian-union-finally-bested-walmart/#respond Wed, 21 Oct 2026 18:23:36 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306688 In our hyperpolitical age, when mass protests come and go without much clear sense of what was won or lost, the strategies of social movements can seem quixotic, their benchmarks of success fuzzy. In the union world, however, success or failure can be measured in more cut-and-dried terms: by the ratification of a union contract. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-a-canadian-union-finally-bested-walmart/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/techno-feudalism-in-africa-big-tech-and-africas-digital-future/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/techno-feudalism-in-africa-big-tech-and-africas-digital-future/#respond Wed, 21 Oct 2026 18:20:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306667 Is the control of strategic technologies the new source of global influence, competition, and political power? To answer this question, we need to understand the historical evolution of global powers. Throughout history, states and empires have risen by controlling strategic resources of their time. For example, during the feudal era, land was the source of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/techno-feudalism-in-africa-big-tech-and-africas-digital-future/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-gaza-flotillas-will-not-stop/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-gaza-flotillas-will-not-stop/#respond Wed, 21 Oct 2026 18:17:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306668 While Palestinians are exhausted from the Israeli genocide and ethnic cleansing and the coordinators and volunteers of the Gaza Flotillas are tired, they like the Palestinians, will never give up challenging the immoral, criminal actions of the Israeli state. Recent History (2023-2026) of the Gaza Flotillas In the past two years a remarkable number of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-gaza-flotillas-will-not-stop/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-puerto-rico-the-people-demand-ice-go-home/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-puerto-rico-the-people-demand-ice-go-home/#respond Wed, 21 Oct 2026 18:15:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306679 On a Saturday evening in November 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents descended upon the Río Piedras neighborhood of San Juan, Puerto Rico’s capital, yanking people’s hands behind their backs in a tussle that led to a pregnant woman falling to the ground. This violent operation snatched more than a dozen Dominican residents. The next [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-puerto-rico-the-people-demand-ice-go-home/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-epidemic-of-billionaires/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-epidemic-of-billionaires/#respond Wed, 21 Oct 2026 18:14:29 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306692 There is a reason that, in every western democracy during the last 20 years, neoliberal politicians have campaigned under the slogans “Hope”, “Change”, or their various synonyms and translations. It is because very highly paid PR consultants have told them that what the people lack, what the people need, what the people desperately crave, is [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-epidemic-of-billionaires/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/pesticide-atrazine-contaminating-a-quarter-of-us-rivers/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/pesticide-atrazine-contaminating-a-quarter-of-us-rivers/#respond Wed, 21 Oct 2026 18:12:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306683 Atrazine is the second most widely used weed killer in the U.S. after glyphosate, which you might know from RoundUp. Much like glyphosate, atrazine can disrupt hormones and has been linked to serious health impacts, including cancer. Atrazine is also wreaking havoc on aquatic ecosystems, and a recent report from the Center for Biological Diversity [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/pesticide-atrazine-contaminating-a-quarter-of-us-rivers/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/france-spain-belgium-albania-brazil-serbia-india-nepal-bangladesh/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/france-spain-belgium-albania-brazil-serbia-india-nepal-bangladesh/#respond Tue, 20 Oct 2026 16:57:10 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306594 Reports show activism of many minds, addressing many topics and reaching considerable scale erupting in many places. Education, housing, corruption, jobs, prices, immigration, regimentation, fascism, war, data centers, weather, electoral campaigns, and more. France, Spain, Belgium, Albania, Brazil, Serbia, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and more.  What to do? On the one hand, where you are, if [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/france-spain-belgium-albania-brazil-serbia-india-nepal-bangladesh/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/tax-the-rich-and-save-the-world/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/tax-the-rich-and-save-the-world/#respond Tue, 20 Oct 2026 16:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1306621 I dream of seeing the title of this post on bumper stickers, billboards, and personal tattoos. The slogan “Tax the rich and save the world” comes from a message from the Patriotic Millionaires—a group of more than 200 high-net-worth Americans, from investors and executives to filmmakers and heirs, who are actively lobbying Congress to raise their [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/tax-the-rich-and-save-the-world/feed/ 0