https://znetwork.org/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Fri, 02 Jan 2026 12:18:39 +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/1776-tax-free-v-july-4-1776-free/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/1776-tax-free-v-july-4-1776-free/#respond Fri, 02 Jan 2026 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293018 Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon and marching his legion on Rome did not destroy the Roman Republic all by himself. The erosion of the republic and rise of the Empire occurred over decades, if not centuries, and built upon many little cuts and changes, often touted as necessary and proper, needed and good, that all [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/1776-tax-free-v-july-4-1776-free/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/gaza-child-killed-fires-flooding-and-cold-claim-lives-as-israel-restricts-shelter-materials/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/gaza-child-killed-fires-flooding-and-cold-claim-lives-as-israel-restricts-shelter-materials/#comments Fri, 02 Jan 2026 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293030 A Palestinian child was killed by Israeli fire in northern Gaza on Thursday, as worsening winter conditions and unsafe displacement shelters led to the deaths of a woman, her daughter, and a three‑week‑old infant, underscoring the deepening humanitarian crisis across the Strip amid ongoing ceasefire violations. In Gaza City, a woman and her young daughter [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/gaza-child-killed-fires-flooding-and-cold-claim-lives-as-israel-restricts-shelter-materials/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/july-4th-and-november-3rd/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/july-4th-and-november-3rd/#respond Fri, 02 Jan 2026 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293022 It’s good to enter the new year with MAGA divided, Trump down in the polls and forced to pull the National Guard out of Portland, Los Angeles and Chicago, a huge win for the resistance in those cities, the Epstein issue still very much out there, and more. This is a very different New Year’s [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/july-4th-and-november-3rd/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumps-attempts-to-control-higher-education-follow-a-familiar-fascist-playbook/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumps-attempts-to-control-higher-education-follow-a-familiar-fascist-playbook/#respond Fri, 02 Jan 2026 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293024 The United States is on the road to a form of neofascism that, if allowed to complete its course, will have long-lasting impacts on all aspects of society. Indeed, the Trump administration is carrying out a series of policies that target the very foundations of a free and open society — including an unrelenting assault [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumps-attempts-to-control-higher-education-follow-a-familiar-fascist-playbook/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/u-s-strikes-against-venezuela/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/u-s-strikes-against-venezuela/#respond Fri, 02 Jan 2026 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1293034 As the Trump administration escalates its military campaign against Venezuela, we speak to Venezuelan journalist Andreína Chávez about the latest developments. Responding to the U.S. military’s drone strikes on small boats and seizures of oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela, Chávez says U.S. claims of pursuing fentanyl traffickers lack evidence and are “pretext” for [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/u-s-strikes-against-venezuela/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-war-in-sudan-is-between-two-wings-of-a-comprador-parasitic-capitalist-class/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-war-in-sudan-is-between-two-wings-of-a-comprador-parasitic-capitalist-class/#respond Fri, 02 Jan 2026 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293026 As the war in Sudan that has unleashed the world’s worst humanitarian crisis nears a thousand days, “a cessation of hostilities, a humanitarian truce going into the new year” is an “immediate goal” of the US, said its State Secretary, Marco Rubio, in his year-end press conference. Donald Trump, he insisted before the US cabinet [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-war-in-sudan-is-between-two-wings-of-a-comprador-parasitic-capitalist-class/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/claudia-sheinbaum-i-love-you/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/claudia-sheinbaum-i-love-you/#respond Fri, 02 Jan 2026 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293032 I have a crush on Claudia Sheinbaum, who has been president of Mexico since October 2024. Foreign leaders usually strike me as more intelligent and accomplished than the ones we produce in the US. President Sheinbaum, a climate change scientist with a doctorate in energy engineering, is no exception. I wish we had someone like [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/claudia-sheinbaum-i-love-you/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/the-blue-road-to-trump-hell-norm-solomon-on-how-corporate-democrats-paved-the-way-for-autocracy/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/the-blue-road-to-trump-hell-norm-solomon-on-how-corporate-democrats-paved-the-way-for-autocracy/#respond Thu, 01 Jan 2026 16:58:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1292991 A new report from the grassroots organization RootsAction aims to do what a promised “autopsy” from the Democratic National Committee ultimately did not: publicly reckon with the failures of the Democrats’ 2024 presidential campaign. While the Democratic Party’s official postmortem assessment was pulled from public release earlier this month, RootsAction’s “Democratic Autopsy” looks at how [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/the-blue-road-to-trump-hell-norm-solomon-on-how-corporate-democrats-paved-the-way-for-autocracy/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/self-hating-jew-kapo-what-about-hamas/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/self-hating-jew-kapo-what-about-hamas/#comments Thu, 01 Jan 2026 16:58:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292974 Zionists have attempted to teach me the following: 1) Because I am Jewish, all Palestinians clamor and scheme to have me erased from the Earth. 2) There is no such entity as the Palestinian people. Damn convenient: The people you are perpetrating a genocide upon do not exist. Damn odd: The people you are erasing [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/self-hating-jew-kapo-what-about-hamas/feed/ 2 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/after-2025-europe-is-changed-forever/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/after-2025-europe-is-changed-forever/#respond Thu, 01 Jan 2026 16:57:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1292988 Yanis Varoufakis reflects on 2025 — the year Europe fell apart — and issues a warning for 2026. War, de-industrialisation, austerity, and authoritarianism are no longer threats. They are here. In this end-of-year message on behalf of DiEM25, Yanis Varoufakis reflects on the year Europe’s political, economic, and moral order fractured. Speaking amid escalating war, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/after-2025-europe-is-changed-forever/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/seizing-an-oil-tanker-off-venezuela/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/seizing-an-oil-tanker-off-venezuela/#respond Thu, 01 Jan 2026 16:55:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292976 Reports that U.S. forces boarded and seized a large oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast on 10 December 2025 have already prompted accusations of “piracy”, unlawful coercion, and a renewed U.S. assertion of hemispheric dominance. At first glance, this incident may look like a familiar episode in long-running U.S.–Venezuela tensions. But read alongside the new [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/seizing-an-oil-tanker-off-venezuela/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-sacramento-california-black-parallel-school-board/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-sacramento-california-black-parallel-school-board/#respond Thu, 01 Jan 2026 16:52:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292978 For nearly two decades, organizers in Sacramento have centered Black self-determination, community-based advocacy, and working-class parent empowerment to fight for a 21st-century multiracial learning community and a socialist vision for education. In Sacramento, California, unless you were in the teachers’ union, education for many years was a graveyard for social justice activism. There have been [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-sacramento-california-black-parallel-school-board/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-european-lefts-lost-decade/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-european-lefts-lost-decade/#respond Thu, 01 Jan 2026 16:51:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292998 Ten years ago, insurgent parties across southern Europe were elected on promises to transform capitalism. Their failure offers lessons the contemporary left cannot afford to ignore. As new left projects are gaining momentum — from Mamdani’s recent triumph to the emergence of a new left party in Britain — it is worth revisiting Europe’s ‘left [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-european-lefts-lost-decade/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/education-under-trump-understanding-the-billionaires-project-in-education-to-defeat-it/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/education-under-trump-understanding-the-billionaires-project-in-education-to-defeat-it/#respond Thu, 01 Jan 2026 16:50:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292995 As we near the end of this first year of Trump’s second administration, we face a new challenge: sustaining and building resistance that weakens the coalition that elected Trump and a new wave of neoliberalism. My last article of 2025 for the FOS substack summarizes what’s occurred in education under Trump, what we identified correctly [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/education-under-trump-understanding-the-billionaires-project-in-education-to-defeat-it/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-lets-us-see-who-we-are/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-lets-us-see-who-we-are/#respond Thu, 01 Jan 2026 16:50:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292983 In the Donald Trump era — praise be! — so much is possible that previously no one had ever even imagined. For instance, not only has “the late, great Hannibal Lecter” come back to life, he might even join Trump’s cabinet. Well, that’s just a guess, but why not? I think he’d fit right in. All [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-lets-us-see-who-we-are/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israel-bans-dozens-of-aid-groups-from-operating-in-gaza-including-doctors-without-borders/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israel-bans-dozens-of-aid-groups-from-operating-in-gaza-including-doctors-without-borders/#comments Wed, 31 Dec 2025 21:26:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292957 Starting on January 1, Israel will ban 37 international aid groups and charities from operating in Gaza in its latest effort to add to the misery for the Palestinian civilians living in flimsy tents and bombed-out buildings in the Strip. The groups being banned include several prominent international aid organizations: Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israel-bans-dozens-of-aid-groups-from-operating-in-gaza-including-doctors-without-borders/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/10-good-things-that-happened-in-2025/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/10-good-things-that-happened-in-2025/#respond Wed, 31 Dec 2025 21:24:59 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292944 It’s true — 2025 has been a hard year. It’s easy to focus on the disasters, and there have been many. But we also had real victories that moved us closer to a better world. Here are some of my highlights from 2025: 1. Israel was forced to negotiate a ceasefire In October, a ceasefire [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/10-good-things-that-happened-in-2025/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/this-is-not-a-ceasefire-the-israeli-genocide-continues/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/this-is-not-a-ceasefire-the-israeli-genocide-continues/#comments Wed, 31 Dec 2025 21:20:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292941 On 19 January 2025, a ceasefire took effect to halt the Israeli bombing of Palestinians in Gaza. This ceasefire emerged from a mediation process by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States, which had been sealed in June 2024 with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2735. However, the Israelis rejected the agreement and waited until Donald [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/this-is-not-a-ceasefire-the-israeli-genocide-continues/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/noam-chomsky-an-ordinary-persons-reflection/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/noam-chomsky-an-ordinary-persons-reflection/#comments Wed, 31 Dec 2025 21:10:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292943 Noam Chomsky has been in the news lately for titillating and unpleasant reasons. For me, his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is relatively unimportant. All it proves is that Chomsky–currently unable to communicate and thereby defend himself because of a stroke suffered several years ago–is a human being at bottom: not always with perfect judgement and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/noam-chomsky-an-ordinary-persons-reflection/feed/ 4 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/navigating-our-times/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/navigating-our-times/#respond Wed, 31 Dec 2025 21:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292942 The world can become a gigantic garbage can. The world can become a liberatory laboratory of fulfillment. Which will it be? To my eyes two tasks beckon. 1. Stop Trump. 2. Advance The Long March Toward A Truly Desirable Society. To my mind, however, the two tasks are not separate. To fail to stop Trump [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/navigating-our-times/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ireland-is-a-complicit-third-state-in-israels-genocide/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ireland-is-a-complicit-third-state-in-israels-genocide/#respond Wed, 31 Dec 2025 20:56:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292940 Since the start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the Irish people have been pounding the streets week after week in solidarity with Palestine, calling on their government to live up to promises made to implement the Occupied Territories Bill (OTB).  This is legislation that would prohibit the importation into Ireland of goods and services from [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ireland-is-a-complicit-third-state-in-israels-genocide/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/organize-yes-but-how/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/organize-yes-but-how/#respond Wed, 31 Dec 2025 20:54:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292949 Translated article from the Swedish publication Magasinet Konkret. Organizing is – or should be – the core business of every labor union. That’s how ordinary workers become a force to be reckoned with in the workplace and society. But in Swedish unions today, organizing is noticeably absent. It’s not that there’s all talk and no [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/organize-yes-but-how/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-political-strategy-for-degrowth/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-political-strategy-for-degrowth/#respond Wed, 31 Dec 2025 20:52:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292948 I agree with what Jason Hickel wrote in a recent blog, that we need a mass political party that would implement a degrowth agenda, and that currently the degrowth movement does not have a political agenda or capability. I also agree with Anitra Nelson, Vincent Liegey and Terry Leahy when they wrote that degrowth is [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-political-strategy-for-degrowth/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/an-imprisoned-doctor-a-wounded-humanity-an-urgent-call-for-the-release-of-dr-hussam-abu-safiya/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/an-imprisoned-doctor-a-wounded-humanity-an-urgent-call-for-the-release-of-dr-hussam-abu-safiya/#respond Wed, 31 Dec 2025 20:50:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292956 More than a year after his detention without charges, without trial, and without minimum guarantees of due process, the Palestinian pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya remains imprisoned by Israel under conditions denounced as inhuman by international human rights organizations. Director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza, Abu Safiya was detained [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/an-imprisoned-doctor-a-wounded-humanity-an-urgent-call-for-the-release-of-dr-hussam-abu-safiya/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/jailed-u-k-palestine-action-activists-continue-hunger-strike-despite-health-risks/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/jailed-u-k-palestine-action-activists-continue-hunger-strike-despite-health-risks/#respond Tue, 30 Dec 2025 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1292925 Alarm is growing over the treatment and deteriorating health of eight pro-Palestinian activists jailed in the United Kingdom who are on hunger strike to protest their detention. The activists remain imprisoned as they await trial over charges linked to their work with Palestine Action, which the British government has banned under its Terrorism Act over [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/jailed-u-k-palestine-action-activists-continue-hunger-strike-despite-health-risks/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-venezuela-escalation-ignores-a-long-history-of-u-s-hypocrisy-on-drugs/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-venezuela-escalation-ignores-a-long-history-of-u-s-hypocrisy-on-drugs/#comments Tue, 30 Dec 2025 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292907 Every accusation is a confession. This is clearly true of the Trump administration’s insistence that Venezuela operates as a “narco-state,” exporting terrorism to the U.S. via fentanyl, now labeled as a “weapon of mass destruction.” The charge is not only false, given that virtually no fentanyl enters the country from Venezuela, but transparently political and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-venezuela-escalation-ignores-a-long-history-of-u-s-hypocrisy-on-drugs/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/is-israels-genocide-economy-on-the-brink/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/is-israels-genocide-economy-on-the-brink/#comments Tue, 30 Dec 2025 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292929 Since October 2023, Israel has faced a convergence of economic shocks. Tens of thousands of residents have been displaced from border regions in the south and north as a result of hostilities with Hamas and Hezbollah, while hundreds of thousands of reservists were pulled out of the workforce for extended periods, leaving key sectors short-staffed [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/is-israels-genocide-economy-on-the-brink/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-moment-of-hope-in-gaza/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-moment-of-hope-in-gaza/#respond Tue, 30 Dec 2025 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292897 On Thursday, December 25th, 2025, during Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians, 168 students graduated from medical school, in Gaza. Wearing their white coats, they stood in front of the ruined façade of what was formerly Gaza’s largest hospital, the Al-Shifa Medical Complex. As a backdrop, the destroyed building realistically conveys perils the graduates faced while [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-moment-of-hope-in-gaza/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/scientists-say-public-engagement-and-pressure-are-key-to-reducing-nuclear-risks/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/scientists-say-public-engagement-and-pressure-are-key-to-reducing-nuclear-risks/#respond Tue, 30 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292915 Faster, stealthier missiles, accelerated weapons development, and the threat of an unrestrained  nuclear arms race, set against the backdrop of a withering arms control regime, point to a worsening global nuclear threat as 2025 comes to a close. On top of that, just before meeting with China’s leader Xi Jinping in October, President Donald Trump abruptly, and very imprecisely announced in a social [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/scientists-say-public-engagement-and-pressure-are-key-to-reducing-nuclear-risks/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/why-working-class-consciousness-is-the-real-threat-to-elite-power/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/why-working-class-consciousness-is-the-real-threat-to-elite-power/#respond Tue, 30 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1292927 Paul Jay and host Barry Stevens analyze rising progressive movements, from Mamdani’s victory in New York City to Sanders and AOC drawing massive crowds in red states, and why working-class consciousness has always been the real threat to American elites. They discuss why fossil fuel companies have known about the climate crisis for decades but [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/why-working-class-consciousness-is-the-real-threat-to-elite-power/feed/ 0