https://znetwork.org/author/craigmurray/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:49:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/author/craigmurray/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/an-inspiring-story/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/an-inspiring-story/#respond Thu, 23 Apr 2026 15:58:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1297251 In 2018, at the height of the economic crisis in Venezuela through crippling sanctions, Kellogg’s announced the overnight closure of their Maracay factory with hundreds of redundancies – and massive knock-on effects in the local community. The workers refused to accept the closure and, with government assistance, restarted the factory. It is still running eight [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/an-inspiring-story/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-strait-of-hormuz/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-strait-of-hormuz/#respond Thu, 09 Apr 2026 15:49:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1296692 In international law, Tehran has every right to close the strait of Hormuz to nations with which it is in armed conflict. Two vital points: 1) States who permit attacks on Iran to be launched from their territory can be blocked 2) Iran can block neutral ships from trading with states with which it is [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-strait-of-hormuz/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-weight-on-delcy-rodriguez/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-weight-on-delcy-rodriguez/#respond Thu, 02 Apr 2026 15:52:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1296429 As I was leaving the University of the Communes in Tocuyito, after a joyful and uplifting visit, an earnest young Professor came up to me and pulled me aside. Very quietly, he asked me what was going to happen. A number of the students were terrified there would be regime change and they, picked as [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-weight-on-delcy-rodriguez/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/seeing-trump-clearly/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/seeing-trump-clearly/#comments Sat, 21 Mar 2026 15:52:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1296024 What if Trump’s apparently chaotic thought processes and intuitive decision making are all a blind, a charade? What if we are really witnessing, in the Middle East and more widely, a carefully constructed plan with very definite objectives? Has Trump in fact “planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway”, while flinging the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/seeing-trump-clearly/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/joy-at-death-and-destruction/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/joy-at-death-and-destruction/#respond Sun, 08 Mar 2026 15:24:34 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295553 The United States and Israel are both revelling in inflicting the maximum possible death and suffering on Iran. After the genocide in Gaza, on a far larger field in Iran, those in power in Israel and the USA have a lust to kill and they revel in impunity. The Epstein files reveal the same dynamic. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/joy-at-death-and-destruction/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-war-for-greater-israel/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-war-for-greater-israel/#respond Thu, 05 Mar 2026 16:49:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295451 There has scarcely been an attempt to pretend any justification in international law for the attack on Iran and murder of its leader. The response of the UK government, focusing almost entirely on condemning Iran for exercising its legitimate right of self-defence, takes the Starmer dishonesty meter further off the scale. The RAF has been [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-war-for-greater-israel/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/palestine-action-postpone-the-celebrations/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/palestine-action-postpone-the-celebrations/#respond Sat, 14 Feb 2026 16:42:16 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294718 On the face of it the English High Court ruling that the Palestine Action proscription is unlawful makes the decision that the proscription remains in place pending appeal utterly illogical. But what if the High Court ruling is deliberately designed to fail at appeal? I believe that it is. They chose an extremely narrow path to rule [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/palestine-action-postpone-the-celebrations/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/filton-acquittals-demolish-starmer-and-cooper-lies-about-palestine-action/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/filton-acquittals-demolish-starmer-and-cooper-lies-about-palestine-action/#respond Fri, 06 Feb 2026 16:53:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294443 As the trial finished at Woolwich Crown Court of the six Palestine Action activists who entered the Filton factory to destroy Israeli killer drones, Starmer, Cooper, Lammy and Mahmood are left bereft of a single guilty verdict in the case on which they relied heavily to label Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. I could [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/filton-acquittals-demolish-starmer-and-cooper-lies-about-palestine-action/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-pirate-of-the-caribbean/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-pirate-of-the-caribbean/#respond Thu, 05 Feb 2026 16:52:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294415 I have now been here a week and I think that I have absorbed enough to attempt a little analysis, as opposed to the simple impressions I gave shortly after arrival. Those impressions remain valid however: this is not a repressive state. I was on the Randy Credico show live on WBAI New York on [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-pirate-of-the-caribbean/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/being-there-in-venezuela/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/being-there-in-venezuela/#respond Mon, 26 Jan 2026 19:12:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294001 I have now been in Caracas for 48 hours and the contrast between what I have seen, and what I had read in the mainstream media, could not be more stark. I drove right through Caracas, from the airport through the city centre and up to posh Las Mercedes. The next morning I walked all [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/being-there-in-venezuela/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/resisting-the-respectable-opinion-on-iran/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/resisting-the-respectable-opinion-on-iran/#comments Fri, 16 Jan 2026 16:54:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293547 Iraq. Libya. Egypt. Syria. Gaza. Somalia. No CIA- and Mossad-constructed regime change operation in the Middle East has ever made life better for the ordinary people of the country, nor even delivered the promised increase in personal and political freedoms. The only limited improvement that might be gained comes from the lifting of Western sanction [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/resisting-the-respectable-opinion-on-iran/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/court-of-session-tomorrow-on-palestine-action/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/court-of-session-tomorrow-on-palestine-action/#respond Sun, 11 Jan 2026 16:14:08 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293348 In the Western world today, fighting for freedom feels Quixotic, but I shall nevertheless wake early tomorrow to be at the Court of Session in Edinburgh by 9am to fight the proscription in Scotland of Palestine Action. I remain extremely concerned for the lives of the Palestine Action hunger strikers. As I predicted, Starmer’s government [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/court-of-session-tomorrow-on-palestine-action/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hunger-strikes-and-court-cases-fighting-the-proscription-of-palestine-action/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hunger-strikes-and-court-cases-fighting-the-proscription-of-palestine-action/#respond Wed, 17 Dec 2025 18:58:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292466 Fighting the proscription of Palestine Action has become more urgent as eight brave activists enter the crucial period of their hunger strike. 12 January has finally been set for the court hearing on holding a Scottish judicial review of the proscription of Palestine Action. I am frankly terrified for the hunger strikers. The Starmer government [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hunger-strikes-and-court-cases-fighting-the-proscription-of-palestine-action/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/your-party-and-its-conference/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/your-party-and-its-conference/#respond Tue, 09 Dec 2025 18:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292191 It is probably no bad thing that health struggles have delayed my writing up Your Party’s extraordinary Liverpool founding conference. Perspective is definitely helpful to process something unique. Personally, I could not help but be struck by the number of participants who approached me as regular readers of my blog, certainly well into three figures. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/your-party-and-its-conference/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-beat-of-the-war-drums/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-beat-of-the-war-drums/#respond Fri, 21 Nov 2025 16:51:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291535 In fascist lockstep, the entire British media, broadcast and print, corporate and state, is leading with a Ministry of Defence press release about a “Russian spy ship” inside “British waters”. No British media appears to have been able to speak to anybody who knows the first thing about the Law of the Sea. Here are [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-beat-of-the-war-drums/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/urgent-we-need-a-federal-your-party/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/urgent-we-need-a-federal-your-party/#respond Thu, 30 Oct 2025 15:49:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1290655 The draft Your Party constitution is for a highly centralised, London-based party which echoes the Labour Party. It “devolves” – they literally use the word – power from the centre to non-autonomous entities in Scotland and Wales. We need a Federal party – a completely different approach – where authority lies with the members, and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/urgent-we-need-a-federal-your-party/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/britain-gaza-and-middle-east-peace/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/britain-gaza-and-middle-east-peace/#respond Fri, 24 Oct 2025 03:52:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1290340 This interview with former British diplomat Craig Murray covers the Gaza Trump peace plan and the future of the “ceasefire”.]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/britain-gaza-and-middle-east-peace/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/36-minute-trials-and-no-jury-starmers-fascist-mass-courts/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/36-minute-trials-and-no-jury-starmers-fascist-mass-courts/#respond Sat, 18 Oct 2025 14:35:36 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1290149 Those charged with terrorism for supporting Palestine Action will have no jury in trials limited to 36 minutes each, with prison sentences up to six months. These are the plans for Starmer Courts for mass trials of anti-Genocide protestors. The plans are devised by Justice Michael Snow. He is the epitome of judicial prejudice. When Julian Assange [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/36-minute-trials-and-no-jury-starmers-fascist-mass-courts/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/fight-the-proscription-of-palestine-action/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/fight-the-proscription-of-palestine-action/#respond Wed, 15 Oct 2025 18:18:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1289968 I have started legal action in Scotland against the UK government over the proscription of Palestine Action, in coordination with Huda Ammori and her team in England. The petition has been accepted by the Court and served on the Solicitor General. They now have 16 remaining days to respond. The rationale is well explained in [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/fight-the-proscription-of-palestine-action/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/staggering-hypocrisy/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/staggering-hypocrisy/#respond Thu, 25 Sep 2025 15:48:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1289028 The outgoing Head of MI6 Richard Moore has formally admitted in a public speech in Istanbul that MI6 has been cooperating with HTS in Syria – a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act – for years. The government is arresting little old ladies for holding signs supporting one proscribed organisation, Palestine Action, while it admits [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/staggering-hypocrisy/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/its-your-party-and-ill-cry-if-i-want-to/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/its-your-party-and-ill-cry-if-i-want-to/#respond Sat, 13 Sep 2025 15:31:05 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1288512 There are serious threats to “Your Party” from those attempting to exert undemocratic control, and they attack as trying to destroy the party, anyone who tries to improve things. The Labour Party is now centre-right and the large majority of us to the left of it were delighted when Jeremy took the plunge to launch [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/its-your-party-and-ill-cry-if-i-want-to/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/herzog-and-haynau/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/herzog-and-haynau/#respond Thu, 11 Sep 2025 15:46:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1288428 “President” Isaac Herzog last night entered his hotel – the Intercontinental Park Lane – through a service door and kitchens. He did not transit any of the public areas of the hotel, where I was stationed disguised as an elderly Scottish drunk at the bar. I carried out this role with great dedication. It also [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/herzog-and-haynau/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ai-and-the-urgent-need-for-a-politics-of-altruism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ai-and-the-urgent-need-for-a-politics-of-altruism/#respond Sat, 06 Sep 2025 14:15:50 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1288214 Humans are naturally cooperative creatures. The ability of people to dominate other life forms on the planet, to produce a built environment structured to their needs, to ensure food and water supply, to develop complex civilisations and produce all kinds of structures and objects designed to enhance interest and comfort, and to interact on a [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ai-and-the-urgent-need-for-a-politics-of-altruism/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/beyond-the-headlines-novichoks-lasting-impact-7-years-on/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/beyond-the-headlines-novichoks-lasting-impact-7-years-on/#respond Thu, 04 Sep 2025 15:46:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1288144 Here are Tim Norman, Patrick Henningsen and myself discussing the Skripal charade, at the Beautiful Days Festival near Exeter. At the start 90% of the audience said they believed the official narrative. At the end 80% had changed their mind.  am particularly proud of this because we were comparatively close to Salisbury and it was [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/beyond-the-headlines-novichoks-lasting-impact-7-years-on/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/palestine-action-and-the-claim-of-right/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/palestine-action-and-the-claim-of-right/#respond Tue, 26 Aug 2025 16:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1287771 In late November, a judge in the High Court of England and Wales will hear a judicial review into the legality of the proscription of Palestine Action. That court has no jurisdiction in either Scotland or Northern Ireland and does not take into account the law of either place, which is different to English Law. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/palestine-action-and-the-claim-of-right/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ukraine-3/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ukraine-3/#respond Thu, 21 Aug 2025 15:49:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1287594 This post initially included a corridor photo which was fake. My fault, but that made no difference at all to the argument. It will definitely be good if the war in Ukraine draws to a close. Too many have died or been maimed, too many civilian assets have been destroyed. However the cynicism with which [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ukraine-3/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/yvette-cooper-is-lying/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/yvette-cooper-is-lying/#respond Thu, 14 Aug 2025 15:48:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1287302 Yvette Cooper has continually lied about Palestine Action in a panicked attempt to defend the proscription of a direct action protest group which is opposing a Genocide in which Cooper’s government is deeply complicit. Cooper and other government ministers have repeatedly claimed: In fact none of this is backed up by the assessment of the government’s Joint [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/yvette-cooper-is-lying/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/huda-ammori-wins-a-judicial-review-of-palestine-action-proscription/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/huda-ammori-wins-a-judicial-review-of-palestine-action-proscription/#respond Sat, 02 Aug 2025 15:42:42 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1286872 On Wednesday we were crammed into the unsalubrious court 73 at the Royal Courts of Justice to hear the judgment from Judge Chamberlain on whether Huda Ammori, co-founder of Palestine Action would be granted a judicial review of the proscription of the organisation. Judge Chamberlain breezed in and went immediately into a summary of his [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/huda-ammori-wins-a-judicial-review-of-palestine-action-proscription/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-nestle-cadbury-fallacy-and-shut-down-leonardo/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-nestle-cadbury-fallacy-and-shut-down-leonardo/#respond Sat, 19 Jul 2025 10:35:25 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1286369 Nestlé and Cadbury are not the same organisation. They both have exactly the same purpose and extremely similar methods of achieving that purpose. Their chocolate products, retail technique, marketing, manufacturing process and ingredients are in essence the same kind of thing. Police Scotland and the famously corrupt Crown Office (the Scottish prosecution service) are treating [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-nestle-cadbury-fallacy-and-shut-down-leonardo/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/we-accept-of-course-that-it-is-draconian-and-deliberately-so/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/we-accept-of-course-that-it-is-draconian-and-deliberately-so/#respond Thu, 10 Jul 2025 15:53:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1286001 On Friday 4 July I headed back to the Royal Courts of Justice for the hearing brought by Huda Ammori, a co-founder of Palestine Action, on an application for relief from the proscription order against Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. Huda had applied for judicial review of the legality of this order. There is [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/we-accept-of-course-that-it-is-draconian-and-deliberately-so/feed/ 0