https://znetwork.org/author/ericbblanc/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Thu, 19 Feb 2026 13:39:36 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/author/ericbblanc/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-did-normie-liberals-become-the-vanguard-of-the-anti-trump-revolution/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-did-normie-liberals-become-the-vanguard-of-the-anti-trump-revolution/#respond Thu, 19 Feb 2026 16:46:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294941 Why have so many liberals radicalized over the past year? And what does this mean for building an effective majoritarian movement — electorally and in the streets — against Trumpism? I went on The Dig to discuss this last December with Indivisible’s co–executive director Leah Greenberg and progressive political strategist Waleed Shahid. I’m publishing the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-did-normie-liberals-become-the-vanguard-of-the-anti-trump-revolution/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/weve-had-a-nationwide-immigrant-strike-before-we-can-do-it-again/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/weve-had-a-nationwide-immigrant-strike-before-we-can-do-it-again/#respond Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294575 You don’t have to imagine what a nationwide strike in defense of immigrants could look like. It’s already happened. Everyone looking to stop ICE today has a lot to learn from the explosive mass movement that culminated in the “Day Without an Immigrant” on May 1, 2006. The spark was H.R. 4437, the Sensenbrenner bill, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/weve-had-a-nationwide-immigrant-strike-before-we-can-do-it-again/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-build-a-real-general-strike-against-ice/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-build-a-real-general-strike-against-ice/#respond Mon, 02 Feb 2026 19:40:12 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294279 What will it take to stop ICE and Donald Trump? More and more Americans are coming around to the following answer: a general strike. They’re right to move in that direction. General strikes are a powerful tactic that have defeated corrupt and authoritarian rulers across the world, most recently in Egypt and Tunisia in 2011, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-build-a-real-general-strike-against-ice/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/want-to-stop-ice-go-after-its-corporate-collaborators/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/want-to-stop-ice-go-after-its-corporate-collaborators/#respond Fri, 09 Jan 2026 14:57:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293283 Renee Nicole Good’s murder by an ICE agent in Minneapolis has left millions of Americans wondering how we can stop ICE from terrorizing our communities any further. There are many well-known ICE-fighting tactics that we can and should use, like protests, know-your-rights trainings, and neighborhood watches. But two recent victories show a promising, relatively underutilized path forward—one [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/want-to-stop-ice-go-after-its-corporate-collaborators/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/its-dangerous-to-overestimate-the-lefts-strength/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/its-dangerous-to-overestimate-the-lefts-strength/#comments Mon, 05 Jan 2026 20:31:22 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293128 Even with a couple of months’ distance, Zohran Mamdani’s election still feels almost unreal, like a dispatch from an alternate universe. But it’s happening: America’s largest city is now led by a young socialist, a Jacobin subscriber, and a committed member of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). For many of us on the New York left, this [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/its-dangerous-to-overestimate-the-lefts-strength/feed/ 2 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-resistance-moves-left/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-resistance-moves-left/#respond Mon, 22 Dec 2025 17:03:24 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292646 “Welcome to the Resistance.” During the first Trump administration, socialists loved to invoke this as a joke. The liberal resistance, socialists charged, was interested only in performative displays of opposition, blaming Russia for everything, and naively hoping Democratic Party adults in the room would take charge and turn back the clock to pre-2016 business as [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-resistance-moves-left/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/should-the-left-criticize-zohran/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/should-the-left-criticize-zohran/#respond Fri, 12 Dec 2025 16:58:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292285 In late November, I argued that “way too much leftist discourse is polarized into denunciations vs. defenses of Zohran. A more useful & important debate is how to organize enough New Yorkers to win Zohran’s agenda — and to counteract the inevitable pressures on him from capital and the political establishment.” Others disagreed. A few days later, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/should-the-left-criticize-zohran/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/socialists-in-city-hall-a-new-look-at-sewer-socialism-in-wisconsin/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/socialists-in-city-hall-a-new-look-at-sewer-socialism-in-wisconsin/#respond Thu, 20 Nov 2025 16:54:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291508 In 1910, Milwaukee’s socialists swept into office and they proceeded to run the city for most of the next fifty years. Though ruling elites initially predicted chaos and disaster, even Time magazine by 1936 felt obliged to run a cover story titled “Marxist Mayor” on the city’s success, noting that under socialist rule “Milwaukee has [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/socialists-in-city-hall-a-new-look-at-sewer-socialism-in-wisconsin/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/democrats-caved-in-the-shutdown-fight-unions-let-them/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/democrats-caved-in-the-shutdown-fight-unions-let-them/#comments Tue, 11 Nov 2025 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291136 In a spectacular act of cowardice and idiocy, seven Democratic Party senators and one independent voted last night to end the shutdown on Republicans’ terms, squandering their momentum and leverage. Bernie Sanders laid out the likely consequences of this capitulation: It raises health care premiums for over 20 million Americans by doubling, in some cases, tripling or [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/democrats-caved-in-the-shutdown-fight-unions-let-them/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/after-no-kings-how-can-we-escalate/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/after-no-kings-how-can-we-escalate/#comments Sat, 01 Nov 2025 13:24:46 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1290721 American democracy is on the ropes. Trump and his billionaire backers are doing everything possible to transform our country into an authoritarian state like Hungary or Russia, where the trappings of institutional democracy mask brazen autocratic rule. Our president’s sinking popularity numbers might not matter so much if his administration is either able to ignore [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/after-no-kings-how-can-we-escalate/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/building-a-marxist-mass-politics/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/building-a-marxist-mass-politics/#respond Fri, 31 Oct 2025 20:22:11 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1290686 “Can We Meet the Moment?” The question posed by Tom Goodkind in his analysis of the 2025 DSA Convention spurred debate and discussion on the left. To sharpen our collective thinking, The New Liberator is publishing a series of responses, rejoinders, and hot takes. Here, Eric Blanc responds. Many thanks to Tom Goodkind for writing an excellent [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/building-a-marxist-mass-politics/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/after-no-kings-its-time-to-escalate/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/after-no-kings-its-time-to-escalate/#comments Thu, 30 Oct 2025 15:56:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1290637 American democracy is on the ropes. Trump and his billionaire backers are doing everything possible to transform our country into an authoritarian state like Hungary or Russia, where the trappings of institutional democracy mask brazen autocratic rule. Our president’s sinking popularity numbers might not matter so much if his administration is either able to ignore [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/after-no-kings-its-time-to-escalate/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/can-zohran-make-nyc-a-union-town-again/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/can-zohran-make-nyc-a-union-town-again/#respond Fri, 05 Sep 2025 15:54:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1288167 Organized labor here is stronger than in the rest of the country. But this isn’t saying much. The unionization rate of the city’s private sector is only 13.5%, almost half of what it was in the 1980s. And while 61.1% of public sector workers remain unionized, only 1 in 5 New York City workers belongs [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/can-zohran-make-nyc-a-union-town-again/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-win-zohrans-agenda/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-win-zohrans-agenda/#respond Mon, 01 Sep 2025 15:17:07 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1288004 The prospect of a democratic socialist who has said billionaires shouldn’t exist becoming the mayor of New York City has the ruling class in a tizzy. But Kathryn Wylde, head of one of the city’s most powerful business lobbies, has a message for her rich friends: don’t worry so much. Wylde, Vanity Fair reported last month, “has been [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-win-zohrans-agenda/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/zohran-mamdanis-historic-win-16-takeaways/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/zohran-mamdanis-historic-win-16-takeaways/#comments Wed, 25 Jun 2025 17:02:41 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1285429 After decades of defeats for working people and the Left, it almost felt like a dream to witness Zohran Mamdani make history last night. Sometimes the good guys win. As David Hogg wrote last night, “BREAKING: Not everything has to suck.” Absorbing the key lessons of this campaign is essential for the fights ahead, not [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/zohran-mamdanis-historic-win-16-takeaways/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/labor-could-swing-nycs-election-to-zohran/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/labor-could-swing-nycs-election-to-zohran/#respond Mon, 23 Jun 2025 14:26:29 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1285374 Zohran Mamdani has shocked the political establishment by turning the New York City mayoral race into a nail-biter. How has a thirty-three-year-old Muslim socialist gotten this close to heading the world’s most economically and politically important city? Some pundits have pointed to Zohran’s charisma and brilliant use of social media. Others have stressed the strength of his [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/labor-could-swing-nycs-election-to-zohran/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-strategy-for-labor/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-strategy-for-labor/#respond Thu, 15 May 2025 15:55:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1283755 What can we do to turn around decades of union decline? This is the key challenge of our era, because the power of a revitalized labor movement is needed to pull America off its descent into oligarchy and authoritarianism. There are no easy answers, which is why I welcome the responses of union organizer Peter [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-strategy-for-labor/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/unions-not-just-factories-will-make-america-great/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/unions-not-just-factories-will-make-america-great/#respond Sat, 19 Apr 2025 15:50:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1282690 Factory jobs are not inherently good jobs. Even if Donald Trump’s trade policies bring factories back to the United States, workers need unions to make those jobs well-paying and safe — and Trump has been the most anti-union president in years. President Donald Trump and his defenders claim that his recent tariffs will usher in [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/unions-not-just-factories-will-make-america-great/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bernie-sanders-and-aocs-rallies-can-become-a-mass-movement/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bernie-sanders-and-aocs-rallies-can-become-a-mass-movement/#respond Tue, 25 Mar 2025 16:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1281539 Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have ignored the advice of Democratic thought leaders to “roll over and play dead.” Thank God. Their anti-oligarchy mass rallies have brought out record-breaking numbers, testifying to a widespread popular desire to resist Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Filling the void left by Chuck Schumer and his cowardly ilk, Bernie and AOC are becoming leaders not just [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bernie-sanders-and-aocs-rallies-can-become-a-mass-movement/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/federal-workers-hold-nationwide-day-of-action-to-save-our-services-from-the-trump-musk-purge/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/federal-workers-hold-nationwide-day-of-action-to-save-our-services-from-the-trump-musk-purge/#respond Wed, 19 Feb 2025 19:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1279978 Today federal workers nationwide are calling for support for a “Save Our Services Day of Action” mobilizing nationwide in opposition to Elon Musk’s efforts to dismantle government agencies through the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Workers plan to protest outside of federal buildings and Tesla dealerships to show support for the work of federal [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/federal-workers-hold-nationwide-day-of-action-to-save-our-services-from-the-trump-musk-purge/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/federal-workers-can-defeat-elon-musks-coup-heres-how/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/federal-workers-can-defeat-elon-musks-coup-heres-how/#respond Tue, 11 Feb 2025 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1279606 Who can stop Elon Musk? Even though it’s illegal for him to seize control of federal agency finances to slash the workforce, a Republican Congress is unlikely to assert its legally mandated prerogatives. Nor has any serious opposition emerged from the Democratic Party.  And while the courts have paused some of this power grab, there’s no [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/federal-workers-can-defeat-elon-musks-coup-heres-how/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/donald-trumps-anti-union-offensive-and-how-we-stop-it/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/donald-trumps-anti-union-offensive-and-how-we-stop-it/#respond Thu, 30 Jan 2025 16:54:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1279089 Donald Trump is rolling out a blitz of attacks on workers in hopes of paralyzing organized labor’s energy to fight back. But unions can only survive this onslaught by fighting, not by burying their heads in the sand. Donald Trump is trying to shock and awe the workers’ movement (and everyone else) into submission. On [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/donald-trumps-anti-union-offensive-and-how-we-stop-it/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-new-labor-organizing-model-of-ewoc/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-new-labor-organizing-model-of-ewoc/#respond Tue, 24 Sep 2024 16:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1272778 Tens of millions of workers in the United States  want a union at their workplace, but do not have one.[1] This unfortunate state of affairs is normally blamed on external obstacles such as our country’s broken labor law regime. But there are also significant internal obstacles within the labor movement that prevent it from scaling [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-new-labor-organizing-model-of-ewoc/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/can-distributed-organizing-unionize-millions/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/can-distributed-organizing-unionize-millions/#respond Fri, 13 Sep 2024 15:52:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1272307 Tens of millions of workers in the United States want a union at their workplace, but do not have one. This unfortunate state of affairs is normally blamed on external obstacles such as our country’s broken labor law regime. But there are also significant internal obstacles within the labor movement that prevent it from scaling up [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/can-distributed-organizing-unionize-millions/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/to-win-big-labor-has-to-lose-more/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/to-win-big-labor-has-to-lose-more/#respond Thu, 23 May 2024 15:57:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1266821 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/to-win-big-labor-has-to-lose-more/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/worker-to-worker-unionism-a-model-for-labor-to-scale-up/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/worker-to-worker-unionism-a-model-for-labor-to-scale-up/#respond Mon, 25 Mar 2024 15:04:13 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1264139 Young, radicalized, digitally coordinated workers have initiated and driven forward many of the highest profile strikes and union drives of recent years. From the red state teachers’ walkouts to union wins at Starbucks and Amazon, rank-and-file organizers have begun challenging business as usual not only within corporate America, but also within organized labor. The model [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/worker-to-worker-unionism-a-model-for-labor-to-scale-up/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/workplace-fragmentation-demands-new-organizing-strategies/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/workplace-fragmentation-demands-new-organizing-strategies/#respond Sat, 23 Mar 2024 17:04:28 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1264073 With its impressive strike victory last fall and now a promising drive to organize nonunion auto plants, the United Auto Workers is raising hopes for labor’s revival in the United States. Those hopes were further buoyed by the Starbucks workers’ union recently getting the company to agree to bargain a first contract. These events are bright [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/workplace-fragmentation-demands-new-organizing-strategies/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/seven-lessons-from-starbucks-workers-historic-victory/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/seven-lessons-from-starbucks-workers-historic-victory/#respond Sun, 03 Mar 2024 16:54:58 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1263058 The only thing harder than winning a union election against a megacorporation is winning a first contract. So it’s not surprising that countless skeptics suggested that Starbucks workers wouldn’t be able to muster enough power to force management to the table. Thankfully, Starbucks baristas and organizers ignored their critics. And this week, it paid off. Though details [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/seven-lessons-from-starbucks-workers-historic-victory/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/labors-generation-gap/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/labors-generation-gap/#respond Mon, 04 Sep 2023 16:57:21 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1253171 Why are most national unions doing relatively little to meet the current opening for new organizing? One overlooked reason is the deepening generation gap within organized labor. Consider this: the current AFL-CIO Executive Board’s average age is 61. In contrast, the average age of worker organizers involved in recent worker-led union drives is 27 (and median age [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/labors-generation-gap/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/chipotle-workers-on-how-they-won-the-first-chipotle-union-in-the-united-states/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/chipotle-workers-on-how-they-won-the-first-chipotle-union-in-the-united-states/#respond Sat, 10 Sep 2022 17:57:26 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1219603 On August 25, workers in Lansing, Michigan, won the first successful unionization vote at any Chipotle store in the United States — a victory that could inspire an organizing surge similar to that currently sweeping Starbucks. To discuss their story and its do-it-yourself lessons, Jacobin’s Eric Blanc sat down with three of the worker leaders responsible for the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/chipotle-workers-on-how-they-won-the-first-chipotle-union-in-the-united-states/feed/ 0