https://znetwork.org/author/hamillnnnolan/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Thu, 02 Oct 2025 02:24:01 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/author/hamillnnnolan/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/leave-the-military-now/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/leave-the-military-now/#respond Thu, 02 Oct 2025 15:50:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1289419 Six months ago, I wrote a piece urging soldiers to leave the United States military. At the time, the possibility that the president might use the military as a tool to unjustly abuse US citizens was still somewhat theoretical. At the risk of being repetitive, events in the world make me feel compelled to write, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/leave-the-military-now/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/new-york-socialist-city/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/new-york-socialist-city/#comments Fri, 12 Sep 2025 16:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1288502 Bernie Sanders’ childhood home is a six-story tan brick apartment building on the corner of East 26th Street and Kings Highway, deep down in Midwood, far south in Brooklyn’s belly. The building has a few bare cement courtyards and fire escapes and dirty windows with AC units poking out intermittently and a lobby floor that [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/new-york-socialist-city/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/three-crises-of-labor/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/three-crises-of-labor/#respond Fri, 22 Aug 2025 15:48:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1287602 America did not get to the bad place it is in today by accident. We are here as a result of the combination of a political system that serves money, and a half-century long explosion of economic inequality that has produced an oligarchy. Donald Trump is the product of these factors, but he is not [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/three-crises-of-labor/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/when-do-you-need-to-quit-your-job/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/when-do-you-need-to-quit-your-job/#respond Thu, 17 Jul 2025 15:57:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1286308 On West 18th Street in Manhattan Monday morning, in front of a nondescript office building, a small crowd formed. As the minutes ticked by, they grew. They were there to protest Palantir, the evil, fascist-adjacent online surveillance company that had an office upstairs. Banners were unfurled: “Palestinian Medical Staff & Patients Bombed & Murdered by [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/when-do-you-need-to-quit-your-job/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/nations-are-people/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/nations-are-people/#respond Tue, 24 Jun 2025 16:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1285412 Nations have governments. Nations are full of people. The government and the people are two different things. The failure to take this distinction seriously lays the groundwork for much of the world’s suffering. In China, teenagers shyly ask their crushes on dates. In Russia, families gather for a grandmother’s birthday party. In Yemen, harried mothers [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/nations-are-people/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/corporate-lawlessness-comes-next/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/corporate-lawlessness-comes-next/#respond Fri, 25 Apr 2025 15:51:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1282931 Ronald Reagan, who launched the modern American age of inequality, and Donald Trump, who is riding its consequences into an ominous new era, have something in common: They were both union members, in the Screen Actors Guild. Reagan served six yearlong terms as the union’s president, beginning in 1947. He leaned on these credentials during [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/corporate-lawlessness-comes-next/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/not-just-unions-strike-ready-unions/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/not-just-unions-strike-ready-unions/#respond Thu, 24 Apr 2025 15:50:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1282932 I wrote a piece for In These Times this week called “Unions Without Strikes,” which was prompted by something very big and very ominous that has been on my mind: the fact that there have been no strikes, or even real hints at strikes, in response to the most egregious government assaults on organized labor [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/not-just-unions-strike-ready-unions/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bad-climate-socialism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bad-climate-socialism/#respond Fri, 11 Oct 2024 16:34:53 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1273541 Few things are as easily predictable as the path that America is walking down towards its awful, inevitable national political war over the costs of climate change. Each catastrophe will propel us to take another step towards our looming irrational meltdown. Hurricane Helene has now done her part, and our short-sighted politicians are doing theirs. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bad-climate-socialism/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-starbucks-ruling-proves-that-workers-can-only-rely-on-their-own-power/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-starbucks-ruling-proves-that-workers-can-only-rely-on-their-own-power/#respond Sun, 16 Jun 2024 13:35:14 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1267908 In February, Starbucks finally agreed to sit down at the bargaining table with their workers’ union. They agreed to this not out of the goodness of their shriveled heart, but after being dragged by their hair, kicking and screaming and union busting the whole time. They agreed to bargain after the union spent two years [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-starbucks-ruling-proves-that-workers-can-only-rely-on-their-own-power/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/union-power-can-change-campus-protests-forever/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/union-power-can-change-campus-protests-forever/#respond Tue, 14 May 2024 16:08:51 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1266346 Strikes are different from protests. Though protesters frequently say that they are making ​“demands,” it is more accurate to say they are making requests. Protests rely on persuasion. Their persuasion may be gentle, or it may be aggressive; it may rely on moral shaming to get its point across, or it may rely on the elevation [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/union-power-can-change-campus-protests-forever/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/forget-elections-build-your-union/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/forget-elections-build-your-union/#respond Thu, 15 Feb 2024 16:49:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1262214 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/forget-elections-build-your-union/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-uaw-just-challenged-the-entire-labor-movement-to-get-more-ambitious/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-uaw-just-challenged-the-entire-labor-movement-to-get-more-ambitious/#respond Sat, 02 Dec 2023 16:06:13 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1258700 Regular people who are not directly involved in the labor movement often find it hard to get interested in stuff that is happening at unions. Here is the short chain of reasoning I use to explain why they should care: What is the biggest underlying problem in America? Inequality. What is the single most potent and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-uaw-just-challenged-the-entire-labor-movement-to-get-more-ambitious/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ambition-yall/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ambition-yall/#respond Fri, 01 Dec 2023 17:11:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1258609 Regular people who are not directly involved in the labor movement often find it hard to get interested in stuff that is happening at unions. Here is the short chain of reasoning I use to explain why they should care: What is the biggest underlying problem in America? Inequality. What is the single most potent [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ambition-yall/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/general-strike-2028-is-a-uniquely-plausible-dream/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/general-strike-2028-is-a-uniquely-plausible-dream/#respond Wed, 08 Nov 2023 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1257158 The labor movement is a capricious friend – it hands out heartbreak as much as it hands out joy. But every once in a while, it is able to wave a triumphant flag and give us all a glimmer of what its potential could truly be. The recently concluded UAW strike offered just such a moment: not [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/general-strike-2028-is-a-uniquely-plausible-dream/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-new-idea-for-new-union-organizing/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-new-idea-for-new-union-organizing/#respond Thu, 03 Aug 2023 15:56:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1250355 Here are four propositions about unions that are, I think, indisputable:  1. The single greatest crisis facing unions is the long term decline in union density. Once upon a time, one in three American workers was a union member. Now it’s one in ten. That figure has been steadily going down for decades. If we don’t make it [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-new-idea-for-new-union-organizing/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-war-over-no-strike-clauses-has-a-new-front-line/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-war-over-no-strike-clauses-has-a-new-front-line/#respond Fri, 02 Jun 2023 15:53:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1246969 “Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains,” philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau said in the 18th century. Likewise, the right to strike is the fundamental source of a union’s power, and everywhere they have signed that right away. ​“No strike clauses,” which ban workers from striking during the course of a union contract, have been ubiquitous for decades — the price, companies [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-war-over-no-strike-clauses-has-a-new-front-line/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-49-states-your-boss-can-hold-you-captive-and-rant-at-you-about-why-they-hate-unions/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-49-states-your-boss-can-hold-you-captive-and-rant-at-you-about-why-they-hate-unions/#respond Sun, 28 May 2023 14:00:53 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1246680 This week, state legislators in Minnesota passed a package of pro-labor measures that instantly makes the state the envy of workers everywhere. The new laws include paid sick days for everyone, banning noncompete agreements, a crackdown on wage theft, and a wage board to set pay in the nursing home industry. All a big deal. But let’s talk briefly about one in [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-49-states-your-boss-can-hold-you-captive-and-rant-at-you-about-why-they-hate-unions/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/police-unions-are-spitting-in-the-face-of-solidarity/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/police-unions-are-spitting-in-the-face-of-solidarity/#respond Fri, 12 May 2023 15:58:26 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1245952 A Florida anti-union bill reminds us why we need to kick cops out of the labor movement. This week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into a law a bill aimed at making it much harder for public employee unions to exist and function. Watching a Republican governor with his eye on the White House aim a crude legislative club at [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/police-unions-are-spitting-in-the-face-of-solidarity/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/this-historic-writers-strike-matters-for-everyone-not-just-hollywood/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/this-historic-writers-strike-matters-for-everyone-not-just-hollywood/#respond Tue, 09 May 2023 16:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1245775 There is nothing particularly novel about thinking to yourself, “You know, my job used to be pretty decent. Now, I’m working harder and the money is getting scarcer. What happened?” You might think this, in 2023, as a college professor or a cab driver or a journalist or a factory worker. This is America – [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/this-historic-writers-strike-matters-for-everyone-not-just-hollywood/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/this-is-how-it-spreads/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/this-is-how-it-spreads/#respond Sat, 22 Apr 2023 15:45:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1244142 In 2015, a group of my colleagues and I decided to try to unionize our company, Gawker Media. This mostly involved an intense, weeks-long process of speaking to everyone we worked with to convince them why this would be a good idea. As we did that, one thing became clear: Even in a newsroom populated overwhelmingly by outspoken left-wingers, most [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/this-is-how-it-spreads/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/make-one-big-higher-ed-union/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/make-one-big-higher-ed-union/#respond Thu, 23 Mar 2023 13:57:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1241965 Campus workers are organizing more than anyone else. It’s time for them to unify. Higher ed is unionizing. Like crazy! Last year, every single one of the five largest filings for NLRB union elections in America — each representing more than 3,000 members — were for graduate workers at various universities. University of California workers pulled off the biggest [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/make-one-big-higher-ed-union/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/change-the-world-and-watch-public-opinion-follow/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/change-the-world-and-watch-public-opinion-follow/#respond Fri, 10 Mar 2023 17:16:44 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1241058 The work of political struggle goes on constantly, forever and ever, without end. True moments of opportunity, though, come about rarely and without warning. They cannot be manufactured; they can only be taken advantage of. The lulls between them — like right now — are the time to remember the lesson that we always seem to forget when things [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/change-the-world-and-watch-public-opinion-follow/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-end-of-the-warrior-met-strike-and-the-utter-failure-of-the-democratic-imagination/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-end-of-the-warrior-met-strike-and-the-utter-failure-of-the-democratic-imagination/#respond Wed, 22 Feb 2023 16:24:42 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1239933 After almost two years on the picket line, the hundreds of United Mine Workers of America members who have been on strike at Warrior Met Coal in Alabama have offered to go back to work. They still do not have the fair contract they have sacrificed so much for. Their negotiations will continue, but they did not win this [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-end-of-the-warrior-met-strike-and-the-utter-failure-of-the-democratic-imagination/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-stop-ai-from-eating-journalism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-stop-ai-from-eating-journalism/#respond Fri, 10 Feb 2023 15:34:15 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1239103 All at once, it seems, the many dire warnings about artificial intelligence are coalescing into reality. Earlier generations of automation came for vast swaths of America’s manufacturing and service sector jobs, but now AI is coming for the ​“creatives” — the white collar workers who always imagined themselves insulated from such humdrum threats. No industry is at greater [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-stop-ai-from-eating-journalism/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/strikes-are-stronger-than-laws/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/strikes-are-stronger-than-laws/#respond Wed, 11 Jan 2023 17:27:02 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1236711 When people get frustrated and petulant, they lash out. So too do governments. When labor unions are looking a little too powerful, governments often throw tantrums, like spoiled children momentarily denied their lollipops. The natural response of childish governments is to try to pass laws to deny workers the ability to strike, taking away their most [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/strikes-are-stronger-than-laws/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/10-predictions-for-labor-in-2023/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/10-predictions-for-labor-in-2023/#respond Sun, 25 Dec 2022 13:45:35 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1235388 It’s December, which means that it is, by law, the time when we look ahead at the coming year, and make shockingly insightful predictions about what lays ahead. A year ago, we made Ten Predictions for the Year Ahead in Labor that were, it turns out, very good. More on that below. With that track record of quality, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/10-predictions-for-labor-in-2023/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-good-years-may-be-over-and-labor-didnt-get-much/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-good-years-may-be-over-and-labor-didnt-get-much/#respond Fri, 18 Nov 2022 16:40:08 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1232092 On January 20, 2021, Joe Biden was inaugurated as president, and an invisible clock started ticking. That clock has been measuring the window of opportunity: The time during which Democrats held the White House and both branches of Congress. History told us that window would probably be closing with the 2022 midterm elections. When you think back over the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-good-years-may-be-over-and-labor-didnt-get-much/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/when-unions-back-corporate-mergers-workers-lose/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/when-unions-back-corporate-mergers-workers-lose/#respond Fri, 21 Oct 2022 11:38:52 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1223281 There has always been a fundamental tension in the organized labor world between people who think that unions exist to counteract the self-serving tendencies of businesses, and people who think that unions should copy the self-serving tendencies of businesses. The gap between the view that unions should change capitalism and the view that unions should just help working [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/when-unions-back-corporate-mergers-workers-lose/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-gangster-socialists-of-the-red-state-beaches/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-gangster-socialists-of-the-red-state-beaches/#respond Sat, 15 Oct 2022 15:32:52 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1222889 Say what you want about the insurance industry — damn bloodsuckers constantly cranking up your bills — but you must admit that they understand risk. It is, at its heart, a simple business: Estimate with great precision how much you are likely to pay out in claims, and then charge customers more than that, so you make a profit. The success [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-gangster-socialists-of-the-red-state-beaches/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-economy-should-serve-people-not-vice-versa/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-economy-should-serve-people-not-vice-versa/#respond Tue, 23 Aug 2022 22:40:43 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1200814 Consider what typically constitutes ​“good” economic news: The stock market booming. Corporate earnings rising. Business growth. In general, any factor that contributes to an environment in which businesses can get bigger, hire more workers, make more profits, and enrich investors to a greater degree. This vision of the economy’s legitimate purpose is so deeply ingrained in the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-economy-should-serve-people-not-vice-versa/feed/ 0