https://znetwork.org/author/johnfeffer/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Sat, 12 Jul 2025 15:16:31 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/author/johnfeffer/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-new-far-right-american-party/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-new-far-right-american-party/#respond Sat, 12 Jul 2025 15:16:24 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1286094 There are always worse political figures waiting in the wings. In Israel, for instance, Benjamin Netanyahu is a relative moderate compared to some members of his cabinet, like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who believes that letting two million Palestinians die of hunger in Gaza is “justified and moral.” In Russia, ultranationalists to the right of Putin espouse racist [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-new-far-right-american-party/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-far-rights-tipping-point/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-far-rights-tipping-point/#respond Sun, 08 Jun 2025 12:49:23 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1284721 Beginning in the late 1980s, Eastern Europe shifted from being a political backwater to a political bellwether. By shrugging off the Soviet yoke and exiting communism, the region pointed toward the future collapse of the Soviet Union and the cresting of a third wave of democratization. The fast-track liberalizations of Eastern Europe in the 1990s [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-far-rights-tipping-point/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/from-ukraine-to-greenland-are-trumps-geopolitical-ambitions-driven-by-mining/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/from-ukraine-to-greenland-are-trumps-geopolitical-ambitions-driven-by-mining/#respond Sun, 01 Jun 2025 11:41:36 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1284436 The clean energy transition that the Biden administration touted as the focus of its industrial policy required large amounts of mineral inputs. Batteries for electric vehicles depend on lithium, solar panels contain gallium and molybdenum, and powerful magnets in wind turbines can’t be built without rare earth elements. Biden’s landmark legislation, such as the 2022 [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/from-ukraine-to-greenland-are-trumps-geopolitical-ambitions-driven-by-mining/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-obscenity-of-collective-punishment-in-gaza/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-obscenity-of-collective-punishment-in-gaza/#respond Mon, 12 May 2025 17:16:26 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1283645 Maybe you remember an incident like this from your schooldays. Someone in your class has done something wrong, like pass around a caricature of the principal, and the teacher decides to punish the whole class by taking away your recess. Maybe this is done to force the culprit to confess, or to pressure you and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-obscenity-of-collective-punishment-in-gaza/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/imagine-you-are-a-poor-nation-trapped-by-debt-and-strangled-by-climate-change-what-are-your-options/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/imagine-you-are-a-poor-nation-trapped-by-debt-and-strangled-by-climate-change-what-are-your-options/#respond Thu, 01 May 2025 15:53:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1283198 Imagine you are a low-income country. You suffer from a heavy debt burden. You’ve been trying to catch up to the more affluent countries for decades, but you’ve been unsuccessful, mainly because of that debt hanging around your neck like a giant millstone. And you are spending more and more of your precious resources dealing [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/imagine-you-are-a-poor-nation-trapped-by-debt-and-strangled-by-climate-change-what-are-your-options/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-growing-inequality-among-countries-and-the-worsening-climate-crisis/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-growing-inequality-among-countries-and-the-worsening-climate-crisis/#respond Sat, 29 Mar 2025 15:37:15 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1281740 In a fit of madness or just plain desperation, you’ve enrolled in a get-rich-quick scheme. All you have to do is sell some products, sign up a few friends, and make some calls. Follow that simple formula, and you’ll soon pull in tens of thousands of dollars a month—or so you’ve been promised anyway. If [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-growing-inequality-among-countries-and-the-worsening-climate-crisis/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/its-time-boycott-america/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/its-time-boycott-america/#respond Thu, 20 Mar 2025 15:57:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1281316 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/its-time-boycott-america/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/he-fought-the-law-will-the-law-win/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/he-fought-the-law-will-the-law-win/#respond Tue, 04 Jun 2024 15:54:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1267388 Benjamin Netanyahu’s face may soon be on Wanted posters around the world. In Israel, the prime minister has been charged with various counts of corruption. But now that the International Criminal Court has requested a warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest on war crimes, he may become a global outlaw as well. It’s not a done deal. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/he-fought-the-law-will-the-law-win/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-race-to-end-fossil-fuel-production-2/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-race-to-end-fossil-fuel-production-2/#respond Tue, 21 May 2024 16:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1266696 Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. This quip by the American essayist Charles Dudley Warner applies to fossil fuels as well. Everyone talks about ending fossil fuel production, but almost no one is doing anything about it. Take the example of the Biden administration. It has launched the most ambitious [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-race-to-end-fossil-fuel-production-2/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-is-actually-being-done-to-phase-out-fossil-fuels/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-is-actually-being-done-to-phase-out-fossil-fuels/#respond Sat, 18 May 2024 15:38:16 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1266567 Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. This quip by the American essayist Charles Dudley Warner applies to fossil fuels as well. Everyone talks about ending fossil fuel production, but almost no one is doing anything about it. Take the example of the Biden administration. It has launched the most ambitious [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-is-actually-being-done-to-phase-out-fossil-fuels/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-race-to-end-fossil-fuel-production/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-race-to-end-fossil-fuel-production/#respond Thu, 16 May 2024 16:14:54 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1266455 Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. This quip by the American essayist Charles Dudley Warner applies to fossil fuels as well. Everyone talks about ending fossil fuel production, but almost no one is doing anything about it. Take the example of the Biden administration. It has launched the most ambitious [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-race-to-end-fossil-fuel-production/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-allies-plot-to-take-over-the-european-union/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-allies-plot-to-take-over-the-european-union/#respond Tue, 23 Jan 2024 17:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1261133 It would be funny if it weren’t so potentially tragic — and consequential. No, I’m not thinking about Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign but a related development: the latest decisions from the European Union (EU) about Ukraine. As 2023 ended, European nations failed to agree on a $54-billion package of assistance for Ukraine at a [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-allies-plot-to-take-over-the-european-union/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-can-workers-ensure-the-just-transition-is-truly-just/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-can-workers-ensure-the-just-transition-is-truly-just/#respond Sun, 14 Jan 2024 14:29:13 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1260715 Making a transition away from fossil fuels is going to require a lot of work. But there’s a real concern that it will also require a lot fewer workers. All of the workers in fossil fuel industries, for instance, are acutely aware that their jobs are at risk, if not immediately then at some point [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-can-workers-ensure-the-just-transition-is-truly-just/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mileis-and-wilders-wins-suggest-we-havent-reached-peak-populism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mileis-and-wilders-wins-suggest-we-havent-reached-peak-populism/#respond Sun, 03 Dec 2023 14:24:49 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1258733 Panic does not produce prudent politics. Panic produces provocative populists. And it reduces pundits to Seussian spluttering. How can voters choose such… panic-peddling panderers?! The defeats of Donald Trump in the U.S. elections in 2020 and Jair Bolsonaro in the Brazilian elections in 2022 were supposed to prove that the wave of right-wing politicians had crested worldwide. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mileis-and-wilders-wins-suggest-we-havent-reached-peak-populism/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-return-of-the-far-right/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-return-of-the-far-right/#respond Fri, 01 Dec 2023 17:15:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1258628 Panic does not produce prudent politics. Panic produces provocative populists. And it reduces pundits to Seussian spluttering. How can voters choose such…panic-peddling panderers?! The defeats of Donald Trump in the U.S. elections in 2020 and Jair Bolsonaro in the Brazilian elections in 2022 were supposed to prove that the wave of right-wing politicians had crested [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-return-of-the-far-right/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/challenging-the-global-norths-clean-energy-transition/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/challenging-the-global-norths-clean-energy-transition/#respond Fri, 25 Aug 2023 15:46:00 +0000 It was a dream team of activists and scholars who conducted a whirlwind advocacy tour of Europe at the end of May. They visited Germany, Belgium, and the UK to challenge the conventional notion that Europe’s energy transition is “clean” and to tell stories about the impact of Europe’s transition on people living in “sacrifice [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/challenging-the-global-norths-clean-energy-transition/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/taiwan/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/taiwan/#respond Thu, 11 May 2023 15:47:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1245908 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/taiwan/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ukraine-and-the-lessons-of-the-iraq-war/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ukraine-and-the-lessons-of-the-iraq-war/#respond Tue, 11 Apr 2023 16:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1243296 Leaving aside the manufactured justifications, the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 to reassert U.S. power in the Middle East and reduce the influence of Iran. It wasn’t terrorism or yellow cake or even Saddam Hussein’s appalling human rights abuses that motivated one of the most tragic of U.S. foreign policy blunders. It was geopolitics, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ukraine-and-the-lessons-of-the-iraq-war/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-shift-from-pink-to-green-in-latin-america/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-shift-from-pink-to-green-in-latin-america/#respond Wed, 05 Apr 2023 15:40:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1242869 Gustavo Petro doesn’t just want to transform his own country; he wants to change the world. The new leader of Colombia, who took office last August, is targeting what he calls his nation’s “economy of death.” That means pivoting away from oil, natural gas, coal, and narcotics toward more sustainable economic activities. Given that oil [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-shift-from-pink-to-green-in-latin-america/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/free-trade-or-just-green-trade/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/free-trade-or-just-green-trade/#respond Mon, 20 Mar 2023 15:04:35 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1241773 The global economy hit a new milestone in 2022 by surpassing $100 trillion. This expansion, which has experienced only the occasional setback such as the 2020 COVID shutdowns, has been accelerated by trade. The world trade volume experienced 4,300 percent growth from 1950 to 2021, an average 4 percent increase every year. This linked growth of the global [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/free-trade-or-just-green-trade/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-if-the-world-cannot-save-the-world/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-if-the-world-cannot-save-the-world/#respond Sun, 05 Mar 2023 13:39:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1240704 The United Nations has convened 27 conferences on climate change. For nearly three decades, the international community has come together at a different location every year to pool its collective wisdom, resources, and resolve to address this global threat. These Conferences of Parties (COPs) have produced important agreements, such as the Paris Accords of 2015 [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-if-the-world-cannot-save-the-world/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/spying-vs-spying/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/spying-vs-spying/#respond Mon, 20 Feb 2023 15:06:59 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1239769 This weekend, I went on a walk on a paved road that soon turned to dirt. The further into farmland it went, the muddier and more difficult to traverse the road became. The map function on my phone, connected by invisible strands to a satellite way above my head, continued to show me these roads, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/spying-vs-spying/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/from-the-unsustainable-here-to-the-sustainable-there/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/from-the-unsustainable-here-to-the-sustainable-there/#respond Sun, 22 Jan 2023 15:53:20 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1237606 In 1972, the Club of Rome released a report called The Limits to Growth that laid out the damage to the planet and to human beings of unrestrained increases in economic production and population. It was a straightforward extrapolation from then-current trends that took into account limited resources like water, fertile soil, and fossil fuels. That same [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/from-the-unsustainable-here-to-the-sustainable-there/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-code-behind-the-far-rights-success/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-code-behind-the-far-rights-success/#respond Mon, 19 Dec 2022 15:58:56 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1234946 Arizona is ground zero for the wackiest theories and craziest political candidates. Exhibit A: Kari Lake, the Republican who ran for governor in the recent midterm elections. Though she lost in November, she’s still campaigning — on social media, in the courts, and in her own beclouded imagination. She refuses to accept that Katie Hobbs, her Democratic [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-code-behind-the-far-rights-success/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-climate-debt-does-the-north-owe-the-south/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-climate-debt-does-the-north-owe-the-south/#respond Wed, 30 Nov 2022 14:58:41 +0000 To keep the planet from overheating, there’s just so much more carbon that humans can pump into the atmosphere. From the onset of the Industrial Revolution until today, humanity has used up approximately 83 percent of its “carbon budget”—the amount of carbon the atmosphere can absorb and not exceed the Paris climate agreement’s aspirational goal of a [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-climate-debt-does-the-north-owe-the-south/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-democracies-be-polarized-out-of-existence/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-democracies-be-polarized-out-of-existence/#respond Thu, 10 Nov 2022 12:20:34 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1231471 From the United States and Brazil to Israel and Hungary, liberals approach the widening gap in political perceptions with incredulity while Illiberals see polarization as a political opportunity to destroy democracy. Every election these days seems more consequential than the last. Oh my god, Lula won in Brazil! Can you believe that Netanyahu just came [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-democracies-be-polarized-out-of-existence/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/is-putin-in-a-corner/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/is-putin-in-a-corner/#respond Thu, 29 Sep 2022 15:16:31 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1221782 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/is-putin-in-a-corner/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/as-falls-russia-so-falls-the-world/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/as-falls-russia-so-falls-the-world/#respond Mon, 19 Sep 2022 14:15:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1220362 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/as-falls-russia-so-falls-the-world/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/isnt-it-time-to-challenge-the-growth-paradigm/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/isnt-it-time-to-challenge-the-growth-paradigm/#respond Sat, 17 Sep 2022 14:59:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1220247 At the end of July, the International Monetary Fund warned of a “gloomy outlook” for the world economy. It was doing so not because of a spike in poverty, a widening of inequality, or a surge in carbon emissions. Quite the contrary: the IMF was making its pessimistic assessment because it was revising down its forecast for [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/isnt-it-time-to-challenge-the-growth-paradigm/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-2022-mark-the-turning-point-in-the-climate-crisis/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-2022-mark-the-turning-point-in-the-climate-crisis/#respond Tue, 30 Aug 2022 16:31:42 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1201745 Over the last six months, the world took a giant step backward in its efforts to address the current climate crisis. In February, after finally reversing its position and pledging to become carbon-neutral by 2060, Russia invaded Ukraine and set off a panic around access to fossil fuels. In March, South Koreans voted out an [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-2022-mark-the-turning-point-in-the-climate-crisis/feed/ 0