https://znetwork.org/author/malbert/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Fri, 16 Jan 2026 09:21:17 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/author/malbert/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/three-strategic-issues-what-to-say-or-write-what-to-do-and-who-to-do-it-with/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/three-strategic-issues-what-to-say-or-write-what-to-do-and-who-to-do-it-with/#respond Wed, 14 Jan 2026 16:53:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293467 My goal in this oddly titled and rather short episode is to suggest a near universally applicable strategic measuring stick for choosing among different progressive actions and choices those we wish to undertake. In some respects my observations are quite elementary. In others, though, regarding actual day-to-day choices we make, I suspect they are pretty [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/three-strategic-issues-what-to-say-or-write-what-to-do-and-who-to-do-it-with/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/attitude-2/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/attitude-2/#respond Wed, 07 Jan 2026 22:05:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293179 Charles Dickens wrote, “Consider nothing impossible, then treat possibilities as probabilities.” It was an advisory. An attitude. Your neighbor might write, “Nothing is possible. People suck. It is what it is. Paste on a smile. Take a selfie. Make the best of it.“ It is an advisory. Another attitude. You might go with one of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/attitude-2/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/u-s-malevolence-what-now/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/u-s-malevolence-what-now/#comments Sun, 04 Jan 2026 15:24:25 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293099 I have met Maduro, Delcy Rodriguez too. And before them Chavez. I have walked around the streets of Caracas. Through other locales in Venezuela as well. And some Communes too. All that was some time back. It is all totally irrelevant. What matters, then? That I am a citizen of the United States. And so [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/u-s-malevolence-what-now/feed/ 3 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/chomsky-reassessed/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/chomsky-reassessed/#comments Tue, 23 Dec 2025 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292673 One of the late acts of Noam Chomsky’s incredible life was to become one of thirty initial co-signers of a document titled “Twenty Theses for Liberation.” Noam didn’t agree with every word, nor did any of its co-signers, not even those who contributed, as Noam did, to its actual words. All the co-signers including Noam [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/chomsky-reassessed/feed/ 24 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/socialism-here-there-and-everywhere/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/socialism-here-there-and-everywhere/#comments Tue, 09 Dec 2025 18:18:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292181 It is hard not to notice the word “socialism” appearing steadily more often in steadily more places. Some appearances of the word aim to register dismissal or hate. But many appearances aim to register elevation and desire. Socialism in polls. Socialism as epithet. Socialism in Gracie Mansion. Socialism buried. Socialism resurrected. Socialism past. Socialism future. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/socialism-here-there-and-everywhere/feed/ 2 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/nervous-breakdown-or-getting-better-to-win-is-essential/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/nervous-breakdown-or-getting-better-to-win-is-essential/#respond Fri, 07 Nov 2025 17:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1290946 Interim judgment. Are you nervous? Or are things getting better? Who is winning? I refer to “him and his” versus “you and ours.” I refer to fascism versus liberation. Is there a scorecard, a tally sheet to consult? I can’t see it. Can you? When I look at what’s out there, at what’s going on, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/nervous-breakdown-or-getting-better-to-win-is-essential/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-next-for-no-kings/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-next-for-no-kings/#comments Tue, 21 Oct 2025 16:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1290267 It’s October 22nd 2025. The shine of the recent No Kings outpouring of resistance is still with us. And what a shine it is. To my welcoming, hopeful eyes, Anti-Trump, anti-Fascist, anti-war, anti-racist, anti-misogyny, anti-ecological collapse all together took center stage in the incredibly massive demonstrations. The day’s achievements have been widely noted by many. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-next-for-no-kings/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/anarchist-economic-vision-michael-albert-on-the-circled-a/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/anarchist-economic-vision-michael-albert-on-the-circled-a/#respond Mon, 13 Oct 2025 17:26:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1289860 American Anarchist author Michael Albert joins yodet to talk about the question of what economics looks like in an anarchist society. We also pay tribute to former Black Panther, Assata Shakur. Music by Lesblackwellmusic.]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/anarchist-economic-vision-michael-albert-on-the-circled-a/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/no-kings-socials-and-us/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/no-kings-socials-and-us/#comments Fri, 10 Oct 2025 16:31:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1289751 As I submit this piece it is October 10th. In about a week from when you are reading it, on October 18th, the second installment of No Kings will unfold. Over 2,400 component anti-Trump, anti-Fascist, anti-war, anti-racist, anti-misogyny, anti ecological collapse demonstrations will sum to what hopes to be one incredibly massive demonstration. How many [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/no-kings-socials-and-us/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/grim-reaper-in-our-midst-on-to-no-kings-and-beyond/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/grim-reaper-in-our-midst-on-to-no-kings-and-beyond/#respond Sun, 05 Oct 2025 15:14:27 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1289556 Trump posts a video. In it, Trump and Vance are band members for The Grim Reaper. And the Reaper is, well—wait for it—Russell Voight, the author of Project 2025. Th brain behind the brawn. Talk about telling it like it is. Transparency on steroids. Okay, perhaps for even greater verisimilitude it should have been Voight [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/grim-reaper-in-our-midst-on-to-no-kings-and-beyond/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-lefts-contribution-no-kings-october-18-and-beyond/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-lefts-contribution-no-kings-october-18-and-beyond/#comments Tue, 23 Sep 2025 16:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1288920 The time to laugh at a certified egomaniacal buffoon is gone. Confusion about his destination is gone. Doubt that he is on course to reach that destination is also gone. Does anyone who will read this article now doubt where Trump is headed? I suppose maybe some do, but certainly not too many. In fact [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-lefts-contribution-no-kings-october-18-and-beyond/feed/ 2 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mother-mary-comes-to-me/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mother-mary-comes-to-me/#respond Thu, 11 Sep 2025 15:57:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1288422 Imagine an okay High School Tennis player trying to comment usefully, publicly, on Carlos Alcaraz’s play. Or imagine a squirrel made suddenly talkative trying to comment on the life of a lion. Difficult, and I feel like that. There are many people who are exceptionally smart, witty, funny. Many people who are internally diverse. Such [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mother-mary-comes-to-me/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ai-as-a-marxist-responds-to-enrich-or-transcend-marxism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ai-as-a-marxist-responds-to-enrich-or-transcend-marxism/#comments Tue, 09 Sep 2025 16:10:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1288304 [In what follows my prompts to the AI, ChatGPT, are in Italics. The AI’s responses appear in quotation marks. The text in brackets is commentary that I added after the fact. I have two aims. Further explore how AI operates and its possible consequences. And further explore the Marxist Tradition’s composition and its consequences.] I [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ai-as-a-marxist-responds-to-enrich-or-transcend-marxism/feed/ 4 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-genocide-trumps-gestapo-and-us-with-a-technology-addendum/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-genocide-trumps-gestapo-and-us-with-a-technology-addendum/#respond Sun, 17 Aug 2025 14:44:11 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1287421 No Ice Agent or National Guard member headed to Washington DC, no IDF assassin shooting kids who seek food, no media person, politician, or at this point all but an incredibly disconnected subset of people in the U.S. or Israel will have even tenuous legitimacy to later claim that in 2025 they didn’t know, much [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-genocide-trumps-gestapo-and-us-with-a-technology-addendum/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-little-more-ai-chomsky-me-and-you/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-little-more-ai-chomsky-me-and-you/#respond Tue, 12 Aug 2025 16:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1287229 I have been engaging with AI about itself in some recent RevolutionZ podcast episodes and in some written articles as well. This despite my worries about its likely further effects. Here I offer one more round of interactions, this time again about AI itself, my concerns, Chomsky’s concerns, and some more. I offer this, for [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-little-more-ai-chomsky-me-and-you/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/more-about-ai-this-is-getting-serious/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/more-about-ai-this-is-getting-serious/#comments Tue, 05 Aug 2025 16:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1286985 Why more about AI? Because, even with the ceaseless, stupendous mainstream hype about AI, most folks aren’t very clear about the situation. And a second more proximate reason is Trump’s efforts to pressure the “AI project” to reconsider its agenda. Instead of (rather feebly) trying to incorporate guard rails to align with human values and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/more-about-ai-this-is-getting-serious/feed/ 4 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/now-what-unify-and-fight/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/now-what-unify-and-fight/#respond Tue, 22 Jul 2025 16:16:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1286489 Epstein. What can I say? How about nothing? Or how about Epstein was disgusting and Trump is Epstein writ large. Should we look away even while we cautiously hope that Trump has fatally skewered himself? Should we fear he may be about to skewer everyone else? At those extremes, Epstein’s legacy may end Trump’s reign. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/now-what-unify-and-fight/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-marxism-help-or-hinder-resistance/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-marxism-help-or-hinder-resistance/#comments Wed, 16 Jul 2025 18:31:39 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1286242 For history’s arc to continue forward activists must stop Israel, stop Trump, speak, write, cogitate, organize, and collectively end fascism and then struggle on until we implement new relations for a new world. But how should we think about what’s going on to understand it? How should we think about what’s going on to decide [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-marxism-help-or-hinder-resistance/feed/ 11 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/easy-meat-for-terror/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/easy-meat-for-terror/#respond Tue, 08 Jul 2025 16:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1285925 Set aside for a moment critically important occurrences in the U.S. How do I sensibly communicate with you, or with anyone at all, about Israel’s genocidal violations of Gaza? I have a distant friend I have never met in person. He sends me and many, many other people email a few times each week reporting on [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/easy-meat-for-terror/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-next-our-movement-measurement-problem-and-good-trouble-lives-on/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-next-our-movement-measurement-problem-and-good-trouble-lives-on/#respond Mon, 23 Jun 2025 14:21:42 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1285370 As best I can discern both the No Kings demonstrations with 5 to 7 million participants, but also the pathetic Military March and its minuscule turnout that showed Trump’s declining public support were a huge June 14th resistance success. If Trump didn’t have the federal government, he would not have much. The trouble is, he [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-next-our-movement-measurement-problem-and-good-trouble-lives-on/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/listen-officer-listen-citizen/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/listen-officer-listen-citizen/#respond Wed, 11 Jun 2025 18:01:04 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1284857 There is something happening here and what it is is all too clear.  Officer: Did you watch movies as a child? Did you wonder how Hitler could dominate Germany’s thoughts, dreams, and beliefs to the point of nazifying so many minds and getting the rest to accept their lot? I did. I wondered how that [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/listen-officer-listen-citizen/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-resistance-that-is-rising/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-resistance-that-is-rising/#respond Sun, 08 Jun 2025 13:50:08 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1284746 We live amidst lunacy that kills. Calm, reasoned reports of escalating state criminality are part of ending state criminality. Ditto for deep diving conceptual analyses. And also for historical contextualizations. All good. All needed. But we must also emotively emphasize the utterly obvious if we are to ward off and reverse dangerous lunacy.  Too calm [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-resistance-that-is-rising/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/should-our-resistance-enrich-or-transcend-marxism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/should-our-resistance-enrich-or-transcend-marxism/#comments Tue, 03 Jun 2025 16:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1284516 [This article is part of a short series on Marxism and its relevance for left resistance in today’s challenging geopolitical and ecological climate, and for the continuing effort to win a better world beyond immediate crises. This article acts as the catalyst for the series, with the subsequent articles using it as their jumping off [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/should-our-resistance-enrich-or-transcend-marxism/feed/ 7 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/june-14th-magnificent-resistance-and-beyond/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/june-14th-magnificent-resistance-and-beyond/#respond Tue, 27 May 2025 16:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1284268 June 14th will likely be a shocking, provocative, and scary day of grotesque militaristic, fascistic danger but also an exciting, enticing, and hopeful day of magnificent resistance in hundreds of cities across the country and in Washington too. Perhaps in Washington it will even block Trump’s military parade. But even if it does, then what?  [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/june-14th-magnificent-resistance-and-beyond/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/779-words-to-stop-the-tanks-end-fossil-fuels-and-stop-the-genocide/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/779-words-to-stop-the-tanks-end-fossil-fuels-and-stop-the-genocide/#comments Tue, 20 May 2025 18:42:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1283996 June 14th, Trump’s birthday, he intends to sit on some wannabe throne looking out over Washington DC admiring what he considers his personal tools of war and governance. And what will he see: 6,000 troops, 50 fighter jets and bombers, and 150 military vehicles, including some Abrams tanks. Hut two, three, four. Perfect cadence. Trump [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/779-words-to-stop-the-tanks-end-fossil-fuels-and-stop-the-genocide/feed/ 3 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-lefts-contribution/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-lefts-contribution/#respond Sat, 10 May 2025 15:19:17 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1283578 I bet you agree that we need to persistently resist Trumpian fascism. ‘Smash Trump. Sink his administration. Replace both.” I said that just now. Countless others have said similar things increasingly in recent days.  All of us are one hundred days in. Much has been revealed and also comprehended. Rather than redundantly rehash all that, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-lefts-contribution/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/dear-generation-z-where-are-you/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/dear-generation-z-where-are-you/#comments Tue, 06 May 2025 16:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1283391 I know you have lives to lead. Friends and parties to enjoy. Tests to take and grades to earn. Jobs to be hired for and retain. I know your values shine. Your empathy sings. I know you bemoan Donald, curse Donald, ridicule and laugh at Donald. I get all that. Great. But Gen Z, you [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/dear-generation-z-where-are-you/feed/ 3 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/to-end-trumpism-a-tale-of-three-reactions/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/to-end-trumpism-a-tale-of-three-reactions/#respond Tue, 15 Apr 2025 16:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1282489 Imagine you are about to crack open a new book and begin reading. The opening sentence  goes like this: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/to-end-trumpism-a-tale-of-three-reactions/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/resist-the-rule-of-garbage/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/resist-the-rule-of-garbage/#respond Tue, 01 Apr 2025 16:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1281842 About ten years ago, I wrote an article titled Garbage Rises with which I meant to discuss the god awful reality of so-called American meritocracy. Risking repetition, I wrote another piece in the same vein, recently. But jeeez, our times have put such an exclamation mark on the observation that “garbage rises” that I find [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/resist-the-rule-of-garbage/feed/ 0