https://znetwork.org/author/patriccvdfdazza/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Sun, 18 Jan 2026 14:36:45 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/author/patriccvdfdazza/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/we-are-in-a-crisis-how-to-build-communities-that-can-respond/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/we-are-in-a-crisis-how-to-build-communities-that-can-respond/#respond Sun, 18 Jan 2026 14:36:39 +0000 The U.S. is in a crisis of historic proportions, scaling to previous eras such as the Civil War and 1930s Depression. It is a systemic crisis in the sense its political system is failing to respond either to immediate challenges or more deeply rooted problems out of which those challenges rise. The immediate challenge is [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/we-are-in-a-crisis-how-to-build-communities-that-can-respond/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-new-york-and-seattle-mayoral-victories-point-the-way-to-systemic-change/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-new-york-and-seattle-mayoral-victories-point-the-way-to-systemic-change/#respond Mon, 17 Nov 2025 18:28:43 +0000 The subversive power of imagination In my last post I recalled the vision of historian William Appleman Williams seeking an American future beyond “empire as a way of life,” as he called and documented it through his career as one of the leading radical historians of the 20th century. Williams proposed reconstituting the United States as [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-new-york-and-seattle-mayoral-victories-point-the-way-to-systemic-change/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-u-s-is-broken-time-to-think-about-what-comes-next/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-u-s-is-broken-time-to-think-about-what-comes-next/#respond Mon, 27 Oct 2025 14:45:00 +0000 The problem of centralized power The United States is broken, and it’s time to think about what comes next. Images of the White House East Wing demolition that have filled our eyes in recent days are a visual expression of a broader reality. The constitutional order of the U.S. is shattered. A lawless president backed [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-u-s-is-broken-time-to-think-about-what-comes-next/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/can-degrowth-communism-save-the-world/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/can-degrowth-communism-save-the-world/#respond Mon, 19 May 2025 17:25:11 +0000 This is the first in a series on Possible Worlds, envisioning alternatives to the current system in the spirit of “Another world is possible.” Confronting our current political situation, we need to go beyond the defensive to explore how we came to this place and how we can make the systemic changes needed to move beyond [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/can-degrowth-communism-save-the-world/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/while-we-say-hands-off-we-also-need-hands-on-to-address-our-planetary-crisis/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/while-we-say-hands-off-we-also-need-hands-on-to-address-our-planetary-crisis/#respond Mon, 14 Apr 2025 15:08:21 +0000 The massive crowds that came out for this past weekend’s Hands Off protests illustrate the vast contradictions in which we find ourselves. As people who believe in the need for profound changes in society, we are driven by Trump’s radical eviscerations of vital government functions to defend existing institutions. The very framing, Hands Off, expresses [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/while-we-say-hands-off-we-also-need-hands-on-to-address-our-planetary-crisis/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/stung-by-people-power-protests-elon-musk-targets-my-group-and-a-close-friend/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/stung-by-people-power-protests-elon-musk-targets-my-group-and-a-close-friend/#respond Tue, 18 Mar 2025 17:00:00 +0000 A week ago Saturday Co-President Elon Musk took to his X platform to call out several groups staging protests against his Tesla dealerships for Musk’s Trump Administration role in slashing vital federal government functions. The Tesla Takedown movement has mounted hundreds of peaceful actions around the world. Among the groups he named were the Troublemakers, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/stung-by-people-power-protests-elon-musk-targets-my-group-and-a-close-friend/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/building-solidarity-around-survival-a-seattle-example/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/building-solidarity-around-survival-a-seattle-example/#respond Fri, 07 Mar 2025 16:16:13 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1280703 The issue is survival We are in for a long hard time in the U.S. and the world as a whole. The divisions between people have grown too deep. The concentration of power in individuals and institutions that care little about the common good, pursuing their own interests at its expense, is too great. The [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/building-solidarity-around-survival-a-seattle-example/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/to-confront-the-oligarchy-we-need-to-build-power-at-the-community-level/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/to-confront-the-oligarchy-we-need-to-build-power-at-the-community-level/#respond Tue, 21 Jan 2025 17:00:00 +0000 Wrong way world A consistent theme through my life has been to understand our world, to assemble a comprehensive picture the best I can, respecting the world’s boggling complexity and the limits of any one mind to grasp it all. What has long been clear to me is that our world is on a systematically [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/to-confront-the-oligarchy-we-need-to-build-power-at-the-community-level/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/political-and-climate-storms-rolling-in-look-homeward-to-make-real-change/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/political-and-climate-storms-rolling-in-look-homeward-to-make-real-change/#respond Wed, 20 Nov 2024 16:59:21 +0000 Build strong places to weather the storms Never has it been more important to build strong places capable of weathering the storms barreling down on us, both the physical storms of a disrupted climate and the political, social and economic storms of a nation and world tumbling into increasing conflict. Never has it been more [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/political-and-climate-storms-rolling-in-look-homeward-to-make-real-change/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-world-in-crisis-requires-we-recover-the-common-good-beginning-in-the-places-where-we-live/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-world-in-crisis-requires-we-recover-the-common-good-beginning-in-the-places-where-we-live/#respond Mon, 06 May 2024 16:30:00 +0000 A world going in the wrong direction The converging crises facing our world today shout out the fact that their roots are systemic. Tinkering around the edges won’t solve these problems, because they are embedded in the systems logic itself. The climate crisis is the signature of this. While definite progress has been made in [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-world-in-crisis-requires-we-recover-the-common-good-beginning-in-the-places-where-we-live/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-is-the-proposed-ben-gurion-canal-tied-to-israels-gaza-invasion/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-is-the-proposed-ben-gurion-canal-tied-to-israels-gaza-invasion/#respond Fri, 16 Feb 2024 18:11:54 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1262298 In the past several years, interest has revived in the Ben Gurion Canal, a proposed alternative to the Suez Canal named after Israel’s founding father running through Israel close to Gaza. Creating an incentive for removal of Palestinians from Gaza, particularly the north end, it has raised suspicions that Israel had foreknowledge of Hamas’ October [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-is-the-proposed-ben-gurion-canal-tied-to-israels-gaza-invasion/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/moving-beyond-empire-building-the-future-in-place/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/moving-beyond-empire-building-the-future-in-place/#respond Tue, 22 Aug 2023 16:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1252392 It has been several weeks since my last post to The Raven.  In that time I have been conceptualizing and taking notes for the shift in emphasis I announced recently, to focus more tightly on building power and community in place, reflected in the title of this piece. Appropriately, I make this transition with the last installment of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/moving-beyond-empire-building-the-future-in-place/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/overcoming-social-fragmentation/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/overcoming-social-fragmentation/#respond Tue, 31 Jan 2023 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1238358 With this post I return to the idea of a movement of movements, which I began to explore back in November. Here I outline some basic concepts for how such a movement might be shaped. Fragmentation is a particular curse of the modern world. We live in a bewildering array of systems and networks, of groupings and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/overcoming-social-fragmentation/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-realize-rails-full-potential-as-a-climate-solution/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-realize-rails-full-potential-as-a-climate-solution/#respond Wed, 14 Dec 2022 18:23:19 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1234576 Railroads have a tremendous opportunity to offer transportation that reduces climate pollution to near zero, bringing freight back from trucks and restoring passenger service that cuts car and airplane travel. The problem is the railroads themselves, who manages them and for what ends. It is in how the railroads are structured, and only a profound [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-realize-rails-full-potential-as-a-climate-solution/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/new-portland-police-oversight-board-could-be-strongest-in-the-nation-and-create-a-national-model/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/new-portland-police-oversight-board-could-be-strongest-in-the-nation-and-create-a-national-model/#respond Fri, 02 Dec 2022 16:40:30 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1233473 In the Black Lives Matter uprising of summer 2020, no city was more nationally prominent than Portland. Nightly protests drew thousands to the blocks around police headquarters, city hall and the federal courthouse. Donald Trump called Portland “a beehive of anarchists” and dispatched federal troops to the city, only fueling protest numbers. Attorney General Bill [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/new-portland-police-oversight-board-could-be-strongest-in-the-nation-and-create-a-national-model/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/midterms-reveal-progressive-possibilities-in-a-changing-nation/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/midterms-reveal-progressive-possibilities-in-a-changing-nation/#respond Wed, 16 Nov 2022 15:37:47 +0000 The much-predicted and by some feared red wave turned into, as people are saying, a splotch of ketchup on the wall at Mar-A-Lago. Instead of overwhelming Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, the November 8 election produced a return to Democratic Senate control with prospectively a one-seat gain depending on December runoff results in [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/midterms-reveal-progressive-possibilities-in-a-changing-nation/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ditch-the-constitution-and-start-over/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ditch-the-constitution-and-start-over/#respond Tue, 05 Jul 2022 18:24:53 +0000 https://zcomm-staging.work/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1061672 When a government becomes destructive of rights When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for a people to dissolve a political system grounded on the rule of minorities over majorities, and to assume the powers of democratic self-government to which common sense says they are entitled, a decent respect for the opinions [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ditch-the-constitution-and-start-over/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/freeing-ourselves-from-the-war-machine/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/freeing-ourselves-from-the-war-machine/#respond Mon, 31 Jan 2022 12:50:19 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1054397 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/freeing-ourselves-from-the-war-machine/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/if-we-dont-get-climate-justice-shut-it-down/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/if-we-dont-get-climate-justice-shut-it-down/#respond Wed, 29 Sep 2021 09:04:27 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1050544 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/if-we-dont-get-climate-justice-shut-it-down/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/everyday-climate-catastrophe-living-in-a-schizoid-world/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/everyday-climate-catastrophe-living-in-a-schizoid-world/#respond Thu, 19 Aug 2021 09:03:38 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1049431 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/everyday-climate-catastrophe-living-in-a-schizoid-world/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-i-am-not-a-climate-doomist/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-i-am-not-a-climate-doomist/#respond Sat, 15 May 2021 09:04:23 +0000 https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1046593 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-i-am-not-a-climate-doomist/feed/ 0