https://znetwork.org/author/vijayprashad/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Sat, 09 May 2026 18:16:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/author/vijayprashad/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/india-holds-significant-regional-elections-where-the-myth-of-gen-z-continues-to-grow/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/india-holds-significant-regional-elections-where-the-myth-of-gen-z-continues-to-grow/#respond Sat, 09 May 2026 18:16:20 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1297909 In India, over 123 million people voted in the four states of Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal (home to 290 million people) for their state assemblies. These are influential states: two in the south, one in the east, and one in the northeast. The next national parliamentary election is not scheduled until 2029, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/india-holds-significant-regional-elections-where-the-myth-of-gen-z-continues-to-grow/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/on-irans-ten-point-proposal-for-peace/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/on-irans-ten-point-proposal-for-peace/#comments Thu, 09 Apr 2026 15:55:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1296697 The United States has agreed with Iran to cease hostilities for two weeks. The illegal US and Israeli imposed war has not ended but has a break, although not in Lebanon which was supposed to be part of the deal. Just before the ceasefire was announced, the Iranian authorities released a ten-point peace plan that promises far [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/on-irans-ten-point-proposal-for-peace/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/angolas-debt-to-cuba-is-unfinished/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/angolas-debt-to-cuba-is-unfinished/#respond Thu, 02 Apr 2026 15:48:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1296411 In ‘Freedom Park’ (S’kumbuto) outside Pretoria (South Africa), there is a Wall of Names that honors the men and women who died in the fight to liberate South Africa from apartheid. Amongst these are the names of two thousand and seventy Cuban soldiers who died in Angola between 1975 and 1988 for the liberation of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/angolas-debt-to-cuba-is-unfinished/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/senegal-on-the-edge-of-collapse/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/senegal-on-the-edge-of-collapse/#respond Sun, 29 Mar 2026 11:08:07 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1296273 Senegal entered 2026 in the grip of a growing debt crisis that seems insurmountable. After the government of President Bassirou Diomaye Faye took power in April 2024, it became clear that his predecessor, Macky Sall (who held office from 2012 to 2024), had concealed enormous liabilities — including hidden loans equivalent to 25.3 percent of GDP — from the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/senegal-on-the-edge-of-collapse/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/un-approves-slavery-reparations/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/un-approves-slavery-reparations/#respond Thu, 26 Mar 2026 15:50:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1296171 We live in an upside-down world. The leaders of the richer nations, the old colonial powers, want to rehabilitate the language of imperialism: praise for their past, and a desire to repeat that messianism in the present. Meanwhile, the peoples of the poorer nations agitate for peace and development, as well as for an apology [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/un-approves-slavery-reparations/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/living-hell-israels-prison-system-as-an-instrument-of-oppression/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/living-hell-israels-prison-system-as-an-instrument-of-oppression/#comments Wed, 25 Feb 2026 18:00:44 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295159 In January 2026, the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem published a grim update to its earlier work, titled Living Hell: The Israeli Prison System as a Network of Torture Camps. This report documents the horrific conditions faced by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and detention facilities, revealing structural brutality that must be understood not as [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/living-hell-israels-prison-system-as-an-instrument-of-oppression/feed/ 2 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-cuban-revolution-holds-out-against-us-imperialism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-cuban-revolution-holds-out-against-us-imperialism/#comments Wed, 18 Feb 2026 17:50:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294865 In January 2026, US President Donald Trump declared Cuba to be an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US security—a designation that allows the United States government to use sweeping economic restrictions traditionally reserved for national security adversaries. The US blockade against Cuba began in the 1960s, right after the Cuban Revolution of 1959 but has [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-cuban-revolution-holds-out-against-us-imperialism/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bangladesh-at-the-crossroads-elections-and-the-future-of-the-worlds-eight-largest-country/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bangladesh-at-the-crossroads-elections-and-the-future-of-the-worlds-eight-largest-country/#respond Sun, 15 Feb 2026 15:57:34 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294753 The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) won a sweeping victory in the 12 February 2026 elections, securing 212 of 300 parliamentary seats. This victory represents not merely a change of government. It is the culmination of a political process that began not with the spontaneous anger of students on the streets of Dhaka in 2024, but [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bangladesh-at-the-crossroads-elections-and-the-future-of-the-worlds-eight-largest-country/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-sun-sets-on-the-syrian-kurdish-rebellion/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-sun-sets-on-the-syrian-kurdish-rebellion/#respond Thu, 22 Jan 2026 16:55:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293776 The agreement that terminated the Syrian Kurdish enclave was presented by its signatories as a pragmatic settlement. But, in fact, the deal is a major political defeat for the Syrian Kurdish political formations. Certainly, the rapid advance of the Syrian armed groups loyal to President Ahmad al-Sharaa broke the resistance of the Syrian Democratic Forces [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-sun-sets-on-the-syrian-kurdish-rebellion/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/six-points-to-navigate-the-turmoil-in-iran/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/six-points-to-navigate-the-turmoil-in-iran/#comments Wed, 14 Jan 2026 16:52:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293456 Iran is in turmoil. Across the country, there have been protests of different magnitudes, with violence on the increase with both protesters and police finding themselves in the morgue. What began as work stoppages and inflation protests drew together a range of discontent, with women and young people frustrated with a system unable to secure [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/six-points-to-navigate-the-turmoil-in-iran/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/smashing-international-laws/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/smashing-international-laws/#respond Sat, 10 Jan 2026 16:08:53 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293322 In the early hours of Jan. 3, the United States sent its military forces into Venezuela to kidnap President Nicolás Maduro Moros and Cilia Flores, a deputy in the National Assembly, bombing civilian and military sites across Caracas. The United States indicted both Maduro and Flores, who are married, with “narco-terrorism” and related charges and is holding them in [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/smashing-international-laws/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-current-situation-in-venezuela-a-government-in-charge-a-people-resilient/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-current-situation-in-venezuela-a-government-in-charge-a-people-resilient/#respond Thu, 08 Jan 2026 16:55:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293242 On the early morning of January 3, the United States government launched a massive attack on Caracas, Venezuela, and three of the country’s states. Roughly 150 aircraft swarmed the skies, bombing with exceptional ferocity. Amongst these aircraft were EA-18 Growlers equipped with the most advanced electronic warfare systems, such as the Next General Jammers, as [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-current-situation-in-venezuela-a-government-in-charge-a-people-resilient/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/this-is-not-a-ceasefire-the-israeli-genocide-continues/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/this-is-not-a-ceasefire-the-israeli-genocide-continues/#comments Wed, 31 Dec 2025 21:20:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292941 On 19 January 2025, a ceasefire took effect to halt the Israeli bombing of Palestinians in Gaza. This ceasefire emerged from a mediation process by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States, which had been sealed in June 2024 with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2735. However, the Israelis rejected the agreement and waited until Donald [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/this-is-not-a-ceasefire-the-israeli-genocide-continues/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-angry-tide-has-washed-into-chile/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-angry-tide-has-washed-into-chile/#respond Thu, 18 Dec 2025 16:54:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292501 On 14 December, the predictable happened: José Antonio Kast, the candidate of the far-right Republican Party, prevailed over Jeannette Jara of the Communist Party of Chile by 58.16 percent to 41.84 percent. Kast ran as the candidate of the Cambio por Chile (Change for Chile) platform and was backed by all the parties of the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-angry-tide-has-washed-into-chile/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-fabulous-hallucinations-of-the-european-leaders/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-fabulous-hallucinations-of-the-european-leaders/#respond Wed, 17 Dec 2025 18:46:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292468 Sitting in a lively room in the University of Amsterdam, I ask a question about the respect accorded by students to their former Prime Minister and now head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), Mark Rutte. The room is animated and funny. No-one seems to accord Rutte with the respect that he might deserve. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-fabulous-hallucinations-of-the-european-leaders/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-did-trump-send-his-warships-to-venezuela/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-did-trump-send-his-warships-to-venezuela/#comments Sat, 13 Dec 2025 15:05:13 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292335 Ever since Hugo Chávez came to power in 1998, the United States has attempted  to overthrow the Bolivarian Revolution. They have tried everything short of a full-scale military invasion: a military coup, selecting a substitute president, cutting off access to the global financial system, imposing layers of sanctions, sabotaging the electricity grid, sending in mercenaries, and attempting [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-did-trump-send-his-warships-to-venezuela/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-earth-is-unhappy-with-the-capitalist-climate-catastrophe/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-earth-is-unhappy-with-the-capitalist-climate-catastrophe/#respond Sat, 06 Dec 2025 17:50:34 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292091 During the closing plenaries of the 30th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30) in Belém do Pará in the Brazilian Amazon, United Nations Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell gave a rousing speech.  Stiell, from Grenada, came to his post after a long career in the corporate sector and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-earth-is-unhappy-with-the-capitalist-climate-catastrophe/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-angry-tide-of-the-latin-american-far-right/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-angry-tide-of-the-latin-american-far-right/#respond Sun, 30 Nov 2025 16:11:46 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291795 The far right in Latin America is angry. Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and Argentina’s Javier Milei always look furious, and they always speak loudly and aggressively. Testosterone leaks from their pores, a toxic sweat that has spread across the region. It would be easy to say that this is the impact of Donald Trump’s own brand [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-angry-tide-of-the-latin-american-far-right/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-caribbean-faces-two-choices-join-the-us-attempt-to-intimidate-venezuela-or-build-its-own-sovereignty/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-caribbean-faces-two-choices-join-the-us-attempt-to-intimidate-venezuela-or-build-its-own-sovereignty/#respond Thu, 27 Nov 2025 16:57:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291699 US President Donald Trump has authorised the USS Gerald R. Ford to enter the Caribbean. It now floats north of Puerto Rico, joining the USS Iwo Jima and other US navy assets to threaten Venezuela with an attack. Tensions are high in the Caribbean, with various theories floating about regarding the possibility of what seems to be an inevitable assault by [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-caribbean-faces-two-choices-join-the-us-attempt-to-intimidate-venezuela-or-build-its-own-sovereignty/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/let-the-sudanese-walk-to-peace/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/let-the-sudanese-walk-to-peace/#respond Sun, 23 Nov 2025 17:09:41 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291584 In early November, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres addressed the “horrifying crisis in Sudan, which is spiraling out of control.” He urged the warring parties to “bring an end to this nightmare of violence — now.”  There is a path to end the war, but there is simply no political will to enforce it. In May 2025, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/let-the-sudanese-walk-to-peace/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/5-options-for-attacking-venezuela/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/5-options-for-attacking-venezuela/#respond Sat, 08 Nov 2025 15:43:13 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291009 In February 2006, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez travelled to Havana to receive the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s José Martí Prize from Fidel Castro. In his speech, he likened Washington’s threats against Venezuela to dogs barking, saying, ‘Let the dogs bark, because it is a sign that we are on the move’. Chávez added, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/5-options-for-attacking-venezuela/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-powerful-who-stand-with-israel/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-powerful-who-stand-with-israel/#respond Wed, 29 Oct 2025 18:23:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1290586 On 26 October, Caroline Willemen of Médecins Sans Frontières stated that Israel continues to use the need for humanitarian aid in Gaza as “means of pressure”. “The humanitarian situation in Gaza has not improved significantly”, she told the press, “as water and shelter shortages persist and hundreds of thousands of people continue to live in [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-powerful-who-stand-with-israel/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/dealing-arms-or-healing-minds/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/dealing-arms-or-healing-minds/#respond Sat, 25 Oct 2025 15:48:33 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1290412 I first heard the word “depression” when I was about sixteen. My mother took me to the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in Bengaluru, India, to be seen by a professional for what I had just considered to be nightmares and difficult afternoons. I was lucky. Today, only nine percent of people in [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/dealing-arms-or-healing-minds/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/us-china-trade-war-washington-wants-a-new-century-of-humiliation/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/us-china-trade-war-washington-wants-a-new-century-of-humiliation/#respond Wed, 22 Oct 2025 18:15:48 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1290285 The U.S.-China trade war heats up as the Dutch government seizes Nexperia — a Chinese owned chipmaker based in the Netherlands — under pressure from the Trump administration. What are the implications of this trade war on Europe and the rest of the world? This week, Vijay Prashad joins Amanda Yee to discuss the latest [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/us-china-trade-war-washington-wants-a-new-century-of-humiliation/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-genocide-will-not-end-unless-the-palestinian-political-leaders-are-free/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-genocide-will-not-end-unless-the-palestinian-political-leaders-are-free/#respond Fri, 17 Oct 2025 18:15:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1290076 Slowly, a full picture of the devastation of Gaza by Israel is becoming clear. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) released a report around the time of the ceasefire that began to lay out the numbers: Israel’s bombardment of Gaza resulted in the total destruction of 190,115 buildings and the almost total destruction of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-genocide-will-not-end-unless-the-palestinian-political-leaders-are-free/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-memory-of-chilean-resistance-sails-toward-gaza-on-global-sumud-flotilla/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-memory-of-chilean-resistance-sails-toward-gaza-on-global-sumud-flotilla/#respond Tue, 23 Sep 2025 16:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1288938 The Gaza Sumud Flotilla sails from Tunis toward the waters around Palestine. The word Sumud in Arabic means Resilience. It is the feeling at the heart of the hundreds of people from forty-four countries on the fifty boats that are in the Mediterranean Sea. One of these boats is carrying a group of women from [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-memory-of-chilean-resistance-sails-toward-gaza-on-global-sumud-flotilla/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/five-theses-on-the-situation-in-nepal/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/five-theses-on-the-situation-in-nepal/#respond Tue, 16 Sep 2025 16:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1288648 If your house is not clean, then the ants will come through the door and draw in the snakes. The crisis in Nepal escalated in early September, bringing down the center-right government of Prime Minister KP Oli. The immediate spur was the regulation and banning of social media on September 4. Protests over this action were [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/five-theses-on-the-situation-in-nepal/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/it-would-be-fine-to-help-make-mexico-a-happy-place/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/it-would-be-fine-to-help-make-mexico-a-happy-place/#respond Sat, 13 Sep 2025 15:38:46 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1288518 When I was in graduate school, I audited a class taught by Friedrich Katz (1927–2010), one of the great historians of Mexico of his generation. During the Second World War, Katz’s father Leo was a journalist who was part of the anti-Nazi resistance in Berlin and later smuggled weapons from France to the Spanish Republic [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/it-would-be-fine-to-help-make-mexico-a-happy-place/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-united-states-uses-a-fabricated-drug-charge-for-a-potential-strike-on-venezuela/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-united-states-uses-a-fabricated-drug-charge-for-a-potential-strike-on-venezuela/#respond Tue, 02 Sep 2025 16:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1288037 Suddenly, out of nowhere, the United States government agencies began to repeat the name “Tren de Aragu”’ as if it were the new al-Qaeda. In January 2025, the White House designated Tren de Aragua as a “foreign terrorist organisation”, and in March, the administration of US President Donald Trump evoked the Alien Enemies Act (1789) [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-united-states-uses-a-fabricated-drug-charge-for-a-potential-strike-on-venezuela/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-get-the-international-monetary-fund-to-think/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-get-the-international-monetary-fund-to-think/#respond Fri, 22 Aug 2025 15:55:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1287621 When will the International Monetary Fund (IMF) learn to think? Over its eighty-one year history, the IMF has published over fifteen thousand reports. Yet, if you download any one of the reports from its website, it is likely that you will know what is being said before you have even read it. The reports are [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-get-the-international-monetary-fund-to-think/feed/ 0