https://znetwork.org/category/contenttype/memorial/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Thu, 26 Feb 2026 02:49:08 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/category/contenttype/memorial/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/remembering-susan-george-a-shining-light-of-alter-globalization/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/remembering-susan-george-a-shining-light-of-alter-globalization/#respond Thu, 26 Feb 2026 16:54:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295211 The late Susan George was a pillar in unraveling the obscure mechanisms of economic domination through so-called “free trade.” Susan George passed away in Paris on February 14 at the age of 91. Born in the U.S. and naturalized as a French citizen, Susan was one of the most important figures in denouncing capitalism over [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/remembering-susan-george-a-shining-light-of-alter-globalization/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-iconic-jesse-jackson-and-the-rainbow-potential/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-iconic-jesse-jackson-and-the-rainbow-potential/#respond Fri, 20 Feb 2026 17:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294979 Jesse Jackson’s two presidential campaigns (1984 and 1988) represented the pinnacle of the Black-led electoral upsurge which began in the late 1970s. This upsurge symbolized a transition in the struggle for Black political power, but also much more. Arising at a point when neoliberalism was beginning to cohere, the Black-led upsurge challenged the failure of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-iconic-jesse-jackson-and-the-rainbow-potential/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ice-in-our-communities-the-new-ku-klux-klan/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ice-in-our-communities-the-new-ku-klux-klan/#respond Fri, 30 Jan 2026 17:30:31 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294195 The country is witnessing the revival of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), a white supremacist, far-right hate group in the United States, through ICE and Border Patrol officers terrorizing our communities. The group is infamous for using terrorism, violence, and intimidation to promote white supremacy and oppress minority groups, particularly Black Americans. The KKK has [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ice-in-our-communities-the-new-ku-klux-klan/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-great-lecture-hall-in-the-sky-michael-parenti-1933-2026/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-great-lecture-hall-in-the-sky-michael-parenti-1933-2026/#respond Sun, 25 Jan 2026 16:56:30 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293978 Michael Parenti died today at 92, peacefully, surrounded by family. His son Christian reflected: “Now he is in what he used to refer to as ‘the great lecture hall in the sky.’” For millions of us who never set foot in his classroom, because by the time we found him, he’d been exiled from the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-great-lecture-hall-in-the-sky-michael-parenti-1933-2026/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mlks-struggle-against-policing-and-surveillance-is-still-alive-in-memphis-today/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mlks-struggle-against-policing-and-surveillance-is-still-alive-in-memphis-today/#respond Mon, 19 Jan 2026 19:11:26 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293672 Every year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, elected officials quote King while standing safely at a distance from the risks he embraced. His name is invoked, his image sanitized, and his politics stripped of urgency. The U.S. celebrates a softened King who spoke about love but not power, unity but not confrontation, peace but [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mlks-struggle-against-policing-and-surveillance-is-still-alive-in-memphis-today/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-ontology-of-womens-freedom-in-a-nations-memory-understanding-delal-amed/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-ontology-of-womens-freedom-in-a-nations-memory-understanding-delal-amed/#respond Mon, 10 Nov 2025 19:59:49 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291090 To understand a person is sometimes to hold onto the sentence they left behind:  “The thought that if I fall as a martyr one day, I will leave a deep pain in the heart of my people, already hurts me…”  This saying is spoken not about the aesthetics of death, but about the responsibility of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-ontology-of-womens-freedom-in-a-nations-memory-understanding-delal-amed/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/zoe-wicombs-local-universalisms/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/zoe-wicombs-local-universalisms/#respond Mon, 20 Oct 2025 16:01:46 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1290198 Zoë Wicomb’s passing, on October 13 at the age of 76, has prompted an outpouring of tributes from black women writers and scholars across the globe, a reflection of the immense political and literary impact of her work. Figures like Pumla Gqola and Gabeba Baderoon have highlighted her fearless critique of colonial and racial mythologies, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/zoe-wicombs-local-universalisms/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/heval-riza-remembering-a-kurdish-liberation-fighter/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/heval-riza-remembering-a-kurdish-liberation-fighter/#respond Thu, 25 Sep 2025 13:46:26 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1289065 It was a hot day in June 2018. We marched past fruit trees and reached the meeting point, where he sat under a large walnut tree with three other guerrillas. We later learned that he had chosen this spot because the shade of the tree provided both coolness and safety. His choice was not without [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/heval-riza-remembering-a-kurdish-liberation-fighter/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/dissent-is-patriotic-daniel-ellsbergs-legacy-demands-action/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/dissent-is-patriotic-daniel-ellsbergs-legacy-demands-action/#respond Sat, 14 Jun 2025 14:08:58 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1285005 Two years ago this week, Daniel Ellsberg died at the age of 92. In the popular imagination, his legacy is often reduced to a singular act of conscience and courage: the 1971 release of the Pentagon Papers, a classified government study that exposed the systematic deceit and misconduct of successive U.S. administrations in prosecuting the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/dissent-is-patriotic-daniel-ellsbergs-legacy-demands-action/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/do-you-believe-in-them-yet/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/do-you-believe-in-them-yet/#respond Fri, 16 May 2025 16:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1283805 “Do you believe in them yet?” Well, do you? Do I? I tear these words loose from my not-so-recent past – indeed, 27 years ago – when my wife was dying of pancreatic cancer. I think they mean something, but God knows what. I plunked that question in my journal on May 3, 1998, three [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/do-you-believe-in-them-yet/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/pope-franciss-legacy-of-love-and-peace/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/pope-franciss-legacy-of-love-and-peace/#respond Fri, 25 Apr 2025 15:57:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1282952 In 2022, Pope Francis created a will expressing his desire that just one word be inscribed on the stone marking his burial place: Franciscus. Franciscus, Latin for Francis, is the name Jorge Mario Bergoglio chose when, twelve years ago, cardinals elected him to become the Bishop of Rome. He sought union with Saint Francis, known as one who lived on the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/pope-franciss-legacy-of-love-and-peace/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/pope-francis-presente/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/pope-francis-presente/#respond Fri, 25 Apr 2025 15:55:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1282958 Growing up, I had virtually no contact with people who identified themselves as Catholics. Perhaps some of my friends and acquaintances in high school and college were but if so, I didn’t know it. The first open Catholics I came to know in late 1969 at the age of 20 were people like then-Sister Joann [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/pope-francis-presente/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-pope-francis-divinized-palestinian-suffering-the-gaza-pieta/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-pope-francis-divinized-palestinian-suffering-the-gaza-pieta/#respond Tue, 22 Apr 2025 16:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1282848 Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936 in Buenos Aires to Italian immigrant parents, is dead at 88 after a prolonged illness. Almost alone of Western leaders, he showed enormous sympathy for the plight of the Palestinian civilians of Gaza. He called the small Catholic community there every evening. In honor of his passing, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-pope-francis-divinized-palestinian-suffering-the-gaza-pieta/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/robert-w-mcchesney-a-scholar-activist-who-fought-for-media-democracy/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/robert-w-mcchesney-a-scholar-activist-who-fought-for-media-democracy/#respond Fri, 28 Mar 2025 15:59:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1281673 Robert W. McChesney was a leading voice and a precious colleague in the battle for a more democratic media system, and a more democratic society. Bob passed away on Tuesday, March 24, at the age of 72. No one did more to analyze the negative and censorial impacts of our media and information systems being [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/robert-w-mcchesney-a-scholar-activist-who-fought-for-media-democracy/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hossam-shabats-last-article/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hossam-shabats-last-article/#respond Tue, 25 Mar 2025 16:02:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1281533 Hossam Shabat is dead. I am beyond rage and despair as I write these words. The Israeli military bombed his car this morning as he was traveling in Beit Lahia. Videos fill my screen of his body lying on the street, carried to the hospital, grieved by his colleagues and loved ones. These are the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hossam-shabats-last-article/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/john-pilger-afflictor-of-the-powerful/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/john-pilger-afflictor-of-the-powerful/#respond Thu, 02 Jan 2025 16:45:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1277886 John Pilger died a year ago on Dec. 30, 2023. Better than just about anyone else, he used his prodigious talents to simply do his job as a reporter, writes Joe Lauria. During a lifetime of extraordinary journalism on both paper and the screen, John Pilger, who died one year ago on Monday, showed the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/john-pilger-afflictor-of-the-powerful/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/jimmy-carter-worsened-the-american-malaise-he-decried/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/jimmy-carter-worsened-the-american-malaise-he-decried/#respond Mon, 30 Dec 2024 14:49:58 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1277734 On July 15, 1979, then president Jimmy Carter went on live television to address the nation. The address he gave that evening — often called the “malaise speech” — is probably one of the best-remembered moments of Carter’s presidency. The immediate occasion of the speech was ongoing inflation, caused in large part by the Organization of the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/jimmy-carter-worsened-the-american-malaise-he-decried/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mark-curtis-pays-tribute-to-the-journalism-and-film-making-of-the-late-john-pilger/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mark-curtis-pays-tribute-to-the-journalism-and-film-making-of-the-late-john-pilger/#comments Thu, 05 Sep 2024 15:45:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1271918 “A giant of journalism” was how Britain’s National Union of Journalists described John Pilger on his death in December 2023. And a giant he was – a brave and prolific film-maker and a brilliant reporter, with a rare gift for vivid, descriptive writing. But his greatest gift perhaps was in ‘lifting rocks’. In his dozens [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mark-curtis-pays-tribute-to-the-journalism-and-film-making-of-the-late-john-pilger/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/were-in-a-class-war-jane-mcalevey-actually-acted-like-it/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/were-in-a-class-war-jane-mcalevey-actually-acted-like-it/#respond Tue, 09 Jul 2024 16:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1269059 Before I ever met Jane McAlevey, I received a package from her in the mail. In addition to a copy of Raising Expectations (and Raising Hell): My Decade Fighting for the Labor Movement, her first book (written with Bob Ostertag), it contained instant coffee and a few other items that one could imagine packing into a [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/were-in-a-class-war-jane-mcalevey-actually-acted-like-it/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-absence-and-presence-of-daniel-ellsberg/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-absence-and-presence-of-daniel-ellsberg/#respond Mon, 10 Jun 2024 12:06:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1267631 On a warm evening almost a decade ago, I sat under the stars with Daniel Ellsberg while he talked about nuclear war with alarming intensity. He was most of the way through writing his last and most important book, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner. Somehow, he had set aside the denial so [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-absence-and-presence-of-daniel-ellsberg/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-memoriam-aaron-bushnell-1999-2024/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-memoriam-aaron-bushnell-1999-2024/#respond Fri, 22 Mar 2024 18:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1264012 All changed, changed utterly:   A terrible beauty is born.  (William Butler Yeats Easter, 1916) His utterance was matter of fact, almost devoid of passion.  He was walking rapidly toward the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC at the time, and it’s not surprising he sounded as if he was somewhat out of breath.  He would have [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-memoriam-aaron-bushnell-1999-2024/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mourning-two-principled-opponents-of-war/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mourning-two-principled-opponents-of-war/#respond Sun, 03 Mar 2024 16:31:06 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1263052 The world recently lost two principled opponents of war, but under drastically different circumstances. Johan Galtung died on February 17 at the age of 93. The Norwegian sociologist was known as the father of peace studies and spent his life researching conflicts and fostering dialog in pursuit of peace. Aaron Bushnell was just 25 years old. He was [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mourning-two-principled-opponents-of-war/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/e-p-thompson-at-100/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/e-p-thompson-at-100/#respond Thu, 15 Feb 2024 16:47:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1262234 On the 3rd of February 2024, the late E. P. Thompson who was the seminal intellectual and historian on social struggle would have turned 100 years old. For decades, his insightful and illuminating work has influenced progressives, intellectuals, and scholars worldwide. The dedicated historian Edward P. Thompson often spoke at rallies, including those against nuclear [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/e-p-thompson-at-100/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/sustaining-rosa-parkss-struggle-for-transit-equity/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/sustaining-rosa-parkss-struggle-for-transit-equity/#respond Mon, 05 Feb 2024 17:00:29 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1261765 Every February, the Labor Sustainability Network coordinates Transit Equity Day, a nationwide day of action that highlights the importance of equitable public transit in ongoing struggles for civil rights. This year’s action, on February 5, falls on the day after what would’ve been the 111th birthday of Rosa Parks. Born in Tuskegee, Alabama, Parks was [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/sustaining-rosa-parkss-struggle-for-transit-equity/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ed-broadbent-on-why-we-must-move-beyond-the-welfare-state/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ed-broadbent-on-why-we-must-move-beyond-the-welfare-state/#respond Mon, 29 Jan 2024 17:15:59 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1261406 Ed Broadbent, a lifelong champion of social democratic politics, passed away on January 11 at the age of eighty-seven, leaving a significant void in Canada’s political landscape and marking a tragic loss for the country’s left. Broadbent, who served as a member of parliament and was a staunch labor advocate, led Canada’s New Democratic Party [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ed-broadbent-on-why-we-must-move-beyond-the-welfare-state/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/john-pilger-a-friend-of-palestine-and-all-oppressed-nations-has-passed-away/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/john-pilger-a-friend-of-palestine-and-all-oppressed-nations-has-passed-away/#respond Sat, 20 Jan 2024 15:57:02 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1261007 The first and the last time I met John Pilger in person was in 2018.  I was invited to deliver a speech at the NSW Parliament in Sydney, Australia. Among the large crowd were many that I knew and respected – a former foreign minister, socially conscientious MPs, morally driven intellectuals and activists, and so on.  As [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/john-pilger-a-friend-of-palestine-and-all-oppressed-nations-has-passed-away/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/dr-martin-luther-king-is-marching-with-the-people-of-palestine/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/dr-martin-luther-king-is-marching-with-the-people-of-palestine/#respond Mon, 15 Jan 2024 15:40:41 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1260772 Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee constructed the civil rights and Black Liberation movements on a foundation of Third World internationalism. The struggle of the Black nation and the people of Vietnam for self-determination became inseparable. Channing Martinez, a Black Garifuna leader of the Labor/Community Strategy Center in South [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/dr-martin-luther-king-is-marching-with-the-people-of-palestine/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/john-pilger-a-majority-of-one/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/john-pilger-a-majority-of-one/#respond Sat, 13 Jan 2024 16:20:04 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1260705 Last week, the Observer reported that the slogan ‘united we will win’ is a fixture on Israeli screens ‘for most TV news and talk shows’. Raviv Drucker, one of Israel’s leading investigative journalists, commented: ‘In general, the Israeli media is drafted to the main goal of winning the war, or what looks like trying to win the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/john-pilger-a-majority-of-one/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/john-pilger-1929-2023-on-apartheid-and-post-apartheid-injustices-south-africa-is-where-much-of-my-political-education-took-place/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/john-pilger-1929-2023-on-apartheid-and-post-apartheid-injustices-south-africa-is-where-much-of-my-political-education-took-place/#respond Mon, 08 Jan 2024 16:10:40 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1260418 Johannesburg – John Pilger, who died in his hometown of Sydney aged 84 on December 30, was a unique journalist, equipped with the combination of moral outrage, relentless sleuthing and unparalled interviewing skills required to understand South Africa’s deep structural injustices . Setting aside all the scoops and awards elsewhere, no one else could have [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/john-pilger-1929-2023-on-apartheid-and-post-apartheid-injustices-south-africa-is-where-much-of-my-political-education-took-place/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/john-pilger-a-life-telling-truth-to-power/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/john-pilger-a-life-telling-truth-to-power/#respond Thu, 04 Jan 2024 16:48:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1260194 David Munro, the brilliantly gifted director and producer of 20 of John Pilger’s 50 films and documentaries once wrote to him, “You opened my eyes and I thank you, since when they’ve never been shut.” No one knew Pilger better than Munro and their friendship continued even after Munro moved on to other personal projects, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/john-pilger-a-life-telling-truth-to-power/feed/ 0