https://znetwork.org/category/contenttype/series/activist-diaries/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Tue, 17 Feb 2026 20:53:11 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/category/contenttype/series/activist-diaries/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/dancing-with-the-beautiful-people/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/dancing-with-the-beautiful-people/#respond Tue, 17 Feb 2026 20:51:38 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294855 It was a privilege to sit and stand, to chant and dance a bit. To savour the moment and enjoy vegan chocolates outside the Royal Courts of Justice – the High Court in London yesterday [Friday 13 February]. To celebrate the ruling by Judicial Review that the Home Secretary’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action as [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/dancing-with-the-beautiful-people/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/four-elderly-activists-face-charges-for-antiwar-civil-disobedience-in-northampton-massachusetts/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/four-elderly-activists-face-charges-for-antiwar-civil-disobedience-in-northampton-massachusetts/#respond Sat, 20 Dec 2025 16:30:53 +0000 Courtrooms create great theater. We recognize the dramatic tension between static, formal systems of protocol that protect vested interests, and the contrary movement – the human passion to tell grim stories without flinching. We live in a country that has evolved as the world’s most rapacious empire by concealing the suffering that transpires beyond the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/four-elderly-activists-face-charges-for-antiwar-civil-disobedience-in-northampton-massachusetts/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/activist-diary-7-david-and-goliath-northampton-activists-want-munitions-icon-l3-harris-to-leave-town/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/activist-diary-7-david-and-goliath-northampton-activists-want-munitions-icon-l3-harris-to-leave-town/#respond Mon, 19 May 2025 17:56:42 +0000 You might survive a nuclear strike, but I won’t. I live on the Sharpie X that some foreign general scratched upon the globe. Maybe all of us not residing in Hiroshima or Nagasaki suffer from an imaginative deficit when it comes to matters of mushroom clouds, slow radiation deaths, and the lucky creatures instantly vaporized. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/activist-diary-7-david-and-goliath-northampton-activists-want-munitions-icon-l3-harris-to-leave-town/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/activist-diary-6-first-aid-drop-to-western-north-carolina/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/activist-diary-6-first-aid-drop-to-western-north-carolina/#respond Fri, 25 Oct 2024 15:31:30 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1274191 Hurricane Helene killed at least 230 people across six states in the southeastern United States. Western North Carolina was especially devastated, with 95 people reported killed at the time of this writing. The city of Asheville, and particularly its outer limits, has suffered loss of life and collapse of infrastructure. Chapters of the Democratic Socialists [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/activist-diary-6-first-aid-drop-to-western-north-carolina/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/activist-diary-5-running-with-the-prison-vans-at-southwark/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/activist-diary-5-running-with-the-prison-vans-at-southwark/#comments Mon, 23 Sep 2024 16:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1272718 [This article is part of ZNetwork.org‘s series, Activist Diaries.] My chest is still sore like having done too many push-ups, or taken a knock. It’s from the shoves of the police “Get back” as they surround the vans leaving Court but we find a way to flow through them and tap the sides to communicate our support for [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/activist-diary-5-running-with-the-prison-vans-at-southwark/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/diaries-from-systemic-crumble/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/diaries-from-systemic-crumble/#respond Wed, 21 Aug 2024 16:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1271112 [This article is part of ZNetwork.org‘s series, Activist Diaries.] The metabolic fault-line is open. Just bang the hammer. And capitalism will collapse.  I live in one of the most contaminated areas on the planet, caused by human arrogance. The western Veneto, the region of Venice. A high-income sacrifice zone (HISZ). Different from classic sacrifice zones [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/diaries-from-systemic-crumble/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-wisdom-of-anger-the-battle-for-our-lives/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-wisdom-of-anger-the-battle-for-our-lives/#respond Tue, 30 Jul 2024 16:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1270095 [This article is part of ZNetwork.org‘s series, Activist Diaries.] How to handle scarcity It’s the end of May, and a storm is brewing. The sky is grumbling in preparation, but it may not release the rain. Sometimes, the sky seems to get worked up like this, provoke us, then simmer down and let the grey clouds wander [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-wisdom-of-anger-the-battle-for-our-lives/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/activist-diary-2-life-as-an-activist/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/activist-diary-2-life-as-an-activist/#respond Tue, 25 Jun 2024 16:38:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1268416 [This article is part of ZNetwork.org‘s series, Activist Diaries.] “If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the roar of its mighty waters.” Frederick Douglass [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/activist-diary-2-life-as-an-activist/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/activist-diary-1-go-to-the-meeting/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/activist-diary-1-go-to-the-meeting/#respond Tue, 21 May 2024 16:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1266685 [This article is part of ZNetwork.org‘s series, Activist Diaries.] Back in the early 2000s, I was doing a lot of neighborhood based organizing against the war in Iraq. My partner and I brought our kids with us to meetings and protests, and our house was often full of people planning the next action. One day, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/activist-diary-1-go-to-the-meeting/feed/ 0