https://znetwork.org/category/place/europe/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Fri, 20 Feb 2026 17:32:57 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/category/place/europe/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/do-workers-in-germany-vote-neo-nazi/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/do-workers-in-germany-vote-neo-nazi/#respond Fri, 20 Feb 2026 17:31:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294968 In Germany’s recent election – held in February 2025 – the AfD managed to become the second-strongest political force, winning 21%. Four years earlier, the neo-fascist party’s share had been 10.4%. In East Germany, it even reached 32%. The AfD thus succeeded in doubling its share of the vote. Worse, this is not because fewer [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/do-workers-in-germany-vote-neo-nazi/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/europe-has-become-a-war-project-can-it-be-stopped-yanis-varoufakis-jeffrey-sachs/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/europe-has-become-a-war-project-can-it-be-stopped-yanis-varoufakis-jeffrey-sachs/#respond Thu, 19 Feb 2026 16:58:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1294915 As leaders, generals and diplomats gather in Munich this weekend to debate Europe’s security and the future of the transatlantic alliance, the real question is not what is said on stage — but what direction Europe is being steered toward. In this livestream, Yanis Varoufakis and Jeffrey Sachs examine the conclusions of the Munich Security [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/europe-has-become-a-war-project-can-it-be-stopped-yanis-varoufakis-jeffrey-sachs/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-palestine-action-put-the-justice-system-on-trial/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-palestine-action-put-the-justice-system-on-trial/#respond Thu, 19 Feb 2026 16:49:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294929 The first time I really knew about Palestine Action was in 2019, several months before their official launch, when I followed their co-founder Richard Barnard and other activists into the Instro Precision factory in Kent. After dozens of staff had been escorted out, the factory, a subsidiary of Israeli weapons manufacture Elbit Systems, was closed [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-palestine-action-put-the-justice-system-on-trial/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/activists-are-racking-up-wins-against-a-false-climate-solution/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/activists-are-racking-up-wins-against-a-false-climate-solution/#respond Wed, 18 Feb 2026 17:48:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294867 Last June, California climate and environmental justice groups celebrated a victory a long time in the making. After an opposition campaign that built alliances across movements, turned out supporters to hearings and generated 50,000 public comments, a company gave up plans that threatened to wreak havoc on the state’s forests. The corporation behind the defeated [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/activists-are-racking-up-wins-against-a-false-climate-solution/feed/ 0 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/the-outcome-of-germanys-public-sector-strike/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-outcome-of-germanys-public-sector-strike/#respond Tue, 17 Feb 2026 17:16:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294835 By mid-February 2026, and after nationwide strikes, Germany’s public service trade union, Ver.di, announced the end of the strikes. Germany’s public sector workers will receive more money. After three rounds of collective bargaining negotiations between Ver.di and public sector employers – covering bus, tram and train drivers, among others – a pact was concluded. Ver.di’s [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-outcome-of-germanys-public-sector-strike/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mothers-are-on-the-front-lines-of-the-nordic-care-crisis/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mothers-are-on-the-front-lines-of-the-nordic-care-crisis/#respond Mon, 16 Feb 2026 17:35:46 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294778 For decades the Nordic welfare states have been held up as global exemplars of gender equality and expansive public care systems. Yet beneath this image of egalitarian modernity, cracks have begun to widen. Across Europe and North America, scholars increasingly speak of a mounting care crisis — a systemic imbalance in which society’s care needs outstrip the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mothers-are-on-the-front-lines-of-the-nordic-care-crisis/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/starmer-is-toast-but-the-dark-forces-that-brought-him-to-power-are-as-strong-as-ever/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/starmer-is-toast-but-the-dark-forces-that-brought-him-to-power-are-as-strong-as-ever/#comments Sat, 14 Feb 2026 17:01:26 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294727 Some 30 years ago, British politics became, by design, a black box – an arena for moneyed power brokers to wield political influence hermetically sealed off from the view of voters. Only now, with the release of a portion of the Epstein Files, is a dim light being shone into its recesses, indicating how completely the billionaire class [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/starmer-is-toast-but-the-dark-forces-that-brought-him-to-power-are-as-strong-as-ever/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/greenland-is-not-for-sale-an-indigenous-activist-speaks-out-against-the-us/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/greenland-is-not-for-sale-an-indigenous-activist-speaks-out-against-the-us/#respond Sat, 14 Feb 2026 16:54:57 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294725 Donald Trump’s second presidency has been defined by lawless, fascist actions at home and imperial ambitions and performative militarism abroad. He has threatened scores of countries while depicting Canada and Greenland as part of the U.S. His obsession with Greenland has caused severe strains between Europe and the United States and even prompted several European [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/greenland-is-not-for-sale-an-indigenous-activist-speaks-out-against-the-us/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/palestine-action-postpone-the-celebrations/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/palestine-action-postpone-the-celebrations/#respond Sat, 14 Feb 2026 16:42:16 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294718 On the face of it the English High Court ruling that the Palestine Action proscription is unlawful makes the decision that the proscription remains in place pending appeal utterly illogical. But what if the High Court ruling is deliberately designed to fail at appeal? I believe that it is. They chose an extremely narrow path to rule [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/palestine-action-postpone-the-celebrations/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/working-time-in-germanys-service-sector-a-union-view/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/working-time-in-germanys-service-sector-a-union-view/#respond Fri, 13 Feb 2026 19:18:25 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294686 Perhaps ever since the dawn of capitalism, when the first workers were – literally – whipped into factory work and converted from life on a farm with a natural day and night rhythm and adjusted to the factory clock on the wall of a Satanic Mill, workers have known that working hours have a huge [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/working-time-in-germanys-service-sector-a-union-view/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/citizen-resistance-swiss-lawyers-take-their-own-foreign-minister-to-the-icc-over-alleged-gaza-war-crimes/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/citizen-resistance-swiss-lawyers-take-their-own-foreign-minister-to-the-icc-over-alleged-gaza-war-crimes/#respond Fri, 13 Feb 2026 19:17:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294700 “Resistance is futile,” Fintan O’Toole wrote in The New York Review of Books, referring to countries in the Western Hemisphere forced to accept U.S. hegemony. But is resistance really futile today?  “At the moment, there are so many moving pieces that doing something for the sake of doing something could be a massive waste of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/citizen-resistance-swiss-lawyers-take-their-own-foreign-minister-to-the-icc-over-alleged-gaza-war-crimes/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/uranium-neo-colonialism-in-mongolia-crime-but-no-punishment/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/uranium-neo-colonialism-in-mongolia-crime-but-no-punishment/#respond Fri, 13 Feb 2026 19:16:01 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294703 On a warm April 1st day last year, Budee Khekhee, head of local non-profit The Power of Unity for the Sake of Our Homeland, led a team into the Gobi Desert to investigate reports of a mysterious illness causing the death of wild and domestic animals, which he obtained from the local herders. A former [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/uranium-neo-colonialism-in-mongolia-crime-but-no-punishment/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/can-europe-reassert-itself-after-ukraine/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/can-europe-reassert-itself-after-ukraine/#respond Fri, 13 Feb 2026 19:14:26 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294688 Washington’s 2025 strike on Iran, the raid to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in early 2026, and its renewed interest in acquiring Greenland have clarified the country’s international priorities. Meanwhile, securing Ukraine’s independence, once a defining rallying cry of the liberal world order, has slipped to a second-tier concern, but remains central for Europe. Equally pressing for the continent is [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/can-europe-reassert-itself-after-ukraine/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/the-truth-about-the-british-empire-and-slavery-mehdi-hasan-and-nigel-biggar/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/the-truth-about-the-british-empire-and-slavery-mehdi-hasan-and-nigel-biggar/#respond Thu, 12 Feb 2026 16:49:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1294635 Britain once ruled over the largest empire in history. For many Britons, it remains a source of pride. Others argue its power was built on a legacy of brutality, colonial conquest and the enslavement of millions. Can Britain reckon with that past and make amends? Some say it shouldn’t have to. Mehdi Hasan goes head-to-head [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/the-truth-about-the-british-empire-and-slavery-mehdi-hasan-and-nigel-biggar/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/protecting-pedophile-predators-jeffrey-epstein-the-elites-veil-of-silence/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/protecting-pedophile-predators-jeffrey-epstein-the-elites-veil-of-silence/#respond Wed, 11 Feb 2026 17:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1294621 Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are accusing the Justice Department of covering up the names of co-conspirators of the deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as fallout from the Epstein files grows across the globe. Millions of pages remain unreleased. As many prominent U.S. figures evade accountability following mentions in the Epstein files, a number of European [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/protecting-pedophile-predators-jeffrey-epstein-the-elites-veil-of-silence/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/workers-and-working-time-in-germany-in-2006/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/workers-and-working-time-in-germany-in-2006/#respond Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294559 Recently, the staunchly anti-communist supporter of neoliberalism, ex-BlackRock hedge fund manager and now Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, told Germans to work more – that is what Germany needs. But rather than being aligned with most Germans, conservative Merz seems to be off the mark. Meanwhile, the hard-working businessman Merz — who last took the rubbish [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/workers-and-working-time-in-germany-in-2006/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-jury-were-right-to-acquit-the-palestine-action-defendants-heres-why-2/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-jury-were-right-to-acquit-the-palestine-action-defendants-heres-why-2/#respond Sun, 08 Feb 2026 15:48:03 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294499 Even before the trial began, the British government had done its utmost to prejudice the proceedings against six Palestine Action activists. It declared that they belonged to a terrorist organisation and that they were engaged in a terrorist enterprise in breaking into an Israeli weapons factory in Filton, Bristol – one, British officials avoided mentioning, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-jury-were-right-to-acquit-the-palestine-action-defendants-heres-why-2/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/public-service-worker-strike-in-germany/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/public-service-worker-strike-in-germany/#respond Sat, 07 Feb 2026 16:45:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294430 On a cold, freezing, windy, and snowy morning in late January 2026, Germany’s nationwide collective bargaining for public transport workers started under the union motto “Mobility for all and good working conditions for public transport workers.” It set the tone for collective bargaining in all of Germany’s 16 federal states. But even before the mass [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/public-service-worker-strike-in-germany/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/on-the-menu-how-the-middle-powers-sacrificed-gaza-to-save-themselves/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/on-the-menu-how-the-middle-powers-sacrificed-gaza-to-save-themselves/#respond Fri, 06 Feb 2026 16:54:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294427 Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney sounded more like a populist leader than a former central banker during his address at the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 20. Bemoaning the “fading” of the rules-based order, Carney delivered a surprisingly blunt speech. “The old order is not coming back,” he declared. “We are in the midst of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/on-the-menu-how-the-middle-powers-sacrificed-gaza-to-save-themselves/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/filton-acquittals-demolish-starmer-and-cooper-lies-about-palestine-action/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/filton-acquittals-demolish-starmer-and-cooper-lies-about-palestine-action/#respond Fri, 06 Feb 2026 16:53:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294443 As the trial finished at Woolwich Crown Court of the six Palestine Action activists who entered the Filton factory to destroy Israeli killer drones, Starmer, Cooper, Lammy and Mahmood are left bereft of a single guilty verdict in the case on which they relied heavily to label Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. I could [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/filton-acquittals-demolish-starmer-and-cooper-lies-about-palestine-action/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/vindication-uk-jury-clears-palestine-action-protesters-who-admitted-to-elbit-break-in/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/vindication-uk-jury-clears-palestine-action-protesters-who-admitted-to-elbit-break-in/#respond Thu, 05 Feb 2026 16:54:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294399 “These verdicts are a huge blow to government ministers who have tried to portray Palestine Action as a violent group to justify banning it under badly drafted terrorism legislation,” said one campaigner. In what one campaigner called a “huge blow” to the UK government’s efforts to crush Palestine Action, a London jury on Wednesday cleared six members [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/vindication-uk-jury-clears-palestine-action-protesters-who-admitted-to-elbit-break-in/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/czechia-when-communism-became-illegal-again/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/czechia-when-communism-became-illegal-again/#respond Wed, 04 Feb 2026 19:26:01 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294368 It is official now: as of 1 January, being a Communist in Czechia can make you a criminal, carrying a prison sentence of up to five years. With a recent amendment to the Criminal Code, the state has written the “equalization” of Communism and Nazism into language that actually matters: punishment. The provision lumps together [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/czechia-when-communism-became-illegal-again/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/workers-in-over-20-mediterranean-ports-coordinate-action-on-6-february-to-oppose-war/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/workers-in-over-20-mediterranean-ports-coordinate-action-on-6-february-to-oppose-war/#respond Wed, 04 Feb 2026 19:12:45 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294357 Workers in more than 20 Mediterranean ports are preparing for an international day of action on 6 February to oppose the growing militarization of transport infrastructure, as well as port management’s and governments’ complicity in the genocide in Gaza. “If we don’t take this step, all our other demands will be crushed under war,” Francesco [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/workers-in-over-20-mediterranean-ports-coordinate-action-on-6-february-to-oppose-war/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/far-right-yellow-unions-in-germany-in-2026/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/far-right-yellow-unions-in-germany-in-2026/#respond Wed, 04 Feb 2026 18:54:04 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294355 As one of the most time-honored truths goes: wherever there is capitalism, there is labor, and wherever there is labor, there is organized labor. Yet not all organized labor is on our side. There are yellow unions – even in Germany. A yellow union is a fake or “pretend-to-be” worker organization. It is dominated, unduly [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/far-right-yellow-unions-in-germany-in-2026/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-netherlands-new-era-of-militarized-neoliberalism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-netherlands-new-era-of-militarized-neoliberalism/#respond Wed, 04 Feb 2026 18:50:29 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294365 It was always a pipe dream to expect that ramped-up defense spending would not eat into other budgetary items. It was always clear that more bombs would mean less hospital beds and would permanently embed austerity in state budgeting. For high-tax, high-spending states, with no monetary sovereignty and high levels of public indebtedness, as is [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-netherlands-new-era-of-militarized-neoliberalism/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-needs-to-say-da-to-putin-on-new-start-or-risk-a-new-arms-race/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-needs-to-say-da-to-putin-on-new-start-or-risk-a-new-arms-race/#respond Tue, 03 Feb 2026 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294322 Among the critical issues facing our country today, nuclear arms control is seldom top of mind for most people, understandably, given our myriad political, social and economic crises. Recent books and films such as Annie Jacobsen’s 2004 non-fiction tome Nuclear War: A Scenario and last fall’s A House of Dynamite, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, garnered needed attention for [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-needs-to-say-da-to-putin-on-new-start-or-risk-a-new-arms-race/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/death-amazon-in-germany/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/death-amazon-in-germany/#respond Tue, 03 Feb 2026 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294309 Barely half a year after the Amazon boss’ lavish wedding in Venice in “The Great Gatsby” style, surrounded by 250 guests, just one hour’s flying time away — in Bezos’ private jet, the Gulfstream G700, of course — a lonely Amazon worker died, abandoned in a rather non-tasteful Amazon toilet at Jeff Bezos’ East German [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/death-amazon-in-germany/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/spain-shows-another-immigration-policy-is-possible/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/spain-shows-another-immigration-policy-is-possible/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2026 15:56:54 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294274 The Spanish government has announced a regularization process for immigrants in an irregular administrative situation. It’s a move that could benefit more than five hundred thousand people currently living in Spain without legal status. With this measure, Pedro Sánchez’s broad-left government is swimming against the tide of Europe and the United States. The decision by [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/spain-shows-another-immigration-policy-is-possible/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/german-state-sponsors-neo-nazism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/german-state-sponsors-neo-nazism/#respond Thu, 29 Jan 2026 16:48:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294119 Conceivably, nobody has ever expressed the view of right-wing and Neo-Nazi parties towards the democratic state better than Hitler’s minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, when acknowledging: “It will always remain one of the best jokes of democracy that it gave its deadly enemies the means by which it was destroyed.” While the neo-fascist AfD has [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/german-state-sponsors-neo-nazism/feed/ 0