https://znetwork.org/category/topic/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Fri, 27 Feb 2026 15:36:18 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/category/topic/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/as-federal-immigration-agents-descended-on-minneapolis-residents-deployed-mutual-aid-to-protect-their-neighbors/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/as-federal-immigration-agents-descended-on-minneapolis-residents-deployed-mutual-aid-to-protect-their-neighbors/#respond Fri, 27 Feb 2026 16:59:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295238 The U.S. Department of Homeland Security deployed 3,000 federal immigration agents to Minneapolis and St. Paul in December 2025, under the name Operation Metro Surge. Previously, there were 190 agents working across five states, including Minnesota. Agents shot three people, killing two — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — during the operation.  In the absence [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/as-federal-immigration-agents-descended-on-minneapolis-residents-deployed-mutual-aid-to-protect-their-neighbors/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hope-beats-hate-green-party-defeats-reform-and-labour-in-huge-gorton-and-denton-by-election-victory/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hope-beats-hate-green-party-defeats-reform-and-labour-in-huge-gorton-and-denton-by-election-victory/#respond Fri, 27 Feb 2026 16:59:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295271 TODAY In the end it wasn’t even close. Hannah Spencer and the Greens won the Gorton and Denton by-election by a whopping 41% of the vote – pushing Reform and Labour into a distant second and third place. The result followed polling by Byline Times which showed the race to be neck and neck, but [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hope-beats-hate-green-party-defeats-reform-and-labour-in-huge-gorton-and-denton-by-election-victory/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/go-film-the-police/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/go-film-the-police/#respond Fri, 27 Feb 2026 16:57:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295223 One of the reasons for photographing and filming at protests is to document police brutality when it predictably comes. At the end of summer I found myself on the floor surrounded by 15 German police officers. I was presented with an ultimatum, either I would give my phone to the police willingly or they would [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/go-film-the-police/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/factory-occupation-in-italy-laid-off-workers-organise-as-a-cooperative-and-want-to-set-up-their-own-business/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/factory-occupation-in-italy-laid-off-workers-organise-as-a-cooperative-and-want-to-set-up-their-own-business/#respond Fri, 27 Feb 2026 16:56:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295267 In the summer of 2021, the GKN auto parts factory near the Italian city of Florence was closed, and over 400 workers lost their jobs. Since then, some of them have been occupying the building—for over four years now. Their goal is to manufacture solar panels and electric cargo bikes, thereby converting the factory into [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/factory-occupation-in-italy-laid-off-workers-organise-as-a-cooperative-and-want-to-set-up-their-own-business/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-17-year-olds-are-organizing-walkouts-against-ice/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-17-year-olds-are-organizing-walkouts-against-ice/#respond Fri, 27 Feb 2026 16:55:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295242 Across the country, high school students are organizing walkouts, coalitions and days of action to protest ICE and show solidarity with immigrants. On Jan. 28, Jalysa, a 17-year-old student at William C. Overfelt High School in East San Jose, California, led a walkout during sixth period. More than half of the students in her school [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-17-year-olds-are-organizing-walkouts-against-ice/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-parents-eye-view-of-an-educators-strike/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-parents-eye-view-of-an-educators-strike/#respond Fri, 27 Feb 2026 16:52:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295229 On Thursday, February 12, the United Educators of San Francisco (UESF), representing 6,500 teachers, paraeducators, counselors, nurses, and school psychologists, declared victory after a four-day strike, the first one in 47 years. After 11 months of bargaining, the union not only won important economic demands, including wage increases and fully funded health care. It also won demands [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-parents-eye-view-of-an-educators-strike/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/i-had-no-alternative-bob-vylan-on-the-genocide-in-gaza-and-the-role-of-the-artist/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/i-had-no-alternative-bob-vylan-on-the-genocide-in-gaza-and-the-role-of-the-artist/#respond Fri, 27 Feb 2026 16:49:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295243 At a pro-Palestine rally in Paris last September, Bobby of the London punk duo Bob Vylan delivered the following speech on the role of artists in confronting what he described as the genocide in Gaza; he has granted The Palestine Chronicle explicit permission to republish it here. The text below reflects only minor edits for [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/i-had-no-alternative-bob-vylan-on-the-genocide-in-gaza-and-the-role-of-the-artist/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/how-to-defeat-maga-tyranny-chapter-9-conclusion-endgames-the-power-is-in-our-solidarity/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/how-to-defeat-maga-tyranny-chapter-9-conclusion-endgames-the-power-is-in-our-solidarity/#respond Fri, 27 Feb 2026 14:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1295220 As authoritarian politics harden in the United States, familiar channels of resistance are proving dangerously inadequate. Elections are constrained, courts are under siege, and dissent is increasingly met with repression in the streets. In this moment, questions of power — who has it, how it is exercised, and how it can be withdrawn — are [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/how-to-defeat-maga-tyranny-chapter-9-conclusion-endgames-the-power-is-in-our-solidarity/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/ordinary-people-want-peace-can-citizen-diplomacy-build-a-safer-future-for-everyone/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/ordinary-people-want-peace-can-citizen-diplomacy-build-a-safer-future-for-everyone/#respond Thu, 26 Feb 2026 16:58:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1295195 “There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?” George Bernard Shaw A thought provoking discussion with Jan Oberg of the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Studies, who posts regularly on Substack and on their website https://transnational.live/ We [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/ordinary-people-want-peace-can-citizen-diplomacy-build-a-safer-future-for-everyone/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/even-when-there-is-the-worst-kind-of-repression-its-laying-the-seeds-for-opposition/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/even-when-there-is-the-worst-kind-of-repression-its-laying-the-seeds-for-opposition/#respond Thu, 26 Feb 2026 16:55:45 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295199 Hi again, Hossam. Since the last time we spoke, you’ve become a doctor. That’s true. I finished my dissertation, and now it will be published by Verso. I’m really honoured to have a book with them that will come out this May. Maybe you can explain what the dissertation and book are about. It’s based [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/even-when-there-is-the-worst-kind-of-repression-its-laying-the-seeds-for-opposition/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/argentinas-general-strike-against-12-hour-workday/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/argentinas-general-strike-against-12-hour-workday/#respond Thu, 26 Feb 2026 16:52:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295208 While organized workers seek to repeal the controversial reform, it advances in Congress. It still needs to be ratified by the Senate. Workers claim that it eliminates many of their rights. In the early morning hours of February 20, the Argentine Chamber of Deputies approved a controversial labor reform proposed by Javier Milei’s ultraliberal government [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/argentinas-general-strike-against-12-hour-workday/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/they-havent-even-started-spending-yet/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/they-havent-even-started-spending-yet/#respond Thu, 26 Feb 2026 16:51:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295203 Politics is a good investment. For businesses, interest groups, and wealthy individuals, spending on politics offers one of the more attractive potential returns on investment you can find anywhere. For a one million dollar donation today, you can get the most powerful politician in the world to threaten your competitors or get the federal government [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/they-havent-even-started-spending-yet/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/why-trump-will-win-the-tariff-war/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/why-trump-will-win-the-tariff-war/#respond Thu, 26 Feb 2026 16:50:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1294923 In this episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau pull back the curtain to reveal the shifting tectonic plates of the global economy, arguing that the world’s fixation on Donald Trump’s tariffs and Supreme Court rulings is a dangerous distraction from a much more profound transformation – namely a new form of power [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/why-trump-will-win-the-tariff-war/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-mamdani-abolish-police-or-simply-make-them-obsolete/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-mamdani-abolish-police-or-simply-make-them-obsolete/#respond Thu, 26 Feb 2026 16:49:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295183 What sets Mamdani apart from other progressive mayors who promised to be tough on police is a democratic socialist vision of a society that meets people’s needs. As part of his proposed city budget for 2026, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani just canceled the NYPD’s plan to hire 5,000 more police officers, undoing a [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-mamdani-abolish-police-or-simply-make-them-obsolete/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/anatomy-of-a-general-strike-how-workers-in-the-indian-state-of-karnataka-shut-down-production/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/anatomy-of-a-general-strike-how-workers-in-the-indian-state-of-karnataka-shut-down-production/#respond Thu, 26 Feb 2026 16:49:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295205 On February 12, as part of the All-India General Strike, 600,000 workers downed tools and almost 100,000 participated in street actions in South India’s largest state, Karnataka, whose government, ruled by the main bourgeois opposition in the center, is rushing to implement anti-labor laws legislated by the BJP. Mass detentions, motorcycle rallies, protest marches and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/anatomy-of-a-general-strike-how-workers-in-the-indian-state-of-karnataka-shut-down-production/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/#respond 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/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumps-2026-sotu-speech-economic-obfuscation-political-theatre/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumps-2026-sotu-speech-economic-obfuscation-political-theatre/#respond Wed, 25 Feb 2026 17:58:52 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295158 Trump’s 2026 State of the Union speech was historic—but only in the sense of the longest ever at 1 hour and 47 minutes. Apart from that, the speech was one third misrepresentations about the state of the American economy followed by more than an hour of pure political theater which has come to increasingly feature [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumps-2026-sotu-speech-economic-obfuscation-political-theatre/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/cuba-under-siege-battles-u-s-oil-blockade/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/cuba-under-siege-battles-u-s-oil-blockade/#respond Wed, 25 Feb 2026 17:55:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295162 President Donald Trump on January 29 imposed import tariffs on any country providing Cuba with oil. The false claim that Cuba threatened terrorism against the United States served as pretext.  The U.S. Supreme Court on February 20 ruled that President Trump lacked constitutional authority for imposing tariffs. Now tariffs continue under different legal authorization. The oil [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/cuba-under-siege-battles-u-s-oil-blockade/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/the-suicidal-folly-of-a-war-with-iran/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/the-suicidal-folly-of-a-war-with-iran/#comments Wed, 25 Feb 2026 17:54:01 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1295173 The Laurel and Hardy negotiating team of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, coupled with Trump’s appalling ignorance of world affairs and megalomania, seem set to push the U.S. into yet another debacle in the Middle East, one the Congress has not approved, and the public does not want. The demands imposed on Iran by the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/the-suicidal-folly-of-a-war-with-iran/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/natos-war-of-choice-the-sabotage-of-the-istanbul-negotiations/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/natos-war-of-choice-the-sabotage-of-the-istanbul-negotiations/#respond Wed, 25 Feb 2026 17:48:46 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1295170 Professor Glenn Diesen outlines the evidence for how the US and UK sabotaged the peace negotiations in Istanbul to use Ukraine as a proxy to weaken Russia. After NATO built a large Ukrainian proxy army to weaken a strategic rival, it was absurd to assume that Ukraine would be allowed to restore its neutrality and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/natos-war-of-choice-the-sabotage-of-the-istanbul-negotiations/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-build-emergency-response-systems-for-the-long-haul/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-build-emergency-response-systems-for-the-long-haul/#respond Wed, 25 Feb 2026 17:45:12 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295161 Targeted state violence and rising fascism are being met with creative organizing by people in Minneapolis and across the country, from mass marches to neighborhood mutual aid to ICE watch foot patrols. These are all beautiful manifestations of resistance that have kept many people safe and demonstrated widespread repudiation of the Trump administration’s policies.  Yet [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-build-emergency-response-systems-for-the-long-haul/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/tax-the-rich-rally-in-albany-where-was-mayor-mamdani/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/tax-the-rich-rally-in-albany-where-was-mayor-mamdani/#respond Wed, 25 Feb 2026 17:42:46 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295156 Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani’s election as mayor of the “capital of capitalism” was a tremendous accomplishment and a blow to Zionists, Wall Street and Democratic Party higher-ups. Even The New York Times described his victory as a “surge of anti-establishment discontent.” Just a few of Mamdani’s frequent pre-election critical comments on capitalism include: Do I [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/tax-the-rich-rally-in-albany-where-was-mayor-mamdani/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/workers-need-more-paths-to-join-the-labor-movement/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/workers-need-more-paths-to-join-the-labor-movement/#respond Wed, 25 Feb 2026 17:41:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295178 [This article is part of a Labor Notes roundtable series: How Can Unions Defend Worker Power Against Trump 2.0? We will be publishing more contributions here and in our magazine in the months ahead. Click here to read the rest of the series.] It shouldn’t be so hard for workers to join a union. Nearly [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/workers-need-more-paths-to-join-the-labor-movement/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ice-agents-bring-home-the-tactics-from-past-wars-abroad/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ice-agents-bring-home-the-tactics-from-past-wars-abroad/#respond Wed, 25 Feb 2026 17:40:34 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295164 Last month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers pulled over several cars in Eagle County, Colorado. They took the people away in handcuffs, according to a witness, and left the cars idling at the side of the road. When family members of the disappeared immigrants arrived, there was no sign of their loved ones. What they found instead [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ice-agents-bring-home-the-tactics-from-past-wars-abroad/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/francesca-albanese-is-a-powerful-voice-for-justice-which-is-why-the-israel-lobby-is-trying-to-silence-her/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/francesca-albanese-is-a-powerful-voice-for-justice-which-is-why-the-israel-lobby-is-trying-to-silence-her/#respond Wed, 25 Feb 2026 17:10:07 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295160 Mark Twain and Winston Churchill are both purported to have once said that a lie can travel half-way around the world before truth has had a chance to put its pants on.  On February 7, Francesca Albanese, the current UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in Palestine, gave a short presentation by video conference to [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/francesca-albanese-is-a-powerful-voice-for-justice-which-is-why-the-israel-lobby-is-trying-to-silence-her/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/europes-new-asylum-rule-will-be-its-ice-moment/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/europes-new-asylum-rule-will-be-its-ice-moment/#respond Tue, 24 Feb 2026 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295116 Europe is about to normalise offshore asylum processing — and with it, a more distant and less accountable model of deportation. New EU rules will allow governments to fast-track claims by sending applicants to “safe” third countries – including places they have never even set foot in. This reform signals a retreat from the human rights-centred migration model Europe has [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/europes-new-asylum-rule-will-be-its-ice-moment/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/no-to-the-economic-suffocation-of-cuba/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/no-to-the-economic-suffocation-of-cuba/#respond Tue, 24 Feb 2026 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295131 For more than six decades, the United States has been suffocating the Cuban people by imposing anachronistic and inhumane economic sanctions. These measures affect the most vulnerable sectors of the island’s population, particularly the sick, children, the elderly, and pregnant women, and have a dramatic impact on all sectors of Cuban society. Retroactive and extraterritorial [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/no-to-the-economic-suffocation-of-cuba/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumped-on-tariffs/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumped-on-tariffs/#respond Tue, 24 Feb 2026 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295133 Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” just got squashed. The Supreme Court on February 20 denied, by a 6-3 decision, the Trump administration’s power to impose tariffs under the 1977 International Economic Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA). The ruling invalidates tariffs for around one quarter of all imports to the US—those from about 20 countries plus the EU. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumped-on-tariffs/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-union-members-pay-it-forward/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-union-members-pay-it-forward/#respond Tue, 24 Feb 2026 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295135 Anna Bueker went to work at the BFGoodrich plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in her early 20s and began building a good life with the wages and benefits provided by her United Steelworkers (USW) contract. But over the next several years, as she navigated divorce and life as a single mom, that contract took on [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-union-members-pay-it-forward/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-few-hopefully-non-redundant-ruminations-on-epstein-chomsky-and-us/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-few-hopefully-non-redundant-ruminations-on-epstein-chomsky-and-us/#comments Tue, 24 Feb 2026 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1295129 Jeffrey Epstein was a horrifying but oddly “talented” specimen of humanity. He had some combination of “qualities” that facilitated his assembling an intimidating array of contacts and a huge armory of financial assets. Visit Wikipedia to see his “list of connections.” It is surreal. Epstein is also the central subject of massive media attention. Since [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-few-hopefully-non-redundant-ruminations-on-epstein-chomsky-and-us/feed/ 15