https://znetwork.org/category/topic/politics-gov/coups/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Mon, 08 Dec 2025 21:53:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/category/topic/politics-gov/coups/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-trump-corollary/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-trump-corollary/#respond Mon, 08 Dec 2025 21:52:58 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292163 In recent months, the Trump administration has escalated a decades-long campaign against the Venezuelan government and people. The renewed, intensifying threats of regime change, justified through false or inflated claims that Nicolás Maduro, its president, is directing narco-terrorism against the United States, serve as a convenient pretext for deeper and more direct intervention. A recent wave of extrajudicial killings at sea, the directing of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-trump-corollary/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/venezuela-isnt-the-global-threat-trump-and-rubio-are/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/venezuela-isnt-the-global-threat-trump-and-rubio-are/#comments Wed, 26 Nov 2025 16:05:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291688 U.S. warships and aircraft have gathered in the Caribbean as part of Washington’s latest military buildup in a renewed effort to combat narcotics trafficking. Many analysts see a familiar mix of political posturing and regime-change ambitions rather than a serious security operation. In this exclusive interview for FPIF, sociologist and Venezuela specialist David Smilde talks about how the current show [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/venezuela-isnt-the-global-threat-trump-and-rubio-are/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/for-the-next-election-prepare-to-fight-magas-steal/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/for-the-next-election-prepare-to-fight-magas-steal/#respond Mon, 17 Nov 2025 16:26:24 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291346 The November 4 election gave us a huge boost. But for the 2026 midterms, success requires both electoral majorities and preparations for a popular uprising at vote-counting sites, state capitols, courthouses, workplaces, and schools. The November 4 elections give the opposition to MAGA—and its progressive contingent especially—a huge boost. But in the coming year, the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/for-the-next-election-prepare-to-fight-magas-steal/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/escalating-the-escalation/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/escalating-the-escalation/#respond Fri, 14 Nov 2025 16:41:05 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291255 Today, Donald Trump presides over his own Murder Incorporated, less a government than a death squad. Many brushed off his proclamation early in his second term that the Gulf of Mexico would henceforth be called the Gulf of America as a foolish, yet harmless, show of dominance. Now, however, he’s created an ongoing bloodbath in [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/escalating-the-escalation/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/nepals-new-reality/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/nepals-new-reality/#respond Fri, 19 Sep 2025 18:20:34 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1288776 The protests in Nepal this week were unprecedented. In just 48 hours, a disparate movement of largely young people throughout major towns and cities brought down the entire political establishment that had dominated Nepalese politics since the 2006 revolution. The Gen Z movement was confronted by a brutal police crackdown, and the death toll from [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/nepals-new-reality/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/burkina-faso-traore-a-conservative-anti-democratic-despot/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/burkina-faso-traore-a-conservative-anti-democratic-despot/#comments Sat, 23 Aug 2025 17:21:16 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1287666 Amandla!: Ibrahim Traoré came to power in a coup in 2022. What was the situation in the country that led to the coup? Rahmane Idrissa: Traoré came to power by toppling another coup maker, Lt.-Col. Paul-Henri Damiba, who, himself, had overthrown the elected ruler, Roch March Christian Kaboré, in January 2022. It is impossible to understand these [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/burkina-faso-traore-a-conservative-anti-democratic-despot/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/after-the-coups/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/after-the-coups/#respond Tue, 15 Jul 2025 15:08:04 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1286199 In the early morning of July 26, 2023, Niger’s Presidential Guard stormed the Presidential Palace in Niamey and detained the democratically elected head of state, Mohamed Bazoum. What followed was a high-intensity standoff between Niger’s coup leaders and the regional bloc of which it was a member—the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/after-the-coups/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/another-shinawatra-suspended/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/another-shinawatra-suspended/#respond Fri, 04 Jul 2025 16:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1285785 Paetongtarn becomes the third Shinawatra to be ousted from the Prime Minister’s office, following her aunt (Yingluck 2014) and her father (Thaksin 2006). The Shinawatra family, in particular Thaksin, have long been the figureheads behind the Red Shirt movement – a big tent coalition made up largely of the rural poor, but also including some [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/another-shinawatra-suspended/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-roots-of-bukeles-gulag/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-roots-of-bukeles-gulag/#respond Mon, 02 Jun 2025 13:03:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1284492 The Terrorism Confinement Center was designed to be a black hole. When Nayib Bukele’s flagship “megaprison”—known as CECOT, after its Spanish acronym—opened in January 2023 in a desolate stretch of Tecoluca, about forty-five miles from San Salvador, his administration boasted that people held there “would not have contact with the outside world again.” Bukele has made global [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-roots-of-bukeles-gulag/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/samsungs-union-battle-and-the-crisis-facing-korean-labor/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/samsungs-union-battle-and-the-crisis-facing-korean-labor/#respond Mon, 19 May 2025 16:57:06 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1283935 Last year saw a historic strike by workers at Samsung, the Korean electronics firm with a global footprint. Yet the National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU) that organized the strike has since stumbled over an old practice in South Korea’s labor movement — one often used to drive a wedge between the leadership and the rank-and-file members. The [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/samsungs-union-battle-and-the-crisis-facing-korean-labor/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/americas-constitutional-crisis/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/americas-constitutional-crisis/#respond Mon, 31 Mar 2025 15:32:22 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1281812 In conversation with Chris Hedges legal scholar Katherine Franke explains trump’s authoritarian Crackdown. The United States is facing a constitutional crisis one that if it is not resolved will cement into place an authoritarian State. (0:00) Intro (3:23) Constitutional crisis (8:11) How Columbia put a target on Mahmoud Khalil’s back (12:52) Columbia’s Groveling for Zionism [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/americas-constitutional-crisis/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-dark-enlightenment-the-tech-oligarch-ideology-driving-doges-destruction/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-dark-enlightenment-the-tech-oligarch-ideology-driving-doges-destruction/#respond Mon, 24 Mar 2025 13:49:53 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1281468 The future of American democracy isn’t being dismantled by accident; it’s being systematically replaced to prepare the way for something entirely new. A radical ideology known as the Dark Enlightenment is fueling a billionaire-led movement to gut our government, erase democratic norms, and install a technocratic elite in their place. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk aren’t just tearing [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-dark-enlightenment-the-tech-oligarch-ideology-driving-doges-destruction/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-state-operating-system-and-tyrannys-backdoor/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-state-operating-system-and-tyrannys-backdoor/#respond Mon, 17 Mar 2025 14:53:53 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1281149 On March 15, 2025, in a new executive order, Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 that endows the president with sweeping and unchecked authority to target and deport foreign nationals. According to the text of the law, it can be invoked only when “there is a declared war between the United States and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-state-operating-system-and-tyrannys-backdoor/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-us-is-undergoing-a-corporate-coup-sudan-shows-how-dangerous-it-can-become/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-us-is-undergoing-a-corporate-coup-sudan-shows-how-dangerous-it-can-become/#respond Mon, 10 Mar 2025 16:51:28 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1280825 As billionaire Elon Musk seizes control over vast swaths of the U.S. government, blurring the line between his private business empire and the state, some analysts have begun to call this takeover what it is: a coup. This corporate coup may not look like the military coups we are familiar with — often backed by [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-us-is-undergoing-a-corporate-coup-sudan-shows-how-dangerous-it-can-become/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/23-dem-ags-think-theyve-cracked-the-code-to-fighting-trump/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/23-dem-ags-think-theyve-cracked-the-code-to-fighting-trump/#respond Mon, 03 Mar 2025 15:21:07 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1280489 The resistance meets daily on Microsoft Teams. The country’s 23 Democratic state attorneys general log on at 4pm ET for a thirty-minute confidential video chat to coordinate their plans for pushing back against the Trump administration. They share updates on the seven cases they have moving through federal courts and argue about whether to treat [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/23-dem-ags-think-theyve-cracked-the-code-to-fighting-trump/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/10-more-reasons-for-modest-optimism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/10-more-reasons-for-modest-optimism/#respond Fri, 28 Feb 2025 16:02:23 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1280385 Since I offered you 10 reasons for modest optimism last week, discontent with the Trump-Musk regime has surged even further. America appears to be waking up. Here’s the latest evidence — 10 more reasons for modest optimism. 1. Trump’s approval ratings continue to plummet. The chief reason Trump was elected was to reduce the high [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/10-more-reasons-for-modest-optimism/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/resisting-the-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-blitzkrieg/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/resisting-the-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-blitzkrieg/#respond Fri, 28 Feb 2025 15:22:06 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1280365 MAGA’s fast-moving coup is upending the longstanding arrangements that have undergirded domestic politics and the US role in the world. What does this mean for the resistance, and how can the US Left maximize our impact? No wonder all our heads are spinning. The foundations of the world and the domestic order that everyone under [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/resisting-the-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-blitzkrieg/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-purge-of-the-deep-state-and-the-road-to-dictatorship/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-purge-of-the-deep-state-and-the-road-to-dictatorship/#respond Mon, 24 Feb 2025 15:51:32 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1280177 This article is read by Eunice Wong, a Juilliard-trained actor, featured on Audible’s list of Best Women Narrators. Her work is on the annual Best Audiobooks lists of the New York Times, Audible, AudioFile, & Library Journal. www.eunicewong.actor This is a reading of an article riginally posted Feb. 18, 2025 The Trump administration’s war with the deep state is not [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-purge-of-the-deep-state-and-the-road-to-dictatorship/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/congo-jazz-the-cia-oscar-nominated-soundtrack-to-a-coup-detat-revisits-lumumba-assassination/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/congo-jazz-the-cia-oscar-nominated-soundtrack-to-a-coup-detat-revisits-lumumba-assassination/#respond Tue, 18 Feb 2025 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1279928 The Oscar-nominated documentary Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat recounts the events leading up to Black American jazz musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach’s 1961 protest at the United Nations of the CIA-backed killing of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. The first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lumumba was an icon of the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/congo-jazz-the-cia-oscar-nominated-soundtrack-to-a-coup-detat-revisits-lumumba-assassination/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/fascism-the-war-on-complexity-and-the-end-of-science/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/fascism-the-war-on-complexity-and-the-end-of-science/#respond Mon, 17 Feb 2025 17:16:05 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1279883 On February 11, 2025, the current US government published a website of the US Senate Commerce Committee (Chairman Ted Cruz) announcing the results of an “investigation” into research grants funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) during the four years of the past administration. The announcement reveals that “the Biden administration weaponized federal agencies to [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/fascism-the-war-on-complexity-and-the-end-of-science/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-the-current-musk-coup-define-our-future/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-the-current-musk-coup-define-our-future/#respond Sun, 09 Feb 2025 17:19:19 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1279524 A classic coup d’état has guns. Uniformed men run wild seizing government agencies and claiming control over what government does and who government serves. But in our new cyber age, the Yale historian Timothy Snyder reflected this past week, a coup can unfold without any armed overthrow. We can have “a couple dozen young men go from government office [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-the-current-musk-coup-define-our-future/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/we-are-stronger-than-we-think/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/we-are-stronger-than-we-think/#respond Sun, 09 Feb 2025 17:11:53 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1279518 The Trump-Musk administration has moved rapidly, ruthlessly and often illegally to consolidate authoritarian control and empower billionaires at the expense of ordinary people. In an administrative coup guided by Project 2025, the White House has sought to dismantle the separation of powers and deny critical services, punishing working people at home and abroad.  Making good on his promises of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/we-are-stronger-than-we-think/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/shut-the-us-down-before-fascist-consolidation/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/shut-the-us-down-before-fascist-consolidation/#respond Sun, 09 Feb 2025 16:54:18 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1279513 Yesterday my wife and I and a friend drove to downtown Springfield for a rally against Trump, organized by Indivisible – a grass roots group focused on local protest movements. We had heard that Massachusetts senators Markey and Warren would be speaking in the flesh, but that rumor proved false. Two staff persons, one from each office, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/shut-the-us-down-before-fascist-consolidation/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/niger-uprising-one-year-later-coup-or-pan-african-revolution-in-progress/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/niger-uprising-one-year-later-coup-or-pan-african-revolution-in-progress/#respond Tue, 31 Dec 2024 17:59:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1277802 Before the 2023 popular anticolonial uprising that removed Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum from power, “extreme poverty had reached 42% of the Nigerian population” explains Alex Anfruns Millán, over a year later, Niger is now regarded among the fastest-growing economies in Africa. Millán, a journalist and author of Niger: Another Coup D’État… or the Pan-African Revolution? [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/niger-uprising-one-year-later-coup-or-pan-african-revolution-in-progress/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/millions-demand-imran-khans-release-as-us-pakistan-plot-backfires/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/millions-demand-imran-khans-release-as-us-pakistan-plot-backfires/#respond Tue, 10 Dec 2024 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1276929 Professor Junaid Ahmad breaks down Pakistan’s massive protests, where despite a total lockdown, hundreds of thousands of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters marched on the capital demanding the release of former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Ahmad, a Professor of Law, Religion, and Global Politics, and the Director of the Center for the Study of Islam and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/millions-demand-imran-khans-release-as-us-pakistan-plot-backfires/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/syrians-are-celebrating-fall-of-assad-even-as-the-bigger-picture-is-grim-scholar-bassam-haddad/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/syrians-are-celebrating-fall-of-assad-even-as-the-bigger-picture-is-grim-scholar-bassam-haddad/#respond Mon, 09 Dec 2024 18:54:37 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1276870 The fall of the Assad family’s 50-year regime in Syria brings with it “many more questions than answers,” says Syrian American scholar and the executive director of the Arab Studies Institute, Bassam Haddad. While the regional and global implications are “not good,” as Israel in particular is celebrating the loss of Assad’s material support for [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/syrians-are-celebrating-fall-of-assad-even-as-the-bigger-picture-is-grim-scholar-bassam-haddad/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-sectarian-risk-turkiyes-syrian-mission/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-sectarian-risk-turkiyes-syrian-mission/#respond Mon, 09 Dec 2024 18:34:18 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1276865 Turkiye’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan must be delighted about what is unfolding in Syria, though it is a feeling bound to be tempered by swiftly changing circumstances.  Iran’s Shia proxies have been weakened by relentless Israeli targeting and bombing.  Russia’s eyes and resources are turned towards war in Ukraine.  With reports that Syrian rebel groups are [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-sectarian-risk-turkiyes-syrian-mission/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/south-korea-in-face-of-million-strong-protest-ruling-party-sabotages-yoons-impeachment/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/south-korea-in-face-of-million-strong-protest-ruling-party-sabotages-yoons-impeachment/#respond Mon, 09 Dec 2024 17:49:41 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1276856 Despite his failed December 3 self-coup, President Yoon Suk-yeol remains in his post after MPs from the conservative ruling People Power Party (PPP) boycotted a impeachment vote on December 7. This was despite 1 million people gathering outside for a candlelight protest demanding his ouster. A successful vote for impeachment required at least eight of the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/south-korea-in-face-of-million-strong-protest-ruling-party-sabotages-yoons-impeachment/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/understanding-the-rebellion-in-syria/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/understanding-the-rebellion-in-syria/#respond Mon, 09 Dec 2024 16:45:50 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1276836 The rebellion in Syria has taken the world by surprise and led to the fall of the Assad family dictatorship, which has ruled Syria since Bashar al-Assad’s father, Hafez, took power in a coup d’etat 54 years ago. Neither the regime’s military forces nor its imperial sponsor, Russia, and its regional backer, Iran, were able [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/understanding-the-rebellion-in-syria/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-kurds-survive-in-the-new-syria/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-kurds-survive-in-the-new-syria/#respond Mon, 09 Dec 2024 16:40:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1276867 The twenty-first century’s worst humanitarian and military crisis has reached a historic turning point. This weekend, Syrians rejoiced after Bashar al-Assad was finally toppled in a shock reversal spearheaded by al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). The region’s Kurds joined the celebrations, flooding into formerly Assadist-held areas and tearing down statues of the hated dictator. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-kurds-survive-in-the-new-syria/feed/ 0