https://znetwork.org/category/topic/politics-gov/electoral-politics/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Tue, 09 Dec 2025 20:01:01 +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/electoral-politics/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/we-need-to-know-how-corporate-democrats-made-president-trump-possible/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/we-need-to-know-how-corporate-democrats-made-president-trump-possible/#respond Tue, 09 Dec 2025 18:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292170 Ten years after Donald Trump first ran for president, he stands at the helm of Titanic America. How did this happen? No factors were more pivotal than the outlooks and actions of the Democratic Party leadership. Scrutinizing them now is vital not only for clarity about the past. It also makes possible a clear focus [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/we-need-to-know-how-corporate-democrats-made-president-trump-possible/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/your-party-and-its-conference/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/your-party-and-its-conference/#respond Tue, 09 Dec 2025 18:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292191 It is probably no bad thing that health struggles have delayed my writing up Your Party’s extraordinary Liverpool founding conference. Perspective is definitely helpful to process something unique. Personally, I could not help but be struck by the number of participants who approached me as regular readers of my blog, certainly well into three figures. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/your-party-and-its-conference/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/democratic-socialism-triumphs-in-new-jersey-upset-election-for-mayor-or-jersey-city/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/democratic-socialism-triumphs-in-new-jersey-upset-election-for-mayor-or-jersey-city/#respond Sat, 06 Dec 2025 16:45:40 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292066 The election of Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist, as Mayor of New York was not a fluke. Progressive Democrats and Democratic Socialists are cheering the election of City Councilor James Solomon for Mayor of Jersey City, the second largest city in New Jersey. As a result the three largest cities in the New York/New Jersey [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/democratic-socialism-triumphs-in-new-jersey-upset-election-for-mayor-or-jersey-city/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/jeremy-corbyn-addresses-the-first-your-party-conference/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/jeremy-corbyn-addresses-the-first-your-party-conference/#respond Thu, 04 Dec 2025 16:56:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1291955 Jeremy Corbyn Addresses The First Your Party Conference.]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/jeremy-corbyn-addresses-the-first-your-party-conference/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/zack-polanski-is-coming-for-starmer-and-farage/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/zack-polanski-is-coming-for-starmer-and-farage/#respond Thu, 04 Dec 2025 16:55:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1291945 Support for the Green party in Britain has been steadily rising for the past few decades. However, few predicted that when Zack Polanski took office as Green party leader in September, membership would surge from 70,000 to 150,000 members in a matter of months. According to the latest polling, the party’s share of the vote [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/zack-polanski-is-coming-for-starmer-and-farage/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/democrats-in-congress-are-out-of-touch-with-constituents-on-israeli-genocide/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/democrats-in-congress-are-out-of-touch-with-constituents-on-israeli-genocide/#respond Wed, 03 Dec 2025 19:17:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291904 Last month, some House members publicly acknowledged that Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza. It’s a judgment that Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch unequivocally proclaimed a year ago. Israeli human-rights organizations have reached the same conclusion. But such clarity is sparse in Congress. And no wonder. Genocide denial is needed for continuing to appropriate billions of dollars in weapons [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/democrats-in-congress-are-out-of-touch-with-constituents-on-israeli-genocide/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/conditions-are-ripe-for-a-resistance-counter-offensive/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/conditions-are-ripe-for-a-resistance-counter-offensive/#respond Wed, 03 Dec 2025 19:10:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291901 It’s been over ten long months that the forces of democracy have been on the defensive, doing our best to withstand the many and various assaults on us on issue after issue, but the tide is turning: Remember that it was Joe McCarthy in the 1950’s attacking the US military that was the beginning of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/conditions-are-ripe-for-a-resistance-counter-offensive/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/free-buses-can-be-a-reality-just-look-at-maryland/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/free-buses-can-be-a-reality-just-look-at-maryland/#comments Tue, 02 Dec 2025 17:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291887 During the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated economic downturn, many people couldn’t pay their transportation costs, and often didn’t. In New York City in 2021, some 21 percent of bus riders did not pay the fare, a figure that grew to 48 percent in 2024. Some local governments, including New York City, responded with reduced or [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/free-buses-can-be-a-reality-just-look-at-maryland/feed/ 2 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-rise-of-france-insoumise/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-rise-of-france-insoumise/#comments Sat, 29 Nov 2025 16:27:07 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291782 The many crises afflicting Emmanuel Macron’s presidency point to deep turmoil in France’s institutions. In many accounts, the likely beneficiary is Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National, which is today polling strongly. Yet, time and again, the country’s Left has shown that it cannot be discounted. Only last summer, the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) alliance [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-rise-of-france-insoumise/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/how-the-left-can-come-together-to-beat-reform-yanis-varoufakis-zack-polanski/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/how-the-left-can-come-together-to-beat-reform-yanis-varoufakis-zack-polanski/#comments Fri, 28 Nov 2025 04:57:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1291706 How we lost the argument on Britain’s relationship with the European Union forever? What is the point in our nuclear weapons if Donald Trump’s America has such power over whether we can use them or not? What has the left learned from the formation of Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s Your Party? Zack Polanski speaks [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/how-the-left-can-come-together-to-beat-reform-yanis-varoufakis-zack-polanski/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-mamdani-show-was-amazing-downsides-for-progressives-could-turn-out-to-be-steep/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-mamdani-show-was-amazing-downsides-for-progressives-could-turn-out-to-be-steep/#respond Tue, 25 Nov 2025 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291651 Across the political spectrum – with alarm on the right and delight on the left – the display of warmth from President Trump toward Zohran Mamdani on Friday set off shock waves. Trump’s lavish praise of New York’s mayor-elect in the Oval Office was a 180-degree turn from his  condemnation of the democratic socialist as “a pure true communist” and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-mamdani-show-was-amazing-downsides-for-progressives-could-turn-out-to-be-steep/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-denmark-social-democracy-is-failing/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-denmark-social-democracy-is-failing/#respond Tue, 25 Nov 2025 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291661 Copenhagen saw a historic shift last Tuesday night, following the elections held in the Danish capital and across Denmark. After more than a century of holding power in Copenhagen, the Social Democrats finally lost the mayoralty. Sisse Marie Welling, from the left-wing Socialist People’s Party (SF) instead claimed the lord mayor’s post within a broad coalition [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-denmark-social-democracy-is-failing/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-dsa-candidate-who-won-down-south/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-dsa-candidate-who-won-down-south/#respond Thu, 20 Nov 2025 16:57:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291505 An interview with newly elected Atlanta City Council member Kelsea Bond Zohran Mamdani was not the only Democratic Socialist who just won a citywide election. In Atlanta, 31 year-old DSA member Kelsea Bond (who uses they/ them pronouns) handily won a race for City Council. That makes them the only socialist to win an election [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-dsa-candidate-who-won-down-south/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/socialists-in-city-hall-a-new-look-at-sewer-socialism-in-wisconsin/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/socialists-in-city-hall-a-new-look-at-sewer-socialism-in-wisconsin/#respond Thu, 20 Nov 2025 16:54:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291508 In 1910, Milwaukee’s socialists swept into office and they proceeded to run the city for most of the next fifty years. Though ruling elites initially predicted chaos and disaster, even Time magazine by 1936 felt obliged to run a cover story titled “Marxist Mayor” on the city’s success, noting that under socialist rule “Milwaukee has [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/socialists-in-city-hall-a-new-look-at-sewer-socialism-in-wisconsin/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/chiles-presidential-election-a-political-future-oscillating-between-fear-and-promise/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/chiles-presidential-election-a-political-future-oscillating-between-fear-and-promise/#respond Thu, 20 Nov 2025 16:53:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291503 Chile today stands at a political crossroads where the presidential election is not merely a contest for power—it is a reflection of the fundamental conflict between future social projects and conceptions of the state. In the recently completed first round, Communist candidate Michelle Bachelet secured the highest vote share at 26.85 per cent. Behind her [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/chiles-presidential-election-a-political-future-oscillating-between-fear-and-promise/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-socialist-movement-is-bringing-democracy-back/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-socialist-movement-is-bringing-democracy-back/#respond Thu, 20 Nov 2025 16:50:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291451 Largely ignored in coverage of the democratic socialist movement that helped produce Zohran Mamdani is this basic fact: at a time of rising authoritarianism, socialists have succeeded by old-fashioned grassroots, democratic organizing. The state of democracy in the United States, as anyone who has taken a glance at the news knows, is not strong. Donald [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-socialist-movement-is-bringing-democracy-back/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/reflections-on-zohran-mamdanis-victory-from-the-global-south/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/reflections-on-zohran-mamdanis-victory-from-the-global-south/#respond Wed, 19 Nov 2025 19:15:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291470 Zohran Mamdani, who describes himself as a “democratic socialist”, has won the New York City mayoral elections. He is a vocal critic of billionaires, ran on a plank to make the city affordable to the working people, and took a firm pro-Palestine stand in a country whose government is the staunchest supporter of the genocidal [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/reflections-on-zohran-mamdanis-victory-from-the-global-south/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/chi-osse-why-i-became-a-socialist/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/chi-osse-why-i-became-a-socialist/#respond Tue, 18 Nov 2025 17:31:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291415 This year, thousands of New Yorkers clawed political power out from establishment Democrats and brought it back home. When we elected Zohran Mamdani as mayor, we proved that the future of the city belongs to its people, not billionaire donors. Despite running against a campaign made up of fear, craven racism, and millions of dollars, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/chi-osse-why-i-became-a-socialist/feed/ 0 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/schumer-democrats-cant-stop-trump-mamdani-democrats-might/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/schumer-democrats-cant-stop-trump-mamdani-democrats-might/#respond Sun, 16 Nov 2025 15:44:48 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291309 The second Trump administration has been doing a right-wing authoritarian speedrun. The welfare state has been slashed and the machinery of state repression massively ramped up. Republicans have attacked health care subsidies and food assistance for low-income families, while ICE now has a bigger budget than most militaries. Suspected criminals without US citizenship have been deported without a whiff of due [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/schumer-democrats-cant-stop-trump-mamdani-democrats-might/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/montana-has-an-ambitious-plan-to-end-dark-money-in-elections/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/montana-has-an-ambitious-plan-to-end-dark-money-in-elections/#respond Sat, 15 Nov 2025 14:07:10 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291293 Fifteen years after a landmark Supreme Court case turbocharged corporate spending in the political process, a group hopes it may have a way to finally rein in some of the outsized influence of the ultrawealthy. The 2010 ruling on Citizens United v. FEC opened the floodgates of political spending in elections. Every year since then, untraceable financial political [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/montana-has-an-ambitious-plan-to-end-dark-money-in-elections/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-false-stability-of-the-right-in-italy/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-false-stability-of-the-right-in-italy/#respond Fri, 14 Nov 2025 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291273 Across Europe, “far-right” parties are gaining power and steering the political climate. On the road to the European Union, parties once grounded in social-democratic and democratic ideals have lost their unifying role. Wars, militarism, and capitalist expansion around the world have deepened destruction and economic hardship, triggering migration and displacement. Right-wing parties, warning that “European [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-false-stability-of-the-right-in-italy/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/europe-cant-contain-the-far-right/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/europe-cant-contain-the-far-right/#respond Thu, 13 Nov 2025 16:54:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1291218 In this episode of The Econoclasts, Wolfgang Munchau debunks the “cordon sanitaire” or “firewall” orthodoxy that European centrist parties must never form coalitions with the far-Right, arguing that this failed tactic is a disaster that only guarantees the eventual rise of parties such as the AfD in Germany.]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/europe-cant-contain-the-far-right/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/seven-reasons-chuck-schumer-should-go/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/seven-reasons-chuck-schumer-should-go/#respond Thu, 13 Nov 2025 16:48:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291213 If the Democrats want the best possible chance of winning the midterms, Chuck Schumer needs to step aside now. Even when Schumer does the right thing, as he did in standing up for Obamacare subsidies during the shutdown, he does it badly. And the Democrats have now caved on this because he couldn’t hold his [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/seven-reasons-chuck-schumer-should-go/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/i-was-one-of-the-first-people-to-say-dont-run-joe-now-im-saying-step-down-chuck/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/i-was-one-of-the-first-people-to-say-dont-run-joe-now-im-saying-step-down-chuck/#respond Wed, 12 Nov 2025 17:59:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291144 In late 2022, RootsAction, the organization where I serve as political director, called for Joe Biden not to run for re-election. We were, we felt, simply saying out loud what had been whispered within the party for months—that Biden was too weak, politically and personally, to stop Donald Trump from winning a second term. Party [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/i-was-one-of-the-first-people-to-say-dont-run-joe-now-im-saying-step-down-chuck/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/towards-the-inevitable-clash-to-the-death-between-trump-and-mamdani/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/towards-the-inevitable-clash-to-the-death-between-trump-and-mamdani/#respond Tue, 11 Nov 2025 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291104 Young, intelligent, talented, energetic, handsome, charismatic, a very good speaker, a hard worker, a skilled communicator, and so on. The media in our countries are not wrong when they attribute all these virtues to Zohran Mamdani. Zohran is all of these things. But, on the other hand, they are seriously mistaken when they attribute Mamdani’s [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/towards-the-inevitable-clash-to-the-death-between-trump-and-mamdani/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/different-battles-same-struggle-the-u-s-war-on-china-venezuela-and-the-international-left/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/different-battles-same-struggle-the-u-s-war-on-china-venezuela-and-the-international-left/#respond Tue, 11 Nov 2025 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291124 Everywhere you look, the United States is at war– at home, through military occupation of cities, institutional violence, and state-sanctioned kidnappings, and abroad, through economic coercion, proxy warfare, and endless intervention. In times like these, when it is far too easy to be overwhelmed by the inexhaustible nature of the war machine, we must remember [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/different-battles-same-struggle-the-u-s-war-on-china-venezuela-and-the-international-left/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/good-muslim-bad-muslim-so-also-good-hindu-bad-hindu-shri-bhagwat-ji/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/good-muslim-bad-muslim-so-also-good-hindu-bad-hindu-shri-bhagwat-ji/#respond Tue, 11 Nov 2025 16:59:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291134 In yet another peroration on the occasion of the centenary celebrations of the RSS, Shri Mohan Bhagwat, with characteristic balance and good sense, has cautioned us not to club all Muslims in one “bracket”. He has underscored how only some Indian Muslims speak of “Ghazwa e Hind”, or practise “Love Jihad”. Thus he admonishes us [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/good-muslim-bad-muslim-so-also-good-hindu-bad-hindu-shri-bhagwat-ji/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/socialists-won-city-elections-across-the-country-this-week/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/socialists-won-city-elections-across-the-country-this-week/#respond Sun, 09 Nov 2025 14:36:46 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291050 The biggest left-wing political story of the week is democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani becoming mayor of New York City. But Mamdani’s was not the only socialist victory on Tuesday. Just like with almost every election year that’s come before in the Trump era, this week saw a series of lesser-known wins for socialists downballot around [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/socialists-won-city-elections-across-the-country-this-week/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mamdani-triumphs-while-northampton-massachusetts-challengers-fail-to-expand-the-franchise/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mamdani-triumphs-while-northampton-massachusetts-challengers-fail-to-expand-the-franchise/#respond Sun, 09 Nov 2025 13:20:54 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291023 I worked my ass off on the local mayoral race, walking about 15 miles a day passing out homemade leaflets detailing the moral and legal indiscretions of our incumbent mayor of Northampton, Gina Louise Sciarra. For three days leading up to the election I placed my flyers in the gaping mouths of rotting jack-o-lanterns, under [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mamdani-triumphs-while-northampton-massachusetts-challengers-fail-to-expand-the-franchise/feed/ 0