https://znetwork.org/category/topic/politics-gov/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Thu, 18 Dec 2025 13:05:08 +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/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-angry-tide-has-washed-into-chile/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-angry-tide-has-washed-into-chile/#respond Thu, 18 Dec 2025 16:54:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292501 On 14 December, the predictable happened: José Antonio Kast, the candidate of the far-right Republican Party, prevailed over Jeannette Jara of the Communist Party of Chile by 58.16 percent to 41.84 percent. Kast ran as the candidate of the Cambio por Chile (Change for Chile) platform and was backed by all the parties of the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-angry-tide-has-washed-into-chile/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-right-to-resist-palestine-and-the-semantics-of-terrorism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-right-to-resist-palestine-and-the-semantics-of-terrorism/#respond Wed, 17 Dec 2025 19:18:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292458 The Palestinian struggle, which spans over a century, is fundamentally about the dispossession of land, resistance to displacement, self-determination and human rights.   The indigenous people of Palestine have paid in lives, treasure, hopes and lost dreams because of Europe’s history of racism, antisemitism and colonial exploitation; a legacy that was transplanted into the Middle East [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-right-to-resist-palestine-and-the-semantics-of-terrorism/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/i-do-not-think-therefore-i-am/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/i-do-not-think-therefore-i-am/#respond Wed, 17 Dec 2025 19:15:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292456 Descartes’ famous phrase “I think, therefore I am” (cogito, ergo sum) has been the subject of immense discussion in modern and contemporary philosophy. Is it an inference or a performance (Hintikka)? Was it a central phrase in his philosophy or did he only use it in a didactic context (Cassirer)? Is it an original idea [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/i-do-not-think-therefore-i-am/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-israeli-army-is-creating-a-new-security-reality-in-the-northern-west-bank-to-advance-colonization/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-israeli-army-is-creating-a-new-security-reality-in-the-northern-west-bank-to-advance-colonization/#respond Wed, 17 Dec 2025 19:02:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292485 On December 3, Israeli forces raided a home in the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin, tearing down a map of Palestine hanging on the wall and confiscating another. The homeowners, a woman and her 11-year-old daughter, were detained for several hours and subjected to on-site field interrogations as Israeli troops vandalised the rest of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-israeli-army-is-creating-a-new-security-reality-in-the-northern-west-bank-to-advance-colonization/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hunger-strikes-and-court-cases-fighting-the-proscription-of-palestine-action/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hunger-strikes-and-court-cases-fighting-the-proscription-of-palestine-action/#respond Wed, 17 Dec 2025 18:58:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292466 Fighting the proscription of Palestine Action has become more urgent as eight brave activists enter the crucial period of their hunger strike. 12 January has finally been set for the court hearing on holding a Scottish judicial review of the proscription of Palestine Action. I am frankly terrified for the hunger strikers. The Starmer government [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hunger-strikes-and-court-cases-fighting-the-proscription-of-palestine-action/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumps-end-of-history-moment/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumps-end-of-history-moment/#respond Wed, 17 Dec 2025 18:48:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292470 The Trumpster is not yet finished his first year back in the White House, and I cannot imagine how our crumbling republic will survive three more years of this man-child and the misfits and miscreants with whom he has surrounded himself. And it occurs to me lately that neither I nor anyone else is supposed [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumps-end-of-history-moment/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-fabulous-hallucinations-of-the-european-leaders/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-fabulous-hallucinations-of-the-european-leaders/#respond Wed, 17 Dec 2025 18:46:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292468 Sitting in a lively room in the University of Amsterdam, I ask a question about the respect accorded by students to their former Prime Minister and now head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), Mark Rutte. The room is animated and funny. No-one seems to accord Rutte with the respect that he might deserve. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-fabulous-hallucinations-of-the-european-leaders/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-the-charter-school-industrys-newest-scheme-could-be-the-death-of-public-schools/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-the-charter-school-industrys-newest-scheme-could-be-the-death-of-public-schools/#respond Wed, 17 Dec 2025 18:40:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292457 The letters started coming in October 2025. In the first wave, according to the Florida Policy Institute (FPI), “at least 22 school districts in Florida” got letters alerting them that charter school operators, including a for-profit charter school management company based in Miami, intended to use a state law recently enacted to open new charter schools [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-the-charter-school-industrys-newest-scheme-could-be-the-death-of-public-schools/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/whos-responsible-when-a-military-order-is-illegal/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/whos-responsible-when-a-military-order-is-illegal/#respond Wed, 17 Dec 2025 18:09:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292455 Any story about resistance within the military must begin by recognizing that it’s not an easy thing to do. Apparently, that’s true even for a much-decorated retired Navy commander, former astronaut, and sitting United States senator. I’m talking about Arizona Senator Mark Kelly. He was one of six Democratic legislators, all military veterans or former intelligence [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/whos-responsible-when-a-military-order-is-illegal/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/chile-pinochetism-returns-to-power/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/chile-pinochetism-returns-to-power/#respond Tue, 16 Dec 2025 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292435 José A. Kast’s resounding victory in the runoff election is bound to have a profound influence on Chile. A solid, neo-fascist, extreme right-wing force consolidated as a result of the convergence of two radical variants of Pinochetism —one led by Kast and the other, even more extreme, by Johannes Kaiser— to which rushed to join [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/chile-pinochetism-returns-to-power/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumpist-geopolitics-in-western-balkans-how-a-heritage-ideologue-sells-third-entity-in-bosnia/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumpist-geopolitics-in-western-balkans-how-a-heritage-ideologue-sells-third-entity-in-bosnia/#respond Tue, 16 Dec 2025 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292432 Bosnia and Herzegovina is usually introduced to foreign readers as a “post-war success story” held together by the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement — a fragile compromise that ended the bloodshed by freezing the country into a constitutional maze. Two entities, three “constituent peoples,” a rotating tripartite Presidency, layers of vetoes and international supervision: Dayton didn’t [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumpist-geopolitics-in-western-balkans-how-a-heritage-ideologue-sells-third-entity-in-bosnia/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/benjamin-netanyahus-lethal-legacy/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/benjamin-netanyahus-lethal-legacy/#comments Tue, 16 Dec 2025 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292437 Since early 2023, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have demonstrated against Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu and his cabinet, due to its proposed judicial reforms, the handling of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas and the Gaza genocide. So, why is he still in power? Recently, Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down on his [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/benjamin-netanyahus-lethal-legacy/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/its-time-for-america-to-indict-itself-cruelty-and-dehumanization-never-end-well/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/its-time-for-america-to-indict-itself-cruelty-and-dehumanization-never-end-well/#respond Tue, 16 Dec 2025 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292430 This week marks the 30th anniversary of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. On December 14,1995 leaders from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and the former Yugoslavia signed the Dayton Peace Agreement, ending a ferocious three-and-a-half-year war that claimed around 100,000 lives, left thousands missing, and reduced entire communities to rubble. But the war in Bosnia [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/its-time-for-america-to-indict-itself-cruelty-and-dehumanization-never-end-well/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/surprising-lessons-for-the-u-s-resistance-to-trump-in-sudans-recent-history/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/surprising-lessons-for-the-u-s-resistance-to-trump-in-sudans-recent-history/#respond Mon, 15 Dec 2025 19:32:38 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292405 Follow a line south and west from the Gaza Strip, continue through Egypt, and you’ll end up in another place where a genocide is in progress. It’s one we don’t hear much about in the United States, probably because it’s happening in an African nation, one of those places Donald Trump refers to as “shithole countries.” (Interestingly, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/surprising-lessons-for-the-u-s-resistance-to-trump-in-sudans-recent-history/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-american-people-dont-want-a-bigger-military-budget/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-american-people-dont-want-a-bigger-military-budget/#respond Mon, 15 Dec 2025 19:14:22 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292398 The House passed the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Wednesday last week, which authorizes $901 billion in military spending — $8 billion more than Donald Trump asked for. An additional $156 billion was included in the Big Beautiful Bill, so the NDAA’s passage signals congressional support not only for its many ugly provisions, but also for a $1 trillion-plus military [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-american-people-dont-want-a-bigger-military-budget/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/seiu-california-sits-out-fight-against-classroom-censorship/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/seiu-california-sits-out-fight-against-classroom-censorship/#respond Mon, 15 Dec 2025 18:53:38 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292395 SEIU California routinely uses fighting words. Unfortunately, when was time to “stand up” and “fight back” against legislation that threatens the working conditions of tens of thousands of SEIU education workers, our union’s spirited rhetoric dissipated. SEIU California stood down. In the final days of the legislative session, AB 715, a dangerous censorship bill with broad [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/seiu-california-sits-out-fight-against-classroom-censorship/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/from-nuremberg-to-rome-keeping-humanity-safe/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/from-nuremberg-to-rome-keeping-humanity-safe/#respond Mon, 15 Dec 2025 18:26:01 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292381 Given my long-term interest in international affairs, I went to see the recently released movie, “Nuremberg,” to revisit the issue of how a court of law can be used to convict those guilty of war crimes. As a result, several parts of the film left me uneasy and looking for a better way to govern [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/from-nuremberg-to-rome-keeping-humanity-safe/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/humanity-clings-to-the-wreckage/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/humanity-clings-to-the-wreckage/#comments Mon, 15 Dec 2025 18:21:41 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292379 “Kill them all!” You have a problem with that? What are you, some kind of unmanly wimp? Pete Hegseth spits in your face. Let me catch my breath, calm myself, wipe my face. The cutting edge is raw. A hundred deaths, a thousand deaths, quickly turn into “collateral damage.” But the killing of two desperate [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/humanity-clings-to-the-wreckage/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/inside-the-mamdani-campaigns-appeal-to-black-voters/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/inside-the-mamdani-campaigns-appeal-to-black-voters/#respond Mon, 15 Dec 2025 14:33:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292407 One crucial factor in Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York City mayoral election last month was a huge shift in the Black vote. According to The City, Mamdani won 64 percent of the vote in neighborhoods with a plurality of Black residents — a 25 percentage point jump from the June primary. In our feature “Will Zohran Mamdani [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/inside-the-mamdani-campaigns-appeal-to-black-voters/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/american-socialists-arent-tired-of-winning/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/american-socialists-arent-tired-of-winning/#respond Sun, 14 Dec 2025 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292357 Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral win in New York forced many political observers to think, for the first time, of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) as a serious and potentially formidable force in American political life. For the more than one hundred DSA members who assembled in New Orleans for the third How We Win conference last [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/american-socialists-arent-tired-of-winning/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/myanmars-sham-elections-civil-disobedience-movement-and-government-of-national-unity/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/myanmars-sham-elections-civil-disobedience-movement-and-government-of-national-unity/#respond Sun, 14 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292353 On December 29, elections will begin in Myanmar – the Burmese call them sham elections —which will be held until January 11, 2026, with a subsequent phase. Meanwhile, the junta’s army has been heavily bombing villages in the areas occupied by the Resistance for months, attempting to reclaim lost territory and gain a broader electoral base. According [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/myanmars-sham-elections-civil-disobedience-movement-and-government-of-national-unity/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-handover-of-boric-to-the-next-government-of-chile-debunking-myths-of-blatant-theft-and-bankruptcy/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-handover-of-boric-to-the-next-government-of-chile-debunking-myths-of-blatant-theft-and-bankruptcy/#respond Sun, 14 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292355 Amid electoral polarization, the most reactionary sectors of the traditional right and the far right accuse the government of Gabriel Boric of having “robbed blatantly,” leaving the country on the brink of bankruptcy due to irresponsible use of sovereign bonds, having built “nothing” in infrastructure, and carrying a debt “far removed from GDP” that mortgages [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-handover-of-boric-to-the-next-government-of-chile-debunking-myths-of-blatant-theft-and-bankruptcy/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumps-idea-for-health-accounts-has-left-millions-of-patients-in-debt/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumps-idea-for-health-accounts-has-left-millions-of-patients-in-debt/#respond Sun, 14 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292363 Sarah Monroe once had a relatively comfortable middle-class life. She and her family lived in a neatly landscaped neighborhood near Cleveland. They had a six-figure income and health insurance. Then, four years ago, when Monroe was pregnant with twin girls, something started to feel off. “I kept having to come into the emergency room for [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumps-idea-for-health-accounts-has-left-millions-of-patients-in-debt/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumps-alleged-dementia-is-beside-the-point-the-issue-isnt-fitness-but-fascism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumps-alleged-dementia-is-beside-the-point-the-issue-isnt-fitness-but-fascism/#respond Sun, 14 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292351 During Trump’s first term it became something of a meme to compare Trump’s inner circle to the  collection of grotesque villains portrayed in Batman movies and cartoons. The Trump administration had seemingly been culled directly from Gotham City. In this 2017 warmup to fascism, Trump still had “Sloppy” Steve Bannon, moving chess pieces, Alex Jones’ [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trumps-alleged-dementia-is-beside-the-point-the-issue-isnt-fitness-but-fascism/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-did-trump-send-his-warships-to-venezuela/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-did-trump-send-his-warships-to-venezuela/#comments Sat, 13 Dec 2025 15:05:13 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292335 Ever since Hugo Chávez came to power in 1998, the United States has attempted  to overthrow the Bolivarian Revolution. They have tried everything short of a full-scale military invasion: a military coup, selecting a substitute president, cutting off access to the global financial system, imposing layers of sanctions, sabotaging the electricity grid, sending in mercenaries, and attempting [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-did-trump-send-his-warships-to-venezuela/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/europe-is-paying-libya-to-torture-migrants-on-its-behalf/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/europe-is-paying-libya-to-torture-migrants-on-its-behalf/#respond Sat, 13 Dec 2025 14:47:47 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292325 The boat took us all by surprise that morning. It was spotted by a crew member on lookout on our top deck, and soon, what had been a pinpoint on the horizon quickly became a distinct wooden boat, tightly packed with people, all waving and shouting. No one was wearing a lifejacket. The crew on [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/europe-is-paying-libya-to-torture-migrants-on-its-behalf/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/senate-filibuster-derails-dual-efforts-to-prevent-massive-aca-premium-increases/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/senate-filibuster-derails-dual-efforts-to-prevent-massive-aca-premium-increases/#respond Sat, 13 Dec 2025 14:28:27 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292311 On Thursday, two versions of legislation aimed at addressing a looming premium rate hike for participants on the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) marketplaces — one offered by Democrats, the other by Republicans — were blocked by Senate filibusters. During the pandemic, tax credits were offered to qualifying individuals and families to allow more access to [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/senate-filibuster-derails-dual-efforts-to-prevent-massive-aca-premium-increases/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/should-the-left-criticize-zohran/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/should-the-left-criticize-zohran/#respond Fri, 12 Dec 2025 16:58:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292285 In late November, I argued that “way too much leftist discourse is polarized into denunciations vs. defenses of Zohran. A more useful & important debate is how to organize enough New Yorkers to win Zohran’s agenda — and to counteract the inevitable pressures on him from capital and the political establishment.” Others disagreed. A few days later, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/should-the-left-criticize-zohran/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/higher-education-in-the-time-of-fascist-plague/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/higher-education-in-the-time-of-fascist-plague/#comments Fri, 12 Dec 2025 16:54:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292300 Introduction The horrors of fascism have returned have returned, not as ghosts, but as a plague, fueled by racial hatred and historical amnesia, infiltrating schools, universities, and the public sphere through state violence, fear, censorship, and manufactured ignorance. Across the globe, fascist forces—emboldened by resurgent colonial logics, neoliberal cruelty, and virulent white nationalism—have transformed universities [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/higher-education-in-the-time-of-fascist-plague/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/home-care-workers-are-losing-minimum-wage-protections-and-fighting-back/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/home-care-workers-are-losing-minimum-wage-protections-and-fighting-back/#respond Thu, 11 Dec 2025 16:52:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292260 Three million care workers, many of them Black and Latina women, could be classified as “companions” instead of professionals. For more than two decades, Denise Lugo has worked as a home care worker in Fayetteville, North Carolina, caring for elderly clients in their homes. Workers like Lugo provide intimate care for seniors and people with disabilities [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/home-care-workers-are-losing-minimum-wage-protections-and-fighting-back/feed/ 0