https://znetwork.org/category/topic/politics-gov/social-policy/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Sun, 15 Feb 2026 18:58:04 +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/social-policy/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/there-is-still-no-ceasefire-in-sight-for-the-people-of-gaza/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/there-is-still-no-ceasefire-in-sight-for-the-people-of-gaza/#respond Sun, 15 Feb 2026 18:57:55 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294772 Last October, the Trump administration announced a ceasefire deal in Gaza after two years of relentless carnage. Since the deal was announced, Israel has continued to occupy much of Gaza, and its forces have killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has launched his so-called Board of Peace to administer Gaza without any input [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/there-is-still-no-ceasefire-in-sight-for-the-people-of-gaza/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-nuestra-america-flotilla-is-sailing-to-cuba/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-nuestra-america-flotilla-is-sailing-to-cuba/#respond Fri, 13 Feb 2026 19:26:54 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294684 The Trump administration is tightening the noose around Cuba. In late January, the White House signed a new executive order escalating the siege — authorising sanctions, interdictions, and tariffs on any country that supplies the island with fuel. Washington calls it “maximum pressure.” In practice, it means oil tankers seized at sea, flights cut, financial [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-nuestra-america-flotilla-is-sailing-to-cuba/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 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/israel-destroyed-gazas-hospitals-now-its-banning-doctors-without-borders/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israel-destroyed-gazas-hospitals-now-its-banning-doctors-without-borders/#respond Fri, 13 Feb 2026 19:15:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294701 On January 1, the Israeli occupation revoked the licenses of 37 international and local humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza, and it has now warned they must “must complete the cessation of their activities by March 1, 2026.” These organizations provide essential services to civilians: delivering food aid to the poor, supplying clean drinking water, supporting [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israel-destroyed-gazas-hospitals-now-its-banning-doctors-without-borders/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/first-gaza-then-the-world-the-global-danger-of-israeli-exceptionalism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/first-gaza-then-the-world-the-global-danger-of-israeli-exceptionalism/#respond Fri, 13 Feb 2026 18:18:38 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294685 While many nations occasionally resort to a “state of exception” to deal with temporary crises, Israel exists in a permanent state of exception. This Israeli exceptionalism is the very essence of the instability that plagues the Middle East. The concept of the state of exception dates back to the Roman justitium, a legal mechanism for [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/first-gaza-then-the-world-the-global-danger-of-israeli-exceptionalism/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-american-life-expectancy-is-falling-behind-globally-falling-apart-by-state/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-american-life-expectancy-is-falling-behind-globally-falling-apart-by-state/#respond Thu, 12 Feb 2026 16:52:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294660 In a discussion with INET’s Lynn Parramore, researcher Steven H. Woolf explains how the peculiar features of life, policy, and economics in America are killing us sooner, and what we can do to change it. *This is Part 1 of a two-part interview; Part 2 is here. For all the talk about American exceptionalism, here’s [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-american-life-expectancy-is-falling-behind-globally-falling-apart-by-state/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-government-sanctioned-persecution-of-leqaa-kordia/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-government-sanctioned-persecution-of-leqaa-kordia/#respond Wed, 11 Feb 2026 17:53:07 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294599 The last Columbia University protester’s hospitalization and subsequent disappearance are just the latest bad omens amid worsening conditions in confinement. As her time in confinement approaches a full year, Columbia protester and Palestinian human rights advocate Leqaa Kordia, 33, was missing in ICE custody for over 72 hours following a medical episode last Friday. On [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-government-sanctioned-persecution-of-leqaa-kordia/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/suffocating-an-island-what-the-u-s-blockade-is-doing-to-cuba/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/suffocating-an-island-what-the-u-s-blockade-is-doing-to-cuba/#respond Wed, 11 Feb 2026 17:35:34 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294598 Marta Jiménez, a hairdresser in Cuba’s eastern city of Holguín, covered her face with her hands and broke down crying when I asked her about Trump’s blockade of the island—especially now that the U.S. is choking off oil shipments. “You can’t imagine how it touches every part of our lives,” she sobbed. “It’s a vicious, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/suffocating-an-island-what-the-u-s-blockade-is-doing-to-cuba/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/dispelling-myths-about-border-security/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/dispelling-myths-about-border-security/#respond Wed, 11 Feb 2026 17:32:18 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294597 Western governments, the U.S. under Donald Trump leading the pack, are caught in the grip of an anti-immigration fervor, enforcing cruel and degrading laws that violate human rights and undermine public safety. This entire approach toward immigrants is not only immoral but also rests on false economic claims, argues Daniel Mendiola, assistant professor of history [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/dispelling-myths-about-border-security/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-us-military-aided-mass-child-rape-in-afghanistan-now-its-soldiers-are-committing-this-crime-at-fort-bragg/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-us-military-aided-mass-child-rape-in-afghanistan-now-its-soldiers-are-committing-this-crime-at-fort-bragg/#respond Wed, 11 Feb 2026 17:31:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294609 There is an epidemic of child sex crimes in and around Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Since 2021, and the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, dozens of elite soldiers stationed at the military base have been convicted of raping children, distributing child pornography, and other similar offenses.  Many of these soldiers served in Afghanistan, where it is [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-us-military-aided-mass-child-rape-in-afghanistan-now-its-soldiers-are-committing-this-crime-at-fort-bragg/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/u-s-secretly-deporting-palestinians-to-west-bank-in-coordination-with-israel/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/u-s-secretly-deporting-palestinians-to-west-bank-in-coordination-with-israel/#respond Mon, 09 Feb 2026 18:12:54 +0000 The United States is quietly deporting Palestinians arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the occupied West Bank by private jet, with two such flights taking place in coordination with the Israeli authorities since the beginning of this year — part of a secretive and politically sensitive operation revealed through a joint investigation by [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/u-s-secretly-deporting-palestinians-to-west-bank-in-coordination-with-israel/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/fascist-aesthetics-has-come-back-with-maga-politics/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/fascist-aesthetics-has-come-back-with-maga-politics/#respond Sat, 07 Feb 2026 16:57:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294393 What is most revealing about the MAGA aesthetic is its studied ugliness. On one side stands the grotesque excess of beauty-pageant femininity, plastic smiles, puffy lips, lacquered beach-wave hair, sharpened jawlines, and a hyper-sexualized nostalgia masquerading as “traditional values.” US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem exemplifies this aesthetic as a badge of cruelty. Carefully [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/fascist-aesthetics-has-come-back-with-maga-politics/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/depoliticizing-pedagogies-of-comfort-and-instrumentalism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/depoliticizing-pedagogies-of-comfort-and-instrumentalism/#respond Thu, 05 Feb 2026 16:53:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294392 A university that confuses comfort with care, risks becoming an institution of managed ignorance or a laboratory for indoctrination. Iam increasingly unsettled by the return of instrumentalism and operationalism, twin logics that reduce education to technique, measurement, and control, in higher education, even among academics who identify as progressive and should know better. Education is too often [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/depoliticizing-pedagogies-of-comfort-and-instrumentalism/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/human-rights-watch-israel-palestine-team-quits-over-blocked-report-on-right-of-return/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/human-rights-watch-israel-palestine-team-quits-over-blocked-report-on-right-of-return/#respond Wed, 04 Feb 2026 19:10:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294379 Two Human Rights Watch employees—the group’s entire Israel-Palestine team—resigned after senior staffers blocked a report calling Israel’s denial of Palestinian refugees’ right of return to their homeland a crime against humanity. Jewish Currents’ Alex Kane reported Tuesday that HRW Israel-Palestine team lead Omar Shakir and assistant researcher Milena Ansari are stepping down over leadership’s decision [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/human-rights-watch-israel-palestine-team-quits-over-blocked-report-on-right-of-return/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/former-idf-soldiers-are-challenging-the-normalization-of-the-occupation/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/former-idf-soldiers-are-challenging-the-normalization-of-the-occupation/#respond Mon, 02 Feb 2026 21:16:04 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294297 A tour group stood on Hebron’s Al-Shuhada Street, listening as a former Israel Defense Forces soldier pointed out, on a map, the nine roads in the West Bank city that Palestinians are restricted or prohibited from accessing.  Once a bustling market hub, Al-Shuhada Street was now quiet and devoid of pedestrians, aside from a nearby [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/former-idf-soldiers-are-challenging-the-normalization-of-the-occupation/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/governing-crisis-sanctions-austerity-and-social-unrest-in-iran/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/governing-crisis-sanctions-austerity-and-social-unrest-in-iran/#respond Fri, 30 Jan 2026 17:10:17 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294189 On December 28, 2025, protests erupted across multiple cities in Iran in response to currency collapse and spiraling living costs. As the exchange rate grew more volatile, sections of Tehran’s Grand Bazaar and commercial centers shuttered. Rapidly shifting prices made imports, pricing and trade impossible. The state moved quickly to implement an emergency measure embedded in [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/governing-crisis-sanctions-austerity-and-social-unrest-in-iran/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-situation-in-syria-and-the-western-silence-kobani-is-burning/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-situation-in-syria-and-the-western-silence-kobani-is-burning/#respond Wed, 28 Jan 2026 15:00:00 +0000 In a discussion with one of my Danish leftist-oriented friends about the situation in Syria, I told her: What is happening now in Syria is a reconfiguration of the capitalist order in the region, where a new geographical map of Syria is being drawn and a state is being imposed based on terrorist and nationalist [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-situation-in-syria-and-the-western-silence-kobani-is-burning/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/leaked-board-of-peace-resolution-outlines-u-s-led-plan-to-rule-over-gaza/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/leaked-board-of-peace-resolution-outlines-u-s-led-plan-to-rule-over-gaza/#respond Mon, 26 Jan 2026 19:35:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294016 The so-called Board of Peace that President Donald Trump officially launched in Davos, Switzerland last week is developing sweeping plans for a U.S.-backed administration to rule Gaza, according to a draft of the Board’s resolution. Drop Site obtained the unsigned document, which is dated January 22, 2026 and titled “Resolution No. 2026/1,” from three independent [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/leaked-board-of-peace-resolution-outlines-u-s-led-plan-to-rule-over-gaza/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/welcome-to-palestine-minnesota-life-under-occupation/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/welcome-to-palestine-minnesota-life-under-occupation/#respond Mon, 26 Jan 2026 19:15:23 +0000 Israel has come home to roost in Minnesota. The people of Minneapolis and St. Paul have become the Palestinians of Minnesota. The residents of the Twin Cities are experiencing the loss of sovereignty and civil rights that Palestinians have suffered for over eight decades.    The L’Etoile du Nord (the Star of the North) state has [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/welcome-to-palestine-minnesota-life-under-occupation/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/this-is-the-deep-state-that-trumpists-love/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/this-is-the-deep-state-that-trumpists-love/#comments Mon, 26 Jan 2026 19:10:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294002 I’ve lived in or near Burlington, Vermont for most of the last thirty-five years.  In 1999 I wrote a piece for a local Burlington agitational monthly called the Old North End Rag (or The Rag) that discussed the various permutations of the encroaching police state then being developed in the United States.  One of the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/this-is-the-deep-state-that-trumpists-love/feed/ 3 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/francesca-albanese-and-the-dignity-of-intelligence-when-the-university-refuses-to-kneel/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/francesca-albanese-and-the-dignity-of-intelligence-when-the-university-refuses-to-kneel/#respond Sun, 25 Jan 2026 16:21:10 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293967 In times of systematic intimidation, complicit silences and institutional cowardice, the joint decision by the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the University of Antwerp and Ghent University to award an honorary doctorate to Francesca Albanese is not a routine academic gesture. It is a stand. It is an ethical affirmation. And above all, it is a declaration [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/francesca-albanese-and-the-dignity-of-intelligence-when-the-university-refuses-to-kneel/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-disconnected-present-neoliberal-fascism-and-the-politics-of-erasure/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-disconnected-present-neoliberal-fascism-and-the-politics-of-erasure/#comments Thu, 22 Jan 2026 16:50:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293781 Weaponizing Distraction: Spectacle as Governance Under the Trump administration, the politics of diversion has hardened into a governing strategy and been normalized by a compliant mainstream media ecosystem. As James Oliphant observes in Reuters, “Donald Trump is a human hurricane,” generating so many simultaneous controversies that tracking any single event becomes nearly impossible. Oliphant is only partly [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-disconnected-present-neoliberal-fascism-and-the-politics-of-erasure/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-has-built-his-own-fascist-paramilitary-squad/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-has-built-his-own-fascist-paramilitary-squad/#respond Wed, 21 Jan 2026 18:59:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293733 Exactly a year ago today, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States. He took over a nation with strong imperialistic tendencies and a democratic polity but with widespread illiberal features throughout its history and, in less than a year, succeeded in establishing a 21st-century US variant of fascism while [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/trump-has-built-his-own-fascist-paramilitary-squad/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-past-year-has-seen-an-unprecedented-displacement-of-palestinian-communities-in-the-west-bank/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-past-year-has-seen-an-unprecedented-displacement-of-palestinian-communities-in-the-west-bank/#respond Wed, 21 Jan 2026 18:59:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293749 The year 2025 saw the unprecedented displacement of Palestinian rural communities by Israeli settlers, who enjoy the Israeli army’s backing. At least 13 rural Palestinian communities in the West Bank were completely wiped off the map. This impacted at least 190 families and 1,090 individuals.  The wave of settler attacks has continued into 2026, with [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-past-year-has-seen-an-unprecedented-displacement-of-palestinian-communities-in-the-west-bank/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/historians-have-a-duty-to-condemn-scholasticide-in-gaza/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/historians-have-a-duty-to-condemn-scholasticide-in-gaza/#respond Wed, 21 Jan 2026 18:58:00 +0000 Earlier this month, the American Historical Association’s (AHA) leadership once again overruled its own members, blocking a resolution on scholasticide in Gaza and vetoing a second resolution concerning the escalating repression of scholars in the United States — particularly those who have spoken out about this destruction. The votes were not close. Nearly 80 percent [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/historians-have-a-duty-to-condemn-scholasticide-in-gaza/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/after-bondi-australia-faces-a-foreign-policy-choice/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/after-bondi-australia-faces-a-foreign-policy-choice/#comments Wed, 21 Jan 2026 18:56:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293724 Australia has entered one of those rare diplomatic moments when grief at home collides with moral judgment abroad, and when a single invitation carries meanings far beyond the bounds of protocol. The decision to host Israeli President Isaac Herzog in the aftermath of the Bondi Beach Hanukkah massacre has become more than an act of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/after-bondi-australia-faces-a-foreign-policy-choice/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/so-what-is-it-that-youth-should-aspire-to/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/so-what-is-it-that-youth-should-aspire-to/#respond Tue, 20 Jan 2026 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293692 Everyone wants a good future for their children, grandchildren and students. Most would say a better future. A quality education. Good work they are interested in. A peaceful community of well-being. Some kind of dignity in all arenas of life. The more time passes the clearer the demand becomes on all of us to begin [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/so-what-is-it-that-youth-should-aspire-to/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-second-american-declaration/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-second-american-declaration/#comments Mon, 19 Jan 2026 18:56:20 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293667 WHEN in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary to decide that a government that purports to represent the union of states has failed to do so; that the unalienable rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness have been trampled upon by that government; and that the rule of law and the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-second-american-declaration/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/stephen-miller-trump-aide-iron-laws-of-the-world-and-human-rights/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/stephen-miller-trump-aide-iron-laws-of-the-world-and-human-rights/#respond Mon, 19 Jan 2026 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293662 President Donald Trump’s long-serving aide, Stephen Miller, recently opined: “We live in a world, in the real world … that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world.”  What Miller said is resonant with declarations by tyrants: “Political power grows out [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/stephen-miller-trump-aide-iron-laws-of-the-world-and-human-rights/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-its-essential-to-scrap-the-cap/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-its-essential-to-scrap-the-cap/#respond Sat, 17 Jan 2026 14:42:48 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293591 Al Polk landed a job at a cutting-tool plant in his early 20s and then promptly started paying Social Security taxes—every week, 12 months a year, without a break, for decades. Polk realized that collective responsibility for Social Security ensured a dignified retirement for all, and he took pride in holding up his end of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-its-essential-to-scrap-the-cap/feed/ 0