https://znetwork.org/category/topic/vision-strategy/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Fri, 23 Jan 2026 15:44:54 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/category/topic/vision-strategy/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/guarantee-to-live-is-alive-in-kerala/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/guarantee-to-live-is-alive-in-kerala/#respond Fri, 23 Jan 2026 17:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293834 In 1945, two years prior to India’s independence, the current Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, was born into a working-class family in northern Kerala. He was his mother’s fourteenth child; of the thirteen siblings born before him, only two survived. His mother was an agricultural labourer and his father a toddy tapper. They belonged [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/guarantee-to-live-is-alive-in-kerala/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/how-to-defeat-maga-tyranny-an-introduction-to-social-strikes/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/how-to-defeat-maga-tyranny-an-introduction-to-social-strikes/#respond Fri, 23 Jan 2026 15:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1293814 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 In this moment, questions of power — who has it, how it is exercised, and how it can be withdrawn — are [...]]]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-an-introduction-to-social-strikes/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/whats-it-going-to-take-to-get-to-mass-strikes/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/whats-it-going-to-take-to-get-to-mass-strikes/#respond Thu, 22 Jan 2026 16:58:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293786 On Jan. 23, Minnesotans will witness a new tactical experiment in resisting authoritarian consolidation: a one-day call for no work, no school, no shopping — an economic blackout across the state (www.iceoutnowmn.com). The call is coming from a rapidly growing coalition that includes the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005, Service Employees International Union Local 26, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/whats-it-going-to-take-to-get-to-mass-strikes/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-left-needs-bureaucrats/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-left-needs-bureaucrats/#respond Thu, 22 Jan 2026 16:56:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293764 After MAGA, the left will need to be ready with a theory of how to rebuild the federal administrative state—not as it was before Trump, but as something better. With Zohran Mamdani’s ascent to Gracie Mansion, a democratic socialist is now chief executive for the largest municipal bureaucracy in the United States, meaning that he [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-left-needs-bureaucrats/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-train-of-regeneration-green-peace-for-the-oases-from-bechar-to-tindouf/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-train-of-regeneration-green-peace-for-the-oases-from-bechar-to-tindouf/#respond Wed, 21 Jan 2026 18:54:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293725 Facing the strategic challenges in Algeria’s Southwest — water security, sustainable resource management, territorial stability, and socio-economic development — it is essential to complement major national projects with integrated approaches capable of amplifying their long-term benefits. This contribution aims to do just that. It offers a complementary perspective on a state-led infrastructure project, exploring how [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-train-of-regeneration-green-peace-for-the-oases-from-bechar-to-tindouf/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ratify-the-r-word-bruce-minneapolis-revolution-and-us/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ratify-the-r-word-bruce-minneapolis-revolution-and-us/#comments Tue, 20 Jan 2026 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293677 Twenty four years ago I wrote an essay titled “Resurrect the R Word.” To many people back then revolution meant chaos, violence, and death. Disagree? Me too. But should we resurrect the R-Word? My answer back then was that we should and I have the same answer now. But now we should Resurrect and also [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ratify-the-r-word-bruce-minneapolis-revolution-and-us/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mayor-mamdani-can-empower-new-yorks-municipal-workers/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mayor-mamdani-can-empower-new-yorks-municipal-workers/#respond Tue, 20 Jan 2026 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293711 What does it augur to have a socialist mayor of New York City? The basic tenets of Zohran Mamdani’s election platform are, of course, directed at reducing inequality in the most unequal city in the nation: free childcare and buses, frozen rents, and more subsidized housing are all steps in that direction. But sabotage from [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mayor-mamdani-can-empower-new-yorks-municipal-workers/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mlks-struggle-against-policing-and-surveillance-is-still-alive-in-memphis-today/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mlks-struggle-against-policing-and-surveillance-is-still-alive-in-memphis-today/#respond Mon, 19 Jan 2026 19:11:26 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293672 Every year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, elected officials quote King while standing safely at a distance from the risks he embraced. His name is invoked, his image sanitized, and his politics stripped of urgency. The U.S. celebrates a softened King who spoke about love but not power, unity but not confrontation, peace but [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mlks-struggle-against-policing-and-surveillance-is-still-alive-in-memphis-today/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/we-are-in-a-crisis-how-to-build-communities-that-can-respond/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/we-are-in-a-crisis-how-to-build-communities-that-can-respond/#respond Sun, 18 Jan 2026 14:36:39 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293640 The U.S. is in a crisis of historic proportions, scaling to previous eras such as the Civil War and 1930s Depression. It is a systemic crisis in the sense its political system is failing to respond either to immediate challenges or more deeply rooted problems out of which those challenges rise. The immediate challenge is [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/we-are-in-a-crisis-how-to-build-communities-that-can-respond/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-life-of-civil-rights-hero-claudette-colvin-should-teach-us-this-resistance-is-collective-and-it-never-stops/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-life-of-civil-rights-hero-claudette-colvin-should-teach-us-this-resistance-is-collective-and-it-never-stops/#respond Sat, 17 Jan 2026 15:04:38 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293606 “In life, there’s the beginning and the end,” John Carlos, the African American sprinter who raised his fist in a black power salute from the podium of the 1968 Olympics, once told me. “The beginning don’t matter. The end don’t matter. All that matters is what you do in between – whether you’re prepared to do [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-life-of-civil-rights-hero-claudette-colvin-should-teach-us-this-resistance-is-collective-and-it-never-stops/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/social-strikes-confronting-ice-and-resisting-authoritarianism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/social-strikes-confronting-ice-and-resisting-authoritarianism/#respond Fri, 16 Jan 2026 16:59:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293569 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/znetarticle/social-strikes-confronting-ice-and-resisting-authoritarianism/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ehren-watada-the-duty-to-oppose-crimes-of-state/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ehren-watada-the-duty-to-oppose-crimes-of-state/#respond Fri, 16 Jan 2026 16:58:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293536 The US attack on Venezuela and its kidnapping of President Maduro and his wife has launched the US on a new round of crimes against US law, international law, and the US Constitution. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has started proceedings against military veteran Sen. Mark Kelly for saying military officers have a duty to disobey [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ehren-watada-the-duty-to-oppose-crimes-of-state/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-can-socialists-run-cities/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-can-socialists-run-cities/#respond Fri, 16 Jan 2026 16:58:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293544 Zohran Mamdani’s election to Mayor of New York has been a badly-needed boost to the confidence of the left in the U.S. and beyond. It has also reignited debate about the strategic choices facing socialists elected to local government, and eventually to national governments too. A special, end-of-year issue of Jacobin, the U.S. left magazine, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-can-socialists-run-cities/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-black-feminist-collective-that-gave-us-identity-politics/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-black-feminist-collective-that-gave-us-identity-politics/#respond Fri, 16 Jan 2026 16:54:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293540 Hammer & Hope co-founder Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor has written a new introduction for an expanded second edition of How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective, which includes the groundbreaking statement, along with interviews and essays reflecting on its impact, among them a new interview with Angela Y. Davis. In this excerpt from the introduction, Taylor describes the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-black-feminist-collective-that-gave-us-identity-politics/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-voting-alone-doesnt-build-democracy-and-what-actually-does/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-voting-alone-doesnt-build-democracy-and-what-actually-does/#respond Thu, 15 Jan 2026 16:58:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293501 Elections matter, but history shows they are not enough. Real democracy is built through organized civic power between elections. Voting matters. That needs to be said plainly—especially now. But let’s be frank: voting does not provide an immediate mechanism for holding politicians accountable when their actions violate the public trust, undermine democratic norms, or serve [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-voting-alone-doesnt-build-democracy-and-what-actually-does/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/digital-socialism-or-extinction-venezuelas-lesson-amid-capitalisms-most-ferocious-phase/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/digital-socialism-or-extinction-venezuelas-lesson-amid-capitalisms-most-ferocious-phase/#respond Wed, 14 Jan 2026 16:56:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293473 1. The Lesson of Venezuela At the dawn of an ordinary day in early January of this year, 2026, the world woke up to shocking news whose repercussions were not clear at first glance: a brutal U.S. military aggression and the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a complex [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/digital-socialism-or-extinction-venezuelas-lesson-amid-capitalisms-most-ferocious-phase/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/three-strategic-issues-what-to-say-or-write-what-to-do-and-who-to-do-it-with/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/three-strategic-issues-what-to-say-or-write-what-to-do-and-who-to-do-it-with/#respond Wed, 14 Jan 2026 16:53:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293467 My goal in this oddly titled and rather short episode is to suggest a near universally applicable strategic measuring stick for choosing among different progressive actions and choices those we wish to undertake. In some respects my observations are quite elementary. In others, though, regarding actual day-to-day choices we make, I suspect they are pretty [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/three-strategic-issues-what-to-say-or-write-what-to-do-and-who-to-do-it-with/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/were-racing-down-the-highway-to-a-mad-max-world/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/were-racing-down-the-highway-to-a-mad-max-world/#respond Wed, 14 Jan 2026 16:51:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293453 Let me start by putting things bluntly: Don’t bother to tell Donald Trump, but with his distinct help, we’re doing nothing less than cooking ourselves. Thanks to the continued use of fossil fuels in a staggering fashion and the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, almost half of the world’s population now suffers through 30 additional days [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/were-racing-down-the-highway-to-a-mad-max-world/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-turn-extreme-weather-tragedies-into-climate-victories/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-turn-extreme-weather-tragedies-into-climate-victories/#respond Wed, 14 Jan 2026 16:50:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293458 The European climate movement is faltering. State repression has escalated. Authoritarianism is on the rise. And even though most people around the world support climate action, they consistently underestimate how much others care — giving people the sense their concern is not shared. Groups like Just Stop Oil and Climate Defiance deserve credit for keeping climate in the headlines. But any movement [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-turn-extreme-weather-tragedies-into-climate-victories/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/zohran-mamdani-is-right-to-stand-by-cea-weaver/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/zohran-mamdani-is-right-to-stand-by-cea-weaver/#comments Tue, 13 Jan 2026 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293445 Last June, a tenant organizer named Cea Weaver wrote an article for Jacobin that bluntly opened with the line, “Real estate runs New York.” She noted that “poll after poll” showed that New Yorkers’ top concern is rent, but “disgraced mayor Eric Adams” openly declared, “I am real estate.” Former governor Andrew Cuomo, who was running to replace Adams, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/zohran-mamdani-is-right-to-stand-by-cea-weaver/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/shackles-in-mentality-and-ocalans-revolution-of-mentality/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/shackles-in-mentality-and-ocalans-revolution-of-mentality/#respond Mon, 12 Jan 2026 13:03:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293387 ​The radical breakthrough quality of Abdullah Öcalan’s thought stems not only from exceeding the limits of the classical leftist paradigm but from the structural critique he directs toward the entirety of modernity. This critique is aimed at analyzing the integrated system of power that modernity has built around progress, growth, rationality, the nation-state, capitalist economy, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/shackles-in-mentality-and-ocalans-revolution-of-mentality/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-start-a-revolution-in-2026/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-start-a-revolution-in-2026/#respond Mon, 12 Jan 2026 13:03:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293393 This is my most complete piece of work since prison. I’ve just published a three-hour video laying out, in practical detail, how real political change actually happens in the conditions we now face: climate collapse, democratic breakdown, and the rise of authoritarian politics. The full video is linked here, and there’s also a podcast version for those who [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-start-a-revolution-in-2026/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ivan-cepeda-on-the-risk-of-us-meddling-in-colombias-election/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ivan-cepeda-on-the-risk-of-us-meddling-in-colombias-election/#respond Mon, 12 Jan 2026 13:02:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293385 Iván Cepeda is a senator for the Pacto Histórico, the left-wing alliance that backed Colombian president Gustavo Petro’s election, and its candidate to succeed him as president in the general elections of May and June 2026. A human rights defender, Cepeda has a long political career that has led him, at different times, to be [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ivan-cepeda-on-the-risk-of-us-meddling-in-colombias-election/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/we-ran-katie-wilsons-campaign-heres-what-we-learned/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/we-ran-katie-wilsons-campaign-heres-what-we-learned/#respond Mon, 12 Jan 2026 13:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293378 Zohran Mamdani has energized the US Left and offered a potential road map to socialists seeking political power. But most candidates don’t have Mamdani’s unique superstar charisma and most American cities aren’t so favorable to the Left. Ultimately, to win power nationwide, we’ll need a diverse set of playbooks. The successful campaign of Seattle’s new [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/we-ran-katie-wilsons-campaign-heres-what-we-learned/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-gen-z-movements-around-the-globe-shared-tactics-and-challenges/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-gen-z-movements-around-the-globe-shared-tactics-and-challenges/#respond Sun, 11 Jan 2026 16:41:18 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293354 Indonesia. Madagascar. The Philippines. Morocco. Nepal. Tanzania. Peru. Paraguay. Timor-leste. Maldives. Kenya. Countries with little shared history or political context, yet all were engulfed at different moments this year by the same force: street protests led overwhelmingly by Gen Z, those born between 1997 and 2012.  Youth uprisings are not new, but the speed and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-gen-z-movements-around-the-globe-shared-tactics-and-challenges/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/honoring-the-many-responses-to-renee-nicole-goods-murder/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/honoring-the-many-responses-to-renee-nicole-goods-murder/#respond Fri, 09 Jan 2026 19:40:46 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293303 I was leading the afternoon session in a room of Black clergy. I had been planning to announce happier news that our pressure on Avelo forced them out of the deportation business. But this breaking overshadowed it. I told them that an ICE observer in Minneapolis had been shot. They gasped. Somehow, the gasp was the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/honoring-the-many-responses-to-renee-nicole-goods-murder/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/five-things-steward-training-gets-wrong/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/five-things-steward-training-gets-wrong/#respond Fri, 09 Jan 2026 19:21:02 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293294 Recently I did some training with a group of newly elected officers and business agents. We used their International’s steward training manual, but I felt it missed the mark on several issues. When I reviewed manuals from other unions, these mistakes kept coming up: 1. Representing two members who get in a fight One new [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/five-things-steward-training-gets-wrong/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-real-implications-of-mass-politics/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-real-implications-of-mass-politics/#respond Fri, 09 Jan 2026 19:12:12 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293290 “Can We Meet the Moment?” The question posed by Tom Goodkind in his analysis of the 2025 DSA Convention spurred debate and discussion on the left. To sharpen our collective thinking, The New Liberator has published a series of responses, rejoinders, and hot takes. Here, Kolya Ludwig weighs in with his take on the theoretical questions at [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-real-implications-of-mass-politics/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-core-meaning-of-the-climate-emergency-for-movement-organizers/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-core-meaning-of-the-climate-emergency-for-movement-organizers/#comments Fri, 09 Jan 2026 18:48:56 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293278 There is one crucial argument that the climate justice movement carried with it. For a brief period of time, it seemed like it was integrated into the general knowledge of social movements. It wasn’t. The argument is about the meaning of climate emergency. It is not an argument about public discourse or even about policy. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-core-meaning-of-the-climate-emergency-for-movement-organizers/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/united-states-invaded-venezuela-and-how-degrowth-can-end-all-wars/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/united-states-invaded-venezuela-and-how-degrowth-can-end-all-wars/#respond Thu, 08 Jan 2026 16:50:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293228 There is no doubt that the invasion of Venezuela is about oil. Trump said so himself. Using the charge of narco-terrorism against Maduro is a pretext for holding a higher moral ground that the United States continues to think it has in the World. To maintain this higher moral ground the US engages in regime changes [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/united-states-invaded-venezuela-and-how-degrowth-can-end-all-wars/feed/ 0