Recent Z Commentaries

Rapper Busta Rhymes pegged it at the Grammy Awards when he referred to Donald Trump as “President Agent Orange.” While performing with A Tribe Called Quest and Anderson Paak, Rhymes used the opportunity to call out Trump for his Muslim ban and “all of the evil” Trump has perpetrated since assuming the presidency three weeks Read more…

We need activists to operate with less emotions and urgency, and with more focus, which requires discipline, education and time

we need to find ways to navigate toward solidarity and mutual aid among contending perspectives
After the government tried to privatize and raise the costs of water, the Irish drew a line: “they are not going to draw any more blood from those stones.”

South Africa’s two main warring political blocs – the forces of Fiscal Patronage (‘Zuptas!’ in local parlance, referring to the immigrant Gupta family’s curious influence over the president’s family and government) versus the forces of Fiscal Prudence (‘Treasury neoliberals!’ to critics) – are still represented by two men who have begun to stumble on Read more…
Korean women are leading a movement to re-define their country’s relationship with Washington

Trump’s ban isn’t about national security. It’s about race, religion, and cultural exclusion
Louder than a “fictitious grizzly,” the nation’s parents, teachers, and students are roaring their disapproval of Trump’s nominee for Education Secretary

Countries exempted from the EO include Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates — countries where Trump apparently has business ties

Bill Fletcher Jr has been an activist since his teen years. Upon graduating from college he went to work as a welder in a shipyard, thereby entering the labor movement. Over the years he has been active in workplace and community struggles as well as electoral campaigns. He has worked for several labor unions in Read more…
Any form of democratic control of an economy would be impossible without banking and finance being reduced to a public utility, and thus serving to benefit communities rather than existing as a parasite

The more we can focus our critiques on the institutions of power and not those who temporarily occupy those institutions, the more successful we’ll be in the long-term
The left must match the anti-establishment rhetoric of the right, but with a different politics

Nonetheless, such a clash would be catastrophic. It would torpedo global trade, inflict trillions of dollars damage on each side, and the odds are distressingly high that the war could go nuclear
We learned under Bush that even when things are terrible at the federal level, we can have a real local impact
Revisiting this film might be one place to start the process of consolidating the resistance,

The administrative and legal changes proposed by Trump or his cabinet nominees will inflict harm on millions of American women

When it comes to stopping Trump, petitions aren’t going to do it
Does anyone believe that the world’s elite are going to suddenly accept business as usual can no longer go on and willingly give up their enormous privileges?

In the end, there are consequences for our actions and inactions. When events like Hurricane Katrina, or the invasion of Iraq takes place, the eventual fallout is immeasurable

There is no question that activism was having an impact on the First Republic Bank

Our shared future requires faith that whatever lays ahead, small gestures undertaken now – a folded message, a careful planting – are not lost
Here is the complete list of all the countries in the world that do not provide paid maternity leave for women workers: Papua New Guinea, United States of America

Serious debates over what the minimum wage should be in various U.S. locales and jurisdictions should start with serious information on what it actually costs to live in the different places where Americans live

Trump’s ugly and vicious madness, buffoonery, narcissism, and revanchism help make the “mainstream” Big Money candidates Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton look reasonable, responsible, respectable, mature, and trustworthy by comparison

If the Left hopes to win, we’re going to need to organize white working class communities, some of whom will transition from reactionaries to left-wing radicals
The financial industry, in contrast to the mythology it loves to peddle, does not create wealth — it confiscates wealth, attempting to profit off every aspect of human activity

The next time you run into someone who’s the least bit interested in politics, please invite them to your house for a dinner party, not the next local organizing meeting
Even if humanity were to stop throwing carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere today, a catastrophic rise in sea levels of six meters may be inevitable. Two previous prehistoric interglacial periods, in which the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere was believed to be about what it is today, resulted in dramatic rising of Read more…

If you are going to support some wars, how do you pick which wars not to support?

When it comes to the pursuit of property, the “rich” U.S. has state socialist Cuba beat hands down. When it comes to human well-being, “poor” Cuba wins just as decisively
As soon as the news broke that Camp Armen was under threat calls for solidarity were shared, leading to a Gezi-like occupation of the site

ICE prefers to circumvent the legal process in order to engage in massive “round-up sweeps” in communities, schools and workplaces

In turbulent economic times, BRICS will undergird – not undermine – Western financial decadence
The insatiable greed of financiers has reached the point where large corporations are now spending almost all profits on stock buybacks and dividends

A victory for OXI would not just help restore a sense of dignity to Greece; it would strengthen the ground for anti-austerity struggles across Europe

Racial differences in the U.S. cannot be denied, but the greatest tragedy is the lie that we the people do not have a common fight
The world has to drastically reduce its consumption. As this is an impossibility under capitalism, another world is not only possible, it is necessary

While calling Roof a terrorist is important for the historical power it carries, it should be coupled with opposition to the war on terror and more government grabs for repressive powers

Those who accuse the Greeks of “recklessness” are mistaken: the creditors’ utter contempt for democracy left them with no other choice but a rupture.

The mainstream media’s task is to deliver the purchasing power of the largest possible segment of the population to companies with products to sell

Washington runs on corporate and financial cash, connections, reach, and propaganda, not public opinion
Once we realize we don’t need capitalists to make decisions for us, and learn to organize collective self-defense, getting rid of bosses and running enterprises ourselves enters our imagination

Samuel Johnson defines patriotism as “love for one’s country; zeal for one’s country” and scoundrel as “a mean rascal; a low petty villain”

The assault is part of a history of racial violence striking at a central institution of African-American life in the South

At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the depth, degree, and relevance of anti-Black white societal, institutional, and cultural racism in American life
“Free trade” agreements are nothing more than initiatives to cement corporate control over all aspects of society