Volume 28
Number 4
ZMAG MISSION
Z Magazine is an independent monthly magazine founded in 1988. Our mission is to publish in depth articles that critique society's political, economic, social life and institutions. We see the race, class, and gender dimensions of personal life as equally important in understanding current circumstances and as necessary for developing visions and strategies for progressive change.
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Commentary
The TPP would encourage further out-sourcing and job and tax revenue loss, a further weakening of labor’s bargaining power, windfalls for the wealthy from enhanced copyright and patent protection, along with reduced government revenue for social spending
Not only does the conventional wisdom in U.S. media blame the bloody exploits of IS on the region itself, as if the U.S. and western interventionism are not, in any way, factors at least worth pondering
According to a report by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, “At least 2,464 people have now been killed by U.S. drone strikes outside the country’s declared war zones [Afghanistan and Iraq] since President Barack Obama’s inauguration six years ago.”
An emerging big irony of United States of America v. Jeffrey Alexander Sterling is that the government has harmed itself in the process of gunning for the defendant
Drones are on the verge of being able to stay in the air for weeks and maybe months on end. They can not only have weapons for shredding people like a giant disposal might, but also super cameras
Activism
When Clarke invokes the “front page rule,” it seems to be his acknowledgement that peace protesters like members of Code Pink play a valuable role informing public opinion. Believing that the means you use determines the end you get, they hold out for alternatives to war and killing
The proper definition of terrorism, often forgotten, is not only inflicting violence on civilians but doing so in order to...
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Features
Greece and Syriza have not sold out. To declare such is premature at best and counterproductive politically at worst. Yes, Greece blinked at the February 28 deadline. If it hadn’t what would have been the consequences?
The reality in most cases is that there are many in-between or other alternative options, not just two mutually exclusive ones…. There are two ways in which one can commit a false dilemma. First, one can assume that there are only two (or three, though that case is strictly speaking be a ‘false trilemma’) options when there really are many more
By late June 2015, the Supreme Court will decide whether the U.S. Constitution recognizes the right to same-sex marriage. Although same-sex marriage is a true culture war issue, the chances are good that the Court will extend marriage rights to gays and lesbians.
Syria was shaped by the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement (in which Britain and France divided up things that didn’t belong to either of them), the 1917 Balfour Declaration (in which Britain promised Zionists land it didn’t own, and the 1920 San Remo Conference at which Britain, France, Italy, and Japan used rather arbitrary lines to create the French Mandate of Syria and Lebanon, the British Mandate of Palestine (including Jordan), and the British Mandate of Iraq.
Journalists have described how the fumes from burning trash settled over the Ballad air base like fog, and how soldiers would try to filter out some of the pollution by placing wet towels over air-conditioning intakes at night, which would turn black by the morning.
It doesn’t matter who has been in the White House—Barack Obama or Teddy Roosevelt—the U.S. will not tolerate countries with governments and cultures that put the needs of their own people first and refuse to promote or succumb to U.S. demands and pressures.
Reviews
This book, with this central theme, could not have appeared at a more appropriate moment. The United States government has initiated a program, planned to extend over several years, to celebrate the Vietnam War
Can a dedicated socialist have a significant impact on American life? Lauren Coodley’s biography of prominent socialist novelist and agitator Upton Sinclair shows that, with a lot of talent and fortitude, that kind of influence is possible
When Rudolf Rocker’s Nationalism and Culture was released in 1937, it was hailed by no less an assemblage of luminaries than Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, and Thomas Mann. The historian Will Durant called it “magnificent” and “profound,” and even the New Republic gave it a positive notice
Co-operatives—not to be flippant—are big business. They exist in 100 countries, have more than 800 million members, and provide some 100 million jobs. Co-ops market half the world’s agricultural production, and 120 million people in 87 countries go to credit unions for their banking and financial services needs. Health care co-operatives service some 100 million people in more than 50 countries. In the U.S. alone, some 30,000 co-ops provide over 2 million jobs
The song “Strange Fruit” lives on as legendary poetry and music that makes perhaps the strongest argument against race hatred of any artwork. Though it will forever be associated with Billie Holiday, the piece’s relevance calls for it to be renewed and relived, over the course of generations and, likewise, struggles.
The radical left in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador enshrines participatory democracy in their constitutions; and it rejects the state-centered strategy of the old left. It also repudiates neo-liberalism
Zaps
MISSION Z MAGAZINE is an independent magazine of critical thinking on political, cultural, social, and economic life in the U.S....
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