From the better-late-than-never department: CAPES and APPS meetup in Austin
A report back of an October 2008 face-to-face meeting between members of CAPES (the Chicago Area Participatory Economics Society) and APPS (the Austin Project for a Participatory Society). (More)
Celebrate "Real Utopia" at Chicago's Book Cellar: September 1, 2pm
What: A celebration of the publication of "Real Utopia: Participatory Society for the 21st Century" When: Monday, September 1st, starting at 2pm. Where: The Book Cellar, 4736 N. Lincoln... (More)
March 23 Six members of the anti-war group “Catholic Schoolgirls Against The War” staged a dramatic die-in during the 11AM Easter mass at Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago's most prominent... (More)
TV online appearance and TV broadcast appearance
A heads-up for a couple of things: (1) There's an FCC hearing in Chicago scheduled for next Thursday, September 20. Chicagoans and folks in the midwest U.S. are encouraged to attend. More... (More)
Osama bin Laden is evidently reading the Z blog...
Obviously. Because scintillating commentator and analyst David Brooks said so. On the PBS Newshour (well, it IS an hour long, but is it news?), Brooks was talking about the latest videotape by... (More)
Today's Satire: Spider Pig Buys Out Wall Street Journal
Well, this IS new content, and an idea I've been throwing around for a while. And hey, Z does satire every month! Spider Pig Buys Out Wall Street Journal Spider Pig, who does whatever a... (More)
Vote for Chicago's "This Is Hell" at Public Radio Quest
Lately, it seems like I've been using this blog to promote one or another thing, rather than deliver some semblance of original content. Right you are -- though that might change soon and I might... (More)
Radio interview with Michael Albert
Just a quick blog post announcement which would interest ZNet readers. Last month, I interviewed Michael Albert on my weekly radio show in Chicago. We discussed a number of topics raised in his... (More)
An audacious proposal to advance a participatory economy: Start one
I had an idea for a tactic to proceed our economy. Why not just go ahead and start a participatory economy? Some might react by saying "We already have projects like Z Magazine and South End... (More)
This is what international protest looks like
From the Department of Neato: This map shows the distribution of the 15.9 million people worldwide who protested against the invasion of Iraq in 2003 by troops from over 25 other... (More)
Ruling Expected in Chicago Activist's Freedom of Speech Appeal
From an article I posted on Chicago Indymedia: Freedom-of-speech advocates and political activists are expecting a verdict this week in the case of a Chicago political activist who was... (More)
The Chicago Parecon Debate of February 10, 2007 is now online
This is just a quick announcement. The complete audio of the Feb. 10 Chicago Parecon debate at the offices of In These Times, and hosted by the Open University of the Left, is now online.... (More)
The Chicago Parecon Debate of February 10, 2007: My thoughts
(Note: The opinions expressed in what's to follow are solely those of its author, Mitchell Szczepanczyk, and do not necessarily reflect those of members of CAPES -- the Chicago Area Participatory... (More)
An event with (against?) Schweickart this weekend...
A heads-up for ZNet readers: I'm going to be participating in an event in Chicago this Saturday with David Schweickart. Yes, that David Schweickart. Details are below. We hope to have the... (More)
Until last weekend. Memphis had been the city I most wanted to visit but hadn't yet visited. (I personally credit Marc Cohn.) So, when the 2007 National Conference for Media Reform took place... (More)
On the death of Gerald R. Ford
The story is breaking with the announcement swallowing U.S. cable television as I type these words: Gerald R. Ford, former U.S. president, has died at the age of 93. Ford will be buried in a... (More)
Review of the book "The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power" by Joel Bakan
(Please note that this review is about the book The Corporation, the companion to the film of the same name, and not the fiim itself.) I find myself with mixed feelings about The Corporation:... (More)
Good news and bad news in the U.S. media policy struggles
The good news, as the Save The Internet coalition reports: The gavel has fallen on the 109th Congress marking the demise of entrenched corporate efforts to legislate away our Internet freedoms... (More)
On the death of Milton Friedman
I was broadcasting my radio show in Chicago this afternoon when I heard that neoliberal economist Milton Friedman died this afternoon at age 94. Indeed, my show airs on the University of Chicago's... (More)
I made calls for Moveon.org...
Okay, I feel a little dirty (being an anti-war Chomsky reading parecon supporter and all that) but today I joined Moveon.org's big calling machine and called about twelve numbers, reading a script... (More)
New York Indymedia videographer slain in Mexico
I thought I was going to blog about Death of a President, a faux documentary about the assassination of George W. Bush -- which I saw tonight, which is set in Chicago, which boasts video footage... (More)
Victory: An update of media and internet activism in the U.S.
Earlier in 2006, I blogged about the efforts to stop the wretched rewrite of the Telecommunications Act, the main law in America involving the media and the internet, and its likely negative... (More)
A brief word about the Mark Foley matter
I don't want to spend too much time about the Mark Foley scandal in the United States House of Representatives, involving a resigned representative and his electronic communications of an explicit... (More)
Help The NewStandard in its emergency fundraising campaign
Many ZNet and Z Magazine readers are familiar with The NewStandard, the excellent progressive-minded online journalism website, built on the model of participatory economics, funded without... (More)
Katrina, Chernobyl, and the Yes Men
One year has passed since Hurricane Katrina and a staggering level of follow-up ineptitude rendered the effective destruction of New Orleans. I can't help but think that the effect of that... (More)