Weekly Education and Analysis on Current Events

Zinnia

Zinnia

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  • A Case for a One-State Solution

    When it comes to addressing the question of Palestinian statehood, there is a lot of debate between a one or two state solution. For many their first inclination might be to support a two-state solution, however, I’d like to present the one-state solution as not only realistic, but also as the only morally just solution. This one-state solution represents equality and democracy for all while also engaging in restorative justice for the Palestinians.

    In order to get a better understanding of why some advocate for a one-state solution, it’s important to note that Israel, in it’s current structure, should not exist. This is not about removing or targeting all Jewish communities in the region, it’s about advocating against a system and a state structure which treats only Jewish people as full citizens and which guarantees rights for only Jewish people while ethnically cleansing and legally subjugating Palestinians, codifying their status as sub-class inhabitants.

    There’s no reason why we should accept the legitimacy of an ethno-nationalist state, creating instead two separate countries because we can’t dare challenge ethno-nationalism. There’s no need to divide and segregate the land or the people and create separate legal structures. There should be only one state where all people have rights and where all people are citizens; where all are equal.

    While some may say that it would cause increased tensions, that Palestinians would retaliate against Israelis, this is an argument against desegregation that has been deployed several times throughout history to oppose freedom and is something that has never actually happened. For example:

    • American slave owners claiming slaves would retaliate
    • Pro-Segregationists claiming Black Americans would retaliate
    • White South Africans claiming Black South Africans would retaliate
    • Nazis propagating Jewish Revenge fantasies to create fear around Jewish liberation

    The list could go on but in each of these cases, those maintaining the apartheid or genocidal regime all argued the same point, that in the event of desegregation or the dismantling of apartheid, the suppressed population would retaliate against the former regime. And in each case, this fear was used as a tool to oppose the liberation of the subjugated population. Not once has it happened. There is no reason to believe that the Palestinians, a people who have seen nothing but war and devastation for their entire lives, would seek to engage in another war after achieving what they have been advocating for, peace and equality.

    The point is that, Israel, as it currently exists (being an apartheid, ethno-nationalist state), should not exist. This is not to say that Jewish people cannot live in the region, only that there should not be a Jewish ethno-nationalist state and that there’s no need to maintain this ethno-nationalist state along side a Palestinian state. There should only be one state which guarantees everyone equal citizenship, equal rights, and equal freedom. This, of course, should be followed by reparations for Palestinians and a right to return for Palestinian diaspora.

    We should not advocate for the continuation of legalized, segregated borders, a reality which unfortunately already exists. We do not want to see Palestinians relegated to bantustan or reservation equivalents in Palestine where the power dynamic is still ultimately tilted towards Israelis. We should advocate for a single democratic state where Palestinians have full equality and democratic power. As mentioned before, this should be followed with restorative justice practices for the Palestinians which include a right to return, the dismantling of structures which uphold jewish supremacy, land reform programs, etc.

    While some may still believe that there would be tension, there have been plenty of other societies that have successfully gone through de-segregation (Think of America for example). Many people would simply have to get used to it much in the same way how white Americans in the south had to get used to the liberation of Black Americans from slavery, or to the ending of segregation, or even more recently, how many simply just had to get used to the legalization of gay marriage. This is not an unrealistic expectation.

    We should continue to advocate for the liberation of Palestine and for an end to the Zionist project of colonial expansion and ethnic cleansing. The solution necessarily demands equality, democracy, restorative justice, and for a continued struggle against American Imperialism. Keep on pushing for a free Palestine!

  • Site Update: ACN is Rebranding to Zinnia Collective!

    Hello all,

    Thank you to everyone who is following the site! We are announcing an update to change the name of the organization to Zinnia Collective.

    This is a creative decision by leadership in hopes to spur more engagement with the content we produce.

    We also hope that the rebrand will grant us more flexibility, allowing us to cover a wider range of topics like music, film, culture, and health while still providing our usual political content.

    You shouldn’t expect any change in what we produce apart from a greater variety of themes covered with a progressive framework.

    We hope that you will continue to enjoy our articles as well as all the additional content we hope to put out. See you all soon in the next post!

  • New Hampshire Judge Blocks The Trump Administration’s Birthright Citizenship Order Nationwide

    The Trump administration’s executive order to terminate birthright citizenship has been blocked by a federal judge in New Hampshire on Thursday, July 10.

    The Judge granted an injunction in a class action lawsuit, protecting children born to undocumented migrants or to migrants with temporary protected status from the revoking of their citizenship by the Trump administration’s executive order.

    This is especially significant due to the Supreme Court’s ruling last month in Trump V. CASA, which ruled that the ability of federal judges to issue nationwide injunctions to prevent select actions of an administration exceeded their authority. This ruling threatened to unshackle executive power and chip away at the nation’s checks and balances, limiting those who could push back against unconstitutional federal actions.

    However, the court imposed no limitations on class action lawsuits, where the party who is suing represents an entire class of individuals; in this case, all children born to undocumented or temporarily protected migrants, who happen to live nationwide. The New Hampshire judge worked around the supreme court’s ruling by imposing an injunction through a class action lawsuit to protect these individuals from the administration’s executive order.

    The targeting of those born to undocumented or temporarily protected migrants clearly outlines the intentions of this administration to extend deportation rhetoric beyond their stated “criminals only” approach. There is no world in which the targeting of citizenship serves the American people and sets no precent for this power to expand beyond the individuals currently in the crosshairs. It has never been about the “criminals” but rather about a targeting of those deemed to be an “other”.

    This rhetoric and useless policy goals are what justify an allocation of 175 billion dollars to agencies like ICE while public schools, hospitals, nutrition assistance programs, and the like struggle for funding. This administration continues to pursue unjust policies while leaving behind millions of struggling Americans.

  • Massachusetts Trash Collectors Fighting for Better Pay, Employers allow Strike to Continue for 7th Day

    Republic Services Workers represented by Teamsters Local 25 have entered their seventh day of strikes across Massachusetts. According to their union, trash collectors across the state are demanding higher wages, better health coverage, and stronger labor protections.

    Teamsters Local 25 has made it clear that they are seeking the same wages as other trash collection services in the region, ensuring that employers properly compensate their employees. The Union has also stated that they are committed to negotiating in good faith and that they are demanding fair wages and benefits for the workers.

    The power to end the strike rests upon the employers and it is their duty to ensure that their workers are compensated fairly for the work they do. The buildup of trash in local communities is on the fault of management and their inability to pay their hardworking employees their fair share for the work they do each and every day.

    Strikes are never the first action that a union takes when negotiating for dignified wages and benefits. They are the culmination of months, or even years long efforts to stall negotiations on behalf of the employers. Unions regularly engage in good faith negotiations while workers fulfill their daily obligations, and in fact, many union contracts are won without the need for a strike when employers respectfully meet the demands of their own workforce. Ultimately, if a strike is deemed necessary by the workers and their union, it is often because the employers have failed to engage in good faith negotiations and have demonstrated no desire to listen to workers’ demands. For many of these hardworking employees, there may be no other option left if management has repeatedly demonstrated an unwillingness to negotiate.

    Each strike demonstrates that it is the workers who keep society running. The fact that trash is beginning to build up just days after workers called a strike goes to show the amount of work that these employees put in each and every single day. It is only when the employers fail on their part to ensure that their workers are properly compensated that trash begins to buildup.

  • Medicaid Cuts Will Leave Many Americans Without Another Option for Healthcare

    The narrative that the Trump administration was pushing prior to their Medicaid cuts claimed to kick off non-workers from the system. However Two-Thirds of medicare recipients are already working. A large majority of these workers are on medicare because many jobs don’t actually provide healthcare insurance. Not all employers are obligated to provide employees healthcare. These workers rely heavily on these state programs to receive their medical care.

    As a result of these funding cuts, many working Americans will be left without another option. This will put at risk their ability to seek preventative care as well as their access the resources they need for any type of healthcare.

    The lack of a viable public option or an employer provided option will leave many Americans with no other option. For an Administration that claims to want to make Americans healthy, this will do the exact opposite.

  • The Trump Administration Escalates Violence on Protesters in Los Angeles

    The Trump Administration Escalates Violence on Protesters in Los Angeles

    “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws”

    – Martin Luther King Jr.

    Los Angeles CA: Police activity escalated against protestors as ICE began unjustifiable raids on immigrant communities and workplaces. This comes as the Trump administration proceeds in it’s deportation campaign which aims to embody Operation Wetback, President Eisenhower’s mass deportation operation which infamously removed one million people from the country, at times deporting US citizens as well.

    The National Guard has been deployed by the administration in order to confront peaceful protests which seek to defend community members from their unjust removal from the country. This has demonstrated a clear escalation on behalf of our leaders against communities which are exercising their right to organize a protest and to engage in free speech.

    The Trump administration repeatedly claimed during it’s presidential bid that their mass deportation campaign would target criminals, however, it’s been clear that ICE agents have been targeting workers, mothers, and community members while threatening deportations and separations of families. It is also worth noting that Immigrants commit less crime per capita than US born citizens, highlighting how the administration attempts to procure consent for an unjust deportation campaign by stroking unfounded fears of “increased crime”.

    The administration has shown repeatedly that it will not uphold our constitutional right to free speech or protest. If individuals cannot protest on public land like universities, city halls, or city streets without facing violent escalation, nor have the ability to protest on private lands, then movements have nowhere to protest at all.

    Here are recent developments demonstrating Police escalations against protestors:

    SEIU California President David Huerta arrested while advocating for Immigrant communities

    It is also worthy of note that Law enforcement and ICE, in addition to other government agencies, recieve training by Israel’s IOF in corralling, surveillance, protest suppression, and detention tactics which are often employed against US citizens and residents. Additionally, these agencies and their personnel are trained on the usage of tech and equipment to further brutalize all of our communities.

    The suppression, brutalization, and suffering of the Palestinians serves as a testing ground for the brutalization of protestors and immigrants in our communities across the country.

  • What is digital ownership?

    What is digital ownership?

    If you can’t modify your data as you please, do you really own it? Say, a while back, you wanted to buy yourself a new book. So, you head to Amazon to buy an e-book that’s compatible with your Kindle. You also make sure to download a copy to your computer since anything on someone else’s computer is under their control. Say now, you come back on Feb 26, 2025 to see that Amazon has removed your ability to independently own your book. By removing the right to download the book to your computer and have sole control over your copy you are now dependent on Amazon making this book available to you in perpetuity. You are also dependent on Amazon not changing the contents of what you now provisionally own. Which they already do. To depict this theft, they’ve “quietly and with no clear evidence of a disturbance” made changes to books among the likes of Roald Dahl, R.L. Stine, and Agatha Christie. The precedent has been set, it’s only a matter of time before the platform shifts again. Next time, it could be a far more pressing issue; one that will form sides.

    Control your data

    That doesn’t really sound like ownership to me. Just like the physical realm, your data is a raw resource that needs to be processed. In the digital realm, the tool to process this data is the editor. Yet again, there’s levels to this kind of ownership. In the aspect of software editors, you must be able to use your data (as you please), you must be able to audit the software (to guarantee it does as it says), and you must be able to extend the software as needed (you determine your workflow). This is what complete data sovereignty looks like. To move to complete digital sovereignty and secure digital presence, you must go further.

    Beside owning the software you use, sits owning your data. Your data is what you put into some software and anything that’s generated by the software. Data ownership exists as a type of spectrum, it itself has three key properties that must be fulfilled for true ownership. You must be able to control your access to this data, you must be able to control where this data exists (control of storage), and you must be able to control modification this data. In the opening examples, Amazon infringed upon the individual’s right to own by removing their right to download and right to control modifications.

    To have complete access to your data is the entryway, but your ownership of this key can be hidden behind software. In this aspect of data ownership, your data may be useless without the ability to modify it. True digital ownership is the peace of mind that absolutely no one can change your control over: your access your data, your store of your data, and modifications to your data. That may sound insurmountable , but all of it can be achieved. Doing all of that would be equivalent to moving beyond data independence and editor independence. Yet, what if my data was never on my computer?

    Know your host

    There’s still one frontier that remains, host independence is needed. In it’s simplest form, this is any software that you run fully from your computer, where your computer is the host. In it’s typical form, this is what we know as the modern internet. Datacenters of computers serving some platform’s goals. This is where most people go to do their banking, document backup, or be entertained. It is undeniable nowadays that there are domains that need the large processing power of a remote computer. However, when using hosted software you have a new problem to account for. In order to be completely sovereign, you need the ability to freely connect to this service, you need the ability to audit the host, you need the ability to control the environment of the host. Due to the last clause this is precarious in practice and thus you’ll be forced to host these services yourself. To see how to do this and what’s available begin with Futo’s guide to a self managed life

    Side note about controlling the environment and running something locally, you may own the hardware, but if you’re running closed source software you’re giving your keys to the castle away. To truly own your hardware, you must also own what it’s running. Taking this trip to owning your operating system will take you to Linux. The largest hurdle for Linux in the past has been gaming, but even there it’s starting to take over.

    Side note about self-hosting, not every thing MUST be self-hosted for you to own it and be fully secure. There’s a middle ground where security is guaranteed, and additional layers can be used to guarantee service. For a simplified example, someone can use SimpleX as their messenger and will guarantee the same security and availability while not having host access.

    Software doesn’t need to be made this way

    The counter culture of the internet has been avoiding these known infringements of rights since the internet allowed commercial traffic. Their ideals have been Copyleft licensing (improvements must benefit all), systems that require zero trust from you, and collectively computing for large tasks. Some modern analogs to this is GPL Licensing, zero-trust, and Peer2Peer networking. I won’t do the dreaming for you, but can you imagine a world where software works for us without the ability to work against us all?

  • Remembering 77 years since the Nakba – Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign of the Palestinians

    Remembering 77 years since the Nakba – Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign of the Palestinians

    May 15, 2025 marks the 77 year anniversary of the 1948 Nakba, The Israeli ethnic cleaning campaign against the Palestinians following the declaration of Israel’s independence.

    The Naming of the Nakba as an ethnic cleansing campaign is absolutely correct and sets the stage for the ongoing decades long Israeli imposed Apartheid and genocide of the Palestinian people.

    Pre-Nakba History

    From about 1517 to 1917, the land of Palestine was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. After the fall of the Ottoman empire, Palestine was left as a British possession. The British signed what is known as the Balfour Declaration, which expressed the Empire’s support for, and recognition of the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, which at this point was a British Mandate whose rule mirrored that of a colony.

    The British were looking to secure Imperial interests in the region, with Winston Churchill stating that the creation of a Jewish state under the protection of the British crown would be “beneficial and would be especially in harmony with the truest interests of the British Empire.” The creation of this state would serve as a bulwark against any threat to British interests in the region, a role that Israel still serves for the U.S. today. From this point on, the British would help facilitate Jewish settlement into Palestine.

    This settlement would serve as the basis for a colonial occupation with the Jewish population rising from about 9% to nearly 27% between 1922 to 1935.

    The 1948 Nakba

    Fast forward to 1947. The U.N. provided a partition plan to create 2 states, one Jewish and the other Palestinian, in historic Palestine granting the majority of the land to the minority population of zionists.

    Following this partition plan, militant groups called the Haganah started what was called Plan Dalet, which in April 1948 aimed to forcibly seize the lands designated to them in the 1947 Partition plan (Land which was populated by Palestinians) as well as land designated to the Palestinian state. This included the occupation and complete destruction of Palestinian villages. They successfully seized land that was intended to be given to the Palestinian state and forcibly removed Palestinians who were living in the now designated Israeli territory, brutally expelling and killing inhabitants.

    On May 14, 1948 the British Mandate officially ended and Israel declared it’s independence. The day after on May 15, 1948, Israel expanded it’s horrific ethnic cleansing campaign. Israeli settlers raided and destroyed approximately 500 Palestinians villages and cities, replacing them with Jewish settlements, killing about 15,000 thousand people, and expelling 750,000 Palestinians from what Israel considered to be it’s territory in Historic Palestine.

    This left 750,00 Palestinians displaced in refugee camps in Gaza, the west bank, and surrounding countries, many legally prevented from returning to their homes.

    In the initial partition plan, Israel was unjustifiably given about 55% of Palestinian territory. Following the onset of the Nakba, Israel controlled about 78% of the land, showing the extent to which the Israeli project, from it’s inception to the present, has ignored and violated Palestinian sovereignty, proving itself to be the aggressor.

    The Palestinians were never given an opportunity to create their own state within their historic homeland, with the remaining Palestinian territories (Gaza and the West bank) falling under Israeli control and occupation by 1967.

    Legacy of the Nakba and its Continuation

    Since then, the Israeli government has subjected the Palestinian people to endless Apartheid and Genocide, controlling just about every aspect of Palestinian life, from the movement of Palestinians through unjustifiable checkpoints, to controlling the amount of humanitarian aid that enters Palestinian territory, to controlling their infrastructure, and to outright slaughter of anybody and everybody.

    While it may be portrayed as a conflict or a “war” between two equal warring states sharing equal responsibility, the truth is that Palestinians have never been afforded any form of genuine self determination, any chance at sovereignty, or any form of legal resistance against Israeli control. The Palestinians have been under continuous decades long occupation and control by a genocidal apartheid regime. It is very clearly an oppressed subjugated by the oppressors.

    The actions witnessed by Israeli militants during the Nakba, from the destruction of Palestinian Villages and cities, to the expelling of indigenous Palestinian inhabitants, to blatant killings, have set the stage for every action Israel has taken in Palestinian territory up to the Present with Palestinians at no point being given any sovereignty to determine the fate of their own existence.

    Many Palestinians today argue that the Nakba never ended, citing ongoing Israeli settlement expansion in Gaza and in the Westbank, violating again and again Palestinian territory and continuing with ongoing expulsions and killings of the Palestinian people.

  • Opinion: How they use “Criminals” to Take our Rights Away

    Within Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office, we have seen several highly controversial cases, from the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil and the revoking of his green card, the arrest of Mohsen Mahdawi and the threat of removal of his green card, to the illegal and unjust deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, to the detainment of U.S. citizens and high profile lawyers at points of entry, and to ICE agents smashing car windows illegally to detain individuals, among many other cases.

    In each of these instances, we see the administration pushing the limits of our constitutional protections, from arrests for exercising the right to free speech, to the blatant refusal to provide due process, to illegal search and seizure. And while the administration claims it’s only targeting criminals, they have been detaining U.S. citizens as well.

    In fact, in many of these cases, these individuals were otherwise law abiding residents. However, the framing of these individuals as criminals only serves to manufacture consent for these illegal actions, allowing the administration to test the limits of our rights.

    Khalil, Mahdawi, and Abrego serve as particularly effective targets. They are individuals who were law abiding or had proper legal protections. They are individuals who are in the same legal position as most other law abiding residents. If the administration can successfully violate their rights, they can successfully violate anyone else’s. Point being, this will not stop at the “criminals,” this will inevitably affect everyday Americans.

    Law is based off of precedent, so if precedent exists to remove the green cards of people who were exercising their right to free speech based solely on vague claims and loose evidence, then precedent exists to remove the green cards of otherwise law abiding residents based off of loose and vague claims as well. If the administration can get away with deporting a legally protected migrant, then they can get away with deporting any other legally protected migrant.

    This falls in line with the administrations own stated goals. Donald Trump, throughout his campaign repeatedly praised Operation Wetback, which infamously deported legal residents as well as U.S. citizens. He ran on promises to repeat a similar project. If the administration can get away with the deportation of Abrego, Khalil, and Mahdawi, then it establishes the precedent for the administration to fulfill its goal of mass deportations of migrants, legal residents included.

    For example, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is not a criminal, and in fact is in a very similar position to many migrants you may know: migrants who are allowed to stay on work permits, asylum, withholding of removal, etc. If the Administration gets away with the unjust deportation of Abrego and establishes that as precedent, then it establishes precedent to do the same with your neighbor, your friends, your family.

    Khalil and Mahdawi were green card holders who violated no laws, they only exercised their right to free speech. If the administration can get away with the revoking of their green cards and their deportations, then it sets the precedent to do the same with other law abiding green card holders.

    The framing of these individuals as criminals only serves to manufacture consent amongst the public for the government to test and unravel our constitutional rights without anyone batting an eye. This will ultimately set precedent for the very same things to happen to you or to people you know.

    It isn’t just a migrant issue either. If the administration can simply arrest and deport any individual or ship out any detainee, citizen or not, to a foreign country and subvert any due process, then they can target just about anyone for any reason with no evidence whatsoever.

    This isn’t just about “criminals.” This could open the door to political suppression and dangerous overreach towards anyone the government determines as an enemy: dissidents, political opponents, disruptive legal professionals, etc. In the worst case scenario, you are who the government says you are, and if you’re deemed to be a criminal, what due process do you have to say otherwise? What sort of power do you have to say otherwise?

  • Palestinian student leader arrested, faces deportation before final citizenship interview

    Palestinian student leader arrested, faces deportation before final citizenship interview

    Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student leader at Columbia university was arrested on Monday April 14, 2025. The arrest occurred at a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration services facility in Vermont, where Mahdawi was to begin one of the final steps toward becoming a U.S. citizen after holding a green card for over 10 years.

    Mahdawi helped lead campus protests a year ago at Columbia university which shed light on the genocide of Palestinians. He is the second Columbia student targeted by ICE for involvement in actions that are constitutionally protected as free speech, the first being Mahmoud Khalil.

    Like Khalil, Mahdawi is a green card holder. However, the Trump administration, citing the Immigration and Nationality act, is attempting to revoke his green card and expel him from the country.

    The Immigration and Nationality act allows for the cancellation of permanent residency should one’s actions compromise U.S. foreign policy interests. According to the Administration, his outspoken support for a ceasefire in Palestine presents an alleged serious foreign policy consequence, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio stating “If they’re taking activities that are counter to our national interest, to our foreign policy, we’ll revoke the visa”.

    The United States District Court District of Vermont, in it’s petition for writ of Habeas Corpus, has stated “In addition to violating Mr. Mahdawi’s First Amendment rights, the Rubio Determination and Mr. Mahdawi’s unlawful detention also violates Mr. Mahdawi’s statutory rights and due process rights.”

    💡
    First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

    While the Administration has also claimed that the rise of Pro-Palestinian protests have led to a rise in antisemitic speech, many leaders in the movement, including Mahdawi, have made large efforts to shut out antisemitic speech from having any role. Mahdawi, in an interview with 60 Minutes, stated “The fight for freedom of Palestine and the fight against antisemitism go hand in hand because injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”.