"I hesitate to call ZCom the leading samizdat of our age, because it is also one of the great newspapers of the internet, print, and video. You get more in one visit than hours of thumbing through voluminous newspaper voices of rapacious power. The range of good journalism, writing and scholarship on ZCom is astonishing: from the pen of the well-known to eyewitness reporting of 'citizen journalists'." John Pilger

Welcome to Z Communications

Z Communications is the name for the overarching institution composed of all Z Operations and Projects. This page provides a brief introduction and links to each. Later you may wish to bookmark ZNet, ZMag, or some other of the many component sites of ZCom for direct entry. From this page however, for now, if you run your cursor over any link to the left, this viewing area will provide summary information about the indicated part of ZCom.

If you click a link to the left, instead, you will go straight to that section.

ZCom includes, among other components:

-> ZNet
-> Z Magazine
-> Z Video Productions
-> ZSpace
-> ZMI and ZEO/ZSchool
-> ZBlogs / ZForums

"ZCom not only provides information and analysis to already existing organizations, it helps launch new endeavors. Countless activists have joined struggles, started organizations, and brought vision and strategy into already existing efforts because of Z. No project more consistently provides accessible analysis of current events and systemic oppressions, making it possible to seriously address questions of vision and strategy." Cynthia Peters

Net

ZNet has thousands of files and diverse facilities. The top page, linked from here, highlights especially the newest content.

Subsites focus on particular places in the world, such as Iraq and Venezuela, and on particular topics, such as International Relations and Ecology - as well as on Debates, Interviews, Books, and Vision and Strategy, particularly Participatory Economics, or Parecon for short.

Volunteers have translated ZNet articles into many languages including Spanish, Italian, Slovak, Turkish/Kurdish, German, Hindi, and more.

ZNet's Instructionals and ZSchool, and its blogs, forums, uploaded graphics, pictures, audio, video, and personal preference pages round out a selection of its features.

"In a time of constant media manipulation, every edition of Z Magazine comes through with key information and cogent analysis. This is an essential publication for people who refuse to be spun by evasion or euphemism and who want to help strengthen movements for social justice and peace. Z Magazine is present-day radicalism at its best -- resolutely progressive, non-dogmatic, compassionate, insightful and always searching for better ways to expose the roots of current disasters." Norman Solomon

Mag

Z Magazine is a radical print and online periodical dedicated to resisting injustice, eliminating repression, and creating liberty. It addresses international relations, ecology, economics, gender, race, culture, politics, etc. 2007 is ZMag's twentieth anniversary year in print and it now also appears online for Z Sustainers.

The name, Z, was inspired by the movie Z, directed by Costa-Gavras, that tells the story of repression and resistance in Greece. Comrade Z has been assassinated and his killers, including the chief of police, are indicted. The prosecutor disappears and a right-wing military junta takes over. Security police set out to prevent "a mildew of the mind" and infiltration of "isms." As the closing credits roll, the filmmakers list the things banned by the junta. They include: peace movements, labor unions, long hair on men, Sophocles, Tolstoy, strikes, the Beatles, Chekhov, Mark Twain, the bar association, sociology, Becket, the free press, the new math, and the letter Z, scrawled on a sidewalk as the film's final image, symbolizing "the spirit of resistance lives."

"Every morning when I open my email I have a new window to the world. My daily Z Commentary brings me a story and a thought in a world with so much information that you don't stop and think. ZCom makes me stop and think. I feel as part of something bigger. Even though I’m in Sweden I feel connected to other struggles worldwide. ZCom is a tool for sharing visions and goals." America Vera Zavala

Space

Through ZSpace our users participate and innovate for the whole community.

All registered ZCom Free Members get free access to view all ZSpace contents including Comments, Blogs, Polls, Forums, the Mutual Aid System, and book and other preference materials. Each Free ZCom Member also receives four free email updates a month, including articles, site news, etc.

Beyond expanded viewing access, each member who gives ZCom a recurring donation becomes a Z Sustainer. Sustainers get a ZSpace page to upload a bio and photo, and to enter book and movie rankings into our database. Each Sustainer also gains additional ZSpace benefits depending on their donation level ranging from full access to ZMag online, a Z Commentary emailed nightly, commenting on all articles and blogs, and using the Mutual Aid and full Forum System, to having your own Blog system embedded within the ZCom community of blogs, posting book reviews, RSS options, and even discounts (up to 100%) on ZMag subscriptions, ZVideos, ZEO courses, and ZBooks, and many other benefits as well.

"Amongst other sites of struggle for justice, Johannesburg is in continual need of international networking. No service is as good as ZCom including especially ZMag and ZNet, and the comrades - from social movements to trade unions to NGOs to academics like myself - cite ZCom repeatedly." Patrick Bond

Sustainers

ZSustainers are users of ZCom who decide to donate to help us maintain and expand the operations. Sustainers donate amounts they choose, on a schedule they choose, by means they choose. Sustainers are what makes Z's work possible.

Sustainers receive, as a sign of our appreciation, various benefits such as a nightly commentary email, access to Z Magazine online, their own ZSpace page with uploading abilities for their graphics, articles, and even their videos, their own blog, unlimited forum and mutual aid access and posting, commenting on articles, blogs, and reviews, throughout the site, receipt of rss feeds, and even discounts on Z subscriptions, ZVideos, ZSchool course offerings, and other store items.

We hope regular users of our site and projects will help us keep growing so as to better meet the community needs of our users.

"The many Z projects have played an enormously important role in connecting thousands of people outside the traditional channels of communication, bypassing the major media. and introducing into the world of ideas original and provocative insights and significant information that otherwise would be lost. Z has always struggled financially, as befits a bold and dissident organization, and so deserves all the help we can possibly give it." Howard Zinn

History / Staff

South End Press (1978) was founded to raise consciousness about class, gender, race, and power and to provide information, analysis, and vision to help activism. Z Magazine (1987) aimed to bring more diverse information more often and to increase the visibility of writers and illustrators. In ZCom, we added ZNet and ZTranslations, ZMI, ZVideo, and most recently ZEO and ZSpace including new ZBlogs and ZForums.

Z Magazine was founded by Michael Albert and Lydia Sargent. Lydia in turn initiated ZVideo and works overwhelmingly on ZMag and ZVideo. Michael initiated ZNet and works overwhelmingly on web operations. Eric Sargent joined in the late 1980s and works on Z Magazine and ZVideo. Andy Dunn (ZMI 2000) joined in 2005 and works on Z Magazine and ZVideo. Chris Spannos (ZMI 2001) joined in 2006, working on ZNet. Everyone works on ZMI.

ZCom also gets volunteer help. Brian Dominick (ZMI 1999) helped design and program ZNet. Justin Podur and Stephen Shalom have assisted editorially for years. Other volunteers work on some watch pages and especially and with great devotion and energy on Z Translations.

"From Argentina, I can confidently say that the resources ZCom offers – the prodigious ZNet, the excellent print ZMag, ZVideo, ZMI – are unique in their diversity of viewpoints, plurality of voices, depth, and reliability. No other left media I know has been so successful in offering up-to-date information, deep political analysis, and new visions, in sharing skills and resources, and in helping people at the global level. Z is fundamental for the community of people and collectives trying to build another world. And it is translated too!" Ezequiel Adamovsky

Translations

To be truly effective, social change must be international.

Since we are unable to help with the translations or check their quality, we need to rely on our worldwide community to make sure that standards are up to par. If you are interested in undertaking a new translation project into a new language from scratch, we can either post links to your server, or you can send us html pages that we can host for you.

If you are interested in working with a translation project that is already under way, please contact the people responsible directly by following the links on their pages.

See: ZNet Language Sites for more information and links.

"I tell all my friends in Australia to check out ZCom and if they can get there, ZMI, if they want to learn about progressive movements around the world; ZCom has always been my first source for left commentary and reportage. It's huge, vital, unique and necessary." Sonia Shah

MI / ZEO

The Z Media Institute or ZMI occurs nearly annually in early June. About 65 students attend, ranging in age from high school to retirees, and in experience from new activists to long-time revolutionaries.

ZMI is held in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Each day includes four or five class sessions and a nighttime lecture chosen from many offerings. ZMI prepares students to work with all media and focuses as well on activism and related analyis, vision, and strategy. Those attending leave ZMI feeling better informed, better motivated, and better connected to make activist and/or media contributions.

ZEO, standing for Z Education Online is a new endeavor to be initiated in our new upgraded system. Its main contours will unfold in coming months.

We are working so that ZEO will be a kind of online school with dozens of courses and faculty, four ten week sessions a year, extensive software for lectures, class interactions, etc., student evaluations, very low fees, and many more features.

"When people in the UK ask me where they should go to find out what's really happening in the world, I direct them to ZCom. For me it's the starting point in the great global conversation which the internet permits. The only hope we have of countering the 24-hour propaganda produced by the likes of Fox News and Clear Channel is to develop our own media, and ZCom does it better than anyone else. And now a massive blog system too!" George Monbiot

Blogs / Forums

ZBlogs is an extensive system of writers' and sustainers' offerings. Each regular ZCom writer gets his or her own blog system. Each Sustainer does too. All posts are linked from the writer's and Sustainer's ZSpace pages. There is also a compendium blog of all writers, one of all Sustainers, and one that encompasses both. There are blog sub systems by topic and place, linked from throughout ZCom. All together, ZBlogs includes contributions from thousands of people, accessible by person, topic, place, and type, with commenting throughout.

ZForums is a huge system readable by all users but in which only writers and sustainers can post questions, comments, answers, etc. The forums are arranged by topic, place, and type, as well as by who hosts with particular writers like Chomsky, Albert, etc., addressing questions put to them. There is also a mutual aid system where people can get help regarding all manner of needs from travel housing, organizing or life tips, contacts, jobs, and much more.

"Progressive activists the world over rely on Z Communicatons not only for coverage of breaking events, but for deeper analysis of the challenges facing diverse social movements and successful strategies to overcome them. Z Video is boldly visionary at a time when the Left needs new non-sectarian vision. It is a force for change -- and for hope. It is important that to the extent they are able, people who use it support it" Betsy Hartman

Video

Founded in 2000 as a way to distribute talks and classes from Z Media Institute, Z Video Productions has expanded to bring important talks from other venues as well as documentaries and interviews. We now have more than 60 titles on DVD, including talks by Noam Chomsky, Michael Albert, bell hooks, Howard Zinn, Arundhati Roy, Hugo Chavez, and many more.

Viewer comments indicate that the videos have been a very effective medium for understanding many of the topics found in Z Magazine and on ZNet. In some respects they have proven more accessible — for example, Noam Chomsky’s humor and casual speaking style, the dynamism of Hugo Chavez, and the atmosphere of an evening session at the World Social Forum in Mumbai, India.

The ZVideo site online includes decriptions of all our videos, with easy search, plus, in some cases, excerpts to view. For those who would like to submit videos for the ZVP catalog, send them to Z Video Productions, 18 Millfield Street, Woods Hole, MA 02543.

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