Against the Stream

In Against the Stream, our weekly current affairs podcast, members of the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International sit down to discuss the main events shaping global affairs. In an increasingly turbulent world situation, these discussions look behind the headlines of the mainstream press and the statements of politicians, to bring out the real processes and interests at play.

Against the Stream premieres weekly on YouTube. Tune in every Thursday at 6pm London time, or catch up on Spotify or Apple Music.

Five hundred days of Trump in power, and what has been achieved? No more forever wars – except there is a war. The biggest paychecks in history – except hundreds of millions of Americans say the cost of living is the worst they can remember. No wonder thirty-four percent of young Americans now hold a favourable view of communism.

The Iran war has set off a cascade of crises which are working their way through the world economy. Oil reserves are at a twenty-year low, inflation is rising, bond yields are spiking, and the IMF is warning of a worldwide slump. But is there a way out on a capitalist basis?

What will Israel, the Gulf, the Middle East and Asia look like after the Iran War? This was the starting point for this week’s special Q&A episode of Against the Stream, in which Hamid Alizadeh and Jorge Martín worked through the best and toughest questions from our comment section.

Six prime ministers in ten years. Labour just lost fifteen hundred council seats. Has Britain become ungovernable?

Trump is in Beijing. He thinks he has gone to negotiate from a position of strength, but in reality, he is negotiating from a position of weakness. That is the story of American imperialism in 2026.

Europe was the birthplace of capitalism. Now it's in freefall. In this week’s Against the Stream, Hamid Alizadeh and Jorge Martín dive into the deepening crisis gripping the continent. Germany is launching a trillion-euro rearmament drive while simultaneously slashing €38 billion from pensions and healthcare. France can’t pass a budget. The AfD is overtaking the CDU in the polls. And across Europe, the old political centre is collapsing.

Is AI a revolutionary leap forward for humanity – or the latest crisis capitalism has engineered for itself? In this episode of Against the Stream, Hamid Alizadeh and Fred Weston cut through the hype to give a Marxist analysis of the AI bubble, its roots in the capitalist crisis, and what it means for the working class.

Against the Stream is back! Since our last episode, the world has been plunged deeper into crisis. With no end in sight for the Iran War, with energy prices and inflation rising, the global economy is teetering ever more precariously on the brink of a historic slump. 

 All the warning lights are flashing. After a month of the US and Israel relentlessly bombing Iran, and with the Strait of Hormuz still closed, the economic consequences of the Iran war mean serious trouble for economies worldwide. Stagflation, factory shutdowns, falling crop yields, and rising interest rates are no longer hypotheticals – they are unfolding in real time, and growing more severe by the day.

"Head-spinning betrayal." These are the words of dissident Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene – and they are undoubtedly echoed by millions of Trump voters across America, who have watched their 'peace president' turn warmonger while they foot the bill at the gas pump and the grocery store.

As the war on Iran enters its third week, US imperialism finds itself mired in a deepening crisis. What Trump envisioned as a swift decapitation strike is rapidly proving to be the gravest blunder of his presidency – and perhaps one of the most catastrophic miscalculations in the history of American foreign policy.

Donald Trump is once again banging the war drums, threatening military action against Iran. He has now assembled the largest US naval build-up in the region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq – including two aircraft carriers and hundreds of fighter jets. 

The Cuban revolution is in grave danger! Trump's oil blockade has cut off the island's fuel supplies, plunging the country into prolonged blackouts, halting public transport, and threatening a full-scale humanitarian crisis. With Venezuelan oil cut off and Mexico bowing to US threats, Trump is tightening the noose to asphyxiate the island after 67 years of relentless pressure.

Over the last month, we have seen shocking images come out of Syria. ISIS flags waving over Raqqah. Jihadist militants knocking over the gravestones of Kurdish fighters. When it was set up, the Kurdish statelet of Rojava inspired people worldwide. Later, they beat back ISIS. Now ISIS have returned, and the Kurds are fighting for their lives. How has it come to this?

A lot is said about Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution. The billionaire-owned media cry out indignantly that he was a dictator who ruined life for ordinary Venezuelans. But over the course of his presidency, he won a total of 19 democratic elections and referendums with record voter turnout – how many bourgeois politicians can claim the same?

Page 1 of 5