On 27 October, Revolutionary Communist University 2024: The Power of Ideas came to a close. This was the second ever Arabic-language school organised by the Revolutionary Communist International. Arabic speakers from Mauritania to Syria sang The Internationaleto celebrate three excellent days of talks and discussions on various theoretical and political topics relevant to the struggle of communists in the Arabic-speaking world.

Oh yes, you read the title correctly. An angry old man in Washington and a psychologically deranged president in Kyiv have been busy jointly plotting a plan that may potentially push the world into an abyss.

This is a massive step in the right direction for the Palestine movement in Quebec and Canada. At least 26 student associations representing 50,000 students will be on strike for Palestine on Nov. 21-22!

The meteoric rise and catastrophic fall of the Corbyn movement represented a major turning point in British and world politics. For all that it inspired millions of workers and youth, it was an object lesson in the betrayals inherent in reformism and the pitfalls of opportunism: i.e. when left-wing leaders make ‘pragmatic’ concessions to the class enemy – with fatal consequences. This week, the Spectre of Communism speaks to Matt Zarb-Cousin, former spokesperson for Jeremy Corbyn, who saw this process unfold from the inside…

War in Ukraine, war in the Middle East and a huge global pro-Palestine movement: there is no shortage of reasons to overthrow imperialism, and no lack of willingness to do so. But, as the last year has taught us, this is anything but easy. Defeating the imperialists requires absolute political clarity and concrete perspectives.

This year’s COP summit is off to a farcical start, with the head of the conference caught brokering lucrative fossil fuel deals, and many world leaders not even bothering to show up at all! The capitalists are incapable of solving the climate crisis.

The launch of the Revolutionary Communist Organisation – the Revolutionary Communist International in Belgium – took place on Saturday 9 November. Our organisation has made a fresh start with a militant revolutionary communist profile!

We live in an epoch of war. Israel’s brutal campaign in Gaza, backed by the West, has spilled into Lebanon. The Ukraine War is careening towards its bloody denouement. These and many other conflicts are a product of the crisis of capitalism, which is sharpening the divisions between the imperialist powers, and sowing instability everywhere. What is the solution? On 15 November, 19:30 GMT, the Revolutionary Communist International’s lead theoretician Alan Woods will deliver a speech on the question of war and imperialism today.

We have received the following letter from a group of young communists in Azerbaijan, which we are delighted to republish here and have no doubt will be of great interest to our readers, as it gives a very interesting insight into the present situation in that country.

This week on Against the Stream, Hamid Alizadeh and Jorge Martin from the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International sat down once again to discuss the implications of Trump's victory on the class struggle in America, the Ukraine war, and the floods in Valencia, Spain, which have led to protests of hundreds of thousands of people against the regime.

When Russian troops entered Ukraine in February 2022, a chorus of righteous fury went up from politicians and pundits in the West. A united front of ‘democratic’ countries offered up their arsenals and opened their cheque books to punish ‘Russian war crimes’ and resist the invasion of a sovereign nation. Fast forward two years and our enlightened democratic rulers are again offering their arsenals and opening their cheque books… to assist Israel’s barbaric war crimes and invasion of a sovereign nation.

On Saturday, 340 communists from all over Austria, as well as guests from neighbouring countries, came together in Vienna for the founding of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RKP). The purpose of this new party is to overthrow capitalism and build a society without exploitation, misery and oppression.

On Saturday 9 November, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Valencia to show their anger against the Government of the Generalitat Valenciana (the Valencian local government), and its president, Carlos Mazón, for their criminal actions after the ‘Dana’ flood on 29 and 30 October.

Today, Venezuela is used as a horror story by right-wingers and reactionaries, who hold it up as an example of why “socialism never works”. In fact, the Venezuelan Revolution was an inspiring episode in recent history, which showed the immense power of the masses and the potential of workers to run their workplaces without bosses. But it also demonstrated that you cannot have half a revolution: once the process has begun, it must end with the expropriation of capitalism and socialist reconstruction – as our comrade Luis Romero from Caracas explains!

On Thursday 7 November, Maccabi Tel Aviv played away from home against Ajax Amsterdam in the UEFA Europa League. The fans of Maccabi, the second most popular team in Israel, have also been found to have the second-most racist fans in the country, outdone only by those of Beitar Jerusalem in this respect.