After a four-week break, 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.

With each passing day, it is becoming clearer that Donald Trump – who believed Iran could be crushed by the naked force of American imperialism – has blundered. The humiliating defeat of the US and Israel in the region is pulling the rug out from under his feet. His approval ratings are now lower than ever.

At the same time, a sense of rage against the system is brewing in the US. Iranian propaganda videos are effectively tapping into the growing anti-war mood. In America, footage of a worker burning down their boss's warehouse has gone viral.

This war has brought about nothing less than a sea change in the global situation. Trump now appears like a man stuck in quicksand: unable to act without worsening his position. He is fanning the flames of the decline of US imperialism. The moment for fighting back could not be more opportune.

Tune in to this week’s episode, where Hamid Alizadeh and Jorge Martín discuss the world-historic events we are living through today and offer the way forward for the world working class.

📖 RECOMMENDED READING 📖

Iran War deals devastating collateral damage to Bangladesh

https://marxist.com/iran-war-deals-devastating-collateral-damage-to-bangladesh.htm

Trump’s defeat in Iran and its worldwide consequences

https://marxist.com/trump-s-defeat-in-iran-and-its-worldwide-consequences.htm

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS ⏱️

00:00 – Recap on Iran War

09:25 – What are America's options?

24:20 – Impact of US strategic defeat

30:19 – Looming economic crisis and food scarcity

38:55 – Brewing class anger

56:45 – How we can fight imperialism

🌐 LINKS 🌐

✊ Join the Revolutionary Communist International:

https://marxist.com/join-us.htm

🎧 Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/68nGNHz5lB8UZXICGIDMva?si=682ef70551644443

📱 Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/against-the-stream/id1777793987

📸 Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/revcomintern/

💬 Twitter:

https://x.com/revcomintern/

All the warning lights are flashing. With the US and Israel relentlessly bombing Iran for nearly a month and the Strait of Hormuz remaining closed, the economic consequences of the Iran war are spelling 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.

Who will be hardest hit by the fallout from this US-Israeli aggression? As with any imperialist war, it is the working class who are made to pay the price. An estimated 45 million people are already projected to fall into severe poverty, pushing the figures to record highs.

In the advanced capitalist economies, any gains made by ordinary people since the end of the pandemic are being wiped out in an instant. Serious bourgeois economists and commentators are growing anxious – not because their own fortunes are at stake, but because of the revolutionary implications of a new global slump.

In this week's episode of Against the Stream, Hamid and Jorge examine the enormous economic fallout of the Iran war, and take on a viewer's question about whether socialism can be achieved through parliament.

New episodes of Against the Stream air every Thursday at 6pm GMT on YouTube.

📖 RECOMMENDED READING 📖

International Debt Report 2025: When relief isn’t enough — LMICs face their largest external debt outflows in 50 years | World Bank

🔗https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/opendata/international-debt-report-2025--when-relief-isn-t-enough---lmics

Why the Middle East conflict threatens record levels of hunger | World Food Programme

🔗https://www.wfp.org/stories/why-middle-east-conflict-threatens-record-levels-hunger

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS ⏱️

00:00 – Intro

01:10 – Developments in the war

18:05 – Impact on world economy

33:15 – The impending food catastrophe

43:54 – The crisis of debt

53:57 – Poor countries are hit hardest

01:01:52 – Q: Revolution through parliament?

🌐 LINKS 🌐

✊ Join the Revolutionary Communist International: https://marxist.com/join-us.htm

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/68nGNHz5lB8UZXICGIDMva?si=682ef70551644443

📱 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/against-the-stream/id1777793987

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/revcomintern/

💬 Twitter: https://x.com/revcomintern/

"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.

Three weeks into the war with Iran, the costs – both material and symbolic – are becoming an unsolvable problem for Donald Trump. As Hamid Alizadeh and Jorge Martín discuss on this episode of Against the Stream, what appeared to be a solid and unified bloc when Trump was elected, has always been an illusion. MAGA is revealing itself as a heterogeneous movement of conflicting class interests, and the conclusions being drawn by ordinary people are anything but insignificant. The consequences for the American class struggle in the period ahead will be colossal.

In this week's episode, Hamid and Jorge dig into the profound domestic fallout of the Iran war, while also turning their attention to another front in Trump's campaign of imperialist bullying: Cuba, which now finds itself in grave danger.

New episodes of Against the Stream air every Thursday at 6pm GMT on YouTube.

📖 RECOMMENDED READING 📖

The Economist – America’s friends must help extricate it from an unlawful war

🔗https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2026/03/18/americas-friends-must-help-extricate-it-from-an-unlawful-war

The Guardian – UK security adviser ‘attended’ US-Iran talks and judged deal was within reach

🔗https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/17/uk-security-adviser-attended-us-iran-talks-and-judged-deal-was-within-reach

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS ⏱️

00:00 – Intro

01:25 – Iran war and its impact

37:23 – Do MAGA supporters want peace?

48:03 – Cuba update

🌐 LINKS 🌐

✊ Join the Revolutionary Communist International: https://marxist.com/join-us.htm

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/68nGNHz5lB8UZXICGIDMva?si=682ef70551644443

📱 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/against-the-stream/id1777793987

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/revcomintern/

💬 Twitter: https://x.com/revcomintern/

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.

Iran, meanwhile, is raising the stakes. Oil and gas prices are soaring, and the spectre of a new global economic slump looms ever larger. Ordinary people are watching these events unfold with a mixture of shock, bewilderment, and rage.

The question of how to fight back against imperialism and put an end to its unrelenting cycle of violence is weighing on the minds of millions.

In this episode of Against the Stream, Hamid Alizadeh and Fred Weston examine how communists must take up the struggle against US imperialism today, contrasting the Marxist approach with the positions of both the reformist left and so-called third-worldism.

New episodes of Against the Stream air every Thursday at 6pm GMT on YouTube.

📖 RECOMMENDED READING 📖

The war on Iran: where do communists stand?

🔗https://marxist.com/the-war-on-iran-where-do-communists-stand.htm

Trump’s massive Iran aggression gamble becoming a catastrophic miscalculation

🔗https://marxist.com/trump-s-massive-iran-aggression-gamble-becoming-a-catastrophic-miscalculation.htm

Financial Times – 'Iranians rethink the price of regime change'

🔗https://www.ft.com/content/4e048ed0-9bba-4392-8cee-7f1337c0b211

New York Times – 'Pace of Iran's retaliatory strikes appears to be slowing'

🔗https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/world/middleeast/iran-weapons-missiles-israel-gulf.html

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS ⏱️

00:00 – Intro and updates to the situation

15:15 – What is imperialism?

29:45 – The reformist 'solution'

48:55 – The 'Axis of Resistance'

🌐 LINKS 🌐

✊ Join the Revolutionary Communist International: https://marxist.com/join-us.htm

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/revcomintern/

💬 Twitter: https://x.com/revcomintern/

The United States and Israel have launched a war on Iran. Missiles and bombs are falling across Tehran and beyond, with strikes hitting schools, military installations, and government compounds throughout the country. Thousands of people are being killed and injured in yet another wave of imperialist bloodshed.

On today's episode of Against The Stream, Hamid Alizadeh is joined by Niklas Albin Svensson to analyse this major turning point in world events from a communist perspective. Already, things aren't going the way Trump had hoped, with Iran firing back, US munitions stretched thin, and the threat of a prolonged conflict the US cannot afford…

New episodes of Against the Stream air every Thursday at 6pm GMT on YouTube.

📖 RECOMMENDED READING 📖

The war on Iran: where do communists stand?

🔗https://marxist.com/the-war-on-iran-where-do-communists-stand.htm

Trump’s massive Iran aggression gamble becoming a catastrophic miscalculation

🔗https://marxist.com/trump-s-massive-iran-aggression-gamble-becoming-a-catastrophic-miscalculation.htm

Alliance of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan statement

🔗https://x.com/PDKIenglish/status/2028556271700549982

🌐 LINKS 🌐

✊ Join the Revolutionary Communist International: https://marxist.com/join-us.htm

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/revcomintern/

💬 Twitter: https://x.com/revcomintern/

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 recent kidnapping of Maduro appears to have emboldened Trump and the warhawks in Washington, convincing them they can dictate terms through sheer force. But a war with Iran would not be a simple show of strength; it would risk spiralling far beyond US control.

This looming conflict is not an isolated event, but the product of decades of US imperialist intervention that has sown chaos across the Middle East. As Ben Curry and Hamid Alizadeh discuss in this latest episode, new fault lines are opening, which threaten fresh and bloody clashes across the region. All this while crises at home, including the fallout from the Epstein files, expose the deep rot at the heart of American capitalism.Fittingly, this episode also tackles a key question sent in by a listener: will a revolution necessarily be violent

New episodes of Against the Stream air every Thursday at 6pm GMT on YouTube.

📖 RECOMMENDED READING 📖

Red Sea rift: US allies split into armed camps

🔗https://marxist.com/middle-east-divide-fault-lines.htmThe establishment has been rocked before.

Epstein is an existential threat

🔗https://www.thetimes.com/uk/royal-family/article/epstein-king-charles-british-monarchy-d7nxllfgq?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AWEtsqfauVuwblbIy7ObbYJ5jMpOy4JSsVK2VWzBII0HGdoA2-CILWfjl88pZFz3PVE%3D&gaa_ts=69a06606&gaa_sig=VxBVBRNrLEXvVW-tWp7tZ0xwCM7-Z6MjuWqKNJGscxX_5bQsVJaV5_Q673BjJE7n-nCzvPxbFQGUzbDIRq9WVg%3D%3D

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS ⏱️

00:00 – Intro

01:15 – Iran military buildup

24:09 – Realignment of powers in the Middle East

46:48 – Epstein scandal out of control

01:04:16 – Question: do communists want violence?

🌐 LINKS 🌐

✊ Join the Revolutionary Communist International: https://marxist.com/join-us.htm

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/revcomintern/

💬 Twitter: https://x.com/revcomintern/

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.

The aim of the US is to crush a revolution that refuses to submit to imperialist domination. Trump demands Cuba sever ties with Russia and China, open its economy to US capital, and surrender its sovereignty. The stakes couldn’t be clearer: the survival of the revolution depends not on bourgeois governments, but on the mobilisation of the working class and oppressed worldwide.

In this episode of our Marxist current affairs podcast, Against the Stream, Jorgé Martín and Hamid Alizadeh analyse the latest developments in the imperialist siege and discuss the history of the Cuban Revolution and how it got where it is today. New episodes of Against the Stream air every Thursday at 6pm GMT on YouTube.

📖 RECOMMENDED READING 📖

Memorandum From the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Mallory) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Rubottom)

🔗https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v06/d499

Cuba 50 years later – where is the revolution going?

🔗https://marxist.com/cuba-50-years-later.htm

Rise up with Cuba, peoples of the world!

🔗https://medium.com/la-tiza/lev%C3%A1ntense-con-cuba-pueblos-del-mundo-2cf19db7647c

"This is Not a Dress Rehearsal": U.S. Engaged in Massive Military Buildup as Threat To Bomb Iran Grows

🔗https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/iran-us-nuclear-military-buildup-trump-khamenei?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&triedRedirect=true

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS ⏱️

00:00 – Intro

01:17 – What is going on in Cuba?

14:05 – Impact of blockade

23:58 – Why does the US care about Cuba?

27:50 – Is Cuba a socialist country?

46:51 – Iran

55:39 – Viewer's question: Why would people go to work under communism?

🌐 LINKS 🌐

✊ Join the Revolutionary Communist International: https://marxist.com/join-us.htm

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/revcomintern/

💬 Twitter: https://x.com/revcomintern/

Over the last month, we have seen shocking images come out of Syria. ISIS flags waving over Raqqa. 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?

Meanwhile, the world has been left aghast by the release of millions more files related to billionaire pedophile Jeffery Epstein. This is not only the exposure of the sordid dealings of a lone sex trafficker, but his friends: the most powerful people in the world. Here, for the whole world to see, is an unprecedented insight into the sociology and morality of the ruling class. Moreover, as the perpetrators walk scott free, the release of increasingly shocking dirt is stirring up a guillotine mood in society.

As communists, we more than anyone need to understand the significance and meaning of these events. In this episode of our Marxist current affairs podcast, Against the Stream, Fred Weston and Hamid Alizadeh sat down to do just that.

New episodes of Against the Stream air every Thursday at 6pm GMT on YouTube.

📖 RECOMENDED READING 📖

Donald Trump and the ‘Epstein Class’

🔗https://marxist.com/donald-trump-and-the-epstein-class.htm

Kurds under siege in Rojava

🔗https://marxist.com/kurds-under-siege-in-rojava-only-revolutionary-struggle-against-imperialism-can-prevent-a-massacre.htm

FT: The Epstein rot goes deep

🔗https://www.ft.com/content/3f8277cd-2b47-49ff-b264-fd7ce89c924f

Syria, Turkey, and the Oppression of the Kurds:

🔗https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivBJ4vpzsqs

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This video was pre-recorded a week in advance. We will return to normal programming on Thursday 12th February.

A lot is said about Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution. The billionaire-owned media cry out indignantly that 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?

In the meantime, the imperialists in Washington launched a number of coup attempts; all of which failed miserably, when brought face to face with the will of the organised masses. The power of the working class is like no other on Earth, and the Venezuelan Revolution offers an invaluable glimpse of what is possible when this power is unleashed.

What was it about Chávez’ methods and outlook that allowed him to lead the most important revolutionary movement of the 21st century? And what was it about those same methods and outlook that ultimately led to its defeat after his death?

Jorge Martín and Hamid Alizadeh answer these questions and more on this week’s episode of Against the Stream. Tune in every Thursday at 6pm GMT for a Marxist analysis of world events.

📖 RECOMMENDED READING 📖

'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' – Documentary on the failed 2002 coup

🔗https://vimeo.com/513876099

Carry Out the Legacy of Hugo Chávez

🔗https://marxist.com/carry-out-the-legacy-of-hugo-chavez.htm

From Alan Woods' book 'The Venezuelan Revolution: A Marxist Perspective':

Encounters with Hugo Chávez

🔗https://marxist.com/book-the-venezuelan-revolution-marxist-perspective/encounters-with-hugo-chavez.htm

Marxists and the Venezuelan Revolution

🔗https://marxist.com/book-the-venezuelan-revolution-marxist-perspective/marxists-andnbspthe-venezuelan-revolution.htm

🌐 LINKS 🌐

✊ Join the Revolutionary Communist International:

https://marxist.com/join-us.htm

📸 Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/revcomintern/

💬 Twitter:

https://x.com/revcomintern/

The movement against ICE in Minneapolis is not just any ordinary protest – it is a microcosm of the revolutionary events that will shake the United States in the period ahead. With their class struggle methods, culminating in the first general strike in America in 80 years, the workers of Minneapolis not only forced Trump to retreat, they have also inspired millions across the country and the world.

These events are a living and breathing lesson in the mechanics of revolution. They also show how, under the surface, the conditions for revolution – and particularly the consciousness of the classes – can develop undetected, before bursting to the surface in the form of dramatic events, which Trotsky described as the molecular processes of socialist revolution.

With more revolutionary shocks inbound, we as communists need to study and explain what is going on. In this episode of our Marxist current affairs podcast, Against the Stream, Fred Weston and Hamid Alizadeh delve into the events playing out in the US, and address how we can intervene in the struggle and prepare for the battles ahead.

New episodes of Against the Stream air every Thursday at 6pm GMT on YouTube.

📖 RECOMMENDED READING 📖

United States: the 2026 Minnesota general strike – a historic turning point

🔗https://marxist.com/united-states-the-2026-minnesota-general-strike-a-historic-turning-point.htm

Welcome to the American Winter – The Atlantic

🔗https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/01/minneapolis-uprising/685755/

Minneapolis Makes History: Now Spread the General Strike! [Podcast] – Revolutionary Communists of America

🔗https://youtu.be/nFi3sJCU1AY?si=r40nsT37QGFPZq1o

ICE Terrorizes Minneapolis: GENERAL STRIKE in the air [Podcast] – Revolutionary Communists of America

🔗https://youtu.be/EGBrOxhSqjs?si=5Eq9ycZ_E5xP7_qA

🌐 LINKS 🌐

✊ Join the Revolutionary Communist International: https://marxist.com/join-us.htm

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/revcomintern/

💬 Twitter: https://x.com/revcomintern/