Against the Stream

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 euros 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.In reality, European rearmament has nothing to do with defending ordinary people. It's about defending imperialist interests, maintaining spheres of influence, and keeping up with a rising Russia that has won a proxy war against the whole of NATO in Ukraine.Then there's the economy. Energy prices have doubled or tripled since the war in Ukraine began. German industrial output in chemicals, steel and glass is nosediving. Europe is buying expensive American LNG while its industry bleeds out. And China is flooding world markets with cheap goods that European companies simply cannot compete with.The response from the European ruling classes all led to a dead end. While they might pay lip-service to EU integration, this is impossible under capitalism, as Lenin explained in 1915. The only real way out is the Socialist United States of Europe.New episodes of Against the Stream every Thursday at 6pm GMT on YouTube.

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 capitalist crisis, and what it means for the working class.

From the S&P 500's absurd tech valuations to OpenAI's pyramid-scheme economics, they expose how artificial intelligence – far from rescuing the global economy – is accelerating the same contradictions Marx diagnosed 150 years ago. The episode covers the AI stock bubble, the threat of mass unemployment, the de-skilling of the middle class, the collapse of European industry, the global debt crisis, and why the Luddites were right to be angry but wrong in their methods.

Most importantly the episode discussed why this technology could liberate humanity entirely – but only if it's taken out of the hands of the capitalists who own it.

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

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS ⏱️

0:00 — Intro

1:34 — AI bubble

15:37 — World economy on the brink

16:32 — Unemployment

36:03 — Alienation

44:59 — The Luddites

50:35 — The potential under communism

🌐 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/

Did you know that Adam Smith, the poster child of free-market capitalism… was also a major influence on Karl Marx? 

While Smith is celebrated today as the father of capitalism and Marx as the founder of communism, they are actually part of the same theoretical tradition of political economy.

Unlike the lunatic libertarians and hired guns for capitalism who lay claim to Smith’s legacy today; in his day, he actually aimed to scientifically understand the workings of “commercial society”.

Although the apologists of capitalism don't like to admit it, Smith identified labor – not trade or crafty entrepreneurs – as the true source of a nation's wealth. In so doing, he elaborated on the labor theory of value: the idea that a commodity's worth is determined by the labor required to produce it.

But his analysis was incomplete and inconsistent, leaving him fundamentally unable to understand the mysteries of the burgeoning capitalist world, with all its inequality, chaos and crisis.

By taking Smith's insights and pushing them to their logical conclusions, most notably by distinguishing between labor and labor-power, Marx unlocked the secret of profit: workers produce more value than they receive in wages, with the difference – surplus value – falling to the capitalist.

By combining the labor theory of value with dialectical materialism, Marx revealed the fundamental laws governing capitalism and demonstrated why the system inevitably generates crises and exploitation. 

In this episode of Spectre of Communism, Adam Booth (leading member of the Revolutionary Communist Party and co-author of Understanding Marx’s Capital) joins Joe Attard to explore how two seemingly opposed economists are connected.

📖 RECOMMENDED READING 📖

From Adam Smith to Karl Marx: The Wealth of Nations and Das Kapital

https://marxist.com/from-adam-smith-to-karl-marx-the-wealth-of-nations-and-das-kapital.htm

Understanding Marx's Capital

https://wellredbooks.co.uk/product/understanding-marxs-capital/

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS ⏱️

0:00 — Intro — Who was Adam Smith?

8:56 — Division of labour

21:37 — The labour theory of value

43:58 — Exchange-value and price

55:04 — 'The invisible hand of the market'

1:00:36 — Profit and surplus value

1:12:44 — Decay of bourgeois economics

🌐 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/

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/