Against the Stream

Once again, this week has been defined by sharp turns in world politics. In Syria, the Assad regime collapsed after a sudden offensive by Islamist groups, taking the whole world by surprise. In the US, the assassination of a US healthcare CEO was met with an enormous outpouring of sympathy for the killer, in a clear expression of the simmering class rage beneath the surface. In Ukraine, it is becoming increasingly clear that Zelensky – darling of the West – is becoming hated by the population.

It would be understandable, however, if the bourgeois media’s reporting on these events have left you confused. In Syria, the media has branded the Al-Qaeda group placed in power by the collapse as ‘rebels’, and the US and UK are even debating removing them from their terrorist list. In Ukraine, they have been propagandising about this war as one of freedom and self determination, and not a proxy war between NATO and Russia. And – if you only read the mainstream papers – you would be under the impression that the death of this CEO was an unmitigated tragedy, and not the just deserts of someone who has profited off the death of thousands of sick, vulnerable people.

At Against the Stream, we intend to cut through the fog of the liberal media and explain what is really going on. Furthermore, these developments raise a whole number of questions: for example, what does the fall of the Assad regime mean for the Middle East? What does it mean for the Kurds? How will the Ukraine war end? And where is America going? 

To answer those questions, Hamid Alizadeh and Fred Weston from the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International met for another episode of Against the Stream.

This podcast was streamed live on YouTube. Tune in every Thursday at 3pm GMT, or catch up on Spotify or Apple Music.

Articles discussed in this episode:

Assad falls, Islamists take over Syria – https://marxist.com/assad-falls-islamists-take-over-syria.htm

The deepening unpopularity of Zelensky – https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-deepening-unpopularity-of-zelensky/

Why the assassination of Brian Thompson ignited American politics – https://www.newstatesman.com/world/americas/north-america/us/2024/12/why-the-assassination-of-brian-thompson-ignited-american-politics

Class hatred and the assassination of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO – https://marxist.com/class-hatred-and-the-assassination-of-unitedhealthcare-s-ceo.htm

This week has been full of sharp and sudden turns. The Syrian civil war has suddenly reignited due to the shock advance of a Turkey-backed rebel group. The French president was forced to resign after trying to force through an austerity budget. Joe Biden has used his last few weeks in power to pardon his corrupt son. And, to top things off, the president of South Korea declared martial law, only to be quickly defeated by opposition from the whole of parliament and mass mobilisations. 

Everywhere we see increasing instability, war and political turmoil. All of these are symptoms of the profound economic and social crisis, a product of the complete impasse of the capitalist system.

Such developments can be incredibly disorienting. So in order to break them down, link them together, and draw out the general processes driving them forwards, Hamid and Jorge from the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International sat down for another episode of Against the Stream.

If you’re hungry for more communist analysis of an increasingly unstable world situation, tune in to Against the Stream every week on Thursday at 3pm GMT.

This week, the Middle East has once again dominated the news, with the ICC issuing an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as the announcement of a supposedly ‘lasting’ ceasefire in Lebanon. In Europe, meanwhile, explosive events are being prepared in France, as the tottering National Assembly is set to face off against a rising tide of class struggle.

Everywhere, the response of the capitalist press to these events has been hysterical and hypocritical. For that reason, in this episode of Against the Stream, Hamid Alizadeh and Jorge Martín – from the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International – analyse the stormy events of the week and draw out the key processes that the capitalist media try to obscure.

In this episode of Against the Stream, Hamid Alizadeh and Niklas Albin Svensson, from the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International, discussed the reckless escalation of the Ukraine war by Biden, Trump’s controversial picks for his administration, and the death of the American Dream.

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind in world politics. As the hosts of Against the Stream have discussed, the German government has collapsed, the Spanish monarch has been pelted with mud, Trump has returned to power, and Biden has now escalated the Ukraine war by permitting the Ukrainians to strike into Russia with American long-range missiles.

In order to penetrate the fog created by the hysterical media and liberal establishment, Hamid and Niklas focused on the incoming Trump presidency and its implications for world imperialism relations.

As we have discussed in previous weeks, Trump’s victory was based on his demagogic appeal to the working class, as well as his promise to pull the US out of the costly war in Ukraine. Now, months away from power, he has started to appoint a coterie of loyalists, all set on purging the state of any opposition to Trump’s programme of tariffs and deportations.

In the meantime, Biden has tried to undermine his arch nemesis Trump by enabling Ukraine to strike into Russia with American missiles, to which Russia has responded with the launch of an ICBM.

All this chaos, on the backdrop of the crisis of the world economy will usher in mighty class struggles which will shake American imperialism to its foundations. 

We’ll be back next week for a special episode on the world economy. As per usual, we’ll be streaming live to YouTube from 3pm GMT.

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.

Every week, members of the International secretariat pick a number of flashpoints in current affairs to discuss, using articles from the billionaire press as a starting point.

Contrary to the liberals, who respond to these events with hysteria and confusion, we, as Marxists, seek to explain and understand what is going on beneath the surface, and what is driving these events forward.

Tune in to Against the Stream every Thursday at 3pm (GMT). New episodes are streamed live to YouTube. We’d love to hear your feedback along with any articles or questions you want discussed on the podcast.

Closely following our special episode with Alan Woods covering Trump’s victory in the US election, Against the Stream went live again this week for another discussion. This time, Hamid Alizadeh and Fred Weston from the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International met to talk about the devastating floods in Spain and the resulting  rage of the masses against the ruling class, the abrupt collapse of the German government, and more on the implications of Trump’s victory.

Read the articles discussed by Hamid and Fred here:

Trump victory: a kick in the teeth for the establishment / https://marxist.com/trump-victory-2024.htm

How Trump Won the Economy-Is-Everything Election / https://www.wsj.com/economy/economy-election-trump-voters-c4c2e9a3

Germany's coalition government falls apart — how it happened / https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-coalition-government-falls-apart-how-it-happened/a-70717066

Spain: monarchs pelted with mud as rage over avoidable deaths boils over in Valencia / https://marxist.com/spain-monarchs-pelted-with-mud-as-rage-over-avoidable-deaths-boils-over-in-valencia.htm

Feijóo and Sánchez take note of the social discontent and order to "calm down" the public battle / https://www.elconfidencial.com/espana/2024-11-05/feijoo-y-sanchez-toman-nota-hartazgo-social-ordenan-serenar-combate-publico_3997241/

The king surrounds himself with employers and unions with the message of avoiding the political battle after the altercation in Paiporta / https://www.eldiario.es/economia/rey-rodea-patronal-sindicatos-mensaje-evitar-batalla-politica-altercado-paiporta_1_11797536.html

This week, Against the Stream podcast went live for a very special episode. Now that the results of the US election have come in, Hamid Alizadeh and Alan Woods from the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International (RCI) sat down to discuss the implications of Trump's victory and what it means to communists. Alan is the editor of marxist.com, the author of numerous books on Marxist theory and the lead theoretician of the RCI.

This year's election has been one of the most turbulent in US history. It comes amidst rising class contradictions and great instability on the world stage.

Never before has American bourgeois democracy been so discredited, and never has it been so confronted with so many challenges to its position as the world imperialist power. Trump's victory – against the hysterical attacks of the liberal establishment and media – will mark a milestone in the US’s tumble towards further crisis and instability.

A Marxist analysis of this election, and its implications on the already fragile world situation, is of huge importance to communists.

This week, Jorge and Hamid sat down to discuss three flashpoints in the world crisis of capitalism: the floods that are devastating Spain, the spiralling conflict in the Middle East, and the impending US election.

In each episode of our new podcast Against the Stream, members of the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International meet to talk about the most pressing events in the world today. With the help of a few articles selected from the capitalist press, they reveal the interests and processes guiding these developments which the mainstream media won’t talk about.

This week, Jorge and Hamid look at the current flooding in Spain, a symptom of climate catastrophe made dramatically worse by the short sighted, profit driven policy of the government; the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, and Israel’s missile strikes on Iran, which for the first time put Iran and Israel in open, direct conflict; and the American election, the discrediting of the mainstream media, and the economic crisis in the USA which is driving deep polarisation.

This episode was streamed live to YouTube, and you can catch new episodes of Against the Stream weekly at 3pm (GMT). We’d love to hear your feedback along with any articles or questions you want discussed on the podcast.

On 24 October, Fred Weston and Hamid Alizadeh from the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International sat down for another special podcast episode focusing on three flashpoints of world politics: Sinwar's assassination, Zelensky’s peace plan, and the BRICS summit.

The comrades look behind the headlines, starting with what the capitalist media have been saying about the assassination of Yahya Sinwar, leader of Hamas. The killing was greeted by a wave of gloating from Israel and Saudi Arabia. But Israel – which released a video of his death on the frontline – has inadvertently turned Sinwar into a hero and has fueled defiance of Israel and its allies in the whole region.

The second article looks at Zelensky’s desperate ‘victory plan’, which pleads for admission to NATO and long-range missiles with which to strike Russia. But this is completely untenable. Ukraine is heading towards an inevitable, brutal defeat, and now the western imperialists who provoked this war in the first place are preparing to betray Ukraine and abandon it to its fate.

Finally, the comrades discussed the BRIC summit which is being held in Russia. Since the beginning of the Ukraine war, the West has sought to isolate Russia. But the summit shows that this has completely failed. Russia was not only joined by Iran and China, and other western rivals, but US allies like India, Saudi Arabia, as well as the secretary general of the UN. This is a reflection of the fact that, as the power of US imperialism enters relative decline, other countries are hedging their bets, and balancing between the different blocs in the world economy.

This episode was streamed live on Youtube. Once again, we’d appreciate any feedback on this new style of podcast.

On the 16 October, Jorge Martín and Hamid Alizadeh from the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International sat down to talk about the genocide in Gaza, the war in Lebanon, and the crisis facing the European economy.

We once more dive into the pages of the billionaire press of the past week, in order to expose the truth behind the headlines, illuminate the processes driving the chaos on the world stage, and to explain how we as communists can pick out the truth.

Click here to listen on Twitter Spaces.

This week, they discussed: a New York Times exposé on the IDF’s barbaric practice of using Palestinian prisoners as human shields, a practice fully in keeping with Israel’s genocidal policy in Gaza which reflects the fact that no amount of lives or ‘international laws’ can stand in the way of the interests of imperialism; a Reuters article analysing the US’ role in aiding and abetting Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, an expression of the relative decline facing the world’s foremost imperialism power; and a Bloomberg summary of a paper written by Italian ex-PM Mario Draghi, which lays out the enormous crisis and stagnation facing European capitalism, which has been devastated by the repercussions of the Ukraine war.

After the enthusiastic feedback we received following the last instalment, we will be releasing episodes of this series weekly, alongside Spectre of Communism. We are still experimenting with this new style of podcast, so you can help us by sending your feedback on the format, as well as suggestions for articles to discuss in the future.