As 2025 draws to a close, workers and young people around the world will look back on a year that has starkly exposed the blind alley of world capitalism. Trump’s return to the White House has only deepened the disorder, with his administration’s foreign and economic policies causing chaos on the world stage. The recently released National Security Strategy makes one thing unmistakably clear: the United States is not in the position it used to be, no longer capable of policing the globe on its own.

This redivision of the world will not unfold calmly or peacefully – as the events of 2025 have shown. The relentless succession of crises is shaking consciousness on a mass scale, pushing hundreds of millions to question the status quo. Increasingly, people are searching for a way out of society’s dead end, and a growing layer is becoming receptive to communist ideas.

In this episode of Against the Stream, Jorge Martín and Hamid Alizadeh look back on the tumultuous year, discuss what lies ahead, and explore how communists should prepare for the struggles to come.

Against the Stream is the Marxist current-affairs podcast of the Revolutionary Communist International. New episodes air every Thursday at 6pm GMT on YouTube.

📖 RECOMMENDED READING 📖

National Security Strategy of the United States of America

🔗https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-National-Security-Strategy.pdf

“Just 0.001% hold three times the wealth of poorest half of humanity, report finds”

https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2025/dec/10/just-0001-hold-three-times-the-wealth-of-poorest-half-of-humanity-report-finds

The meaning of China’s $1tn trade surplus

🔗https://www.ft.com/content/80933ccf-a23f-43ab-b83c-1d2055e5995d

Labour is slow-marching working people to populism

🔗https://www.ft.com/content/1052957c-90ef-4e00-b599-e45643c5c8e4

How asset managers like BlackRock took over the world

🔗https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2025/06/16/how-asset-managers-like-blackrock-took-over-the-world-vulture-capitalism-extract-grace-blakeley/#:~:text=In%20this%20extract%20from%20her,concentration%20of%20money%20and%20power.

The world turned upside down – a system in crisis

🔗https://marxist.com/world-perspectives-2025.htm

🌐 LINKS 🌐

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

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

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

This week, in Britain, Your Party – led by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana – held its inaugural conference. Zarah Sultana spoke there about not only taxing the rich, but of nationalising the entire economy! What does this development signify? And what would it take for Your Party to pose a real threat to capitalism in Britain?

Meanwhile, amid a growing dispute within the US government over strikes on alleged drug-running vessels, Donald Trump announced that he will soon authorise military action against targets inside Venezuela. What lies behind this latest act of imperialist bullying and escalation? And what consequences would a new war have on the global situation

In this episode of Against the Stream, Jorge Martín and Hamid Alizadeh explore these questions and outline the communist perspective on them.

Against the Stream is the Marxist current-affairs podcast of the Revolutionary Communist International. New episodes air every Thursday at 6pm GMT on YouTube.

📖 RECOMMENDED READING 📖

Britain: Gary, Jeremy, and the super-rich – how do we make the billionaires pay for this crisis?

🔗https://marxist.com/britain-gary-jeremy-and-the-super-rich-how-do-we-make-the-billionaires-pay-for-this-crisis.htm

French lessons: what Corbyn can learn from Mitterrand's mistakes

🔗https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2017/10/french-lessons-what-corbyn-can-learn-mitterrands-mistakes

US imperialism and Latin America: Trump threatens war on Venezuela

🔗https://marxist.com/us-imperialism-and-latin-america-trump-threatens-war-on-venezuela.htm

The High Stakes in Venezuela

🔗https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-high-stakes-in-venezuela-08382e2d

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS ⏱️

1:40 Venezuela update

17:12 Zarah Sultana & Your Party

58:55 Answering viewers' questions

🌐 LINKS 🌐

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

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

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

With Trump’s proposed peace plan in Ukraine, Europe is once again finding itself sidelined by its former ally and benefactor, the United States. Having staked their crisis-ridden regimes on a Russian defeat in Ukraine, the Europeans are now waking up to the stark reality – Ukraine has lost the war, and Zelensky has his back against the wall.
Although the European leaders would be the first to deny it, the continent where capitalism was born has now been left to rot on the vine. As Jorge Martín and Hamid Alizadeh discuss in this episode of Against the Stream, the decline of the European economy in a period of rising imperialist competition is creating an explosive situation all across the continent.

Against the Stream is the Marxist current affairs podcast of the Revolutionary Communist International. It airs weekly on YouTube on Thursdays at 6pm GMT.

📖 RECOMMENDED READING 📖

China is making trade impossible

🔗 https://www.ft.com/content/f294be55-98c4-48f0-abce-9041ed236a44

Why Trump pushed for peace — again

🔗 https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/2025/11/ukraine-peace-push-russia-trump-zelensky/685045/

Top U.S. negotiator warned Europeans that Russia is stockpiling missiles

🔗 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/world/europe/ukraine-peace-talks-russia-missiles.html

How can Europe pay for things that it cannot afford?

🔗 https://www.imf.org/en/-/media/files/publications/imf-notes/2025/english/insea2025004.pdf

🌐 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/