'America First' – What does it mean? What next for Gaza? and El País’ liberal hypocrisy

With just days until Trump returns to power, Hamid Alizadeh and Jorge Martín from the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International met for another episode of Against the Stream to break down the news of the world from a Marxist perspective.

This episode, they discussed the recent announcement of a ceasefire in Gaza. With Biden, Starmer and the Arab regimes celebrating this as a victory, the hosts of Against the Stream looked at the real terms of the deal, which, as they discuss, is a cynical, imperialist peace. In fact, the same deal has been on the table since May 2024, when it was opposed by the US and the UK. In the meantime, Gaza has been reduced to a wasteland and tens of thousands of Palestinians have been murdered.

They also discussed Trump’s ‘America First’ policy, which has big implications for US imperialism and its relationship to its friends and foes. Trump’s bombastic announcements – most notably that he would seek to negotiate with Putin to end the Ukraine war and that the US would annex Greenland, Panama, and Canada – represent a shift in the attitude of US imperialism, which has dispensed with any cover for its rapacious, imperialist policy; has begun to acknowledge that it can’t rule the whole world at the same time; and is looking to divide the world up into spheres of influence. Most of all, this has huge implications on the US' relationship with Europe, which, in spite of its alliance, is finding itself increasingly side-lined and undermined.

Finally, they discussed an editorial in El País which decries Elon Musk’s recent intervention in European politics. El País, a billionaire-owned media outlet, which has repeatedly intervened in politics, criticises Musk’s X… a billionaire-owned social media outlet, which has been used to intervene in politics. In fact, El País goes as far as to defend the recent cancellation of elections in Romania… in defence of democracy!

Against the Stream is live on YouTube every Thursday at 3pm GMT. You can also listen to it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts:

Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/show/68nGNHz5lB8UZXICGIDMva
Apple podcasts – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/against-the-stream/id1777793987