STATEMENT OF THE WORKERS LEAGUE
21-06-2025: Friday the 13th of June saw the Israeli state launch an unprovoked attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran. This is a war that the US has sought to bring about for 45 years. It is explicitly aimed at regime change, and any talk of nuclear weapons being the reason is as fraudulent as the “weapons of mass destruction” lies which accompanied US imperialism’s 2003 invasion of Iraq. This is not a war of Israel vs Iran per se. It is a war waged by US imperialism using Israel as a proxy against Iran, in the same way as it is using Ukraine as a proxy against the Russian Federation, and it is using Taiwan as a proxy against the People’s Republic of China (PRC). These conflicts are not separate or disconnected from each other, but different theatres of the same conflagration. Given that Israel has nuclear weapons, each day of the US/Israeli launched war on Iran threatens the planet with World War III. Working people of the world must ensure that the imperialist elite of the West are nobbled to such an extent that they are no longer capable of endangering human civilisation with nuclear obliteration.
No to regime change
Whatever political disagreements one may have with the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, its state must be defended against this ultra-reactionary imperialist regime change operation. This is the Iran which overthrew the US backed Shah in 1979, sustained an eight-year long war from Iraq backed by Washington, and built itself into the power it is today. Socialists generally do not endorse theocratic states, but even though Iran’s revolution has maintained an Islamic leadership, its stance has in the main been progressive and anti-imperialist. It has sustained multiple attacks from the US and Israel, including several assassinations of IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp) generals and assassinations of many nuclear scientists working on its development of nuclear isotopes for health care and other civilian uses. It developed an array of Shia militias throughout the Middle East which fought and often defeated ISIS and Al Qaeda operatives armed and funded by the governments of the US, the United Kingdom, France and others. It helped defend Syria against US imperialism’s “dirty war” along with Russia and Hezbollah, until circumstances led to its collapse.
Arguably the October 7 terror attacks on Israel, orchestrated between the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) and Hamas, were aimed at drawing Iran into a regime change war. The Islamic Republic of Iran has long been a defender of Palestine, and US and EU (European Union) led imperialism conducted a horrific genocide of Gazans on the assumption that Iran would militarily intervene to assist. No doubt many in Iran desired to do just that, but wiser heads saw that it was a bear trap. Despite their strong solidarity with Palestine, they knew that Israel is nuclear armed, and if they intervened, millions more Palestinians and Iranians could perish if Israel’s nukes were unleashed. Instead, Iran continued to assist its Shia allies such as Hezbollah (despite the Israeli assassination of its leader Hassan Nasrallah) in Lebanon, and Ansar Allah in Yemen. For its own reasons, Iran gives some material support to Hamas, despite being aware of the role of Hamas as a terrorist proxy force ultimately created by the Israeli state with assistance from the intelligence agencies of the US and the UK. Despite Hamas, Palestine must be defended against the Zionist Israeli state’s ongoing murderous onslaught. Joint class struggle between anti-war Palestinian and Israeli workers who seek an end to the ongoing catastrophe remains vital if the region is to rebuild in the wake of the combat.
War on multipolarity
Iran is not only fighting for its survival, it is the new front in the war of the US/EU against the developing multipolar world. Capitalism in the West is being overtaken and surpassed by the socialistic PRC in virtually every field – manufacturing, industry, science, technology, infrastructure, energy and more. The PRC’s gargantuan economy, along with its allies, anchors the non-imperialist BRICS bloc which now numbers 20 states. Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Iran and Indonesia are full members while Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam are partner members. Although BRICS is primarily a financial and economic bloc, it combines with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) which is a security bloc across most of Eurasia. Russia, China and Iran are the strongest pillars of the multipolar world, which is why they are the biggest targets of the US empire which is fighting a losing battle with the forward march of history. If capitalism is to survive, imperialism must work to prevent the alternative represented by the emerging multipolar world. BRICS and the accompanying alternatives to the IMF, the World Bank, NATO and the G7 have the enthusiastic support of the overwhelming majority in the “Global South” – billions of people across Africa, Eurasia and Latin America.
There are numerous political contradictions and shortcomings within the multipolar nations, but despite it all, it is offering an alternative of economic development, cooperation and mutual benefit. The declining West, on the other hand, offers unending war, ruin and underdevelopment. The ruling classes of the West are well aware that they are running out of time, which is the basic reason for the current regime change war on Iran via Israel. This war could not have begun without the overthrow of Syria, which the Pentagon essentially conducted over 13 years using barbaric Al Qaeda head choppers, which have been installed as the unelected “government”. Israel has occupied parts of southern Syria, from which it launched some of its attacks on Iran from June 13 onwards. The US state is not being “dragged in” to this war, it is behind it. This is while domestically President Trump is attempting to deport migrants who have been working and living in the US for years, as one indicator of a general political malaise stemming from economic and cultural decline.
VI Lenin once stated that politics is the relations between classes and the relations between states. This is clearly demonstrated by the world situation today. While imperialism drives further towards World War III, the non-imperialist world strives towards a world without war, without poverty, without intractable environmental and other problems. While multipolarity itself will not lead to socialism, working people of the world must go through the multipolar axis if it is to reach socialism. What is required is a worldwide anti-war movement which must be linked to the devastating cost of living and housing crisis afflicting working people in the capitalist economies of the West. A Marxist vanguard must be forged. Strikes, demonstrations, and public meetings must be held until captured politicians tremble. Private wealth alongside public squalor must come to an end. Workers must disarm the elites who wage endless wars. NO TO WAR! NO WEAPONS FOR ISRAEL, UKRAINE, TAIWAN!
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