Iran
Stop the Imperialist War on Iran
After giving mixed and contradictory messages, the Trump administration joined Israel’s attack on Iran, bombing at least three sites in the country early on June 22. Trump justified the strikes as necessary to stop Iran’s nuclear program from developing, the same reasons given by Israel for its ongoing onslaught.
These lies, reminiscent of G. W. Bush’s 2003 claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, hardly mask the true imperialist and colonial aims of Trump and Netanyahu. The US cannot tolerate any country developing independently of its power and to be rival to its interests, as Iran has done in the Middle East over the past few decades.
DEFEND THE PEOPLE OF IRAN! FIGHT FOR PALESTINIAN LIBERATION!
The Marxist theory of imperialism argues that capitalist states necessarily seek to conquer and expropriate people, territories, states and nations outside of their own. From that premise, Marxists defend the right of self-defense and self-determination for all countries under imperialist attack. Thus, “Defend Iran” must now be the rallying cry of Marxists everywhere.
Israel and the United States are the imperial aggressors in a war against the people of Iran. Since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 that saw the popular overthrow of the US-installed and backed Pahlavi monarchy of “Shah of Iran” Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the US has been waging undeclared war against the state and people of Iran. After the attacks of 9-11-2001, then President George W. Bush declared a new era of “generational” imperial warfare starting with Iraq, Iran, and North Korea–deeming the three nations the “Axis of Evil”.
Uprising in Iran and International Solidarity
More than 76 people have died and hundreds have been arrested during two weeks of protests in Iran. Protests broke out on September 17, the day the funeral was held for Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman killed while in the custody of the morality police (the baseeji). She was arrested on September 13 for not properly covering her hair as mandated by Iranian law.
Protests have spread to over 80 cities in Iran and across all 31 provinces, with students striking to join the protests and oil workers threatening to strike if the government doesn’t end its repression of the protests.
