Defend Iran Against U.S./Israel Attack!

Trump and Netanyahu have unleashed epic fury against Iran, raining down death and destruction on Tehran and other cities. From the genocide of the Palestinians to the kidnapping of Maduro and starvation of Cuba, the U.S. juggernaut is on a tear. A declining empire is a very dangerous beast, resorting to brute force no matter the cost to re-establish its dominance and clear the board of all its perceived foes. This carnage abroad has already found its way home in the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal authorities and a trail of attacks on the unions, immigrants and black people. The more the White House is able to get away with, the bolder its offensive will become against everyone in its path. We must mobilize the broadest possible forces to take a stand against the U.S. and in defense of Iran.

Working people in this country have every reason to embrace the defense of Iran as their own. The chaos in the Middle East will come crashing down on their heads in the form of greater social regimentation, bloodier crackdowns on their struggles and a deeper affordability crisis. It will be their sons and daughters who will forfeit their lives in a spiraling conflict that benefits only the billionaires who lord over them. Trump does not fight on just one front at a time. Stopping the attack against Iran would be the surest way to defend workers here against the common enemy.

The repressive theocracy that reigns supreme in Iran does need to be done away with—by that country’s working and toiling masses, not the far more repressive U.S. rulers who dominate the globe. Trump postures like he is providing the Iranian people a service, when in fact he is laying waste to the country to ensure the installation of a puppet regime that bows to U.S. diktats without question. This will not bring the liberation of Iranian workers, women or the Kurds, but rather will put them further under U.S. imperialism’s boot. Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed the views of the administration in a recent speech in Munich, where he denounced the 20th century’s anticolonial independence movements and communist influence for eroding western power.

In response to such frank declarations, liberal Democrats charge Trump with resurrecting empire—a goal that they themselves share, although they prefer to hide U.S. world domination behind the mask of democracy and human rights. Now, Democratic politicians are either expressing apprehensions about the new war’s risks to U.S. empire or are critical only to the extent that Trump refused to seek their approval beforehand. They want pro-U.S. regime change in Tehran and back to the hilt the sanctions that have made life unbearable for the broad masses in Iran but they worry that Trump’s furious assault will come back to haunt U.S. imperialism.

Left groups must reject appeals to the Democrats to rein in Trump and set aside simple calls to oppose the war that do not distinguish them from the liberal pacifists. This kind of opposition to the war is no opposition at all. It seeks not to deliver a resounding blow against U.S. empire, but rather enables it to extend its tentacles through other means. Yes, the war against Iran must be opposed, and that must be done by forthrightly defending the country that the U.S. rulers are now trying to raze.

It is by taking a side against U.S. imperialism that the left in the belly of the beast can make a clear case for anti-imperialist working-class action—from organizing union contingents at protests to hot-cargoing military goods to the U.S./Israel war machine. It is by taking a clear side that a fighting anti-imperialist alliance can be cohered between workers in the U.S. and abroad. The U.S. rulers do not need to stop the war so they can throw themselves into another line of attack. They need to be stopped, period. All leftists, activists and workers who want to draw a line against the raging U.S. ruling class should join together in united-front protest to demand: Defend Iran against U.S./Israel attack!