Iran in the crosshairs of imperialism

Imperialist hands off Iran!

Working people around the world should oppose the threats from the Israeli government to launch an air assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities, as well as those by the imperialist powers of Washington, London and Paris to intensify their campaign of sanctions and the hardship it creates in order to compel Tehran to abandon its nuclear program.

The Iranian government says its program of uranium enrichment is for nuclear power generation. Expanding electrification is a necessary step for any country to advance industry and agriculture as well as medicine and culture. Imperialism’s drive to block this—whether in Iran, North Korea or anywhere else in the world—serves to maintain the economic underdevelopment and dependence of semicolonial countries.

Washington, London and especially Paris are utterly reliant on nuclear power generation, and can be expected to be ever more so in the future. They, along with Tel Aviv, all possess nuclear weapons. And Washington is the only power to ever use them, when they incinerated hundreds of thousands in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

Who are they to dictate who can develop nuclear technology?

A military strike on Iran is counter to the interests of working people in Iran, Israel, throughout the entire region and beyond. The renewed discussion within the Israeli ruling class on airstrikes flow from their deep concern about recent developments in the Middle East and North Africa that threaten “stability” as they see it. Among these are mass mobilizations in the region, from Tunisia to Egypt, where oppressive regimes were overthrown, to large demonstrations in Israel itself, which have involved both Jews and Arabs, to ongoing protests in Syria. These developments are opening political space for toilers in city and country to begin to organize and defend their own class interests.

A strike on Iran would inevitably lead to retaliation and war, with devastating consequences for working people. It would also serve to close the space workers and farmers have been fighting to use in both countries and the broader region. Two years ago, amid a drive by imperialists for harsher sanctions against Iran, it was popular protests to defend and expand democratic rights there that helped stay the imperialists’ hands. It’s further developments along these lines, especially in Iran and Israel, that could more than anything else push back the dangerous march toward war today.