Defense of Iran is a worker’s issue

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps carried out a spectacular military attack with 200 hypersonic ballistic missiles on three key Israeli bases in the Occupied Palestinian Territories on Oct. 1. The attack known as the “True Promise 2” operation caused severe damage to the Nevatim and Hatzerim air bases, along with Mossad intelligence headquarters. 

This operation, which focused only on military targets, was in response to the assassination of the political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran, Iran, on July 31. Iran viewed this heinous crime as a violation of its sovereignty and rightfully so. 

Citing its right under the United Nations Charter to punish Israel for this act of terrorism, Iran delayed carrying out the operation with the hope that a ceasefire would be imposed on Israel to stop the holocaust against Palestinian civilians. Once Israel refused to negotiate with Hamas, Iran carried out the Oct. 1, 2024 operation. 

There were no reported civilian casualties by Iran, unlike the genocidal Israeli airstrikes, carried out with backing from the U.S. These strikes have killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians since last Oct. 8, along with Lebanese civilians since Sept. 27. 

Israel has pledged at any moment to retaliate against Iran, even threatening the use of nuclear weapons. While U.S. imperialism supports this impending attack, it stops short of supporting Israel using nuclear weapons and attacking Iran’s oil refineries due to the potential of an increase in oil prices and the overall negative impact on the global economy. 

History of hostility towards Iran 

U.S. imperialism has demonized Iran since the Persian nation of over 90 million people carried out an earth-shattering Islamic revolution from 1979-81 against the hated U.S. puppet Shah of Iran to demand control of their own resources, especially oil and gas resources. Then, U.S. hostages were taken for 444 days. Ever since this social uprising, Iran has been in the crosshairs of Western imperialism and demonized as a danger to the rest of West Asia (the Middle East) and even the U.S. 

Besides defiantly thumbing its nose at imperialist military threats and economic sabotage with sanctions, Iran has found a way to develop into the most powerful country, militarily and economically, in the region. 

Iran has also demonstrated unwavering solidarity, not only to the Palestinian liberation struggle but to other developing countries such as Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq that have also defied imperialist aggression and domination. 

Iran is not the enemy 

Whenever U.S. imperialism cannot coerce an independent country into its orbit, it will rely on disinformation and outright lies. This is to disarm the masses into believing that the biggest threat to their security is a country such as Iran that has no military bases remotely close to the number belonging to the U.S. Compare this to 19 U.S. military bases in West Asia located in 10 countries. This military occupation is an ominous threat that the Iranian people face on a daily basis. 

Imperialism makes any excuse, claiming security concerns, to divert billions of taxpayer dollars into a gargantuan military budget to threaten independent countries including Iran and China. They have the right to develop their own economies to serve their populations, not for profits for billionaire bosses. 

That money should be used instead to meet human needs, such as housing, education, food, health care and emergency funds to assist victims of climate-related disasters such as Hurricane Helene.

It is not in the interest of any worker to support a war against other workers who share the same wants and needs on a global scale. Don’t the workers here have their own domestic fight against low wages, police violence, gender oppression, migrant bashing, poverty, mass incarceration and houselessness? Why should they kill or be killed or become permanently disabled in a war for conquest of other people’s lands for empire?

For those who consider themselves progressives and revolutionary socialists, defending Iran means opposing imperialist exploitation and expansion, the life’s blood of the profit-hungry capitalist system. 

For the masses, defending Iran means understanding that every issue is a worker’s issue not only at home but abroad. And there is no more important political issue at this juncture than to oppose imperialist war in words and actions on countries from Iran to China to Russia.

Hands off Iran!