Statement on Israel’s Attacks on Iran
In the early hours of June 13, Israel launched a series of strikes on Iranian territory. Early reports indicate that over 70 Iranian civilians have been killed with hundreds more injured. Six Iranian nuclear scientists and over a dozen IRGC commanders have been killed in the strikes, including Major General Hossein Salami who served as the Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC. Tehran, Shiraz,
These inflammatory actions from Israel constitute a barbaric expression of this genocidal state’s plans in the region. Israel is a rising imperialist power, asserting the dominance of its ruling class in the Middle East. Buoyed by the United States, our own capitalist overlords, Israel has carried out a decades-long genocide of the Palestinian people to colonize their lands and has started numerous wars with its neighbors in service of their aims to establish “Greater Israel”. The result has been untold suffering and death for millions in the region from Gaza and the West Bank to Damascus and Tehran.
This latest aggression from the Zionist aggressors raises the risk of a wider war to a fever pitch. Israel has escalated tensions with Iran since 1979 and especially since the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action Iran signed with the USA. Iran represents the most significant rival to Israel’s ambitions in the region. This is not due to Iran’s supposed “anti-imperialist” convictions or a selfless support for the Palestinian people. Iran is itself a burgeoning imperialist power advancing the interests of its own monopolies in the region. The competition between Iran and Israel is one between warring groups of capital. Caught in the crossfire are the workers who seek no part in war between one group of robbers and another. Iran is compelled to respond to Israel’s aggression, the extent of their response and Israel’s willingness and ability to escalate even further leaves the world balanced on the edge of a knife, with the abyss of a destructive war looming below.
The Communist Workers’ Platform has consistently warned about the spread of the conflict from the genocide in Gaza to other parts of the Middle East. The developments in Syria and Israel’s incursions into Lebanon in 2024 validated the danger. The workers of all countries have paid with life and limb while the Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza continue to be subjected to Israel’s campaign of genocide. The tensions between the capitalist-imperialist powers on all sides of the conflicts continue to rise, dragging the world closer to broader conflict on larger scales. The communists and workers stand in solidarity with the workers and people in the Middle East subjected to the terror of their capitalist overlords’ murderous wars.
The organized might of the working class, led by Marxism-Leninism, must meet this historical moment and take the fight to the very capitalist system that necessitates war and destruction. The struggle for socialism-communism is a struggle for lasting peace.