Workers Must Prepare for Imperialist War by Mobilizing for Communist Revolution
July 17, 2019 – A wave of mass protests continues to roll across Iran. So far this month these included bus drivers, street vendors, literacy teachers, municipal workers, and many more. Workers went on strike against the Mahtab-Sair-Jam Company, builders of recreational wagons. They protested the layoff of 57 co-workers with 15-20 years on the job. Bahai senior citizens have protested government attempts to shut down their Elder Care Center in Karaj. More and more women are walking openly around Tehran without the government-mandated headscarf. Pictured above: Retired government employees and military personnel outside the labor ministry in Tehran, defying a heavy police presence. Among the banners were: “Our homes have been plundered, we have no fear to expose [the government], we will stand till the end.” “The one percent is making profits out of the pockets of the 99 percent.”
In Iran and elsewhere, the contradictions between the world’s major imperialists are sharpening. This period, with world war brewing, is a period of grave dangers and great opportunities.
History shows that when the masses experience the horrors of war, they move to revolution. In the 19th century, the Napoleonic wars set the stage for the triumphant uprising of Haitian Slaves. The Franco-Prussian war created the conditions for the Paris Commune.
The masses in Russia during World War I and in China during World War II, led by communists, overthrew capitalism. Now, by building ICWP worldwide, we will mobilize the masses for communism to bury capitalism-imperialism forever.
Our unbeatable power lies, not only in our numbers, but in our ability to unite as one international working class. We all need to destroy capitalism-imperialism and build a communist world without wage slavery, profits, money or markets. Communist social and production relations will produce everything our international working-class family needs.
Capitalism, in contrast, is based on competition for resources, markets and labor for maximum profits. Capitalists must compete or go under. Therefore, their unity can never last. Inevitably, they go to war.
Today, China and Russia are expanding their influence worldwide. They are challenging the supremacy over a large portion of the world that the US imperialists held after WWII.
Now, US imperialists in decline are in disarray. They are fighting among themselves over how, when and where to fight to regain their empire and stem further losses. They disagree on how to win the US working class to slave, fight, and die for their blood-soaked empire.
All capitalists-imperialists are dangerous. They seem indestructible. But they are paper tigers: dangerous but vulnerable. Forced to arm millions of our class to fight their wars, they can be taken down when these working-class soldiers and sailors turn their guns around and fight for communism together with masses of workers and youth.
Iran: US vs. China and Russia
Some US rulers are bent on regime change in Iran, either internally or through war. They want a regime that will side with them like the Shah did 40 years ago. They are willing to go to war to re-conquer the whole oil-rich Middle East.
Trump’s sanctions aim to inflict so much pain on the Iranian masses that they will overthrow the regime or make it harder for Iran to fund military adventures in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. Sanctions or no, the Iranian government attacks the masses to fatten the profits of Iranian capitalists and the masses fight back. US Secretary of State Pompeo and National Security Adviser Bolton openly threaten war against Iran.
But they vastly underestimate Russian and Chinese imperialists’ commitment to back Iran. Iran is crucial for their Eurasian Integration. It is an indispensable hub for China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
China needs Iran’s vast oil and gas resources to guarantee its continued growth. During war, Iran would be crucial to supply oil to China’s military and industrial machines by land. It would bypass the Strait of Malacca and Pacific Ocean sea lanes controlled by the US Navy.
Another sector of the US ruling class doesn’t want war with Iran now. It understands that Russia and China will answer any US attack on Iran.
That’s why, after Trump called off the air attacks he had ordered, the US House of Representatives passed a bill on July 12 requiring him to get Congressional approval before attacking Iran. These capitalist politicians are not voting for peace, but for a different strategy of where to wage the next World War.
“While the United States contemplates a war with Iran, the Chinese are engaged in trade and infrastructure building there. The Chinese vision for Iran is something the United States is simply not going to change. Iran will be key to 21st century Eurasia,” wrote imperialist strategist Robert Kaplan. He argued “for a long-term, sustainable strategy.”
Kaplan and other liberal US imperialists hope to undermine Iran and China with increasing economic pressure, cyber-attacks, and resumed negotiations. They want to face China militarily in the South China Sea, where they hope to have allies.
We need to mobilize soldiers and sailors in the bosses’ armies, together with workers and youth to turn the bosses’ wars into a revolution for communism. Join us!