Israel: Communism Can Change the World here ♦ Iranian Masses Fed Up with War and Economic Hardship here ♦
Israel: Communism Can Change the World
We meet every Sunday in our apartment building to discuss Red Flag. Yesterday, eight people came to our weekly meeting. We had just heard that Assad had been overthrown in Syria. Everyone wanted to know what Red Flag would say about this.
We know many reservists and conscripts who are on combat duty. A close friend told us that an IDF (Israeli “Defense” Forces) soldier sent an SOS message to his family saying he was contemplating suicide. He saw the masses of starving people who were so feeble that they could not even ask for food or water.
This tragic story captured everyone’s attention. A comrade said, “The choice is obvious. Genocide by starvation and suicide, drug abuse by IDF, or ending the very source of wars; that is, capitalism. Red Flag trains all of us to choose communism to end this unending devastation.”
People who were at our apartment kept discussing Red Flag. But on Wednesday night, we got the news that IDF was advancing in Syria. The TV channels in Israel reported that IDF was on the outskirts of Damascus.
It is no surprise that the Assad regime has collapsed. The brutality of capitalism saves no one. An average soldier in Syria earns $7 a month, and a general makes $200 monthly. They had no desire to fight.
We look at IDF. Last month, only 75% of soldiers reported to combat duty. It used to be 100%. Now, many soldiers are tired, worn out, and depressed. They don’t see any victory that the extreme right wing is claiming.
What we learned from our continuous discussions is that we can change the world so that no capitalist bloodsuckers can survive. And the change we want is the destruction of capitalism: NO IDF, NO Hamas—only the Red Army. The Red Army and the masses will create a new communist society where Palestinians and Jews will unite to give life without hunger or starvation, and with a communist harmony for all.
—Comrades in Israel
Iranian Masses Fed Up with War and Economic Hardship
In India recently, I met many people who had been to Iran. The Iranian regime has made it easy for Indian citizens. Cheap flights, very cheap food, hotels, and travel expenses make Iran very attractive for many Indian travelers.
They, and some of the Red Flag readers in Iran, have said that the US and European Union sanctions, and the extraordinary rise in living expenses, are literally killing the masses in Iran. Inflation is unprecedented. Daily strikes go unreported, but there are many of them. The major strikes in the last year were by oil workers, nurses, and steel workers.
People in Iran resent huge military spending. They see it as food taken out of their mouths. In 2021, Iran increased soldiers’ salaries by 50% to calm uneasiness and growing resentment among them.
Earlier this year, there were “tit-for-tat” missile attack exchanges between Iran and Israel. But Iran didn’t answer Israel’s second round of attacks. Its rulers only said they would act “with fierce determination at a time of their choosing.”
Iranian oil facilities are sitting ducks for the Israeli “Defense” Forces (IDF). Military installations guarded by nuclear sites are more complex. However, the Israeli attack was a warning that the next round would target the oil facilities.
The fact that the Iranian rulers held back emboldened the IDF which went for blitzkrieg in Lebanon. Their main aim was to cut off supply lines from Iran to Syria. These routes supplied arms from Iran to Hezbollah and to the Palestinian West Bank. After the IDF defanged Hezbollah, the vultures were hovering and the hyenas lurking around Syria.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz, citing the Wall Street Journal, reported that the incoming Trump administration is contemplating a nuclear strike on Iran. That was his stated goal during his first term as US president.
How will the Iranian regime respond now? How does China see this escalating war? These are the big questions.
It seems that the Western powers made many attempts to foment “color revolutions” in Iran.
The Iranian masses are fed up with unending wars. The Israeli rulers can barely hide their hatred for the working class, not only in Gaza and the West Bank but also from Iran to Syria and even in Israel itself.
Wherever we wage a consistent struggle around communism, it can and will have a tremendous effect on the working class. It can rouse them to end World War III with a communist revolution.
—Comrade traveler
See previous Red Flag article:
Iran: Mass Heroic Mass Uprising Calls Us to Build a New Kind of Mass Communist Party here