Less than 24 hours ago, three Iranian nuclear sites—Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan—were hit by waves of unprovoked attacks carried out by the US Air Force. The Americans claim to have deployed more than 125 aircraft, including stealth bombers, fighter jets, and dozens of refuelling planes, surveillance aircraft, and support teams. This is a declaration of war. Meanwhile, Trump craftily—or perhaps confusedly—continued to maintain that he wanted to keep the door open to a negotiated solution—a possibility the regime of the mullahs had entertained.

In the immediate term, we must respond by unequivocally condemning the Israeli aggression and the US declaration of war, and we must do so without concession to any phony equivalence that ascribes blame to both sides.

Of course, it is becoming increasingly clear that, in the not-too-distant future, the mullahs’ oppressive, religious-fascist regime will fall. No politically progressive group could be so odious and blind as to defend the ruling dictatorship. Even the “campist” supporters of the so-called “resistance front”—if they base their opinion on the lived experience of Iranians and not on fantasies built on projections of their own aspirations, however legitimate those may be—must realize that this regime hijacked the popular hopes for democracy and independence that fuelled the 1979 revolution in order to establish a theocracy that serves the clergy, not the Iranian people. Today, the vast majority of Iranians see it as a corrupt, mafia-like regime that is the main cause of their daily misery and the country’s descent into an economic, social, and public security nightmare. Through decades of uprisings, the Iranian people have sought to overthrow this enemy within.

But overthrowing the regime is the exclusive right and prerogative of the Iranian people—not of foreign powers.

It is vital to remember this, because the Iranian people are not only saddled with this internal enemy. They also face an inveterate external enemy: the United States, the declining imperial power that took up the baton from the British Empire in 1953 by overthrowing the democratically elected government of Iran. Iranians largely have the political meddling of the US and its Western allies to thank for the current dictatorship.

Israel, with the religious fanatics at Netanyahu’s side, has its own violent agenda of regional domination and genocide in Palestine. Israel has always influenced, and sometimes dictated, US policy in the region. But the primary external enemy of Iran and other peoples in the Middle East who refuse to submit is the destabilizing and ruinous policies imposed by US imperial power over the past 75 years.

In the current moment, what the Iranian people need is the solidarity of everyone who is committed to the pursuit of justice and independence for all peoples. This is confirmed by a recent statement (see below), issued by two dozen groups and coalitions that have spoken out from inside Iran, and sometimes even from prison, to voice their views on the Israeli aggression and the oppressive, corrupt regime of the mullahs.

Amir Khadir is a physician of Iranian descent who specializes in infectious microbiology. Born in Tehran, he emigrated to Québec with his family at the age of 10. A founding member of the left-wing party Québec Solidaire, he was the party’s first elected member of the Québec legislature and represented the riding of Mercier for 10 years. He is a frequent media commentator.

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Joint Statement by Independent Organizations in Iran: Opposing War and Warmongering Policies

The Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, a member of the International Trade Union Solidarity and Struggle Network, is transmitting this text, signed with other independent organizations in Iran.

In light of the current unstable and dangerous conditions in Iran and the region, the undersigned organizations consider it their duty to adopt a collective position.

The working people of Iran—workers, teachers, nurses, retirees, and other wage-earners—have never had, and never will have, any interest in war, militarization, the bombing of the country, or in oppressive and exploitative policies.

The Israeli military attacks and the bombing of hundreds of targets across different parts of Iran—including infrastructure, workplaces, refineries, and residential areas—are part of a warmongering project whose cost is paid with the lives, livelihoods, and futures of ordinary people, especially the working class.

Israel’s claim that it holds no hostility toward the people of Iran is nothing but a lie and political propaganda. Just yesterday, the Israeli Minister of Defense threatened to “burn Tehran.” Repeated threats by Trump and other U.S. officials, along with the full support of Western governments for such actions, have only further fuelled tension, insecurity, and destruction in the region.

The governments of Israel and the United States are the main perpetrators of the ongoing genocide in Gaza and numerous other crimes in the region and across the world. The United Nations and international institutions that hypocritically posture as peace-seeking while remaining silent in the face of these atrocities are part of the same system of domination. The entirety of the global capitalist system, its profit-driven logic, and imperialist powers are the main causes of wars, human catastrophes, and environmental destruction.

The working class of Iran not only has no benefit from war, but these wars have directly targeted its life and security. The continuation of economic sanctions, the allocation of massive budgets to military affairs, and the restriction of freedoms will lead to greater poverty, wider repression, hunger, death, and the displacement of millions.

We, the independent workers’ and grassroots organizations and activists in Iran, have no illusions that the United States and Israel want to bring us freedom, equality, and justice—just as we have no illusions about the repressive, interventionist, and anti-worker nature and conduct of the Islamic Republic.

We, the workers and toilers of Iran, have for many years paid heavy costs—including imprisonment, torture, execution, dismissal, threats, and beatings—in our struggle to secure even the most basic rights and necessities of life. We remain deprived of the right to organize, assemble, and freedom of expression. The workers and working people of this country are rightfully furious and fed up with the Islamic Republic and the capitalists who, over the past four decades, have amassed astronomical wealth on our backs while condemning us to perpetual insecurity and deprivation. All officials and institutions involved in the repression and killing of workers, women, youth, and the oppressed people of Iran must be prosecuted and held accountable by the oppressed people themselves.

Our struggle as workers is a social and class-based struggle. This struggle will advance only by relying on our own strength, in continuity with the movements of recent years—including “Bread, Work, Freedom” and “Woman, Life, Freedom”—and through solidarity with the international working class and all humanist, freedom-seeking, and equality-oriented forces.

The continuation of the current war can bring nothing but greater destruction, irreversible environmental damage, and the repetition of human disasters. The working class and the impoverished people of Iran—like the oppressed of other countries in the region—are among the main victims of this situation.

The undersigned organizations call upon all labour organizations, human rights institutions, anti-war groups, environmental activists, and peace-seeking forces around the world to unite in demanding the immediate cessation of war, bombings, the killing of innocent people, and the destruction of the environment—and to support the struggles of the people of Iran and the region to put an end to genocide, militarism, and repression.

The people of the Middle East urgently need an end to the devastating tensions between regional and global powers, and the establishment of a just and lasting peace—a peace under which people can determine their own destiny through organizing, mass organizations, expanding protests, and direct and collective participation.

No to War—No to Warmongering Policies

An Immediate Ceasefire Is Our Urgent Demand

Signatories:

Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company

Syndicate of Workers of Haft Tapeh Sugarcane Company

Retired Workers of Khuzestan

Retirees’ Alliance (Ettehad Bazneshastegan)

Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organizations

Retirees’ Unity Group