*Fight for a just peace by actively resisting war with Iran!* Commission 4 of the ILPS condemns the recent war provocations on behalf of the US towards the people of Iran and calls on all members to join in a global day of action on January 25th, called by a number of progressive organizations around the world.
The assassination by the US of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and other Iranian officers reflect the death throes of a dying imperialist power, striking out wherever it can with no plan and no care for peace or human rights. In addition to the threats against the people of Iran, this conflict is currently playing out on Iraqi soil, with every missile fired and every strike ordered once again violating the sovereignty of a country who has seen and suffered through decades of imperialist aggression.
The reckless assassinations invited retaliations and an escalation of conflict between Iran and the US which harm the people in Iraq and stir up animosities globally. The US is targeting these two countries as a means to protect its hegemony in the region. Since the 1979 revolution, Iran has vehemently stood in opposition to the aggression of the US and has resisted US imperialism with its own expansionist aims of leading Islamism (Muslim fundamentalist rule). Iraq’s government recently resolved to expel all US troops given the current situation, which would have marked a severe blow to US military power in the region and removed one of its primary satellite nations. The mass uprisings of people in Iraq against corruption and US-backed anti-people policies in Iraq further shows that the masses of the world stand in complete opposition to the violations of sovereignty and theft of resources that have been facilitated by the military intervention of the US since it rose to become an imperialist power.
While the world has watched in shock at these recent provocations, the war on the Iranian and Iraqi people has been waged for decades in the form of economic sanctions. The US sanctioned Iran just after the 1979 revolution and Iraq in 1990 following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait until the US removed Saddam Hussein from power in 2003. Since Trump has threatened to renew Iraqi sanctions in response to the recent vote to expel US troops, it is important to remember the extreme malnutrition, lack of medical supplies and failing infrastructure that led to the deaths of potentially hundreds of thousands of Iraqis due to past sanctions. Despite a brief reprise under the Obama regime, Iranian sanctions were reimposed by Trump, continuing the fall of the Iranian currency and a major rise in inflation on basic goods. In short, US sanctions have amounted to prolonged economic warfare.
These actions on behalf of US imperialism do not benefit the people of Iran, Iraq and the rest of the world, not even those in the US. As ILPS chairperson emeritus Jose Maria Sison wrote, “[the US] will continue to lose trillions of dollars in military expenditures without being able to expand stable economic territory. The US public debt will increase at an accelerated rate even as the US military industrial complex profits.” ILPS chairperson Len Cooper reminds us that any invasion will, “use American poor and working-class youths as cannon fodder for a war that will serve only US imperialist interests.” There is no regard for human rights and life on the part of the US and global oligarchy and aggressors.
Now is the time to wage united militant struggle against the machinations of a dying US imperialism. To quote the recent statement from ILPS-US, “The US empire in decline is a rogue state, with no respect of international law, the sovereignty of nations, or the norms of diplomacy; it represents the single greatest threat to life on the planet. The people of the world, united in struggle, represent the solution.”
On January 25th, take to the streets with all progressive forces of the world to demand an end to the military violence and economic warfare of the ruling classes and for a genuinely just and lasting peace, the basis upon which the people of the world can build a bright future free of militarism and wars of aggression.
JUST PEAce COMMITTEE 