Resist US Imperialist Wars of Aggression and Nuclear Bullying!
Statement of the ILPS on the the 81st Anniversary of the US Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Download the primer: Nuclear Weapons, US Imperialism, and the Fight for Just and Lasting Peace
The International League of Peoples’ Struggle marks the 81st anniversary of the US nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with renewed vigour to struggle against the US war machine and the threat that nuclear-armed imperialist states pose to the world today. The League calls on its members to expose the hypocrisy of the US, “Israel”, and other Western nuclear-armed states in using supposed “prevention of nuclear proliferation” to wage wars of aggression against their rival states like Iran all while increasing their own nuclear stockpiles to catastrophic levels.
On August 6 and 9, 1945, the United States obliterated the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively with nuclear weapons – the only time it has been used against civilians. The ground temperature reached up to 4000 degrees Celsius (7,200 degrees Fahrenheit), killing over 200,000 people. The reason for the bombing was not to end the war, as the Soviet Union’s victory over Japan in occupied Manchuria would have proven to be decisive for surrender. Rather, it was to solidify the United States as the top imperialist power that was not afraid to use nuclear weapons in war, especially the rising socialist and national liberation movements at the close of World War 2.
The subsequent proliferation of nuclear weapons after World War II, its use for intimidation by imperialist powers such as the US, and its contrasting use for resistance by socialist countries and/or those asserting their national sovereignty such as the USSR and DPRK is covered in our statement last year, which is hyperlinked here.
Last year’s anniversary occurred shortly after the Twelve-Day War, where the US and ”Israel“ attacked Iran under the pretext of ‘non-compliance with its nuclear obligations to the IAEA’. Since then, the United States and “Israel” have launched yet another war of aggression against Iran and other forces within the Axis of Resistance such as in Lebanon and Yemen.
It is clear that their true intention is to conquer Iran, the fulcrum of the Axis of Resistance that prevents full US-Zionist domination of the region. The Islamic Republic of Iran has, since its founding, expressed publicly that it never intends to build a nuclear weapon and has asserted its right to develop a civilian nuclear energy and research program. Such fear-mongering against Iran is hypocritical when “Israel” possesses several of its own without the oversight of the IAEA. It is even more hypocritical when Trump has threatened to attack Iran with “the biggest attack since World War II,” a direct reference to the its own nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Calling for the abolition of all nuclear weapons is unrealistic and tantamount to supporting imperialist hegemony when the United States still holds one of the largest nuclear arsenals in the world. Instead, we call for the US to be disarmed of all nuclear weapons as it is historically proven to be the #1 threat to the world’s people and the leading factor of the nuclear arms race. ILPS once again calls to build broad alliances and wage militant struggle to end US imperialism, the number one nuclear terrorist in the world, as a step towards ending the imperialist system as a whole and therefore the logic that gives rise to the existential threat to humanity that nuclear weapons are.
We can achieve genuine just and lasting peace in this world once imperialism, the biggest driver of war and weapons of mass destruction, is crushed, swept, and thrown into the dustbin of history. 81 years later, the League calls to continue our efforts to intensify the struggle and broaden our international united front against US imperialism, forward our struggles of national liberation and sovereignty, and fight for a socialist future that would make complete disarmament of nuclear weapons even a possibility.
Signed,
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
JUST PEAce COMMITTEE 