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Iran Is Not the Enemy: Reject Imperialist Lies! No War, No Sanctions!

Jan. 4: An emergency march and rally was called by the New Orleans Workers Group to protest U.S. imperialist war and to demand U.S. out of the Middle East.

Money for Schools, Hospitals, Jobs! No Blood for Oil!

With the support of Republicans and Democrats in Congress, the Trump administration is moving to start another war—this time against Iran. We need to educate our fellow workers and stop this from happening!

The recently published “Afghanistan Papers” reveal how both Republican and Democratic administrations and generals lied to the American people for 18 years, costing the lives of thousands of U.S. soldiers and more than 100,000 Afghan men, women, and children. During this time, the Pentagon looted the national budget to the tune of $1,000,000,000,000. This money could have been used to meet human needs. No worker should be tricked into going along with these imperialist wars that serve no purpose other than to make capitalists rich and destroy the lives of workers.

More lies from U.S. warmongers
Each new war requires new lies to justify it, but they all serve the same purpose: to enrich war profiteers, oil companies, banks and dictators. Who loses? The people of all the countries involved.

In 2003 George W. Bush invaded Iraq after sanctions had killed half a million children. U.S. war hawks and their mouthpieces in the capitalist owned media cited the World Trade Center attack and weapons of mass destruction as pretexts. On Sept. 11, 2006 George Bush finally admitted, “Saddam Hussein and Iraq had nothing to do with the World Trade Center attack.” The weapons of mass destruction were also debunked. Yet none of this stopped the bombings. U.S. capitalists’ desire for Iraq’s oil fields and markets outlived the lies that they sold the public.

Iraqi workers of all religions are in the Popular Mobilization Forces that were bombed by the U.S. on December 29, killing 32 people. All across the country, Iraqis are rebelling against horrible conditions, which result from U.S. invasion and occupation and a corrupt U.S. installed government. Yet the U.S. is blaming Iran for the rebellion of the Iraqi masses. This is just another lie to justify the deployment of 4,000 more U.S. soldiers to the region. What is being hidden by the corporate media, with its links to the U.S. military, is the truth.

Dec. 31: Thousands of Iraqis storm the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to demand an end to U.S. occupation and terror. The U.S. govt. ordered a strike on the anti-ISIS Popular Mobilization Forces on Dec. 29, killing 32 people and injuring many more.

U.S. bombed Iraq for oil again
As part of the popular uprisings sweeping the country, protesters recently seized a major oil field in Iraq to demand that the oil wealth be used for jobs and social needs. This was on December 28. After the U.S. bombing on December 29, thousands of Iraqis swarmed the U.S. embassy demanding the U.S. get out. The U.S. strategy in Iraq has been to divide the people by religious and national differences but recent protests have been bringing all the groups together. U.S. rulers fear this unity. This has nothing to do with Iran.

But for the U.S. capitalist class and its puppets in the government, the storming of the embassy provided another pretext to threaten war against Iran and send more troops and bombers to the region. So strong is the popular movement that even the U.S.-backed client Iraqi government had to condemn the bombings and troop deployments. They have stated that they will not allow their country to be used as a base against Iran.

The U.S. capitalist class wants to win back the oil revenue it lost when the Iranian people overthrew the government of their friend and brutal dictator, the Shah. The Iranians will defend their country to make sure that they never suffer another murderous U.S.-puppet government.

The Iranians have done everything to avoid war. It was the Trump administration that pulled out of the nuclear agreement which Iran nevertheless continued to abide by, as verified by the United Nations. Despite Iran’s exceptional restraint, Trump recently ordered the illegal assassination of Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s top military commander as well as Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). Soleimani and the PMF had been leading the fight against ISIS in Iraq since 2014. This just shows how fraudulent the claim is that the U.S. military is occupying the Middle East to “defeat ISIS.”

It’s time to take it to the streets to show that we won’t fall for the lies and deceit of the oil companies and the war profiteers, nor will we condone these imperialist wars against humanity.

No war on Iran!
End The Sanctions!
U.S. out of the Middle East!
No More Blood for Oil!

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Venezuelan President Survives Assassination Attempt

Working Class, Oppressed Masses Rally to Support Maduro

By Quest Riggs

In early August the world watched as Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, narrowly survived an assassination attempt. While he was giving a speech to soldiers of the Venezuelan military, two large explosions detonated in the air injuring seven military personnel. The two bombs were attached to small drones that were on course to the stage where the president and his wife were standing, alongside many of the highest ranking officials of the government and military. In this way, this terrorist attack was not only an assassination attempt on the president of the Republic: it was yet another coup attempt by the farright bourgeoisie of Venezuela in cooperation with North American imperialism.

In a speech after the attack, Maduro asked, “What would have happened if this attempt on my life was successful? What would be happening today in the streets of Venezuela?” He went on to say, “I tell the Venezuelan opposition that I guarantee you can live in this country peacefully. If something happens to me, you will have to face millions of Campesinos and humble people making justice with their own hands.”

The next day, thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets to show their support for the government and their willingness to mobilize in defense of their revolution. Thousands of workers, peasants and students marched dressed in red, and they were joined by the armed community militias who organize to defend Venezuela’s independence. They rally because of the social improvements for many workers and poor people in Venezuela in housing, education and wages during Maduro’s presidency. But their main objective is to protect Venezuela’s independence from North American imperialism, which is in the offensive to dominate the workers of South & Central America and the Carribean.

Across the continent the forces of imperialism and capitalism, the richest people in the Americas, are murdering poor workers- especially those who organize and fight for their communities. They are plotting to strip all of the independence fighters in Latin America of power and tear down all barriers to their profits and domination. But the people, the workers, will never lie down in the face of oppression and exploitation!