The U.S. on behalf of the super rich, oil companies, banks, war profiteers and the whole capitalist class is once more threatening the lives of millions of people in the Middle East and at home. U.S workers, youth, and oppressed people have no stake in another rich man’s war.
Funeral and protest in Iran, Jan. 6.
We are not threatened by our sisters and brothers in Iran or Iraq or elsewhere, who have every right to defend themselves. Our national security is threatened by the White House, Congress and the assault on every social benefit we have won for ourselves. Trump and his white supremacist regime are the real threat to workers.
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!
Who’s threatening whom? Dozens of U.S. military bases and 125,000 U.S. troops surround Iran.
“Of course it’s about oil, it’s very much about oil, and we can’t really deny that.” —Four Star General John Abizaid, the former commander of CENTCOM, speaking about the U.S. war on Iraq
“People say we’re not fighting for oil. Of course, we are. They talk about America’s national interest. What the hell do you think they’re talking about? We’re not there for figs.”—Former U.S. Secretary of Defense and Republican Senator Chuck Hagel speaking about the Iraq war in 2007
“I’m interested in Libya if we take the oil. If we don’t take the oil, no interest.”—Donald Trump, one month after the US/NATO bombing of Libya in 2012
“I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole. It was like— we had entire training courses.” —Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at Texas A&M University, April 15, 2019
Beware Of Lies To Justify War on Iran
Lie: In 1964, the U.S. went to war because North Vietnamese small boats fired on a U.S. warship in the Gulf of Tonkin. Fact: In 2019 it is confirmed this was a total lie to get us to back a war. Former navy pilot James Stockdale reported from the air, “There was nothing there but black water and American fire power.” The result: 3 million Vietnamese and 56,000 U.S. troops dead and thousands of Vietnam veterans left homeless in the streets.
Lie: Iraq attacked the World Trade Center towers. That’s why the U.S. went to war with Iraq. Fact: The 9/11 commission confirmed that Iraq had nothing to do with the World Trade Center tragedy. The U.S. invaded Iraq and took over the country and its oil fields. After 500,000 Iraqi children died, Bush finally admitted on 9/11 2006 in a TV speech that Saddam Hussein and Iraq had no hand in 9/11.
Lie: Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that threatened the U.S. Fact: From November 2002 to September 2004, 1,625 US and UN inspectors searched 1,700 sites and found no weapons of mass destruction. It has since been admitted this was a lie to justify the invasion and occupation.
Lie: The U.S. wants democracy in Iran and Iran’s 80 million people want U.S. intervention. Fact: In 1953, the CIA carried out a coup against the democratic and secular president Mossadegh. They put in power the Shah (means king) who ruled the country with an iron fist until 1979. Iranian people will never forget his reign of terror.
Lie: On June 13, Iran attacked oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman with a mine. Fact: The Japanese crew of one of the damaged ships stated that this was not true. The crews of both tankers were rescued by Iranians in their territorial waters. On the same day, the Japanese Prime Minister was in Iran for a historic meeting with the leader of Iran, the first meeting of its kind in over forty years. An attack on a Japanese vessel would be the last thing Iran would want to do.
Lie: Iran is a threat. Fact: Iran has not invaded or attacked another country in 100 years. Over the same time period, the U.S. has carried out over 100 invasions. UN inspectors stated that Iran was not building nuclear weapons and it was the U.S. that pulled out of the nuclear deal, not Iran. The U.S. has recently pulled out of other international arms treaties such as the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty with Russia. There are 125,000 U.S. troops in bases circling Iran.
Lie: This is about national security. Fact: This is about oil and selling weapons for profits. The federal budget is being looted by giant war profiteering companies for $1.2 trillion a year. This money could be used to meet people’s needs.
Who’s threatening who? Map shows locations of the dozens of U.S. military bases surrounding Iran.
No More Wars for Oil!
By Gregory William
Without ceasing their efforts to overthrow the legitimate government of Venezuela, the Trump administration and the U.S. military command have been revving up threats against Iran.
Trump and his gang have already demonstrated through their use of inhumane economic sanctions that they are willing to destroy the lives of thousands of people—all so that their capitalist masters can gain control of Iran and Venezuela’s oil fields.
In early May Trump’s National Security Advisor, John Bolton, announced the deployment of a carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Persian Gulf to “send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attacks on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force.” Since then Trump has sent an 1,500 additional troops to the region.
Does Iran pose any threat to the U.S.? No!
Since the beginning of the last century, the United States has carried out more than 100 invasions of countries around the world. In that time, Iran hasn’t invaded a single country. Nor have they started a single war.
Bolton has had a hand in several U.S. invasions and wars—not least in Libya and Iraq, where hundreds of thousands have died as a result. During the lead-up to the Iraq war, Bolton systematically churned out lies about Iraq’s non-existent “weapons of mass destruction” to convince the public that war was necessary, leading to absolute devastation in that country and massive looting of U.S. taxpayers’ money. Bolton has been advocating for war with Iran for over 20 years and is now trying ratchet up tensions so that an accident or a false-flag attack might provide a pretext for war.
Here’s another claim workers might hear in the U.S. capitalist-owned media. Isn’t the Iranian government a despotic theocracy that curtails the rights of its people, and isn’t that a good reason for the U.S. to intervene?
There’s no reason to believe that this is a concern of Trump and company. One of the U.S.’ closest allies in the region, Saudi Arabia, recently beheaded 37 men and hung one of their bodies upside down on a pole in public. This hasn’t been a topic of discussion in Washington. Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to support the Saudi regime’s genocidal war in Yemen and gives the Israeli government billions of our tax dollars to murder innocent Palestinian children.
The Iranian forces that Bolton and Trump are promoting as the possible “liberators” of the country hail from the now-deposed fascist monarchy or alternately, from the so-called ‘National Council of Resistance,’ an organization aligned with the Saudi monarchy and Israel.
U.S. imperialists clearly have no interest in promoting democracy or human rights in Iran or anywhere else in the world. The long history of U.S. interference in Iran proves it.
In U.S. wars for oil, playbook hasn’t changed
In 1953, U.S. and British espionage agencies orchestrated a coup in Iran, ousting the democratically-elected prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh. In 1951, under the leadership of Mosaddegh, the Iranian parliament voted to nationalize Iran’s oil industry which had until then been under the control of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company—later known as British Petroleum (BP), the same company responsible for the horrible Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The Iranian government intended to use their oil resources to benefit the people of Iran rather than British and American shareholders.
Before the coup, the British initiated an international boycott of Iranian oil. They were trying to put an economic stranglehold on the country to make it bend to the wishes of the British and U.S. capitalist classes. In place of the popular government of Mosaddegh, the coup orchestrators installed General Fazlollah Zahedi, who shored up the rule of the Shah (the Iranian prince). The new regime relied heavily on Washington to stay in power. According to the CIA’s own declassified documents, for example, Iranian mobsters were on the U.S. payroll to stage pro-Shah riots as the coup was underway.
Under the Shah’s rule until 1979, thousands of social leaders, trade unionists, workers, students, and peasants were tortured and murdered by the SAVAK, a Gestapo-like agency set up by the CIA. Inequality soared to become almost the worst in the world, according to the International Labor Office. The people of Iran suffered all these hardships to enrich the owners of an imperialist oil cartel. This is really existing “free” market capitalism at work.
In 1979, the Iranian masses rose up to overthrow the imperialist-backed Shah. Although many of the demands of the revolution have not been met by the government of the Islamic Republic that replaced the monarchy, national independence remains a victory that the masses of Iranians are intent on defending. Any progressive Iranian knows that a U.S. war would be a terrible setback to their own struggle for political power within the country.
Why we must say no to intervention today
Nearly four times the size of Iraq, Iran is a country of 80 million people. A war with Iran would condemn an entire region of the earth to years of death and insecurity. This terrible cost to humanity would be paid by U.S. workers too. For every dollar of our taxes that’s wasted on death machines, that’s one less dollar spent on education or healthcare or all the things necessary to give us real national security.
We— the workers of the world— must stand up and declare that we will not pay for their oil with our blood.
U.S. Hands off Iran! End U.S. sanctions against Iran! Bring the troops home! Close the U.S./NATO bases! End U.S. aid to Saudi Arabia and Israel!
Ever since May 8 when the Trump government announced that the US was pulling out of the 2015 agreement between world imperialist powers and Iran over its nuclear program, the US government has launched an aggressive offensive of speeches by members of the state department and the US military threatening war on Iran. The US aims to force Iran to end its nuclear program and its support for the Syrian regime and the Houthi freedom fighters in Yemen.
The Trump government, in typical gangster fashion, is using sanctions against the Iranian regime in an effort to starve Iranian people into submission to US imperialist dictate. The Trump regime believes that as the last remaining superpower it has the political right and military might to reorder the entire globe to its liking. The US sanctions against Iran are meant to disrupt the Iranian economy by requiring that its junior imperialist powers in the European Union and Great Britain support the US sanctions or have their trade with the US disrupted as well.
The aim of the US campaign against Iran is to clear the entire Middle East of regimes which are hostile to US domination of the oil-rich region. The US also requires recognition of the Zionist state of Israel. Already, the US is supporting Saudi Arabia’s bombarding Yemen with the most up to date military planes and battlefield equipment, sold to them by the US military industrial complex.
The war mongering assault by the US is a complete violation of the sovereignty and the right to self-determination of the Iranian people and state. Why should the US have the right to pick and choose who should rule in the other countries of the world? Why should only some countries have the right to nuclear weapons while claiming that others should be denied that right? Clearly the US imperialist government, which is the only government that has used nuclear bombs in war, can’t be that arbiter.
Trump has gotten on Twitter and created a straw man by announcing that the US government will go to war with Iran if they threaten the US. He wrote: “Never, ever threaten the US again or you will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before”.
Of course Iran has not threatened the US; it has condemned US incursions on its territory and warned that it will defend their territory as is their right as a sovereign country. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif hit back at Trump’s tweet. “Color us unimpressed. The world heard even harsher bluster a few months ago. And Iranians have heard them- albeit more civilized ones- for 40 years. We’ve been around for millennia and seen the fall of empires, including our own, which lasted more than the life of some countries. BE CAUTIOUS!”
The US working class must take seriously Trump’s threats to wage war against Iran. We have a duty to oppose all US war plans by building up the anti-imperialist war movement here in the US. The Iranian people and state are not our enemies. Iran and other oppressed countries like North Korea and Venezuela are trying to live independent lives not dictated by US imperialism and need our support. The New Orleans Workers Group will work tirelessly to educate workers about our real interests and our internationalist duty to oppose US imperialist war.
In early May, the head of the US, our would-be emperor Trump, arrogantly declared he was “pulling out“ of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal. The entire world agreed that Iran had completely adhered to the deal, but Trump ignore everyone. This was a move to crush the people of Iran and take over their country for U.S corporate interests.
Trump’s decision also, in violation of all international law, moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and recognized Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. These two actions were also similar because they were both aggressive “stand-alone” actions on the part of the US and Israel, and they were not even supported by their imperialist allies like France and Saudi Arabia.
Both decisions have been met with world outrage by those who see them for what they are – naked imperialist aggression at the expense of the Palestinians, Iranians and all people of the Middle East.
What was the Iran Nuclear Deal?
Iran has always denied having the ability or desire to start developing a nuclear weapons program. Nevertheless, the U.S. used Iran’s small nuclear energy program to start an aggressive sanctions and military campaign against it.
The agreement was that if Iran phased-out its nuclear energy program and allowed regular inspections by international organizations, then the imperialist countries would drop their harsh decades-long sanctions on Iran. Iran accepted the deal despite its obvious unfairness because sanctions have devastated their economy and society since their republic was started. International organizations have inspected Iran dozens of times and certified there is no nuclear weapons program.
What does it all mean?
The US breaking the nuclear deal should be seen as another event in a string of aggressive moves in the Middle East by imperialists that represent their desire for world domination. The U.S. ignores any respect for Iran’s sovereignty and independence and has been planning for decades to destroy the country.
It was the U.S which openly admitted it engineered a coup in Iran which overthrew a democratically elected government in 1953, bringing decades of brutal tyranny and oppression under the Shah (king). Now it wants to destroy the Iranian Islamic Republic and seize their resources.
Who is the real nuclear threat?
The US has 7,000 nuclear warheads and Israel has 80. This makes them the first and third largest nuclear powers. The US government has proven itself barbaric enough to use atomic weapons on people. In 1945, they dropped, not one, but two atomic bombs on Japanese civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They did this even though they knew the allies had already defeated imperial Japan, which was preparing to surrender. The monsters simply did it to send a message to the people of the world: don’t resist us or we can and will annihilate you. The people of Japan still wear the physical and emotional scars today.
There is no moral or security reason that the US and Israel should be dictating who can and can’t have nuclear weapons. Instead we, the people in the US, should join with the people of the world to demand that both countries suspend their nuclear programs. Our lives and the lives of people everywhere depend on it.
