DEFEND THE PEOPLE OF IRAN! FIGHT FOR PALESTINIAN LIBERATION!

Imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism. – V.I. Lenin

The Marxist theory of imperialism argues that capitalist states necessarily seek to conquer and expropriate people, territories, states and nations outside of their own. From that premise, Marxists defend the right of self-defense and self-determination for all countries under imperialist attack. Thus, “Defend Iran” must now be the rallying cry of Marxists everywhere.  

Israel and the United States are the imperial aggressors in a war against the people of Iran. Since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 that saw the popular overthrow of the US-installed and backed Pahlavi monarchy of “Shah” Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the US has been waging undeclared war against the state and people of Iran. After the attacks of 9-11, then President George W. Bush declared a new era of “generational” imperial warfare starting with the toppling of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea–labelling the three nations the “Axis of Evil”. The US empire, through both the Democratic and Republican parties, then the sole dominant global superpower, acted with expediency and hubris to prepare for a series of wars to smash the remaining outliers resisting US domination. After swift military victories in Iraq and Iran, it was believed, the US could control and dominate the Middle East for the foreseeable future. 

In this endeavor, Israel became once again a valuable military asset and base of operations for the US government's imperialist efforts to forcibly remake the Middle East into a zone of US dominance to procure control over the majority of the world’s oil, to weaken and debilitate oppositional regimes and popular movements, and to establish US imperial preeminence into the 21st century. By controlling the region, the US could keep out China, Russia, and even have greater leverage over its European and Asian allies. Israel has been key to this strategy, brutally containing and repressing Palestinians in Gaza, and further fragmenting and partitioning the West Bank through the expansion of colonial settlements, military colonialism, and imposing evermore extreme variants of apartheid that degrade and dehumanize the people. In its role as imperial enforcer and watchdog, Israel has remained at a permanent state of war against Syria, Lebanon, and Iran; repeatedly attacking, bombing, sabotaging, and otherwise waging overt and covert acts of war in strategic coordination and alignment with US objectives.  

The “shock and awe” destruction of Iraq did not give way to a sequel in Iran, as the US was drawn into a prolonged and indecisive war with different political and military factions in post-invasion Iraq. Nevertheless, the US did begin planning for an eventual attack on Iran, building at least 10 military bases across the region, moving naval warships into the Red Sea and Pershing Gulf, and stationing over 40,000 troops around Iran.   

With the imminence of an invasion or attack on Iran after witnessing the US obliteration of Iraq, Iran set out to develop a nuclear deterrent (as did North Korea) as well as develop, support, and arm a network of regional Shia allies reframed as the “Axis of Resistance” (Iran-aligned militias in Iraq, Hamas in Palestine, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen). Furthermore, it has moved into closer towards military cooperation with Russia. 

This war is a logical extension of the U.S and Israeli war against the people of Gaza.  The U.S. and Israel hope to neutralize and eradicate all resistance to their aspirations for imperial conquest in the Middle East region. That explains why the US, Israel, and their European accomplices have expanded the war against Palestinian resistance to include the “Axis of Resistance”, revolutionaries in Syria, Egypt, and broader Palestine who seek to challenge western imperialism and its autocratic allies. 

The 80-year British- and US-backed imperialist project of creating Israel in 1948 and backing it as an expanding military and settler-colonial project in Palestine, reached a new turning point with the acts of Palestinian existential resistance on October 7th. This occurred in the context of the unfolding inter-imperialist conflict, both in Europe with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, NATO expansion, military buildup, and war positioning; and in Asia with military buildup and war positioning with China over Taiwan and strategic control of the South China Sea. 

This also coincides with the consolidation of power of an extreme far-right regime in Israel—now on an overtly fascist trajectory—taking the path towards obliteration of Palestine and the genocide of Palestinian people to secure a “greater” Israel that pushes their territorial boundaries further into neighboring Arab states. In the widening imperial reach in the Middle East, the US, Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, and other allies have escalated and expanded military operations in the Middle East into 16 nations, pushing the whole of the region closer, and by extension the major imperialist powers and their aligned nations, towards total war.

This is the logical outcome of the imperialist crisis we are now living through, where the US and Israel can only achieve their goals through violent and military means, to the scale of conducting a genocide and barreling us towards the next world war. Unconditional defense of Iran, support for Palestinian resistance and liberation, and the struggle for the defeat of Zionism and US imperialism are the urgent requirements for this dangerous situation that capitalism has driven us into.