Reposted below is the article of the World Socialist Web Site published on 02 September 2025.
The two-day gathering of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) leaders finished yesterday in the Chinese city of Tianjin. The host, Chinese President Xi Jinping, put forward his vision of a multi-polar world in opposition to âhegemonism and power politicsââa barely veiled criticism of the US.
Putin, Modi and Xi. [AP Photo/Suo Takekuma]
The grouping has its roots in what was dubbed the âShanghai Five,â formed by China and Russia with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in 1996 to counter US interventions in Central Asia following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The SCO was formally established in 2001 and expanded to include Uzbekistan. India, Pakistan, Belarus and Iran have subsequently been included as full members, while 14 other countries including Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt are dialogue partners.
While the attendance of many of the 20 leaders at the summit was unremarkable, the presence of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modiâhis first visit to China in seven yearsâtriggered alarm bells in Washington. US imperialism has carefully cultivated economic and strategic relations with India for well over a decade, as it has accelerated its preparations for war with China, which it regards as the chief threat to US global dominance.
Modi had previously signalled that he would not be attending the summit, citing his necessary attendance at a sitting of Indiaâs parliament, in what could only be construed as a calculated snub to China. Although a thaw had begun, relations between the two countries were frosty following military clashes along their disputed border in 2020 that left 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers dead.
Modi abruptly changed his plans amid a standoff with the Trump administration over Indiaâs purchase of oil from Russia. In early August, Trump attempted to bully India into submission by doubling tariffs on Indian exports to the US to a massive 50 percent. Modi refused to cave in and the final 25 percent of the tariff hit came into effect last week. Indeed, Reuters reported last Thursday that India plans to increase purchases of Russian oil by between 10 and 20 percent.
Trump had been pressing India and China to end imports of Russia oil as a lever to strongarm Russian President Vladimir Putin into making concessions to Ukraine as part of negotiations over a ceasefire in the ongoing war. The fact that Trump had not imposed a similar tariff punishment increase on China to that on India was no doubt doubly galling for Modi, given Indiaâs longstanding strategic partnership with the US.
Modiâs presence in China this week was something of a diplomatic coup for Xi, who effusively welcomed him on Sunday, saying the two countries must not let the border issue define overall relations, and should be development partners not rivals. Modi, in turn, declared that there was now an âatmosphere of peace and stabilityâ between them.
Modi and Xi met in Russia last October on the sidelines of the BRICS summit shortly after reaching a border patrol agreement. Over recent weeks, a further warming of relations has been evidenced by the re-establishment of direct flights and a lifting of Chinese export restrictions on India including on rare earths. Yesterday, according to Modi, the two leaders discussed reducing Indiaâs huge trade deficit of $99 billion with China, the countryâs largest trading partner.
Xi clearly used the SCO summit as a platform to demonstrate Chinaâs ability to counter US efforts to isolate it internationally and encircle it militarily. âGlobal governance has reached a new crossroads,â he said.
In another swipe at the US and Trump, without naming names, Xi criticised âbullying practicesâ and declared: âThe house rules of a few countries should not be imposed on others.â
The meeting agreed to Xiâs proposal for a new SCO development bank in a move to further undermine the dominance of the US dollar in world trade and finance. Beijing is to provide 10 billion yuan ($US1.4 billion) in loans to the new banking consortium and another 2 billion yuan in aid to member states this year. China also plans to build an artificial intelligence cooperation centre for SCO nations.
Putin also used the opportunity to call for âgenuine multilateralismâ to lay the groundwork for âa new system of stability and security in Eurasia.â In an obvious reference to the US and NATO, he added: âThis security system, unlike Euro-centric and Euro-Atlantic models, âĻ [would be] truly balanced, and would not allow one country to ensure its own security at the expense of others.â
Putin also lashed out against the US and NATO over the war in Ukraine, saying it âdid not arise as a result of Russiaâs aggression against Ukraine, but rather as a consequence of a coup dâÊtat [in 2014] in Ukraine, which was supported and provoked by the West.â He praised the efforts of China and India in facilitating a resolution to the crisis and said he would inform SCO members of details of last monthâs negotiations with Trump in Alaska in bilateral meetings.
Both China and India have called for an end to the war, but at the same time pointedly refused to condemn Russiaâs 2022 invasion.
Efforts were made to present an atmosphere of conviviality and bonhomie. Modi and Putin arrived together in Putinâs vehicle to yesterdayâs meeting after a lengthy discussion and joined Xi for a photo opportunity holding hands in a close circle. The Indian and Russian leaders also publicly praised their own discussions.
An editorial in the Washington Post entitled âTrumpâs white-knuckling with India could backfireâ expressed the alarm in US ruling circles that the White Houseâs crude attempt to use hefty tariffs to bludgeon New Delhi into submission and break up longstanding Indian ties with Russia had failed.
âBeijing remains Washingtonâs most powerful rival. In purely economic terms, China is already a far more formidable adversary than the Soviet Union ever was,â it noted, then concluded:
âTrumpâs zero-sum approach is to not leave any money on the table in negotiations. Even in business, thatâs arguably a mistake. Goodwill has value. Trumpâs talks with China might yet turn out to be every bit as bruising as those he is having with allies. Maybe thatâs when he might appreciate better relations with friends.â
Trump officials, however, have shown no signs of heeding the advice. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the SCO summit as âperformativeâ and denounced India and China as âbad actorsâ that were âfuelling the Russian war machineâ. Trumpâs anti-China trade adviser Peter Navarro condemned India as âarrogant,â declaring that the âBrahmins are profiteering at the expense of the Indian peopleâ with the Russia oil trade. In a fit of exasperation, Navarro branded the conflict in Ukraine as âModiâs war.â
Modi has no intention of immediately rupturing relations with the US. On his way to the SCO summit, he stopped in Tokyo where he praised the work of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quadâa quasi-military pact with Japan, the US and Australia. Speaking to Nikkei Asia, Modi repeated stock standard US propaganda, declaring: âAs vibrant democracies, open economies and pluralistic societies, we are committed to a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacificââdirected against âauthoritarianâ China.
Like the other SCO members including China and Russia, India aggressively pursues its economic and strategic interests amid worsening international economic turmoil, exacerbated by Trumpâs trade war measures, along with heightened geo-political tensions and an emerging world war. Wracked by social tensions at home and divided by many unresolved disputes, none of them has a progressive solution to the global eruption of imperialist violence and deepening crisis of the capitalist system.
We repost below the World Socialist Web Site Editorial Board Statement of August 17, 2025, published Here.
President Donald Trump meets with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. [AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson]
The heads of all the major European powers are heading to Washington today for emergency meetings with US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, following Trumpâs summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. That meeting, in which Trump warmly embraced Putin and called for a negotiated peace in Ukraine, has set off a political crisis across Europe.
Attending the talks in Washington are German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. They aim to present a united front as they confront the fallout from Trumpâs shift in US support for the Ukraine war, hoping they can prevent Trump from abruptly pulling the plug on their entire operation.
In advance of Mondayâs talks, debate within the media and among officials in both the United States and Europe centered on whether any settlement would involve binding âsecurity guaranteesâ for Ukraine and, at the same time, compel Ukraine to surrender territory to Russia. On Sunday, US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff told CNN that for the first time Russia had agreed to allow the United States and European powers to extend âArticle 5-like protectionâ to Ukraine, a reference to NATOâs mutual defense clause.
Zelensky called it âa historic decision,â writing on X that the guarantees must provide âprotection on land, in the air, and at seaâ with Europeâs full participation. At the same time, however, Trump has diverged from Ukraine and the major European powers by backing Putinâs demand that Kiev cede territory, including sections of the Donbas region not currently under Russian control.
That such a change was coming had been evident for some time. The Alaska summit made it official, and the reaction in European capitals has bordered on hysteria, augmented by the fact that Ukraine has suffered a series of military defeats. Whatever they declare publicly, the reality is that without US backing the prosecution of the war in Ukraine becomes untenable. The NATO alliance has been held together until now by Washingtonâs ferocious hostility toward Russia, a policy spearheaded by the Democratic Biden administration.
Trump, reviving the tradition of the far-right âAmerica Firstersâ of the World War II era, speaks for layers of the American ruling class oriented toward war in the Pacific and the confrontation with China. He has coupled this outlook with tariff and trade war measures directed against the European powers. For this faction, disengaging from the conflict with Russia over Ukraine offers potential advantages: securing access to vital resources in Russia and Ukraine, loosening Moscowâs alignment with Beijing, and weakening European imperialism.
Particularly since Trumpâs re-election, the US foreign policy establishment has discussed a âreverse Kissingerâ strategy. Faced with Chinaâs economic rise, they aim to invert the policy championed in the 1970s by US President Richard Nixonâs Secretary of State Henry Kissinger of allying with China against the Soviet Union. In an article titled âA âReverse Kissingerâ?,â the American Enterprise Institute think-tank endorsed attempts to ally with Russia against China, but noted that the Ukraine war was an obstacle to winning over Putin. It wrote:
Moscow and Beijing have been forced together by the war in Ukraine. Ending that war, and mending ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, could slow the Sino-Russian convergenceâand perhaps even make Moscow a partner in containing Beijing. The aspiration is admirable. âĻ It didnât work, because Putin was less interested in stability than in swallowing Ukraine.
At the same time, any shift in Washingtonâs policy toward Russia will provoke bitter conflicts within the American state apparatus. For powerful sections of the ruling class, the defeat of Russia remains non-negotiableânot only to salvage the credibility of American imperialism after pouring vast sums into the Ukraine war, but also because they view concessions to Moscow as weakening the broader confrontation with China.
The heads of European imperialism converging on Washington are not only seeking to pressure Trump directly, hoping to play for time if not shift course, but also to rally allies within the American political establishment to block any retreat from the NATO war drive.
However the situation develops, certain fundamental issues must be stressed. First, Trumpâs shift on Ukraine is not a âpeace policy.â His support for the genocide in Gaza and the bombing of Iran make this clear. The divisions within the American ruling class center on tactical issues related to a shared project of global domination.
Second, Trumpâs maneuver takes place within the framework of an escalating global war and intensifying conflicts between the United States and the European imperialist powers. The costs of this conflict will be imposed through a massive assault on the working class.
Across Europe, governments are carrying out a vast program of remilitarization that can only be financed by dismantling what remains of social protections and diverting trillions into a military build-up. In the United States, Trump is spearheading a social counterrevolution and dictatorship against the working class, tearing down every constraint on the accumulation of wealth by the rich. One element of his calculations is undoubtedly the need to redirect military resources toward the ânear abroadâ in Latin America and against workers within the United States itself.
Third, Putinâs fawning praise for Trump at the summit on Friday underscores the thoroughly reactionary character of the Russian government. Putinâs ludicrous flattery recalls Stalinâs infamous toast to Hitler in August 1939, as the Stalin-Hitler Non-Aggression Pact was being concluded: âI know how much the German nation loves its FÃŧhrer. I should therefore like to drink to his health.â Within a week, World War II had erupted; two years later, Hitler launched his invasion of the Soviet Union, at the cost of 27 million Soviet lives.
Like Stalin, Putin seeks deals with imperialism that can only end in disaster for the working class. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was provoked by the US and European imperialist powers, through the relentless expansion of NATO to the east and the refusal to negotiate over Ukraine. The invasion, however, was the action of a bourgeois state defending its own interests. It had nothing in common with the independent mobilization of the Russian or Ukrainian working class against imperialism.
The reactionary character of Putinâs rule is underscored by his alignment with far-right forces across Europe and the United Statesâincluding Viktor OrbÃĄn in Hungary, Marine Le Penâs National Rally in France, and Alternative for Germany. They will be strengthened by the realignment now underway.
The outcome of todayâs talks in Washington remains uncertain, but what is beyond doubt is that the fundamental tendencies driving the world toward catastrophe remain. There will be no progressive resolution to this crisis without the independent intervention of the international working class.
The Trotskyist movement completely rejects the opportunist mantra that âthe enemy of my enemy is my friend.â Neither the maneuvers of Trump, nor the intrigues of the European powers, nor the reactionary calculations of Putin offer a way forward. The struggle against genocide, austerity, dictatorship and war requires the building of a conscious, international socialist movement of the working class, fighting irreconcilably against all the capitalist governments and their political agents.
Reposted below is the WSWS.org Perspective published here on August 08, 2025.
Palestinians struggle to get food and humanitarian aid from the back of a truck as it moves along the Morag corridor near Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, Monday, Aug. 4, 2025 [AP Photo/Mariam Dagga]
The decision by the security cabinet of Israelâs fascistic government to expand its military occupation of the Gaza Strip will mean death for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and presages their final ethnic cleansing. Workers and young people who want to stop this barbarism must construct a socialist movement in the working class against the Zionist regime and its imperialist patrons.
The phased plan proposes the military conquest of the Gaza Strip, including Gaza City, Khan Younis and other refugee camps, where at least a million displaced Palestinians are located. Responding to tactical concerns expressed by the Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir of an unnecessary loss of military personnel and endangering the 20 hostages still held by Hamas, open talk of permanent annexation has given way to a proposal to hold the captured areas for five months with a new security perimeter set up inside the enclave, while Hamas is eliminated and the remaining hostages are freed. This is to be followed supposedly by some unspecified form of Arab control.
Behind this rhetorical shift, mass murder and ethnic cleansing are still on the order of the day. The IDF has already issued new enforced displacement orders in parts of Gaza City in the north and Khan Younis in the south. A military spokesman said ground troops were preparing to âexpand the scope of combat operations.â
One million people, around half of the enclaveâs population, will initially be driven south toward the Mawasi âhumanitarian zoneââa concentration campâafter which a military offensive will be launched in the ethnically cleansed area. Many of these people, who are already starving and have been displaced multiple times since the genocide began, will die en route.
This is a genocide carried out by the Zionist regime but made in Washington, Berlin and London.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuâs ability to escalate the extermination and expulsion of the Palestinians is made possible by the unconditional support his government enjoys from the imperialist powers that have flooded weapons and other war materiel to the Zionist regime. Indeed, President Trump greenlighted Netanyahuâs plan when he declared on August 5, âSo Israel is going to have to make a decision. âĻ Itâs going to be pretty much up to Israel.â
Since the outset of Israelâs latest onslaught on Gaza in October 2023, the imperialist governments have combined their arming of Israel with efforts to crush popular opposition to the genocide at home by deploying police violence and smear campaigns branding anti-genocide activists as âantisemites.â
But the decades-long support for the Zionist regime by the imperialist powers goes back to the creation in 1948 of a Jewish-exclusivist state in the British mandate of Palestine. As the Fourth International explained in May 1948, the partition of Palestine into a Jewish state and Arab territories âis a compromise between the imperialist robbersâ in the US and Britain aimed at securing their positions in the region. Partition would âthrottle the anti-imperialist fight of the masses, while Zionists and Arab feudalists will vie for imperialist favours,â the Fourth International warned.
Nearly eight decades on, the imperialists can only preserve Israel as a bridgehead for their domination over the Middle East by backing the annihilation of the Palestinians.
The determination on the part of Washington and its European accomplices to facilitate the genocide and crack down on any opposition flows from their desperate striving to advance their predatory economic and geopolitical interests amid a global capitalist breakdown. The same antagonisms between the major powers that led to two world wars in the last century have created the conditions for a third imperialist world war, which threatens the very survival of humanity.
The initial stages of this conflict are well underway, with the genocide of the Palestinians serving as a component of US imperialismâs push to secure unchallenged hegemony over the oil-rich Middle East. At the same time, the imperialist gangsters are waging a war against Russia with the aim of reducing it to a semi-colonial status and preparing a war on China to block its economic rise. The imperialistsâ readiness to sanction the slaughter of an entire people provides an indication of the barbarism of which they are capable in pursuit of raw materials, markets, pools of labour and geostrategic influence.
The despotic Arab regimes continue to vie for imperialist favours and are deeply complicit in mass murder. For the Egyptian, Jordanian, Saudi and other Gulf ruling elites, their main concern is to serve as junior partners in Washingtonâs war of regional conquest and plunder, forming an anti-Iranian alliance, without provoking an upsurge of the oppressed Arab working class against their rule. Thus their refusal to offer any opposition to the genocide beyond hypocritical statements of concern and proposals to orchestrate the expulsion of the Palestinians, i.e., carry out a crime against humanity more âhumanely.â On the very day that Netanyahu discussed the expansion of military operations in Gaza with his security cabinet, Egypt inked a joint deal with the Zionist regime for the export of natural gas worth an estimated $35 billion.
The Zionists and their imperialist paymasters have succeeded for nearly two years in carrying through their criminal âfinal solutionâ of the Palestinian question thanks above all to the despicable conduct of the social democratic parties, trade unions and their political hangers-on. Parties like Labour in Britain and Germanyâs Social Democrats that are in government have supplied Netanyahuâs fascist regime with weapons and military equipment and outlawed popular opposition. The trade unions in all of the major imperialist centres have systematically suppressed opposition in the working class to the genocide, ignoring the appeal of Palestinian trade unions at its outset for global solidarity actions to halt Israelâs onslaught.
Millions of workers and young people have taken to the streets around the world to express their outrage over the genocide. However, the social democratic and Stalinist parties, as well as the pseudo-left organisations and campaign groups in their orbit, have shackled protesters to the bankrupt strategy of moral appeals meant to pressure the very imperialist war criminals responsible for butchering the Palestinians.
The urgent task facing the working class in the imperialist centres is to mobilise its immense social power to halt the Gaza genocide and the war machine responsible for its implementation. Workers throughout manufacturing, transportation, and other key sectors must organise themselves in defiance of the union bureaucracy to fight for the following demands:
An immediate halt to shipment of all weapons to Israel.
The boycott of all trade and other economic activity with Israel.
US, European and other corporations assisting Israel in carrying out the genocide must be indicted and prosecuted.
The arrest of Israeli officials for war crimes.
The end of repression of the opposition to the Gaza genocide.
The immediate and unhindered access to Gaza for the supply of aid via all available land crossings.
These demands can only be enforced through the initiation of an industrial and political struggle by the working class. This weekâs strike at Boeing, at the very heart of the US war machine, underscores the real basis for the development of a mass movement against imperialist war and the horrendous crimes it produces.
Strikes and a refusal to produce and handle goods destined for Israel must be combined with sustained efforts to broaden the struggle to other sections of workers and young people. Resolutions should be adopted by workers and delegations sent to other workplaces aimed at mobilising the working class all over the world to stop imperialist barbarism by taking up the fight for socialism.
Reposted below is the WSWS Editorial Board Statement published on wsws.org here on July 24, 2025.
Palestinians carry boxes containing food and humanitarian aid packages delivered by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed organization approved by Israel, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, May 27, 2025 [AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana]
Every day brings new reports of the genocidal violence the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are unleashing on the defenseless Palestinian population. With food distribution to Gaza reduced to a trickle, dozens of Palestinians are dying of hunger each day, and more than 1,000 have been shot by IDF forces while trying to reach aid distribution points.
In Deir al-Balah, raided by Israel on Sunday, Palestinians returning to their homes are met with scenes of devastationââcomplete destruction,â as one resident described it in comments to CNN. âThere is nothing that indicates a source of life.â
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday that the people of Gaza are confronting âmass starvation âĻ a large proportion of the population of Gaza is starving.â
While the Israeli government is carrying out these atrocities, the United States and the major European imperialist powers are directly complicit. For nearly two years, they have armed and financed Israel as it wages genocide in Gaza, criminalized domestic opposition to the slaughter, and politically justified this historic crimeâone that ranks alongside the atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II.
A coalition of European powers and other close allies of US imperialism issued a cynical statement Monday trying to wash themselves of responsibility.
In the statement, Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, along with a number of smaller powers now acknowledge Israelâs undeniable resort to mass murder. Yet they remain steadfast in their support for the Zionist regime. Refusing to call the Gaza war a genocide, they offer only vague euphemisms while fully endorsing the policies of Washington, which alongside Berlin, is the main provider of arms to Israel.
They state, âThe Israeli governmentâs aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity. We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food. It is horrifying that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid.â Calling for a âpermanent ceasefire,â they conclude, âWe reaffirm our complete support to the efforts of the US âĻ to achieve this.â
But Washington is not seeking peace, any more than Israel is focused on delivering aid to Gaza. For nearly two years, the United States has shipped bombs, artillery, drones and other weapons used by Israel to target hospitals, refugee camps, medics and starving women and children. From the outset, top Israeli officials openly declared their genocidal aims, referring to Palestinians as âhuman animalsâ and invoking the Biblical command to exterminate the âseed of Amalek.â
Six months ago, Trump pledged that Washington would âtake overâ Gaza, expel the Palestinians, âlevel it outâ and turn it into a beach resort, the âRiviera of the Middle East.â Now, Israeli officials are moving to implement this plan, which has underpinned their policy from the beginning. On Tuesday, in the Knesset, fascist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called on Israel to âconquer and settle Gaza,â declaring, âWe have strong support from President Trump to turn Gaza into a prosperous region, a coastal city with settlement and employment.â
The statement from the European imperialist powers refrains from labeling the Israeli war a genocide and ethnic cleansing, but they are well aware that this is what is taking place. Indeed, their statement declares: âProposals to remove the Palestinian population into a âhumanitarian cityâ are completely unacceptable. Permanent forced displacement is a violation of international humanitarian law.â Nonetheless, they cynically embrace US policy under the banner of peace.
The imperialist powers support Israelâs genocide because it is in line with their geopolitical interests. If Israelâs actions conflicted with those interests, they would be halted immediately. As German Chancellor Friedrich Merz bluntly admitted, âIsrael is doing the dirty work for all of us.â Backed and armed by the United States, Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Canada and Australia, the Zionist regime functions as a proxy for imperialist domination of the oil-rich Middle East.
Mass and growing opposition to Israelâs crimes exist throughout the world. What is lacking is a clear program and perspective. The International Committee of the Fourth International and its affiliated Socialist Equality Parties insist that the genocide will not be stopped through appeals to the very capitalist governments carrying out and enabling the genocide. What is urgently required, and what has not yet occurred, is the independent eruption of the working class onto the political stage.
We propose that workers and young people throughout the world raise definite demands, including:
An immediate halt of shipment of all weapons to Israel. Since the beginning of the genocide, it is estimated that Israel has received some $25 billion in weapons and other assistance. The vast majority of bombs dropped on Palestinian homes has been provided by the United States and the European imperialist powers.
The boycott of all trade and other economic activity with Israel. The ability of the Israeli state to carry out the genocide must be halted by crippling its economic foundations. A recent comment in the Financial Times noted that since October 2023, Israelâs stock market has been the âbest-performing in the world,â with an influx of foreign capital fueling the wealth of the ruling elite and financing the Zionist regimeâs ability to murder Palestinians.
US, European and other corporations assisting Israel in carrying out the genocide must be indicted and prosecuted. The ruling class internationally is arming Israel behind the backs of the population and reaping vast profits by providing the IDF weapons, AI and surveillance infrastructure, just as corporations like IG Farben profited from making Zyklon B gas for the gas chambers the Nazis used to kill Jews. Washington retaliated against UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albaneseâs denunciation of this âeconomy of genocideâ by revoking her visa and freezing her bank accounts.
The arrest of Israeli officials for war crimes. International arrest warrants have already been drawn up against many Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but are ignored by the imperialist powers. Moreover, serving in the IDF are many citizens of the US and European countries. They should be subject to arrest and prosecution if it is determined that they in any way contributed to the genocide.
The end of repression of the opposition to the Gaza genocide. Capitalist governments, including those that signed this weekâs statement, have relentlessly criminalized opposition to the genocide. They have carried out mass arrests against organizations criticizing it, launched bloody police assaults on pro-Gaza protests, and prosecuted defenders of Gaza on bogus terrorism or antisemitism charges. Workers and youth must fight to defend those who come out in defense of Gaza, for charges against them to be dropped and to end the repression of their activities.
These demands will not be achieved through appeals to the governments and institutions responsible for the genocide. It requires the intervention of the international working class through strikes, walkouts and other forms of independent action. This means organizing outside the stranglehold of the trade union apparatus, which in every country has done nothing to stop the slaughter in Gaza.
The struggle must unify workers across all bordersâPalestinian, Israeli, American, European and beyondâin a common fight against imperialist war, genocide and the capitalist system that produces them. This includes Israeli workers, who must reject the Zionist regime and its crimes. There are significant layers of the Israeli population who are horrified by the actions of their government. In earlier decades, the Israeli state honored non-Jews who resisted the Nazis as ârighteous among the nations.â Today, Israelis who recognize the criminal character of the genocide must speak out and take action.
The fight against the genocide in Gaza is inseparable from the fight against the expanding global imperialist war, of which it is a component part. The aim of the imperialist powers to create a ânew Middle Eastâ under their domination is inseparable from their broader war plans against Russia and China.
The World Socialist Web Site, the International Committee of the Fourth International and its affiliated Socialist Equality Parties call for an end to the Gaza genocide through the building of a new international anti-war movement. This movement must be grounded in the working class and based on a revolutionary socialist program. Its goal must be to abolish the capitalist profit system, which is the root cause of war.
Reposted below is the article published on wsws.org here on July 11, 2025.
President Donald Trump meets with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky at Trump Tower, Sept. 27, 2024, in New York. [AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson]
In a complete about-face from the position his administration declared last week, United States President Donald Trump announced on Monday that his government would continue to send weapons to Kiev in order to fuel the ongoing proxy war against Russia that has killed hundreds of thousands in its over three-year history.
âWeâre gonna send some more weapons we have to them, they have to be able to defend themselves, theyâre getting hit very hard now,â Trump told reporters during a meeting of US and Israeli officials at the White House.
Later that day, the Pentagon released its own statement confirming more war materiel would be sent to Ukraine, likewise contradicting its previous statements that aid had been paused.
âAt President Trumpâs direction, the Department of Defense is sending additional defensive weapons to Ukraine to ensure the Ukrainians can defend themselves while we work to secure a lasting peace and ensure the killing stops,â it stated.
While initial reports from Politico cited Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby as the Trump official responsible for the weapons halt last week, shortly thereafter NBC News named Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as the individual who made the decision, as part of a âcapability review,â to unilaterally halt shipments to Ukraine starting on July 2.
According to the Washington Post, included in the items being held back from Ukraine were over two dozen Patriot air defense missiles, over two dozen Stinger air defense systems, precision artillery rounds, Hellfire missiles, drones and more than 90 AIM air-to-air missiles that Ukraine launches from F-16 fighter jets. These were reportedly already in Poland and being prepped for delivery to Ukraine when the order to cease was declared.
The move, which was roundly criticized by the Ukrainian government, was later confirmed by both the Pentagon and White House, with Trumpâs press secretary stating that the decision âwas made to put Americaâs interests first following a (U.S. Defense Department) review of our nationâs military support and assistance to other countries across the globe.â
As has become typical of his crisis-plagued, criminal presidency, Trump later performed an about-face while speaking to a NY Times reporter last Friday.
âWhy did you pause weapons shipments to Ukraine?â the journalist asked Trump as he was boarding Air Force One.
âWe havenât,â Trump replied, flatly contradicting multiple previous statements from his own government. âWeâre giving weapons.â
Trumpâs 180-degree foreign policy turn is being publicly celebrated by the right-wing dictatorial government of President Volodymyr Zelensky, following a disastrous public meeting at the White House between the two presidents, who was just months ago was accusing Trump of living in a Russian âdisinformation space.â
On Tuesday, Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyâs closest presidential advisor, vociferously hailed Trump as the âonly leaderâ who can pressure Russia to end the war on Ukrainian terms in an interview with the NY Post.
âI always knew that the two presidents share a lot in common. They have many of the things that they see the same wayâthey just need to talk more,â he said. âThere was a brilliant meeting in the Vatican, and then several phone calls, and then meeting in The Hague, and so all that is the work to understand each other more deeply.
âAnd you know, certain events had to unfold, certain conversations had to happenâincluding conversations with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin.â
Yermakâs glowing description of Trump is a tacit admission that both the war and the Zelensky government itself are highly dependent on the continuation of US military and financial aid.
Despite having been allocated $182.8 billion in US support since the beginning of the full-scale war in February 2022, the Ukrainian government continues to be totally dependent on foreign aid to function.
Speaking Wednesday at the 2025 Ukraine Recovery Conference, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal underlined the critical financial situation of the country.
âThe total financial resource for defence and security in 2025 will amount to nearly US$50 billion. That is 26% of GDP,â the prime minister stated.
The weapons procurement budget is also at a record-high $16.4 billion, while the stateâs own revenue is projected to be just $48.5 billion.
âThus, external financing is critically important for us, as it allows Ukraine to allocate its own resources directed at defending our country,â Shmyhal said.
Shmyhal also noted that Ukraine has already secured $22 billion in foreign aid for 2025. But it needs more for next year.
âMeanwhile, 2026 remains a challenge. Our external financing needs will stay above $40 billion. The key task is to develop mechanisms and instruments that will make it possible to raise these funds.â
As Trump has demonstrated, despite his campaign promises to end the war in Ukraine in â24 hours,â he is just as committed to war as his predecessors, as long as it maximizes the interests of US capitalism.
We repost below the World Socialist Web Site Editorial Board statement published on wsws.org here on June 23, 2025
A B-2 stealth bomber conducts a flyover on the South Lawn of the White House, Saturday, July 4, 2020, in Washington. [AP Photo/Alex Brandon]
June 22, 2025 is a day that will live in infamy. In a massive and unprovoked assault, the United States launched a sneak attack on Iran, dropping the most powerful non-nuclear bunker-buster bombs ever used in combat on Iranian nuclear energy facilities. This act of aggression is the continuation and escalation of the US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza, and threatens to engulf the entire Middle East and set the world on fire.
Codenamed âOperation Midnight Hammer,â the assault involved more than 125 aircraft, including at least eight B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, backed by fighter jets, refueling tankers and surveillance aircraft, in what was the largest B-2 strike operation in US history.
The centerpiece of the attack was the deployment of the GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), a 13.6-ton bunker-busting bombâthe most powerful non-nuclear weapon of its kind ever used. Twelve MOPs were dropped on the heavily fortified Fordow uranium enrichment site, and two more on Natanz. These were accompanied by numerous 2,900-pound Tomahawk missiles, which rained down on both facilities as well as the Isfahan research complex.
US President Donald Trump justified his attack in a four-minute homicidal, lying rant, delivered Saturday night. Announcing that US forces had struck three nuclear facilities, he claimed they were part of a âhorribly destructive enterpriseâ which was supposedly necessary to âstop the nuclear threatâ posed by Iran.
In fact, these sites are part of Iranâs civilian nuclear energy program, developed in accordance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and subject to international inspection. For years, the United Statesâ own intelligence agencies have assessed that Iran was not actively pursuing nuclear weapons. But in the tradition of the Bush administrationâs lies about Iraqâs âweapons of mass destruction,â Trump once again invoked fabricated threats to justify extraordinarily reckless acts of unprovoked aggression.
Trump boasted of the âspectacular military successâ of the attack, which he intended to serve as a message to the entire region, declaring that âIran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace.â
The reference to Iran as the âbully of the Middle Eastâ turns reality on its head. For over a third of a century, US imperialism has been at war and carried out regime change operations throughout the region, including in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and Yemen. Over the past two years, the Israeli government has waged a genocidal war in Gaza with continuous US support, slaughtering tens of thousands of innocent civilians. This has been merely a dress rehearsal for a broader campaign of mass murder.
Having just launched an unprovoked military strike against a sovereign nation in flagrant violation of international law, Trump now demands âpeaceâ! By this, he means âunconditional surrender,â as he demanded last weekâthat is, the turning over of the country to direct imperialist dominance. On Sunday, Trump explicitly called for âregime changeâ in Iran, following his threat last week to assassinate Ayatollah Khamenei.
Trump declared, âFor 40 yearsââsince the overthrow of the US-backed ShahââIran has been saying, âDeath to America, death to Israel,ââ and proclaimed that âhundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East âĻ have died as a direct result of their hate.â The carnage Trump blames on Iran is in fact the outcome of successive US wars and interventions, under Democrats and Republicans, that have devastated entire societies. It is not Iran that has inflicted âhundreds of thousandsâ of deathsâit is the United States.
The strikes were directly coordinated with the fascist Israeli government, which is continuing to launch missile attacks on Iran. As Trump stated, âWe worked as a team as perhaps no team has worked before.â Just prior to Trumpâs remarks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement hailing the US airstrikes and thanking Trump, declaring that the two were pursuing a policy of âPeace through strength: First comes strength, then comes peace.â In other words, slaughter and terror must precede submission.
Trump concluded with a naked threat of further violence: âThere will be either peace, or there will be tragedy for Iran. âĻ Remember, there are many targets left.â The logical next step in this campaign of destruction is the use of tactical nuclear weaponsâan option the Trump administration has repeatedly declared is ânot off the table.â
Saturdayâs attack makes clear that there are no red lines for American imperialism, which will stop at nothing. Its criminality knows no limits. No government has so openly and flagrantly violated international law since the Nazi regime.
The bombing of Iran is a central component of an escalating global war. It is not a question of warning of the danger of a new world warâit has already begun. American imperialism is seeking to resolve its deepening internal social and political crisis through military aggression. Having targeted Iran, the logic of imperialist war is leading inevitably to confrontation with China. Regime change in Iran is aimed at securing unchallenged control over the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Sea and the broader Eurasian landmassâregions rich in oil, gas and critical trade routes.
Trump hailed the strikes as a âspectacular military success,â but in reality, he has embarked on a catastrophic and utterly reckless course of action. Whatever short-term calculations were made by the White House and Pentagon, they have now launched a war whose consequences they cannot control. They have sown the wind and will reap the whirlwind. As with the war against Iraq launched in 2003, American imperialism has a rendezvous with disaster, but on a far larger scale.
It remains to be seen how Iran will respond, as well as its close allies, Russia and China. Iranâs parliament has moved to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which a significant share of the worldâs oil supply passesâan action that will send global energy markets into turmoil and could trigger a global recession. For years, the passivity of the Iranian bourgeois governmentâmarked by appeals for negotiations and the avoidance of direct confrontationâhas emboldened US imperialism.
Whatever the immediate response of Iran, Russia and China, however, the decisive issue is the reaction of the international working class. The most significant and far-reaching impact of Saturdayâs attack will be on the consciousness of billions of people throughout the world. This act of imperialist aggression is already provoking mass outrage, expressed on all social media platforms and through initial protests that took place throughout the US on Sunday.
The war on Iran follows nearly two years of expanding global opposition to the genocide in Gaza. It exposes beyond any doubt the thoroughly criminal character of American foreign policy. The United States is increasingly seen by billions of workers throughout the world as a criminal government that operates outside of all legal restraint. The myth that American imperialism defends âfreedomâ or âdemocracyâ lies forever in the past.
The war will pour gasoline on the already raging social and political crises in the United States, across Europe and around the world. It is the action of a regime ruled by and for the financial oligarchy. As it bombs and murders abroad, the Trump administration is dismantling democratic rights at home and erecting a political dictatorship. The Democratic Party, the so-called opposition, is paralyzed and complicitâparalyzed by its fear of the working class and complicit in the aims of imperialism.
Mass opposition is emerging. Just one week before the bombing of Iran, millions participated in the largest anti-government demonstrations in American history. The question is not whether opposition exists, but how it can be organized, directed and armed with a political perspective. The immense anger and revulsion provoked by the bombing must be transformed into a conscious political movement of the working class, linking the fight against war and dictatorship to the struggle against capitalism.
The working class is the social force that must be mobilized to stop imperialist barbarism. The criminal war being waged against Iran is not an aberration, but the product of the entire capitalist system. It must be halted through the unified global struggle of the working class, organized across all national boundaries.
The International Committee of the Fourth International and its affiliated Socialist Equality Parties call for an immediate end to the US-Israeli war against Iran and the dismantling of the entire imperialist war machine. We urge workers and youth to organize protests, walkouts and strikes in every country.
Imperialism is plunging the world into barbarism and criminality. It is not a matter of reforming a bankrupt system, but of overthrowing it through the conscious and organized struggle of the working class for power. The alternative to war and dictatorship is socialism. What is needed is the building of a new revolutionary leadership to lead this movement forward, and to make socialismâthe democratic control of the economy by the working class in the interests of all humanityâthe guiding principle of a new social order.
We repost below the World Socialist Web Site Editorial Board statement published on wsws.org here on June 21, 2025
Smoke rises from an oil storage facility after it appeared to have been struck by an Israeli strike on Saturday, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 16, 2025. [AP Photo/Vahid Salemi]
American imperialism and its Israeli proxy continue to escalate their illegal, unprovoked war of aggression against Iran, with US nuclear-capable B-52s and aircraft carrier battle groups readying to launch an imminent attack.
Nearly a quarter century after the United States invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, the American ruling class is once more preparing to launch a criminal war, this time against a vast country with a population more than three times larger than Iraq.
Through war, the would-be dictator Donald Trump and the financial oligarchy that rules via the Republican and Democratic parties hope to:
Reimpose the shackles of neo-colonial subjugation on Iran, 45 years after the Iranian people toppled the monarchical dictatorship of the US-installed Shah.
Secure unbridled US imperialist control over the worldâs principal oil-exporting region and key global ocean trade routes, so as to prepare for war with Washingtonâs principal strategic adversaries, China and Russia.
Stave off economic crisis and financial collapse through plunder.
Divert attention from a massive domestic crisis and mounting social opposition.
The consequences of this reckless gamble will be catastrophic for the Iranian people, the Middle East and the entire world.
For all its massively armed gangsterism, deceit and treachery, the outcome of this war will be no lessâand probably moreâdisastrous than the âwars of choiceâ that US imperialism waged in Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam and Korea.
The political establishments in the US and other imperialist centers, on the other hand, are in full war propaganda mode. Iran is vilified as a âterror stateâ and an âexistentialâ threat to the Israeli and American people.
But who will take any of this seriously after decades of lies and criminalityâafter being bombarded with claims that Iraq possessed âweapons of mass destructionâ and endless apologias for Israel as it bombs hospitals and slaughters people queuing for food in its drive to kill and expel the Gaza Palestinians?
Twenty-two years ago, at the launch of the Pentagonâs âshock and aweâ invasionâ of Iraq, World Socialist Web Site Chairman David North wrote, âWhatever the outcome of the initial stages of the conflict that has begun, American imperialism has a rendezvous with disaster. It cannot conquer the world. It cannot reimpose colonial shackles upon the masses of the Middle East.â
US imperialism is going to war not just against the 90 million people of Iran but against the entire world. On Friday, millions took to the streets of Iran and other countries in the Middle East to voice their opposition to the illegal US-Israeli assault.
Throughout the world, people understand that the Trump administration is preparing to launch a war of aggression in alliance with Israel, whose genocidal assault on Gaza has made it the most despised state in the world.
In the US, there is a growing mass movement against Trump, with 10-15 million people joining the June 14 âNo Kingsâ protests. Moreover, a Washington Post poll found that the Americans it surveyed oppose US involvement in a war against Iran by a nearly two-to-one margin. Â
The working class, as the classical Marxists explained, must evaluate its attitude toward any war by examining the social interests involved.
The US-Israeli war on Iran is an imperialist war. It is being waged on a historically oppressed country. The dominant factor in its political history has been a century-long struggle for emancipation from first British and then American imperialism.
Moreover, the war is part of an interconnected chain of military operations spanning decades. The same governments, organizations and media outlets now backing Israelâs onslaught on Iran were the most strident in supporting the war against Russia, provoked by the imperialist powers and justified on the basis of Russiaâs invasion of Ukraine.
Over the past 35 years, US imperialism has sought to reverse the consequences of the wave of anti-colonial and social revolutions of the 20th century and to counter the erosion of its global hegemony through ever-expanding militarism and aggression.
The World Socialist Web Site, the International Committee of the Fourth International and its affiliated Socialist Equality Parties stand unequivocally for the defeat of US imperialism and its Israeli proxy.
Iran is a capitalist country, led by a reactionary bourgeois nationalist regime. Rising to power on the basis of the 1979 Revolution, its greatest fear is the working class. Faced with mounting US threats over the past two decades, the Iranian bourgeoisie has combined repeated efforts to reach an accommodation with Washington with a drive to eliminate what remains of the social concessions made in the immediate aftermath of the popular explosion that overthrew the Shah.
The International Committee of the Fourth International opposes the bourgeois government in Iran. But its attitude to the imminent war is determined by the fact that Iran, a historically oppressed country, is threatened with subjugation and annihilation by an alliance of imperialist powers. The Iranian resistance to the imperialist onslaught is entirely legitimate and politically progressive.
Those who argue that the reactionary character of the Iranian government negates the right of Iran to defend itself are giving âleftâ cover to the imperialist war drive.
As Leon Trotsky wrote in 1937, shortly after Japanese imperialism launched its war of conquest against China, when an oppressed country comes under imperialist attack, the duty of socialists is to defend it irrespective of the reactionary character of its government. Answering those who refused to defend China because it was then led by Chiang Kai-shek and the bourgeois nationalist Kuomintang, which strangled the 1925-27 anti-imperialist revolution and massacred tens of thousands of revolutionary-minded workers, Trotsky explained:
China is a semicolonial country which Japan is transforming, under our very eyes, into a colonial country. Japanâs struggle is imperialist and reactionary. Chinaâs struggle is emancipatory and progressive. âĻ
Japan and China are not on the same historical plane. The victory of Japan will signify the enslavement of China, the end of her economic and social development, and the terrible strengthening of Japanese imperialism. The victory of China will signify, on the contrary, the social revolution in Japan and the free development, that is to say unhindered by external oppression, of the class struggle in China.
The working class in Iran and globally must oppose the US-Israeli onslaught, but they must do so through their own class struggle methods. This means developing a global working class counteroffensive that ties the fight against imperialist war and the ever-widening assault on the social and democratic rights of the working class to the fight against capitalism. This requires the struggle for the building of sections of the ICFI in Iran, throughout the Middle East and internationally.
In conventional military terms, the US-Israeli attackers have a vast preponderance of destructive power. But as the history of revolutions and colonial wars has repeatedly shown, military might, although significant, is only one factor.Â
The principal vulnerability of imperialism lies in the massive and rapidly expanding potential for social opposition that exists in the Middle East, throughout Asia, Africa and in the growing resistance of workers in the imperialist centers.
It is this force that constitutes the decisive answer to imperialist aggression and the expanding global war and that must be mobilized. This can only be done in implacable opposition to all the rival bourgeoisies, their governments and political representatives.
In the US, all factions of the Democratic Party and its chief media voice, the New York Times, are supporting a war that has been organized by a president they themselves admit is systematically violating the Constitution and seeking to establish a presidential dictatorship.
Trump is waging war on two fronts: abroad against Iran, and at home against democratic rights and the working class. These are two sides of the same process. A war with Iran will inevitably be accompanied by an escalation of political repression and social austerity. With the war budget already over $1 trillion, the working class will be forced to foot the bill.
Trumpâs anti-Constitutional drive to establish a presidential dictatorship within the United States and the launching of an illegal war against Iran are interconnected elements of a criminal government. The interaction of these elements threatens the US and the world with a catastrophe. If there is any country that is in desperate need of a regime change, it is the United States.
The same basic processes are present in Europe. The talks held by the European imperialist powers with Iranâs foreign minister in Vienna Friday were a fraud, aimed at browbeating Tehran into surrender. Any reservations they have about Trumpâs rush to war concern their own predatory interests: that they could be burned in the inferno Trump and Netanyahu have set alight; that all-out war in the Middle East will divert US war materiel from Ukraine; and that they are at risk of being cut out by Washington of the spoils of imperialist conquest and plunder.
The Chinese and Russian capitalist regimes, basing themselves on the most pragmatic, short-term calculations and clinging to the hope that they can reach some accommodation with Trump and US imperialism, have taken no action to oppose the onslaught on Iran.
As for the Iranian regime, its conduct before and during the war has only underscored that the national bourgeoisie is incapable of waging a struggle against imperialism. Even now after Trump has demanded âunconditional surrender,â it persists in making appeals to the would-be fascist dictator, while pleading for the European imperialist gangsters to intervene on its behalf.
This war, like World War I and World War II, arises out of the fundamental contradictions of capitalism: between a globally integrated economy and the outmoded nation-state system, and between private ownership of the means of production and the social character of modern economic life.
The International Committee of the Fourth International and its affiliated Socialist Equality Parties call for mass opposition to the Trump administrationâs plans to launch a direct war against Iran. We call for protests, demonstrations and walkouts to oppose this act of imperialist aggression.
Only the international working class, armed with a revolutionary socialist program, can put an end to imperialist war and the capitalist system that breeds it. The ICFI insists that the fight against war must be fused with the fight for workersâ power and the socialist reorganization of global economic life.
We repost below the World Socialist Web Site statement published on wsws.org here on June 13, 2025
Damages are seen in a building after an explosion in a residence compound after Israel attacked Iran’s capital Tehran, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) [AP Photo]
On Thursday evening, under the cover of darkness, Israel launched a massive air and missile assault on Iran, striking air defenses, nuclear facilities, key military personnel and command centers.
At least 78 people were killed and over 300 injured in the largest attack on Iran since the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s. Israel assassinated six nuclear scientists and 20 high-ranking military personnel, including the Chief of Staff of Iranâs military and the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The World Socialist Web Site unequivocally condemns Israelâs illegal and unprovoked assault on Iran as a brazen act of imperialist aggression. The increasingly unhinged Israeli regimeâalready carrying out a genocide against 2 million people in Gazaâhas now deliberately provoked war with a country 10 times its size, threatening catastrophic consequences for the entire region.
Israelâs claim that it acted in âself-defenseâ against an alleged Iranian nuclear program is an absurd and transparent fraud. It is well known that Israel possesses nuclear weapons, acquired in violation of international law.
Prior to the assault, Iran was engaged in negotiations with the White House over its nuclear program. In the days leading up to the strike, every major imperialist governmentâincluding the United Statesâmade statements saying they opposed an Israeli attack on Iran, calling instead for a negotiated settlement.
The United States even went so far as to announce a new round of talks with Iran on Sunday just hours before Israel, with US foreknowledge and complicity, began raining missiles down on Tehran. Within the span of 24 hours, the White House went from vocally proclaiming it opposed an Israeli attack on Iran to publicly gloating about it.
Asked by the Wall Street Journal Friday whether the US got a âheads-upâ of the attacks, US President Donald Trump replied, âHeads-up? It wasnât a heads-up. It was, we know whatâs going on.â
In reality, the so-called ânegotiationsâ were a treacherous charade, designed to provide Israel with the opportunity to kill Iranâs military leaders in their homes. Among those targeted and killed in Israelâs Thursday night attack was top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Shamkhani.
Citing US and Israeli officials, Axios reported Friday that âTrump and his aides were only pretending to oppose an Israeli attack in publicâand didnât express opposition in private. âWe had a clear U.S. green light,â one claimed. The goal, they say, was to convince Iran that no attack was imminent and make sure Iranians on Israelâs target list wouldnât move to new locations.â
The fact that Iran allowed a significant portion of its leadership to be killedâapparently while they were in civilian dwellings vulnerable to missile strikes, even as the American press openly telegraphed an Israeli attackâis a devastating exposure of the Iranian regimeâs strategic bankruptcy. The regime placed immense confidence in the good faith of the Trump administration. Ignoring and forgetting all that has happened, including Trumpâs authorization of the murder of General Suleimani in January 2020, the Iranian leaders were convinced that the United States would restrain Israel while negotiations were pending. They fell for a simple trick, like a child taking candy from a stranger.
But there are politics behind the Iranian regimeâs astonishing naivete. Terrified of its own working class, the Iranian capitalist elite is desperately seeking an agreement with the imperialist powers, who have demonstrated their full commitment to Iranâs destruction and subjugation.
Israelâs attack on Iran has also exposed where the European imperialist powers really stand, despite their recent criticisms of aspects of the Israeli genocide in Gaza. The German government announced that Netanyahu had informed Chancellor Merz of the planned assault. Both the French and German governments issued statements affirming Israelâs âright to defend itselfâ and condemning retaliatory strikes by Iran.
The attack on Iran is the direct outcome of the longstanding US-Israeli drive to create a ânew Middle Eastâ under imperialist domination, intensified in the wake of the events of October 7, 2023. It was made possible by the immense political, military and intelligence support Israel has received from the United States for decades, under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
The Pentagon and Israeli military have long planned and war-gamed an assault on Iran and its nuclear programâan attack that Trump has repeatedly vowed to authorize.
US imperialism has never accepted the outcome of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which overthrew the dictatorship of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a key American ally in the Middle East. Washington backed Iraq in its brutal war against Iran throughout the 1980s. Even as it turned on Iraqâwaging war in 1990â91 and invading in 2003âthe installation of a US-aligned regime in Tehran remained a central objective.
Today, Iran is grouped with Russia, China, and North Korea as a major obstacle to US global hegemonyâone that Washington is determined to eliminate at any cost.
The ultimate aim of this assault is the imperialist domination of the Middle Eastâthe worldâs most important oil-exporting region and home to critical trade routes and strategic chokepoints, including the Persian Gulf. By subjugating Iran, a key ally of both Russia and China, the United States aims to strengthen its global position in preparation for direct confrontation with its principal strategic rivals.
History has shown that imperialist wars lead to unforeseen and catastrophic consequences. Just as the US invasion of Iraq unleashed a regional disaster, so too will Israelâs assault on Iran. The people of the Middle East will not remain passive as their countries are turned into battlegrounds for imperialist domination.
The international working class must respond by building a conscious movement against imperialist war and the capitalist system that gives rise to it.
The World Socialist Web Site calls for the defense of Iran from imperialist violence and subjugation. But this can not be waged through the support of any bourgeois government. It requires the independent mobilization of the working class of the Middle East and the whole world, in opposition to all ethnic, racial and religious divisions, on the basis of a revolutionary socialist program.
