“Until recently, it was the capitalist class and the Islamic regime in Iran alone that directly imposed this violence on us. Now, with war underway, we face two capitalist monsters: the Iranian bourgeoisie and its regime on one side, and the governments of Israel, the United States, and the European Union on the other. Despite their conflict, both sides impose the same genocidal brutality. From above and below, in every aspect of life, we are being crushed by the violent machinery of capital—whether Iranian, Israeli, American, or European.
This war is not waged between “states”—it is waged against us. Tens of millions of workers are shouldering the burden: displacement, homelessness, hunger, famine, lack of water, medicine, treatment, mass death. Our homes are bombed, our loved ones lie unburied, and the future of our children is uncertain. In Tehran, Kermanshah, Isfahan, and elsewhere, the toll of war is immense. These conditions scream that we must act—collectively, nationally, and with class-conscious, councilist organization. This is no slogan. It is a matter of survival. We must unite where we live and work—factories, schools, hospitals, ports, neighborhoods—to form councils. These must not be isolated or local; they must grow into a nationwide movement, capable of mobilizing all resources to meet urgent needs: food, safety, medical care, housing, education. These councils must link up, evolve into a unified anti-capitalist force, and take control of production, wealth, and infrastructure from the hands of the capitalist class and their state. Let us proclaim to the world: we see all ruling classes—Israeli, Islamic, American, European—as genocidal enemies of the working class. We call on workers worldwide for solidarity and support.” Statement of Anti-capitalist Workers, Iran. June 15th, 2025.
The bombing of Iran by first the Israeli state and then the USA, showed the increasing volatility of the world situation. In bombing Iran, Trump has made a gamble that he might regret. Trump’s inner circle includes fundamental Christians who wholeheartedly support Israel and are cheerleaders for a war with Iran. On the other hand, his inner circle, not to mention his base of MAGA supporters, includes isolationists who are totally against American intervention in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. Trump and US imperialism are in an increasingly weak position.
Some in Trump’s camp and indeed within the non-Trump US ruling class and State structures, are concerned that these actions will push more countries away from the USA and into the orbit of China, now seen as the USA’s chief rival. Hostilities in the region could well push oil prices up, to Russia’s advantage.
Israel has increasingly strengthened its position as a regional imperialist power, in opposition to the Iranian theocracy, who also have regional imperialist aspirations. Up until now, Iran conducted a proxy war against Israel through its allies in Hamas and Hezbollah. Its other ally in the region, the Assad regime, has now been smashed. The regime of the mullahs was forced to retaliate against Israel and the USA, to maintain its position at home, whilst giving prior warning to the Americans of its attacks. It thus hopes to limit the spread of this war. Meanwhile it is the ordinary people of Iran and Israel who suffer the murderous results of these bombardments. Far from weakening the theocratic regime, the joint Israeli/American assault on Iran will strengthen the regime, giving it further excuses to increase its repression at home,whilst labelling all dissidents as traitors. One event in the bombardment of Iran by Israel, was the attack on the gates of Evin prison, where many dissidents have been murdered and where many remain imprisoned. This was meant to indicate that Israel and its ally the USA were on the side of ‘democracy’. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a British-Iranian dual national who spent five years in Evin prison. As she wrote: “ Watching those prison doors being blown off felt surreal. I have walked in and out of that gate so many times, beingtaken to court or hospital, and always dreamed of the day when they would finally be opened and all prisoners would be set free from that place of oppression. So bringing down those gates might have seemed like a symbolic act for faraway media. But it did not feel like it made anyone safe inside. If anything, it took away lives. The crackdown from the Iranian authorities keen to reaffirm control feels as if it has only just begun.”
Trump thinks he is a master broker of deals. He was looking to come to some sort of arrangement with Iran, of course beneficial to US interests, and to pull Iran out of China’s orbit if possible. The Netanyahu government was affrighted by this, and launched its initial attacks on Iran to scupper any such sort of arrangement. This forced Trump, under the influence of the hawks in his inner circle, into his own attacks, whilst still hoping for some sort of deal. The so-called ceasefire that he boasts about has proven to be illusory, as hostilities still continue between Israel and Iran.
Israel, once on the leash under previous American administrations, has increased its strength as a regional power and is asserting its relative independence from the USA. At the same time as war rages between Iran and Israel, the Netanyahu regime carries on with its atrocious genocide of Palestinians.
As the Iranian novelist Sahar Delijani cried out: “I was born in an Iranian prison. My parents were held in their jails. My uncles lie in their mass graves. Nothing you can tell me about the crimes of the Iranian regime that I haven’t lived in blood and bone. That doesn’t mean I want my people bombed, maimed, killed, their homes in ruins. If your vision of liberation comes only through the destruction of innocent lives, then it’s not freedom you’re after.”
As the Anti-capitalist Workers of Iran remind us, it is only the working class of Iran, of the wider Middle East, of Europe and the USA, who can end this drive to war. The war effort of the boss class must be sabotaged, through mass actions and acts of war resistance.