Once again, the Cold War between the two reactionary capitalist blocs has turned into a war of bombs and missiles. This time, as in the Twelve Day War, it was the lives, bodies, and livelihoods of workers and other exploited classes that were endangered. Regardless of how many more officials of the oligarchic capitalist regime are killed besides Khamenei, and what scenarios imperialism has in mind for Iran, or what combination of the regime and the capitalist repressive apparatus will still be involved in the country’s affairs after the ceasefire; before war appeared as missiles and bombs in the sky, it could be seen on the empty tables of workers and the exploited classes. War means high prices, unemployment, insecurity, destruction of infrastructure, and destroying the future of generations. In every military conflict, it is ordinary people who are the victims, and it is the governments and owners of capital who make a profit. And that is precisely why we declare our firm opposition to the war that has begun between the “Islamic Republic of Iran” and the US-Israeli imperialist bloc. This war is being waged for reactionary and capitalist interests and has nothing to do with workers and toilers.
We declare that no foreign power – neither US imperialism, nor Israel, nor any other power – has any concern other than its own economic and geopolitical interests. Historical experience has shown that imperialists’ interventions have brought neither freedom nor prosperity; rather, they have imposed destruction, instability, and new exploitation.
At the same time, our opposition to the war and the imperialist front does not mean supporting the oligarchic capitalist regime. The “Islamic Republic” has shown itself during its decades of rule to be the enemy of workers, women, national minorities, youth and all the exploited and oppressed masses. Suppressing trade-unionist demands, imprisoning labour activists, the spread of poverty and class inequalities, and restricting the most basic social and political freedoms are the clear record of this government. This political structure has achieved nothing but crisis, corruption, and pressure on the masses. Less than two months ago, the entire world witnessed the massive slaughter of tens of thousands of Iranian youths in the streets of cities throughout Iran. Therefore, we believe the Iranian people should not choose between domestic tyranny and foreign intervention. Both paths will make the lives of the exploited masses miserable.
The real alternative is forming an independent and progressive third bloc; a front arising from workers’ councils, national minorities’ councils, independent organisations of women, students, and all oppressed layers. Only through the conscious and nationwide organisation of the militant masses can we stand against the simultaneous belligerence of the two blocs of foreign capitalism and domestic repression.
From our perspective, the time has come for the international allies of the workers and the exploited to rush to the aid of their working-class sisters and brothers in Iran and clarify their position in the struggle of the Iranian proletariat against all domestic and foreign counter-revolutionary forces.
The revolutionary or counter-revolutionary nature of governments is not determined by their verbal squabbles with imperialism but by their actual performance in the cycle of global capitalist relations and their class orientation. During its almost half-century of rule the “Islamic Republic” has shown that it has always acted against the interests of the masses of the people, and all its seemingly anti-imperialist struggles have in fact been a struggle to gain a greater share in the competitions and conflicts within the counter-revolutionary camp.
We believe that the emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself. And only the revolutionary proletariat is the standard-bearer for the emancipation of all the exploited and oppressed layers.
Whenever this war between the two reactionary capitalist blocs ends, their joint war against the workers and the exploited will continue and even intensify. And the only way to achieve the just demands for economic, social and political rights will be to focus on the formation and co-ordination of the clandestine cells of the class struggle of the workers and the exploited.
In Iran, regardless of what kind of capitalist regime rules, the only way to achieve the most elementary democratic rights will be realised only after the socialist revolution led by the proletariat.
Let us build the clandestine socialist vanguard workers’ cells!
Let us build the clandestine cells of the anti-capitalist masses!
Let us unite the workers’ nationwide action and form the workers’ leadership command centre!
Let us establish a workers’ government and transition to a socialist society!
Iranian Revolutionary Marxists’ Tendency
1 March 2026
