Only the Working Class Can End Capitalism’s Perpetual Wars

What is Behind the US Threat to Iran?

US threats of war against Iran are taking a familiar turn. Citing the Iranian regime’s plans to obtain “weapons of mass destruction”, the Neo-cons in the Bush camp are stirring the embers of conflict. No less aggressive on the Iranian side, Ahmedinejad plays the nationalist card in order to divert the attention of Iranians from the dire situation of the economy. Blaming US sanctions for poor economic performance is a useful alibi for the Islamic Republic.

The real root of this conflict lies though in the threats to the US empire’s control of the planet. Since 1945 the US has maintained its economic dominance through the use of the dollar as the international trading currency.

However, with the end of the Cold War, the US’ former allies now began to balk at this. If the dollar ceases to be the major currency of international trade, the US will be economically ruined, and its control over the planet finished. This is why since 1991 it has begun to use its military might to enforce dollar hegemony. In this respect oil is the world’s key strategic commodity. This explains why the main victims of US aggression have been in the Middle East and Central Asia.

When Saddam Hussein began to sell Iraqi oil in euros instead of dollars after 1999 he became Public Enemy Number One despite the fact that he made sure Al Qaeda was kept out of Iraq.

Now the big threat amongst Middle East oil producers is directed by Iran. Iran now only sells 15% of its oil for dollars. It sells 65% in euros and the rest in yen. Not content with this Iran tried to set up an oil bourse (stock exchange) to encourage other oil producers to abandon the dollar. This so far has won enthusiastic support from Chavez of Venezuela but not from other Middle East producers. Not surprisingly the US has just agreed to supply many of them with the latest weaponry (paid for with petrodollars of course). As Ahmedinejad has also been funding Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, not to mention supporting the Shia militias in Iraq, it is not surprising that Iran is the new “Public Enemy No.1”.

Whose Side Are You On?

US aggression has to be opposed but, it can only be materially stopped by the workers in every country refusing to create the wealth and materials for the state to carry out further imperialist adventures. It won’t be stopped by petitions and hasn’t been stopped by big demonstrations. But to get workers to fight US (and British or wherever) imperialism we also need to understand the imperialist menace on the other side. For Iran would move into the Iraqi void if the US withdrew. This Iranian regime is the same one that twenty five years ago massacred its opponents on the Left in the most disgusting and barbaric ways (such as being chopped alive into pieces on a butcher’s slab). This was carried out by the Pasdaran or “Revolutionary Guards”, who attack women not covering themselves from top to toe, and who hang people in their own homes. All this in the name of defending Islamic purity. It is through his association with this body that Ahmedinejad has risen to his current eminence in the Islamic Republic. Today whilst the mullahs who form the new ruling caste live in big villas in the area north of Tehran workers striking for a decent wage are imprisoned and killed. Both the US and Iran are a threat to humanity.

Our Side?

In a war between two imperialisms the working class will be the first victims. We have no interest with either of these odious regimes. The Stop the War Coalition should stop kidding people that support for Iran is the same as opposing imperialism. Our only way to oppose imperialism is to work to unite the working class against it through the creation of an international revolutionary organisation, a party. Not so immediate as signing a petition perhaps, but certainly, in the long run, the only real anti-imperialist option.