Civilization – “We just crumbled their longest bridge, guys. Fuck them. Now let’s move on to the power plants…”
Below is the Revolutionary Internationalist Tendency’s position on Trump’s speech tonight [April, 1st] on the war against Iran. (Editor)
Tonight, in his eagerly awaited “address to the nation,” the White House pedophobe gangster once again unleashed his death rhetoric, as ferocious as it is impotent.
The intended target is Iran, the cradle of an ancient civilization (Hegel called it “the first historical people”), which, he says, “deserves to be returned to the Stone Age.”
Why? Because it dares to remain standing after being struck by “the most powerful [military] operation in history.”
From the moment this treacherous American-Zionist aggression was unleashed, Trump promised rapid “regime change” and an equally rapid “unconditional surrender,” leaving Iran no other option. He then repeatedly repeated that he had torn Iran to pieces, decimated it, “brought it to its knees,” “kicked its ass,” and so on in his elegant Epsteinian language.
But after 32 days, 11,000 bombing missions, 16,000 bombs, missiles, drones, etc., the military objectives have not been achieved; he himself says: they have only been “almost achieved.” Therefore, for another two or three weeks (at least), the war must be intensified.
After the destruction inflicted on Iran’s nuclear sites, navy, air force, and missile infrastructure, it will be the turn, he warns, of the power plants and oil facilities—without ruling out a ground operation against Kharg Island. And if on the first day of the aggression alone there were two massacres of children and students, in Minab (175 dead) and Lamert (21 dead), the latter carried out to test the new PrSM (Precision Strike Missile), everything suggests that the new series of terrorist bombings to come will destroy thousands more homes, schools, universities, hospitals, in addition to those already destroyed.
The abused American mass murder lexicon about a “return to the Stone Age,” due to its radical dehumanization of the Iranians, suggests they haven’t ruled out the use of any weapons (tactical nuclear weapons?). We also believe this because this threat comes when its close Zionist ally introduces the mandatory death penalty for Palestinian partisans, adopts the “Rafah method” for southern Lebanon, creates over a million refugees in Lebanon, pollutes the Gaza Strip with wastewater, and launches the “Shami Neighborhood” settlement plan for Jerusalem, displaying boundless contempt for the lives of Palestinians, Arab peoples, and nature.
The fact that Trump’s delusional discourse cannot hide is that the war is not going well for the aggressors— neither militarily, nor even less so in terms of political propaganda.
The damage suffered by American bases, the radar detection system, the Ford aircraft carrier, several Zionist strategic facilities and sites, and Israeli cities is severe, far exceeding expectations. The vaunted anti-missile systems, starting with the impenetrable Iron Dome, have proven to be a strainer. Despite the assassination of Khamenei and other top leaders of the Islamic Republic, the regime has not collapsed — so much so that now Trump is pretending he never wanted it, and is inventing a “new regime” from scratch, mounted by the bombings. The Islamic Republic’s resilience, its effective military tactics of “decentralized mosaic defense” and extensive use of underground positions, the popular uprising in Bahrain, the deployment of Hezbollah, the Houthis, the tribes of Nassyria, and other Iraqi sectors, and the refusal (so far, at least) of the Iranian Kurds to serve as proxies for the US-Israel axis, are severely complicating US plans for immediate victory through “unconditional surrender.”
The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has panicked first Washington’s Asian allies (Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea), then the Gulf states themselves, historic supporters of the US military. They now discover that, instead of being militarily protected by the United States, they are exposed to Iranian retaliation, which the US protectors have provoked. The old petrodollar agreement has now become a noose around their necks, since the epicenter of global accumulation has moved to Asia, and their best customers are now there.
The situation is also increasingly worrying European countries, with Italy among the worst-hit. The regularity of oil and gas supplies from the Middle East has been compromised for many months, if not years. Even financial markets see a recession, perhaps a major one, or at least a phase of stagflation, as inevitable if the war continues. And what’s worse for Washington and Wall Street, the boomerang effect of this massive chaos is that the petro-yuan is rapidly gaining ground against the petro-dollar.
For Trump and his gang, things are no better domestically.
March 28th saw the most popular “No Kings” day, with millions of workers taking to the streets to protest against ICE and the war on Iran and its continuation. Within the MAGA movement’s own grassroots base, discontent is growing over the 30% increase in gasoline and electricity prices, the new war, and — among its anti-Semitic segments — their involvement in a war that (in their view) was unnecessary for the prosperity of the United States. The war against Iran is the most unpopular of all the wars unleashed by Yankee imperialism, despite — according to official figures — only 13 American soldiers have been killed so far. For many commentators, Trump’s speech last night was essentially a speech aimed squarely at his own political camp.
China, with its five-point plan, co-sponsored by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia’s military ally, is well placed to present itself to the Middle East (or West Asia, as Beijing sees it) and the world as a factor of stability and peace; one that defends the national sovereignty and security of all countries involved; which protects populations, civilian infrastructure, and the safety of maritime routes; which defends the United Nations Charter and international law for the “realization of true multilateralism,” taken (falsely) as synonymous with “lasting peace.” The outbreak of this war and its further prosecution, far from burying China, as the masterminds of the Trump clan dreamed, is thus far strengthening it in every respect. Even though it is evidently forcing it to reorganize (partially) its energy supplies.
The Iranian regime itself, despite being hit hard, is moving with superior tactical intelligence than its adversaries. On the one hand, it is demonstrating unexpected military resistance and threatening retaliation commensurate with new US and Zionist attacks, successfully appealing to national sentiment; on the other — with Pezeshkian’s message to the US people — it is skillfully engaging with the contradictions of the MAGA base itself, insinuating that the ongoing war serves only the interests of “greater Israel,” and not the United States.
The profound difficulty of the US-Israel axis of aggressors is also demonstrated by the Meloni government’s moves around the Sigonella base, fearing, after the slap in the face of the “NO” vote in the referendum, that it would be overly identified with Trump and his gang, now that inflation is beginning to bite into the already meager wages of millions of working-class people.
This situation must push us, and all those who consistently oppose this aggression against Iran and the peoples of the Middle East, the genocide in Gaza, the crimes of the Zionist state, and more generally the race for a war economy and global war, to intensify our efforts to defeat the Western gangster camp, Italy included. To sever the ties between the US-Israel machine of destruction and extermination and the Italian system.
For this to happen, we must redouble our efforts to reach out to the working class in industry and logistics. The widespread availability of youth sectors in schools, universities, and precarious employment is valuable, but not sufficient. Experiencing firsthand the growing costs of the war economy and the economic turmoil can help open their eyes, but only on the condition that this awareness leads to action against the government of sacrifice and war and against NATO. To finally dissolve this disastrous alliance bent on the devastation and plunder of the entire world. To shift the growing military burdens to social spending. For strong wage increases and the reintroduction of a sliding wage scale mechanism capable of truly neutralizing inflation. For the imposition of a 10% wealth tax on the richest 10% to bring back to the proletariat a portion of the wealth stolen by the ruling class and its sycophants, allocating it to social purposes. For mobilization against repression and the police state. These are issues on which it is right to call all the conflictual trade unions to a general strike.
We must do everything possible and impossible to defeat the Trump-Netanyahu gangster axis, “our” falsely neutral and truly belligerent government, the EU and NATO, to stand in the way of the establishment of a war economy that will bring tears and blood to the working classes.
But — as we reiterated at the assembly on Tuesday the 31st — we refuse to rally around, and, as some do, call for, the regime of the Islamic Republic. Because this has been, and remains, an anti-proletarian capitalist regime from its origins, which has exterminated and dispersed an entire generation of revolutionary militants and proletarian vanguards. For us, anti-Amerikanism is not the equivalent of anti-imperialism, much less anti-capitalism. To successfully seize and divert the 1979 insurrectionary movement, Khomeini and the PRI had to resort to “anti-imperialist” rhetoric and introduce some form of protection for the poorest and most oppressed sectors of the population. But this did not make them friends of the working class. Over these fifty years, despite a thousand hardships due to wars and sanctions, they have nevertheless developed capitalism in Iran and brutally repressed all proletarian and popular uprisings, including the latest one in January, which only people who know nothing about Iran could call a “colorful” uprising.
This is why, as class militants fighting against capitalism of every latitude and form, we have given and continue to give our support to the proletarians and oppressed masses of Iran who, in repelling the new aggression of external enemies, seek to preserve and strengthen their autonomy and their organizations from the control of a regime that for decades has exercised an iron fist on behalf of national and international capital (including Italian capital, which is well-established in Iran — ever heard of Eni, Danieli, Saipem, Ferrovie dello Stato, Pessina Costruzioni, Fincantieri, Italtel?).
Our banner is that of proletarian internationalism – yesterday, today, and tomorrow. We therefore fight for the establishment of an international and internationalist front of struggle of the exploited and oppressed masses of the whole world against the capitalist warlords, to overthrow their power and their social order.