Re-post from Shahrokh Zamani Action Campaign
The following is a statement by the Khuzestan Vanguard Socialist Workers’ Cell (KVSWC) to commemorate the first anniversary of the Israel-Gaza war. It was published on October 9th 2024, eight days after the Iranian regime’s second attack on Israel. The Israeli response came on October 26th.
Their war and our war
Greetings to all our dear and honourable toilers and wage earners all over Iran. We your hard work has not wearied you, even though we know you’re near exhaustion. We hope you’ll be victorious in all areas of your work and life.
Finally, after over forty years of the “neither war nor peace between Israel and Iran” policy, which until now has been carried out indirectly through the proxies of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and the Syrians, and with the money of my sweat and yours; eventually led to more direct conflicts in Gaza last year. And then it extended into Lebanon, for which until now 40,000 Palestinian and Lebanese women, men and children have paid the price. And now this war has reached our own doorstep, with a direct confrontation between Israel and Iran.
Although we believe that for now this confrontation will not turn into a full-scale war, because it is neither in the interest of Israel nor in the interest of America; and because they both know that Iran is like a powder keg that, if it explodes, will set the entire Middle East on fire. But this does not mean that the Israelis will not retaliate. As after the killing of Ismail Haniyeh and Hassan Nasrallah, when Iran was forced to react to preserve its reputation, Israel must finally do something to scare all its adversaries. In the past few days, it has made many threats and said that it is targeting sensitive military and economic centres and will not harm civilians.
But as with Gaza and Lebanon, here also, we the innocent people will pay the price for the war-mongering of the two governments. If such a bombardment takes place, we will be the main victims of this conflict. We don’t have concrete shelters to hide in. So, just like the previous war between Iran and Iraq, this time we will be the ones who will become the cannon fodder of two anti-worker governments, and our lives and our families will be wiped out.
What does this war have to do with us, anyway? We don’t benefit from it. Those who benefit are the leaders on both sides of the conflict. Netanyahu was supposed to go to court for the crimes of corruption and embezzlement; but suddenly, Hamas’s hidden hand not only saved him and brought him and all the far-right fascists in Israel back to power, but also caused the death of over forty thousand innocent Palestinians and gave Israel an excuse to fulfil the dream of a greater Israel that it has had for many years. All the great powers, despite many declarations and shedding crocodile tears, did practically nothing and gave the green light to the attacks.
Although our [Iranian] side has the same corruption and embezzlement, it does not go to court, but is looking for a gift. And war is just the “blessing” that it has been wishing for. Didn’t the Iran-Iraq war serve it well? Now the government base is not very strong. The people’s patience is about to snap and their protests are getting more intense every day. What’s better than a “foreign enemy” and a war, even for a few days, to calm things down? And if anyone protests, they can treat them as the “foreign enemy’s spy” and jail them for a while. But who doesn’t know that the spies who revealed Haniyeh’s location were from among the system’s leaders? And according to former president Ahmadinejad, the person responsible for discovering the Israeli espionage network in Iran was himself an Israeli spy!
In short, despite all the games played by the authorities and generals for the Palestinian people, no one in this [Iranian] government cares for any Palestinians, otherwise they would not have split the Palestinian movement from the very beginning. They follow their own political ambitions. The important thing is who is the main power in the region.
If anyone in this country really cares about the Palestinian people, then they would be found among us workers. We are the ones who understand the meaning of homelessness and destitution. We are the ones who know that they [i.e., the Palestinians] are also paying the price for the corruption and ambition of their thieving leaders. Recently, a newspaper in Europe published a report about the leaders of Hamas and their children, how they are investing and enjoying themselves in the Persian Gulf countries with the money donated by the people of Iran. Just like our own national leaders.
Now is the time to open our eyes and ears. The war will end only when the arsonists on both sides have been pulled down from the throne of power, and this task can only be completed by the majority of society’s toilers, which also needs consciousness and organisation. We must be conscious that despite some people [in the rightwing opposition] who are celebrating, hoping that the Israelis and the Americans will come and, after the bombing and occupation of Iran, they will overthrow the government and restore our rights; in fact, we will be the main losers who’ll be killed in the middle of this and Israeli or American soldiers won’t even get hurt (as happened in Iraq or in Libya or Afghanistan).
Likewise, we must be conscious of the fact that these parties are also talking nonsense. Those who grieve that the foreign enemy will devastate the soil of this country and destroy the property and honour of the people, then conclude that we must put aside our differences and rally behind this government and defend Iran. We have seen the result of this in the past. We stepped on mines, we fought for eight years, we became displaced, homeless and were killed, and in the end, the profits of reconstruction and oil trading went into the pockets of government officials, and our meals became smaller, and because of extreme poverty and hunger we committed suicide and prostituted ourselves.
The war will not be over as long as there are warmongers. Israel has been massacring the Palestinian people for 70 years, Iran has been instigating war for 45 years and has spread the war to other countries; and instead of helping the people and toilers of Palestine and other countries to establish real peace, it put the country’s money at the disposal of an organisation whose economy minister is one of the richest Palestinians who has large investments in the Gulf countries. A government that imposes the hejab on women and kills journalists and intellectual who oppose it, just like our own serial murders of dissidents. Are we closer to these rulers or the Lebanese, Palestinian or even Israeli workers? Only the unity of all of us will uproot these warmongers and uproot war.
But every action needs an organisation, and if we really want permanent peace, we must lay the foundations of that organisation today. And as we have said before, the basic foundations of that organisation are the clandestine cells of vanguard workers. Let us start this demanding task instead of wasting time and helping the enemy.
Be victorious.
* Let us build the clandestine socialist vanguard workers’ cells!
* Let us unite the vanguard workers based on the workers’ action programme!
* Let us build the workers’ united general action and form the workers’ leadership command centre!
* Let us eradicate war and overthrow the warmongers.
Workers’ bulletin of the Khuzestan Vanguard Socialist Workers’ Cell
Organiser of KVSWC: Comrade Martin. https://t.me/ahvazijava
