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Vol. 71/No. 14      April 9, 2007

 
Lift all sanctions against Iran!
(editorial)
 
The new tightening of sanctions against Iran by the United Nations Security Council is an attack on that nation’s sovereignty. It lays the groundwork for further imperialist aggression, as shown by the dispute over the 15 British marines the Iranian Navy captured.

Washington and its allies demand the Iranian government stop its uranium enrichment program, arguing it will be used to produce nuclear weapons. Tehran says it is developing atomic power for peaceful uses: to meet the country’s energy needs.

Iran is a semicolonial nation. It confronts a long history of domination by London, Washington, and other imperialist powers, which have plundered its resources and stunted its development. Iranian workers and peasants have waged struggles to free themselves from that yoke, a high point of which was the 1979 revolution, which toppled the U.S.-backed shah and set back imperialist interests in the Mideast.

In today’s world, a huge gap exists in conditions of life between the imperialist and the semicolonial world. One-third of humanity has no access to electricity. Iran, though a major oil producer, lacks refining capacity and imports 43 percent of its gasoline—a consequence of the imperialist legacy. It has a right to develop nuclear energy as a way to expand electrification, essential for modern industrial and agricultural development.

Working people everywhere have a vital stake in defending Iran’s right to develop nuclear energy and opposing attacks on it.

The objectives of the U.S. rulers in Iran are to bring about, through military and economic pressure, a government beholden to them and greater domination over the Mideast and its resources. They cannot openly proclaim these goals, however. Instead, they pose as champions of world peace. But this is a lie. Washington is the world’s number one nuclear power and warmonger. It is the only government that has ever unleashed atomic weapons.

What we see unfolding today, as U.S. officials themselves have explained, is a decades-long war by Washington and other capitalist powers, not only in Iraq but on multiple fronts, from Afghanistan to Somalia and the Philippines. That is the only way for the ruling classes in Washington, London, Paris, Tokyo, and elsewhere—in deadly competition among themselves—to shift the relationship of forces in their favor and restore their historically sagging profit rates. Those most affected are workers and farmers around the world.

The imperialist wars abroad have their counterpart in the U.S. employers’ onslaught against working people at home: from the factory raids and deportations of immigrant workers to stepped-up police spying and harassment in the name of “homeland security.”

In their anti-Iran offensive, the U.S. rulers are more united than in their war in Iraq. While no prominent ruling-class voices offer a real alternative to the Bush administration’s course in Iraq, the capitalists have tactical disagreements over how to conduct that war. Regarding Iran, however, Democrats often criticize the White House from a more aggressive position, arguing that the Bush administration is not doing enough to force Tehran to its knees.

In face of such brutal wars, and more to come, by the twin parties of U.S. imperialism, working people and youth should demand: Lift the sanctions against Iran! Bring all the troops home now from Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea, and every other country! Not one penny, not one man or woman, for the U.S. war machine!
 
 
Related articles:
House: $124 billion for Iraq, Afghanistan wars
$31 billion more than Bush requested;
Democrats portray measure as ‘antiwar’

UN Security Council stiffens sanctions against Iran  
 
 
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