Why we need a strong anti-war movement against the Israeli-US aggression against Iran

Article by a socialist activist based in Berlin

The Left in Germany, as in other countries, is fraught with contradictions and splits. The genocide in Gaza and the reserved reactions of many on the Left to unequivocally stand against the mass-killing of Palestinians (with German weapons) show these contradictions.

Now, with the ongoing aggression by Israeli-US attacks on Iran that have killed over 500 Iranians in the last couple of days, a united anti-war movement has not yet formed. The German ruling government has stated it stands behind the Zionist-US attacks and demands that “Iran stop its aggressions.”

So the cynical question arises:
How many Iranians must be slaughtered by Zionist-American bombs before the Left in Germany unconditionally opposes them? Will we have to go through a similar period as at the beginning of the Gaza genocide, where only after 50,000 Palestinians had been murdered in Gaza did large parts of the German left publicly oppose it? What lessons must be learn from the wars against Afghanistan in 2001 and the war against Iraq in 2003?

Western powers are never concerned with the form of government in the countries they bomb, but always with how well government X represents their interests. Iran is not being bombed by two genocidal settler colonies because the government is oppressive and exploitative. The West has absolutely no problem with the murderous military state of Egypt, nor with the (undemocratic) monarchies of Saudi Arabia or the Emirates. And no longer with the Venezuelan government either, since they subjugated themselves to US imperialism, supplied their oil to the US, privatized the oil sector, and stopped supplying oil to Cuba.

The legacies of Western colonialism across the global South show us: In countless countries where colonized rulers, princes, and kings were murdered or deposed by Western powers, there was always an accompanying campaign of ideological justification that these rulers were despotic and barbaric. Albeit colonized rulers were not objectively progressive, this was never the real issue at hand.

Contemporarily, the ideological veneer legitimizing imperialist onslaught is seen in the function of anti-Muslim racism and Islamophobia. Over two decades of relentless Western propaganda in the media, judiciary, universities, and politics have so deeply entrenched anti-Muslim racism, even within left-wing organizations and groups, that it has had an effect: many stay away from protests against the war against Iran. After all, it’s about a “mullah dictatorship” and “Islamofascism.” In 2001, the Taliban were also the embodiment of Islamofascism. And Saddam was the new Hitler. The slaughter of countless Afghans and Iraqis was legitimized under the guise of bombs for “freedom” and “democracy.”

If we truly take the revolutionary Karl Liebknecht’s statement that “the main enemy is at home”, meaning that to fight imperialism means fighting one’s own ruling class primarily, seriously, then our task here and now is to form a united front against the war against Iran.

A broad united front (far beyond the confines of the left), where forming a broad movement does not rely on the differences of how groups on a variety of issues, but where a common denominator is formed to work together on: Against the bombing of Iran. Against the sanctions. Against German support for the Zionist-American attack. Immediate closure of all US bases in Germany. An immediate arms embargo against the Zionist entity.
It should be obvious: People in Palestine and Iran can only ever decide their own future if they aren’t slaughtered by bombs.

Other issues must be addressed through freedom from propaganda, yet we must form a broad movement on a common denominator against the war. Organizations in Germany that aren’t even willing to do so will have lost all credibility.