/ CLASS WAR / On June 16th, three days after the first bombings of Iran began, we published on our blog an English translation of a contribution from comrades militating in that country, defending the perspective of proletarian revolution and communism. These militants regularly sign their publications “Anti-capitalist Workers” or “Movement for the Abolition of Wage Labor”. We salute the efforts of these comrades to translate their documents into a Western language, thereby giving wide access to their courageous and very interesting positions. Nevertheless, linguistic problems remain a significant barrier to a full grasping of their publications, as their translations often pose significant problems. In the very recent past, we ourselves have published and translated some of their contributions on the class struggles in Iran in 2022/23, as well as after the fall of the Baathist regime in Syria…
Today, we are republishing (and translating into French) a “lightly edited” version, which we could describe as abridged, of two documents from these comrades (including the text that we had already published in its English full version). This “new” version comes from comrades based in Australia, the “League of Internationalist Communists”, which also served as the basis for a Spanish version published by the group “Barbaria”.
We will not provide here an exhaustive critique of these two texts, nor of the use of certain concepts such as “genocide” or “holocaust” to describe the murderous policies of the State of Israel in Gaza and the West Bank, to describe the death of tens of thousands of proletarians! Let’s just say that the use of such concepts derives from a concession to anti-fascism, even though it seems to us clear that the comrades in Iran are very critical of this ideology, as they are of all ideologies.
The same applies to the concept of “anti-capitalist workers’ councils” that the comrades in Iran are developing and calling for, as a moment of organization and structuring, where the proletariat wages its class struggle against its hereditary enemy, where the proletariat wages its class war. Of course, it is more than necessary to discuss and deepen the anti-capitalist nature and content of these “workers’ councils” (and the process of proletarian associationism), which is more important than their form alone. But never, it seems to us and from what we have read, do these comrades in Iran claim “the form council” in the strict sense. In a text criticizing democracy, we even read that these comrades clearly reject “councils’ democracy”!!!
In contrast, groups and militants close to a certain “communist left”, who have made a specialty of imposing themselves as “sermonizers”, allow themselves to denigrate these comrades and falsify their statements in this regard, pouring out their logorrhea marked by the seal of exteriority. While we criticize the weaknesses of our comrades (as well as our own weaknesses) so that we can move forward together and develop our proletarian community of struggle and criticism, we never consider these weaknesses and limitations as an insurmountable totality!
To end this brief introduction, and beyond all the weaknesses and limitations contained in the two texts that follow, we would like to particularly highlight their defeatist, internationalist, and anti-capitalist assertions:
“This is not our war. It is theirs. We are at war with both regimes, both blocs, the entire global capitalist system. Any alignment with one side is betrayal. Anti-war activity is only meaningful if it advances a revolutionary, anti-capitalist agenda. Marching against war must be linked to class struggle—not as empty protest, but as a challenge to both poles of imperialist power. Otherwise, it becomes an appeal for the Islamic regime to surrender to its more powerful, genocidal rivals. We must reject this narrative. Our fight is against all states and all capital.
A crucial point: anti-war struggle must be anti-capitalist. Without this, we are reduced to foot soldiers for one of two camps of murderers. For example, opposing the Islamic Republic’s war policy is necessary—but only if paired with opposition to the genocidal Israeli state and Western imperialism. […] Our critique must land equally on all warmongers, all states, all wings of the global bourgeoisie. […]
We must act as a class. We’ve spent generations avoiding this path, misled by false hopes: syndicalism, democracy, NGOs, rainbow revolutions, anti-imperialism, federalism. These have led us to exhaustion, to betrayal, to ruin. One day, we must begin. That day is long overdue. Let it be now.”
CW – June 25th, 2025.
Against Wars in the Middle East — For Class Struggle Against All Capitalists
[Editor’s Note: We publish here a lightly edited translation of two communiques from a council communist group in Iran, referring to themselves simply as ‘Anti-capitalist Workers’, which was written as a response to the most recent round of military confrontation between Iran and Israel.
Against the illusions peddled by both warring parties—and their respective capitalist backers—the text reaffirms the necessity of independent class organization and struggle. It insists that only the working class, fighting on its own terrain and in its own interest, can bring an end to the barbarism of capitalist war.]
Only a Workers’ Anti-capitalist Uprising Can Crush Both of these Warmongering, Murderous Capitalist Octopuses
Source in Persian: https://alayhesarmaye.com/2025/06/17/_/5358/
- We workers are employed across every sector: in factories, schools, hospitals, municipal services, agriculture, industry, transport by land, sea, and air, energy and utilities, construction, forests, and more. Whether unemployed, retired, or burdened with unpaid domestic labor, we all belong to the same working class—bound by our social existence and exploitation. We endure the full weight of capitalist domination: wage slavery, repression, deprivation, genocide, incarceration, torture, gendered violence, ethnic oppression, environmental destruction, and every calamity this system breeds.
- Until recently, it was the capitalist class and the Islamic regime in Iran alone that directly imposed this violence on us. Now, with war underway, we face two capitalist monsters: the Iranian bourgeoisie and its regime on one side, and the governments of Israel, the United States, and the European Union on the other. Despite their conflict, both sides impose the same genocidal brutality. From above and below, in every aspect of life, we are being crushed by the violent machinery of capital—whether Iranian, Israeli, American, or European.
- This war is not waged between “states”—it is waged against us. Tens of millions of workers are shouldering the burden: displacement, homelessness, hunger, famine, lack of water, medicine, treatment, mass death. Our homes are bombed, our loved ones lie unburied, and the future of our children is uncertain. In Tehran, Kermanshah, Isfahan, and elsewhere, the toll of war is immense. These conditions scream that we must act—collectively, nationally, and with class-conscious, councilist organization. This is no slogan. It is a matter of survival. We must unite where we live and work—factories, schools, hospitals, ports, neighborhoods—to form councils. These must not be isolated or local; they must grow into a nationwide movement, capable of mobilizing all resources to meet urgent needs: food, safety, medical care, housing, education. These councils must link up, evolve into a unified anti-capitalist force, and take control of production, wealth, and infrastructure from the hands of the capitalist class and their state. Let us proclaim to the world: we see all ruling classes—Israeli, Islamic, American, European—as genocidal enemies of the working class. We call on workers worldwide for solidarity and support.
June 17th, 2025
The War Between Capitalist Beasts is a War Against Us All
Source in Persian: https://alayhesarmaye.com/2025/06/15/_/5352/
English translation: https://againstwagelabor.com/2025/06/16/the-war-between-the-ruling-beasts-of-capital-the-war-of-all-of-them-is-the-war-of-capital-against-our-class/
- Two genocidal regimes are now at war: the Israeli government and the Islamic Republic. Like all capitalist states, both are worker-killing, criminal, and warmongering.
- Israel was born out of the imperialist coalition that emerged from World War II—a strategic outpost for capitalist powers. For nearly 80 years, it has waged continuous genocide against Palestinian and Middle Eastern working people. Its actions have the full consensus of global capital. The Islamic Republic, in contrast, arose from the defeat of Iran’s revolutionary working-class movement in the late 1970s. It was capital’s emergency solution to crush worker uprisings and preserve exploitation. Though their origins differ, both regimes serve capital’s interests through war, repression, and expansion. Their current confrontation is a clash over influence, not justice—a struggle between competing capitalist factions.
- Israel, with the unconditional backing of U.S. and European capital, has already severely damaged Iran’s military infrastructure. Yet this doesn’t mean the Islamic regime will collapse. It will fight to preserve itself, using all available resources. Its recent defeats, while significant, are not enough to ensure its surrender. The regime will resist until its very survival is threatened.
- The war is not about nuclear weapons. The nuclear issue is a pretext. For 45 years, the core conflict has been Iran’s challenge to the U.S.-led global capitalist order, its demand for a greater share of power, and its refusal to submit. This war aims to settle that dispute—decisively if not permanently. While the Islamic Republic may be forced to compromise, its rivals have no viable replacement for it. The monarchist exiles, Pahlavi revivalists, and the remnants of the Rajavi cult [PMOI/MEK] have no real base. The regime will not fall—it will capitulate and negotiate to minimize its losses.
- Even if this war ends, the next phase of exploitation and repression will continue. As long as capitalism exists, so will war, crisis, genocide, and competition over surplus value, capital, and power. To believe that Netanyahu, the U.S., or the Islamic regime will “liberate” Iran’s 60 million workers is a dangerous illusion. Any worker drawn into this belief has been robbed of consciousness. This illusion must be shattered by sharp, principled class critique.
- No one can predict the economic fallout of the war. But the likely outcome will be mass poverty, hunger, collapse of production, repression, and death—just to bring Iran to the negotiating table. The American and Israeli ruling classes will not hesitate to turn Iran into another Libya if it serves their goals. But Iran is not Gaddafi’s Libya or Saddam’s Iraq. The Islamic regime will fight to avoid total collapse.
- This war is likely to intensify. Conditions—famine, lack of medicine, homelessness, mass unemployment—will worsen. All sides will force the cost of war onto the working class. We must reverse this. We must redirect the crisis toward capital itself. This is not impossible. Our class has the capacity to do this. Capitalism stamps “impossible” on every dream of liberation—but that is part of its ideological power, its dehumanization of labor, and mystification of commodities. We must break these illusions. Place the cost of war on capital. Escalate the anti-capitalist class struggle—with clarity, strategy, and determination.
- This is not our war. It is theirs. We are at war with both regimes, both blocs, the entire global capitalist system. Any alignment with one side is betrayal. Anti-war activity is only meaningful if it advances a revolutionary, anti-capitalist agenda. Marching against war must be linked to class struggle—not as empty protest, but as a challenge to both poles of imperialist power. Otherwise, it becomes an appeal for the Islamic regime to surrender to its more powerful, genocidal rivals. We must reject this narrative. Our fight is against all states and all capital.
- A crucial point: anti-war struggle must be anti-capitalist. Without this, we are reduced to foot soldiers for one of two camps of murderers. For example, opposing the Islamic Republic’s war policy is necessary—but only if paired with opposition to the genocidal Israeli state and Western imperialism. The same goes for nuclear weapons. We must reject all funding of warfare from our labor, but not in a way that serves rival capitalist factions. Our critique must land equally on all warmongers, all states, all wings of the global bourgeoisie.
- Wherever we are—factories, schools, hospitals, ports, neighborhoods—we must unite. Let us build workers’ councils. Let us link them, not as dreams, but as material tools of resistance. Why call this utopian? Is it because the regime uses brutal repression to prevent it? Don’t they do the same to every strike? Haven’t they tried to crush every protest—especially those led by women, youth, and the unemployed? Still, we have fought. So why hesitate now? This hesitation is not ours—it is implanted in us by capitalist ideology. We must rebel against it.
- Make councils our weapon. In ordinary times, strikes and shutdowns are powerful. But in wartime, strikes can be co-opted by one side. We must go further: seize the means of production. Not just stop work but take control. This terrifies both the Islamic regime and Western capital more than anything else. Yes, we will be repressed. But we must begin. Reach out. Coordinate. Build. Link our councils into a movement capable of taking control of labor, life, and production.
- What about our immediate needs—medicine, shelter, power, food? These cannot be secured within the framework of capitalist trade. Our slogan must be: Occupy. Prepare. Expand. The more prepared we are to seize and organize life collectively, the more power we have to impose demands and secure survival.
- We must act as a class. We’ve spent generations avoiding this path, misled by false hopes: syndicalism, democracy, NGOs, rainbow revolutions, anti-imperialism, federalism. These have led us to exhaustion, to betrayal, to ruin. One day, we must begin. That day is long overdue. Let it be now.
June 15th, 2025
Anti-capitalist Workers (Iran)
sorce: Two internationalist statements from Iran (en, es) » TŘÍDNÍ VÁLKA # CLASS WAR # GUERRE DE CLASSE