Youth must denounce U.S. war on Iran

Since Feb. 28, the United States government, along with Israel, has launched terrorist attacks upon the people of Iran, killing hundreds of civilians, including 160 schoolchildren, and wounding even more. Among those killed was Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Husseini Khamenei, who had consistently denounced U.S. imperialism in Western Asia and the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide of Palestinian people in Gaza. 

The Trump administration has made its mission clear: to deny the people of Iran and Western Asia their right to self- determination.

But why exactly do we, the youth, especially the youth of the United States, need to denounce this murderous aggression and war on Iran? 

Youth were the backbone of protests against police brutality in response to the police murder of George Floyd. Here in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 2020. Photo websource: The Guardian

It’s because we are the ones who are and will be cannon fodder for the capitalist war machine. The goal of this machine is not to “liberate” the people of Iran. Its goal is to return the world to an era in which the ruling class, here and abroad, is allowed to dehumanize, victimize and degrade the will of Iranian people. To achieve this goal, it is willing to allow us, the youth, to die. 

Its goal is to exploit and rob not only the working class here in the West, but also the proletariat in the Global South, to which it pays even lower wages. History shows this pattern in every imperialist war carried out by this reactionary government — from World War I to Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. In each case, working-class youth have been sacrificed on the altar of capitalist profit and imperialist domination. 

The U.S. and Israeli forces — neither has yet taken responsibility — did not hesitate to bomb a school and murder school children in the southern city of Minab. Al Jazeera reports that casualties have risen to 165 — a figure confirmed by Iranian news sources.

Silence is no longer an option for our generation. We stand at a crossroads: people’s liberation or full destruction at the hands of reactionary warmongers who have already made it clear it’s fine with them if the youth die as cannon fodder so this decadent system of capitalism can survive. 

We know what is happening. The question is what we are willing to accept? Are we willing to accept the mass murder of our comrades in the Global South and our own oppression or the liberation of the proletariat? We say NO to murder and oppression!

So if it means bringing the encampments back, taking over our universities, being out in the streets or doing anything to break down this system, then so be it.