Above: Iran launching its missiles
There can only be a successful resistance towards Washington’s war drive if we build the international workers force which can actually change the power balance. If we create a global united front behind the Axis of Resistance, like the united front that was instrumental in helping Vietnam defeat the USA. This aspect of collective organization, of class struggle, is what’s been largely missing from anti-imperialist or “antiwar” politics in the present-day Global North.
The movement which opposes Washington’s aggressions has relied too much on the “alternative” media, which so often tells us what we want to hear rather than giving us an honest strategic appraisal; and this has kept the movement detached from the actual national liberation and class struggles. These struggles are the driving forces behind all anti-imperialist victories, and we must truly become part of them.
Because of this gap in experience and awareness, too often we’ve expected victory to come of its own accord. But every time our cause has gotten a win, it’s been the outcome of fights waged by the popular masses, whose interests wouldn’t be represented if not for collective organization and a struggle against the capitalist class. Iran became as anti-imperialist as it now is because of the proletarian influences within its revolution, which have made the country’s economy essentially socialist. The equivalent is the case for capitalist Russia, which wouldn’t have entered into a fight against NATO if not for the leverage the country’s Communist Party holds.
Likewise, whenever the anti-imperialist cause has experienced a setback, it’s been due to the areas in which class struggle has been lacking; due to the ways the bourgeoisie have been able to maintain or retake power, and thereby corrupt the efforts at resisting the hegemon.
Iran is socialistic in its economic structure, but in political terms it’s not a dictatorship of the proletariat; different class influences within its political order are still battling for control. Which has made it easier for the imperialists to undermine the revolutionary forces within Iran. Starting with Soleimani, Washington has been perpetrating a wave of assassinations against the revolutionaries in Iran’s leadership, one that they hope will ultimately take the life of Khamenei himself. With the assassination of President Raisi in May of last year, Iran’s liberal reformers got an opportunity for gaining power, and soon they managed to elect President Pezeshkian. When Haniyeh was murdered in July, Pezeshkian refused to retaliate; this move was part of a “peace” deal where the Zionist entity promised not to attack Lebanon in exchange for restraint from Iran. It was only after the entity started a new war on Lebanon anyway, and murdered Nasrallah, that the revolutionaries regained the leverage to carry out a retaliatory strike.
Since then, Khamenei’s faction has been able to get more influence in important areas. After Khamenei declared in March that Iran won’t seriously negotiate with Washington, Iran has inflicted damage upon the Zionist entity, to a more serious degree than it previously had the political will to do. These developments are good, but so many more things will need to happen before the resistance can actually start bringing its lines forward; the recent retaliations are defensive in nature, and to win, it will need to make up for its biggest recent losses. Losses that also came about due to lack of popular struggle, not just locally but in the empire’s core.
The fall of Syria’s anti-imperialist government came about from a combination of bourgeois sabotage within its political structure, lack of will from its allies to assist Syria, and refusal from the U.S. left to act in solidarity with the country. All of these problems stem from the same ill: a failure to rebuild the international workers movement. This is something that I especially want to convey to left-wing or antiwar people in my own country, because it’s those of us in the United States whose government is leading all of these destructive schemes.
It’s important to recognize the internal deficiencies that have made these countries more vulnerable to Washington’s aggressions. In the case of Syria, those deficiencies looked like a substantial bourgeois political presence that undermined the will to defend the country; and this is useful to learn, but our takeaway from it cannot simply be “imperialism’s targets need to act more ideologically pure.” Purity isn’t the point, class struggle is. The only practical way we can respond to these problems is by building up the international solidarity movement, which will have a positive effect in all areas. It will help the anti-imperialist rebels who continue to fight the Syrian jihadist coup regime, but that at present are far from victory; it will help the Iranians, the Palestinians, the Yemenis, the Lebanese, and every other people who are resisting the hegemon.
Doing that work to revitalize the proletarian movement is the only productive path forward. We can debate about how well these countries have been living up to the ideal of an anti-imperialist ally, and it’s necessary to point to the real problems with them. But for more progress to come in the fight against the hegemon, there is going to need to be a struggle from the bottom-up. We within the movement are going to need to construct the organizational outlets that the globe’s masses will require in order to assert their interests, whether that looks like weakening the imperialist governments, strengthening the resolve of the anti-imperialist governments, or undermining U.S. proxy states such as “Israel” and post-Assad Syria.
This work must become our central focus, and we have to treat it as an urgent task. Washington’s recent sabotages of potential peace efforts in Iran and Ukraine have pushed Iran and Russia in a more revolutionary direction, but this can only take our cause so far. When the struggle against the hegemon wins, it will happen not due to a reaction from the bourgeois states that have been pushed into conflict with the empire, but due to the advances from the international workers struggle. And those of us in the empire’s core shouldn’t act like we’re above the world’s other proletarians in any way, but we must recognize the unique role that our location gives us. Joti Brar has pointed out that “Ultimately, the system’s final death blows will be delivered by workers on the home front. Genuinely revolutionary parties must be built in the imperialist countries, and they must establish strong connections with the masses.”
It’s by learning from the revolutionary movements in the countries which imperialism targets that we’ll be able to properly carry out this mission. These movements are the ones that have already achieved great new progress following the USSR’s fall; they’ve managed to massively change the balance of power shortly after the liberation struggle experienced such a severe setback. If we follow their lead, we will bring the struggle to its next stage.
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