Lindsey German on geopolitical crisis and what it means for our movement

Here we are again. A war started because of the supposed threat of weapons of mass destruction which can attack pro-western states. Talk of regime change. Pledges to improve the lives of those being bombed by opening the way to women’s equality, peace and democracy. We should not for a moment believe these claims. We have seen what they resulted in over Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria. Everywhere western intervention took place they left a wasteland, devastated the lives of millions, and worsened the prospects for peace.

There can be no justification for Donald Trump’s bombing of Iran’s nuclear installations, which ushers in a new era of Middle East wars. It is a completely brutal and unjustified attack, one which should be condemned by everyone who opposes the new imperialism and colonialism. It is a boost to the war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, whose has already been bombing Iran for over a week and who has been desperate to persuade Trump into joining him. Not that it seems Trump needed much persuading. Despite standing for election as man who would end wars, not start them, he is risking exactly the opposite.

It is a grotesque lie to claim, as our government and others do, that Israel is only ‘defending itself’ with its repeated bombing and assassinations in Iran. Even US intelligence sources say that there is no nuclear bomb in Iran and that one is not being developed. How can supposedly pre-emptive strikes on a country nearly 1000 miles away be regarded as anything but a war crime, yet another to add to the tally mounting for Netanyahu and his genocidal gang? The complicity of the British and other European governments over Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza for the last 20 months has allowed Netanyahu to continue even as he ramps up attacks on the starving Palestinians of Gaza.

Even Trump’s own supporters in the US fear this potential war. Opposition to the ‘forever wars’ across south Asia and the Middle East was one reason for his electoral success – now he is fuelling another ‘forever war’ which is likely to be worse than any of the previous ones. Keir Starmer is clearly worried about this and desperately trying to push de-escalation. But the man who grovelled at Trump’s feet to pick up trade deal papers is not going to stand up to him over war, especially when he also has said he wants Britain on a ‘war footing’. And despite the political difficulties it has caused him, his support for Israel remains unwavering.

Our rulers have learnt absolutely nothing from their failed interventions. Instead they blame the people of the Middle East for having the temerity to oppose them. Trump and Netanyahu think that they can reshape the region in their image, driving out all opposition, promoting the autocratic Gulf states, adopting the Abraham Accords which are aimed at supporting Israel and ditching any rights for the Palestinians, and achieving regime change in Iran – which is still the aim despite Trump’s transparent denials. Trump also seems to regard this bombing of nuclear power stations as just a quick bombing run with no consequences. Whatever those might be, he is completely delusional in this regard.

The left must put itself on a war footing in opposing Trump, Netanyahu and Starmer. The Palestine demo on Saturday, which was huge, added a slogan against attacking Iran which was very warmly received, not least by the many Iranians on the march. There will be protests across the country this week. Yet there are sections of the left especially in the US who are certainly not unequivocally against an attack on Iran. But there should be no such equivocation here. The argument of the western powers has always been that their enemies are a much bigger evil than them. So it was with the various new Hitlers, from Egypt’s Nasser to Iraq’s Saddam Hussein to Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, whose horrors supposedly justified bombing and invasion of their countries.

We should not fall for it over Iran. The regime is repressive and widely opposed for a range of reasons. But that is up to the Iranian people to deal with, not US presidents or Israeli prime ministers. The left failings over this stem from – in some cases – increasing support for imperialist adventures in Iraq, Libya or Syria over the past two decades. But it has also developed in support of the Nato proxy war with Russia in Ukraine where sections of the left became cheerleaders for their own rulers, urging them to send ever more sophisticated weapons to deal with the Russian ‘threat’.

The consequences have been dire. A terrible war which is being prolonged by European powers. A huge increase in arms spending and a concomitant attack on public services to pay for it. Greater militarism and nationalism. And now an attack on one of the largest countries in the Middle East. The problem is, some on the left became so hostile to Putin (or Assad or others) that they lost sight of the main enemy – their own rulers, who have nothing to learn from anyone else in terms of warmongering and brutality. So they ended up giving cover to their rulers and in so doing failed to build as movement which could confront its imperialism.

We can’t let that happen over Iran. Solidarity means fighting our own rulers and not making excuses for them.

Protest is not terrorism

The direct action group Palestine Action is going to be proscribed by the British government allegedly as a terrorist organisation because it sprayed red paint on military planes  at the RAF Brize Norton base in protest at British collusion with Israel’s genocide. This follows the charging of Kneecap’s Mo Chara for having a Hezbollah flag on stage, and the various terrorism accusations against pro Palestine demonstrators. It makes a mockery of the term terrorism to use it to describe protest.

It is part of a more general repression of protest that we are living with daily. Two leaders of the Palestine movement, Chris Nineham and Ben Jamal, are in court next months for public order charges and we have seen successive laws aimed at making it harder to protest. They must all be resisted. Solidarity to Palestine Action. It is sad but unsurprising that this comes from an increasingly authoritarian Labour government. They know that they are deeply unpopular and want to restrict those voicing opposition. That means we need to keep demonstrating – our movement for Palestine and against war needs to get much broader and stronger.

This week: I will be attending the emergency demo at the US embassy on Monday night and helping to build mass opposition to the new wars breaking out.