War has begun. Strikes on the military and political centers of the Islamic Republic are justified in the name of “helping the Iranian people.” People who have lived under repression and massacres feel relief when the machinery of repression is hit. This feeling is real. Hatred of a regime that has imprisoned, tortured and executed workers, women and youth is real.
But another historical truth must be stated: wars between states always fall upon the people. Wars begun in the name of freedom end in destruction. As in Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza and Libya, this war is not for the people.
This war is a product of the historical crisis of global capitalism and the rivalry of power blocs—an attempt to rearrange regional power and engineer the future of the Middle East. On all sides, people are instruments of policies designed in rooms of power. The Islamic Republic will use war to intensify repression, and the attacking states will use it to secure their hegemony.
We stand neither with the Islamic Republic nor with imperialist war. Class independence means rejecting both. Relief at blows against repression is understandable—but bombs do not bring freedom. State wars are not the path to people’s liberation.
Workers in Iran, Israel, the United States and across the region share a common enemy: a system that resolves its crises through war. Our answer is internationalist solidarity and organization from below—linking the struggle against war with the struggle against exploitation and dictatorship.
Toward anti-war, anti-capitalist committees
Against our own states involved in reactionary war
28 February 2026
Internationalist Workers’ Organization (IWO)
