Statement
by Independent Iranian Collectives Opposing War and Militaristic Policies
In
light of the unstable and dangerous situation currently facing Iran and the
region, the undersigned collectives consider it their duty to adopt a united stance.
The
working classes of Iran — workers, teachers, nurses, retirees, and other wage
earners — have never, and will never, benefit from war, from increasing
militarization, from bombardments on the country, or from the dominant
exploitative policies.
The
military attacks by Israel and the bombing of hundreds of targets across
various regions of Iran — including
infrastructure,
workplaces, refineries, and residential areas — are part of a militaristic
project whose cost is borne by ordinary people, especially the working class,
in the form of lost lives, livelihoods, and security.
The
Israeli state’s claim that it harbors no hostility toward the Iranian people is
nothing but a lie and a piece of political propaganda. Just yesterday, the
Israeli Minister of Defense threatened to “reduce Tehran to ashes.” The
constant threats from Trump and other U.S. officials, along with the full
support of Western governments for such actions, have only exacerbated
tensions, insecurity, and destruction in the region.
The
governments of Israel and the United States are directly responsible for the
current genocide in Gaza and for many
other
crimes committed in the region and the world. The United Nations and other
international institutions, which hypocritically present themselves as
defenders of peace while remaining silent in the face of these crimes, are also
part of this same structure of domination. The global capitalist system — with
its profit-driven logic and imperialist powers — is a root cause of wars,
humanitarian catastrophes, and environmental destruction.
The
Iranian working class not only gains nothing from war, but is directly targeted
by it. The continuation of economic sanctions, massive allocations to military
spending, and the restriction of freedoms bring about further poverty,
repression, hunger, death, and displacement for millions.
We,
the independent labor and popular activists and collectives of Iran, have no
illusions that the United States or Israel will bring us freedom, equality, or
justice — just as we hold no illusions about the repressive, interventionist,
reckless, and anti-worker nature of the Islamic Republic.
For
years, Iranian workers have been struggling to obtain the most basic rights and
living conditions, paying extremely high prices: imprisonment, torture,
executions, dismissal from jobs, threats, and physical assault. We are still
deprived of the right to organize, to assemble, and to freely express
ourselves. Workers across the country have every reason to be outraged and fed
up with the Islamic Republic and the capitalists who, for more than four
decades, have accumulated
immense
wealth at the cost of our precarity and lack of rights. All authorities and
institutions responsible for the repression and murder of workers, women,
youth, and other oppressed people in Iran must be held accountable and judged
by the people themselves.
Our
struggle as a working class is a social and class-based struggle. It will
continue by relying on our own strength, on the momentum of recent popular
movements — such as Bread, Work, Freedom and Woman, Life, Freedom — and through
solidarity with the international working class and all humanist, libertarian,
and egalitarian forces.
The
continuation of the current path of war will bring nothing but further
destruction, irreversible environmental damage, and
the
repetition of human tragedies. The Iranian working class and oppressed people —
like the oppressed peoples of other countries in the region — are among the
main victims of this situation.
We,
the undersigned collectives, call on all labor organizations, human rights
groups, peace movements, environmental activists, and antiwar forces around the
world to raise a united voice to demand an immediate end to war, bombings,
massacres of innocent people, and environmental destruction — and to support
the struggles of the people of Iran and the region to end genocide, war, and
repression.
The
peoples of the Middle East need an end to the devastating tensions between
regional and global powers, and the
establishment
of a lasting peace — a peace in which people can determine their own destinies
through grassroots organizing, mass protest, and direct, collective
participation.
No
to war – No to militarism!
An
immediate ceasefire is our urgent demand.
Signed
by:
Syndicate
of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company
Syndicate
of Workers of the Haft Tapeh Sugarcane Company
Retired
Workers of Khuzestan
Pensioners’
Union
Coordination
Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organizations
Pensioners’ Union Group
June 17, 2025
