NEW YORK—The communist parties of the three nations directly involved in the current Iran War have issued a joint statement condemning the U.S.-Israeli military assault, calling it a war of imperialist aggression waged against the interests of working people across the region.
The statement—signed by the Tudeh Party of Iran, the Communist Party of Israel (CPI), and the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and published simultaneously by all three on March 6—is meant to send a signal internationally that the working-class parties from all sides of this active conflict condemn its supposed aims.
The statement pulls no punches in laying blame for the conflict. The three parties describe the war as having been “launched by the criminal Netanyahu government and United States imperialism,” accusing both of dragging “the region and its peoples towards more disasters and civilian casualties—all in the service of imperialist interests, against the interests of peoples, their independence, and their right to self-determination.”
The statement also directly confronts the Trump administration’s stated justification for the assault. The parties characterize the administration’s declared intention to impose “regime change” in Iran as “a gross trampling on the sovereignty and dignity of peoples and a dismantling of international law.”
It links the current war to other recent actions by the U.S. “in Latin America,” a reference to the kidnapping of the Venezuelan president and the oil blockade against Cuba.
While condemning U.S.-Israeli war aims and extending solidarity to the people of Iran, the statement is explicit in discouraging illusions concerning the nature of the theocratic Islamic Republic government. Opposing imperialism’s designs in the region, the three organizations argue, does not equate to support for the clerical state.
The parties write that U.S.-Israeli military aggression “not only does not herald Iran’s liberation from the yoke of tyranny and the current dictatorship, but is also an attempt to destroy Iran as a capable regional state, and to replace the current government with a subordinate and authoritarian regime.”
The three parties place the Iran conflict within a longer history of U.S. and Israeli interventions in the region. Citing “the experiences of the peoples in Palestine, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Lebanon,” the statement argues that “true liberation and salvation from reactionary and authoritarian regimes can only come with the action of the people and patriotic leadership—not from Washington or Tel Aviv.”
For the Tudeh Party, issuing such a statement carries special weight. Operating largely in exile, Tudeh has long opposed both imperialist interference in Iran and the authoritarian theocracy that rules over its country. The party has faced severe repression, with much of its leadership forced to flee or executed following the 1979 revolution and subsequent crackdowns by the Islamic Republic.
The Communist Party of Israel, an Arab-majority party that has long championed Palestinian rights and opposed militarism from within Israeli society, is also under intense pressure. Particularly since the launch of the genocidal war in Gaza, its members and lawmakers have faced persecution for opposing the Netanyahu government.
For the CPUSA, the statement continues a tradition of opposing U.S. militarism abroad while connecting anti-war politics to the struggles of working people at home. As the Trump administration continues to advance what the party sees as a fascist agenda domestically, it has worked to link up the fight for peace with the battle to protect democracy.
The statement closes with a call for “all forces seeking true liberation from the regimes of exploitation and oppression in each of our countries, as well as the peace-loving and progress-loving forces in the world, to unite their efforts with all their force in these critical and decisive moments in order to struggle against the governments of war and aggression.”
Together, the three parties have offered the global peace and labor movements proof that even across battle lines, the working class has more in common than it does in conflict.
The full joint statement is available at cpusa.org.
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