As State Terrorist-in-Chief Donald Trump reportedly seeks an off-ramp from his disastrous war in Iran, the bombings continue and more U.S. soldiers are headed to the battlefield. Over three thousand workers and children have been murdered in the capitalist bosses’ latest clash over oil, and more than three million forced to flee their homes in Iran alone (aljazeera.com, 3/12). The genocidal Israeli bosses’ invasion of Lebanon has created another million refugees; the Zionist regime is starving workers in Gaza by closing cargo crossings yet again (New York Times, 3/23). Meanwhile, the corrupt Iranian bosses, fresh from killing thousands of protesting workers, have rocked global supply chains by shutting the Strait of Hormuz and driving the price of oil to over $100 per barrel. Whatever fantasy Trump had of a quick Iranian surrender has literally gone up in smoke. As Saudi Arabia’s bosses push the U.S. bosses to dig in to destroy Tehran’s fundamentalist regime (NYT, 3/24), and Israel goes rogue in attacking Iran’s energy infrastructure, U.S. imperialism seems to have no good options. If they make a deal that leaves Iran in control of the Strait, it will widely be seen as a defeat. If they persist in the current stalemate, the U.S. economy could be tipped into recession. If they escalate and send in ground troops, the situation could quickly spiral out of their control. 

Cutthroat competition between the bosses--the essence of capitalism--is driving the world to bigger and wider wars. Trump’s incompetence aside, the U.S. bosses’ conflict with Iran is driven by their desperation in the face of rising Chinese imperialism. But dying empires rarely go quietly, and the U.S. rulers are willing to take the world down with them. Electing Democrats or Democratic Socialists won’t change this. It’s more obvious than ever that capitalism has nothing good to offer the international working class. While most workers are rejecting Trump’s reckless war, we can’t afford to sit passively on the sidelines. The question before us is this: Will we continue to pay the price of the bosses’ failed system, or will we end the horrors of capitalism by building Progressive Labor Party and communist revolution?

U.S. decline points to war

Over the last twenty years, with the lost wars and debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan, the old U.S.- dominated world order has been steadily breaking down. Trump has accelerated the process. The old U.S.-dominated NATO has been weakened and divided by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The status quo of compliant Persian Gulf oil states, built on immigrant labor and defended by a deadly web of U.S. military bases, is teetering. As the working class suffers with rising prices and dies in the rulers’ dogfights, who’s the biggest winner in the war so far? It’s the Chinese ruling class, which relies on Iranian oil and is supplying the missile parts Iran needs to keep attacking Israel and the Gulf states (Wall Street Journal, 3/18) while bleeding the debt-ridden, politically isolated U.S. bosses. The Russian bosses are also benefiting, with the U.S. forced to remove sanctions on billions of dollars’ worth of Russian oil. In a true sign of desperation, the U.S. even lifted sanctions against Iranian oil. To test U.S. weakness, the Russians sent two tankers of oil to Cuba in the face of a U.S. blockade (AP, 3/19).

The U.S. inability to stop Russia in Ukraine has weakened it worldwide. Traditional U.S. allies see the discord and dysfunction in Washington and want no part of it. When Trump asked for help to open the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. allies in NATO and Asia all declined. Russia has built effective anti-NATO movements in most of the major European countries, notably the AFD in Germany and the National Front in France. China has deepened economic ties with the European Union, now its top trading partner.

U.S. bosses fight among themselves

The ruthless infighting among U.S. bosses, driven by their empire’s decay, is also accelerating it. In going to war with no coherent rationale or plan, no real allies and little popular support, Trump put his “America First” credentials at risk. The Big Fascist, finance capital bosses are using the Democratic Party to attack Trump not because they’re against regime change or mass slaughter, but because they know the U.S. isn’t ready for a fight to the finish—they’d rather kick the can down the road. The Small Fascist Fortress America bosses are attacking Trump because they don’t want to foot the bill for the war. While bombing Iran won’t save U.S. imperialism, neither faction has a better strategy to stem the decline of U.S. influence around the world. Both of them want to get workers to die for their side. None of them are any good for us.

Working class can have the final say

There have been a few protests against the war in the U.S. and in Europe. Even Israel, with its mass fascist support for the killing of muslim workers, is starting to see fightback by some very brave people. For the most part, however, the working class seems unaware of its power.

The bosses go to great lengths to convince us that the only power we have is to earn money and support our families. In reality, the working class is the largest, mightiest force in the world. There are no armies without us, no factories or steel mills or planes or bombs. The capitalists make no profits without the working class. When we act on our power by turning the bosses’ war into a class war for communist revolution, we will have the final say.

General, Your Tank is a Powerful Vehicle

It smashes down forests and crushes a hundred men.
 But it has one defect:
 It needs a driver.

 General, your bomber is powerful.
 It flies faster than a storm and carries more than an elephant.
 But it has one defect:
 It needs a mechanic.

 General, man is very useful.
 He can fly and he can kill.
 But he has one defect:
 He can think.