6 January 2020
We are remembering Slovo at a time when the United States government is once again embarking on dangerous acts of provocation and threatening war in the Middle East.
The SACP strongly condemns the acts of aggression by the United States against both Iranian and Iraqi people. These attacks amount to a violation of the two countries’ rights to national sovereignty and self-determination. The flagrant violation of Iraq’s sovereign airspace is one of the many examples which prove that the imperialist regime of the US has never cared about the freedom of the people in any region or country and is prepared to violate international law whenever it wants to.
It is a well-documented fact that the US’ involvement in the Middle East has nothing to do with peace for the people in that region. Neither does it have anything to do with the promotion of international peace and security. Like in Venezuela, the US’ intention in the Middle East is to achieve control of natural resources, particularly oil, as well as its global market, and the promotion of the US dollar.
In the Middle East, in the year 2000 for instance Iraq decided to use the Euro for its oil exports, but since the illegal military invasion of Iraq by the US in 2003 and the occupation that followed, Iraq was coerced back to the US dollar. It is also no mystery why Iran, with 10 per cent of the world’s oil production, would attract the imperialist US’ violence. The surrounding of the region with US military bases has all the imperialist trappings against which the working class must unite. This is our call.
As part of its strategy of geo-political hegemony, the US also acts to change the balance of forces in the Middle East in favour of its ally, the apartheid, Zionist state of Israel. All peace loving people need to also strongly condemn the habit of all US Presidents to assert their authority through foreign aggression and particularly Trump’s attempt to divert attention from his impeachment process by spilling blood in the Middle East.
The SACP calls for an intensification of internationalist work from the working class, and upon all peace loving people globally to wage a relentless struggle against imperialism. The world’s working class movement must unite in defence of the peace loving and democratic people of Iraq, Iran and the broader Middle East. The SACP is calling for an end to military escalation, militarisation of the Middle East and imperialist occupation in the region and elsewhere.
The SACP further calls upon the Iranian authorities, too, to uphold the human and democratic rights of the people of Iran. These include political rights, including the right to free democratic political expression."
