Statement of Zabalaza for Socialism (ZASO) on the situation in Iran

Please note the following statement has been drafted prior to the likely US military intervention in Iran. We must be absolutely clear that US military intervention has nothing to do with support for the oppressed masses in Iran. The US has been and is intent on making Iran a client state of US imperialism and of altering the regional balance of forces in the Middle East in ways that guarantee US and Israeli interests. All socialists and anti-imperialists are called on to do all they can to resist and oppose such intervention.

The following slogans sum up the position of ZASO:
No to US – Israeli Intervention in Iran!
No to the Monarchists!
Victory to the people and their uprising for democracy, justice and equality!

Zabalaza for Socialism (ZASO) stands in solidarity with the people of Iran in their struggle against a brutal, repressive theocratic regime. 

The current protests express deep and long-standing anger rooted in decades of social injustice, economic hardship, repression, and the denial of democratic rights. This is not a temporary disturbance, but the eruption of a profound structural crisis.

ZASO emphasises that the situation in Iran is inseparable from decades of US and Western sanctions and economic destabilisation. These measures amount to collective punishment, devastating working-class lives, deepening poverty and inequality, and entrenching authoritarian rule rather than weakening it. We unequivocally oppose US imperialism and Israeli interference, and reject all threats of military intervention—particularly Donald Trump’s efforts to once again subordinate Iran as a client state.

We are fully aware that reactionary forces, including monarchists and other right-wing currents, as well as foreign intelligence agencies, are seeking to manipulate the situation for their own ends. These dangers must be resisted. But they cannot be used to discredit or suppress a genuine mass uprising from below. The Iranian regime itself bears full responsibility for repression, killings, and the criminalisation of dissent.

ZASO rejects the false argument that the defence of authoritarian regimes is necessary for resistance to imperialism or for the liberation of Palestine. History shows that dependence on reactionary states has brought the Palestinian people neither freedom nor justice. Liberation— in Iran, Palestine, and across the region—can only be won through the convergence of struggles of the oppressed and exploited working classes.

We affirm our solidarity with Iranian workers, youth, women, and popular classes struggling against the high cost of living, social injustice, patriarchy, and tyranny. There is no anti-imperialism without democracy, no liberation without mass struggle from below, and no future in choosing between imperial domination and authoritarian rule.