All around the world, the working class and the poor are facing a crisis, economic, social and political. For sure, there's a difference between us here in Britain and our brothers and sisters in the poorer countries - like Iran. For now.
Yes. Because no matter how the backward-looking nationalists try to make out that each country can batten down its hatches, and raise ancient flags (all soaked in the blood of the labouring class), what's happening in one part of the world always affects the rest of it. The working class can only be "internationalist"!
We see today how the workers and youth of Iran have yet again taken to the streets against their reactionary Islamic rulers, despite the risks. Thousands have already been killed, wounded and arrested. Their wave of protest, which spread so rapidly all around this huge country, despite the regime's brutal repression is, some say, unprecedented since the 1979 revolution.
But the crucial factor in the 1979 revolution which overthrew the corrupt playboy Shah Pahlavi (the US/British puppet), was the mobilisation of the working class - led by the oil workers. And in those days there were political organisations on the ground, representing workers' interests - some of whom stood for a secular republic or even a workers' socialist republic.
That revolution was quickly hijacked by the Islamic "parties" who, like all those who fought against the Shah, had also faced his jails and torture chambers, and who thus organised their forces in exile.
Ayatollah Khomeini, who'd been in France, was thus brought back to lead the new government. The secular parties, including the "Communist" (Stalinist) Tudeh Party, foolishly agreed to "rule" alongside Islamic politicians. Their fate was to be tortured, jailed and executed, as the Islamic regime tightened its grip on power. Ever since, anyone who, in its opinion, has "insulted God" gets a death penalty.
The enemy's enemy isn't a friend
Yet the Iranian people - most don't want a return to the days of the Shah - aren't so naive as to think that their enemy's enemy - whether Trump, Netanyahu, Starmer or Merz - is their friend.
Iran was designated as part of an "axis of evil" in the days of the US Bush presidencies and wars against Iraq. Today it's the most sanctioned country in the world, which is why its economy is on the floor and why its currency crashed, precipitating the latest protests. It's been the policy of the rich powers, above all, the US and its Israeli proxy, after their bombings in June and strikes on Iran's nuclear sites, to bring the regime to its knees. Never mind the mullahs' repeated offers to "negotiate". Trump wants to gain the same upper hand he thinks he has achieved in Venezuela (although time will tell). He and the rest have now increased sanctions (so there was still something left to sanction?).
"The days are numbered for any regimes which rely on violence and coercion" says German Chancellor Merz, who just like Trump and Starmer, was 100% behind Netanyahu's violent coercive government, which is today putting the final touches on its mass slaughter in Gaza. Their hypocrisy knows no bounds...
Starmer's culpability
The politicians who rule this world are professional liars and defenders of capitalist profit, but never defenders of the truth. Of course "truth" is relative. But their truth is not ours.
There's cynical irony in Trump saying Iran should not be "shooting protesters" while presiding over the killing of American protesters by ICE, which is licensed by Trump to carry out ruthlessly violent arrests against anyone vaguely dark-skinned in cities across the USA, under the pretext that they might be "illegal migrants"!
So Trump, Merz, and Starmer are going to "help" achieve regime change in Iran? Any regime which would result from their intervention would certainly not be one which would serve the interests of the Iranian population - as Iranians well know!
There's one more thing. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper condemns Iran's intolerance of dissent and protest and its internet blackout, but as Home Secretary she proscribed the protest group Palestine Action as a "terrorist" organisation - the first time such a group has ever been banned under counter-terrorism laws - de facto limiting free political speech. Arrests and jailings of protesters have followed.
And her government has also ensured there's a media blackout over the "injudicial" treatment of those associated with support for the group. Who has heard of the hunger strike of Heba Muraisi, a Palestine Action-affiliated activist who has refused food for 73 days in prison? Her death is imminent. It would be in vain if nobody knows about it...
This brings us back to the crucial factor which can turn a protest into a revolution. Yes, it's numbers, certainly: millions on the streets and the refusal of the police and army to fire on their "own people" - but it is the presence of a conscious working class on strike which tips the balance. That's what all of us can and must work towards.