The working people of Iran — workers, teachers, nurses, retirees, and other wage-earners — have never had, and never will have, any interest in war, militarization, the bombing of the country, or in oppressive and exploitative policies.

The Israeli military attacks and the bombing of hundreds of targets across different parts of Iran — including infrastructure, workplaces, refineries, and residential areas — are part of a warmongering project whose cost is paid with the lives, livelihoods, and futures of ordinary people, especially the working class.

Israel’s claim that it holds no hostility toward the people of Iran is nothing but a lie and political propaganda. Just yesterday, the Israeli Minister of Defense threatened to “burn Tehran.” Repeated threats by Trump and other U.S. officials, along with the full support of Western governments for such actions, have only further fueled tension, insecurity, and destruction in the region.

The governments of Israel and the United States are the main perpetrators of the ongoing genocide in Gaza and numerous other crimes in the region and across the world. The United Nations and international institutions that hypocritically posture as peace-seeking while remaining silent in the face of these atrocities are part of the same system of domination. The entirety of the global capitalist system, its profit-driven logic, and imperialist powers are the main causes of wars, human catastrophes, and environmental destruction.

The working class of Iran not only has no benefit from war, but these wars have directly targeted its life and security. The continuation of economic sanctions, the allocation of massive budgets to military affairs, and the restriction of freedoms will lead to greater poverty, wider repression, hunger, death, and the displacement of millions.

We, the independent workers’ and grassroots organizations and activists in Iran, have no illusions that the United States and Israel want to bring us freedom, equality, and justice — just as we have no illusions about the repressive, interventionist, and anti-worker nature and conduct of the Islamic Republic.

We, the workers and toilers of Iran, have for many years paid heavy costs — including imprisonment, torture, execution, dismissal, threats, and beatings — in our struggle to secure even the most basic rights and necessities of life. We remain deprived of the right to organize, assemble, and freedom of expression. The workers and working people of this country are rightfully furious and fed up with the Islamic Republic and the capitalists who, over the past four decades, have amassed astronomical wealth on our backs while condemning us to perpetual insecurity and deprivation. All officials and institutions involved in the repression and killing of workers, women, youth, and the oppressed people of Iran must be prosecuted and held accountable by the oppressed people themselves.

Our struggle as workers is a social and class-based struggle. This struggle will advance only by relying on our own strength, in continuity with the movements of recent years — including “Bread, Work, Freedom” and “Woman, Life, Freedom” — and through solidarity with the international working class and all humanist, freedom-seeking, and equality-oriented forces.

The continuation of the current war can bring nothing but greater destruction, irreversible environmental damage, and the repetition of human disasters. The working class and the impoverished people of Iran — like the oppressed of other countries in the region — are among the main victims of this situation.

The undersigned organizations call upon all labour organizations, human rights institutions, anti-war groups, environmental activists, and peace-seeking forces around the world to unite in demanding the immediate cessation of war, bombings, the killing of innocent people, and the destruction of the environment — and to support the struggles of the people of Iran and the region to put an end to genocide, militarism, and repression.

The people of the Middle East urgently need an end to the devastating tensions between regional and global powers, and the establishment of a just and lasting peace — a peace under which people can determine their own destiny through organizing, mass organizations, expanding protests, and direct and collective participation.

No to War – No to Warmongering Policies

An Immediate Ceasefire Is Our Urgent Demand

Signatories:

Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Vahed)

Retirees’ Unity Group

June 17, 2025