The Holocaust in Gaza Must Result in Israel’s DeNazification

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On Holocaust Memorial Day [HMD], we will be holding the fourth anti-Zionist memorial meeting commemorating the victims of the Nazi holocaust. The victims include, not just Jews but Roma and Sinti, the Disabled, Gays, Russian prisoners-of-war as well as millions of civilians – in particular Russians and Poles.

The official HMD organisation only recognises Jews as victims of the Holocaust. All other categories are relegated to the status of victims of Nazi persecution.

Under the heading genocide today the HMD site mentions a number of genocides such as when UN human rights investigators accused ISIS of committing genocide against the Yazidis. It cites how years of persecution and cultural repression of Uyghur Muslims in China ‘all bear the hallmarks of genocide’.

The HMD also cites how, in Myanmar,

In January 2020 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Myanmar to take steps to prevent genocide, in a landmark case filed by The Gambia.

There is only one genocide that the HMD does not recognise. This despite the fact that the ICJ, in its order of 26 January 2026, in the case brought by South Africa found that Israel was plausibly committing genocide in Gaza.

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry went even further. It found, in a report of September 2025 that Israel was committing genocide against the Palestinians.

So although the HMD is happy to quote the ICJ in respect of the Rohinga and UN Human Rights investigators in the case of the Yazidis, it refuses to acknowledge that both the ICJ and the UN have recognised that Israel is committing genocide.

Palestinian victims of genocide are excluded from the HMD commemorations because the purpose of these events is not to combat racism and imperialism but to reinforce Israel’s claim to inherit the memory of the Jewish victims of the holocaust.

The HMD events do not commemorate any genocide that preceded the Nazi genocide. The slave trade, the Herero-Nama and Armenian genocides, which were the precursor of the Nazi holocaust, go unmentioned.

The hypocrisy of the HMD Trust is no surprise. HMD was set up by Tony Blair, who together with George Bush, was responsible for murdering one million Iraqis in an illegal war.

The Holocaust has become integral to the imperialist narrative and a weapon used to support the Israeli state in its ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinians. The reason for this is that Israel is the projection of western power in the oil rich Middle East. According to Alexander Haig, Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of State

Israel constitutes the largest US aircraft carrier that cannot be sunk, does not carry even one US soldier, and is located in a most critical region for US national security.

An accounting by the western imperialist states of their record during the Nazi holocaust is also conspicuous by its absence. Nowhere is any mention made of the United States and UK refusal to admit to their territories all but a handful of Jewish refugees.

Anthony Eden, the British Foreign Secretary, was concerned that if Britain offered to take in Jewish refugees then: ‘Hitler might well take us up on any such offer.’ [Bernard Wasserstein, Britain and the Jews of Europe, p. 168].

The Cabinet Committee on Jewish Refugees sent a memo to the US State Department on 20 January 1943 warning that:

there is a possibility that the Germans or their satellites may change over from the policy of extermination to one of extrusion.

Fortunately for the Committee Hitler never wavered in his commitment to extermination. The obsession with refugees led to the gas chambers yesterday and today the bottom of the English Channel.

A letter sent by the Ministry of Economic Affairs to US Ambassador Winant in London, explained how:

The Foreign Office are concerned with the difficulties of disposing of any considerable numbers of Jews should they be rescued from enemy-occupied territory...’.[Arthur Morse, While Six Million Died, p. 85., Winant to State Department 15.4.43].

The Silence of the Zionist Holocaust Memorial Organisations

Karen Pollock of Britain’s Holocaust Education Trust is typical of the Zionist holocaust industry in her condemnation of the ‘shameful’ comparisons between the Gaza holocaust and the Nazi genocide. To Pollock drawing universal lessons from the holocaust was something to be avoided.

This set the tone for all the other Zionist run holocaust memorial organisations. Despite telling us that we have to learn the lessons of the holocaust, the only lesson they draw is in teaching that we must defend the Israeli state no matter how many Palestinians they slaughter.

Every single international human rights organisation  has concluded that what has happened in Gaza is a genocide – from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Btselem and the UN to the Lemkin Genocide Institute in its coruscating statement condemning the

the persistent efforts by several high-profile German civil society organizations to deny the ongoing genocide in Gaza and to disseminate disinformation and denialist narratives among German political decision-makers.

It was Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jewish Lawyer, who first coined the word ‘Genocide’ and was largely responsible for the adoption internationally of the Genocide Convention.

When the Los Angeles Holocaust Museum [LAHM] posted a message on Instagram which featured a drawing of a hexagon formed by six linked arms — with the words ‘Never Again’ Can’t Only Mean Never Again For Jews.’ there was a furious backlash from Zionists. The message was interpreted as referring to Gaza. One commentator wrote that

This post is beyond disgraceful. Whoever created, approved, and posted this should be ashamed of themselves. Our ancestors are rolling in their graves.

Two days later, the museum deleted the post and published an apology. The museum issued a new statement:

We recently posted an item on social media that was part of a pre-planned campaign intended to promote inclusivity and community that was easily open to misinterpretation by some to be a political statement reflecting the ongoing situation in the Middle East. That was not our intent.

The LAHM promised to ‘do better’ next time. ‘Never Again’ in the eyes of Zionists excludes the Palestinian victims of Western imperialism. Never Again only applies to Jews.

Every single holocaust museum and institution has refused to recognise, still less condemn, Israel’s genocide or compare what Israel was doing to the Jewish holocaust.

Yad Vashem and the Silence of the Holocaust Historians

The genocide in Gaza posed a difficulty for Yad Vashem, [YV] Israel’s holocaust museum. Established in 1953 YV’s purpose was to formulate a hegemonic narrative of the Holocaust that would accord with the Zionist paradigm.

How could YV condemn the very state that founded it for perpetrating a genocide? According to YV the holocaust occurred, not because of German imperialism and fascism but because of their eternal hatred of Jews.

Central to this was the foundational myth of Israel as a refuge from anti-Semitism, according to which, if Israel had been in existence, then there would have been no holocaust.

What the Zionist narrative didn’t say was that if the Zionist movement had not existed, more Jews would have survived and possibly the Hitler regime itself would have collapsed or been overthrown.

Rather than seeing the Nazi holocaust as the product of German imperialism and fascism, YV posited a mono-causal explanation – anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism explained everything: fascism, anti-communism, eugenics, racial hygiene, lebensraum and anti-modernism.

For Zionism anti-Semitism was caused by the Jews:

Where it [anti-Semitism] does not exist, it is carried by Jews in the course of their migrations. We naturally move to those places where we are not persecuted, and there our presence produces persecution. [Herzl, The Jewish State, pp. 14-15].

YV was never an anti-racist or anti-fascist institution. It was a Zionist organisation. YV has rebuffed many invitations in the past to widen its remit and condemn particularly flagrant examples of Israeli and Zionist racism. It was established next to the site of Deir Yassin, the most famous massacre of the Nakba, yet it doesn’t even acknowledge this fact.

Zionist holocaust history fights against universalising the lessons of the holocaust. The Nazi holocaust is unique and Jews are its sole victims. There is only one lesson of the holocaust that Zionism and YV permit and that is the creation and existence of Israel as a Jewish state. If the Holocaust is unique then no lessons can be drawn.

The fact that the Yishuv, Palestine’s Jewish community, was unable to accept more than a fraction of the Jews in danger during the 1930s was conveniently forgotten.

In his address to the 20^th Zionist Congress in August 1937, Chaim Weizmann recalled being asked whether Palestine could accommodate Europe's Jews. He told the delegates that

The old ones will pass, they will bear their fate or they will not. They are dust, economic and moral dust, in a cruel world... Two millions, and perhaps less (will survive) ... We have to accept it.

Zionism was an obstacle to the rescue of Jews. The Zionist movement repeatedly complained that a focus on saving Jewish refugees from the Nazis was a distraction from the main task, which for them was building a Jewish state.

In January 1933 David Ben-Gurion warned that:

‘Zionism… is not primarily engaged in saving individuals’ and that if there was ‘a conflict of interest between saving individual Jews and the good of the Zionist enterprise, we shall say the enterprise comes first.’ [Biography, The Burning Ground, p.855]

YV had no intention of changing when Israel was becoming openly genocidal. When 50 holocaust researchers asked YV to condemn the genocidal statements made by Israeli politicians, military and other public figures, including Israeli government ministers and Prime Minister Netanyahu himself, its Chairman, Dani Dayan refused. 

Dayan asserted that the Israeli army was not conducting a genocide but was acting ‘within the constraints Hamas imposes on us to comply with the proper moral standards and the laws of war.’ One can only assume that the complete destruction of Gaza’s civilian and health infrastructure, to say nothing of the extermination of thousands of Palestinians, are what passes for high moral standards at YV.

Dayan told those who suggested that YV say something about the holocaust in Gaza that:

the outrageous statements you cited do not express the moral position of the very large majority of the Israeli public or the IDF and its commanders.

Yet all the evidence was that the statements cited were very much the position of the IDF and Israeli Jews. The IDF was putting those statements into practice in Gaza whilst he was speaking. YV refused to acknowledge the clear evidence that the extermination of the Palestinians in Gaza was supported by a majority of Israeli Jews.

A March 2025 poll by Penn State University found that 47% of Jewish Israelis agreed with the idea that the Israeli army, when conquering a city, should kill all of its inhabitants, referencing the biblical conquest of Jericho. The poll found that 65% of Israeli Jews believe a modern-day version of Amalek exists and that 93% believe the biblical commandment to “blot out the memory of Amalek” is still relevant. In other words over 60% of Israeli Jews supported exterminating the Palestinians of Gaza.

Another poll from Israeli research group, the aChord Center, found that 76% of Jewish Israelis either fully or partially agreed with the suggestion that none of Gaza's remaining pre-war population were innocent.

The IDF that Dayan praised so highly was the same IDF which set up torture camps for Palestinians, raped to death doctors and which used Palestinian children as target practice.

A poll from Jerusalem’s Hebrew University in June 2025 showed that contrary to Dayan, 64% of Israelis agreed that there are ‘no innocents in Gaza.’ When Israeli Arabs, 92% of whom opposed the statement, are removed then it meant that three out of every four Israeli Jews supported genocide.

Dayan was Secretary-General of the fascist anti-Arab Tehiya party and a candidate on its list to the Knesset in the Israeli elections in 1988 and 1992.

Dayan was also Chairman of the Executive of the Yesha Council, a federation of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. In 2015 Brazil rejected him as Israel’s Ambassador because of his fascist credentials. It is a fitting commentary on Zionism’s memorialisation of the Nazi holocaust that the Chairman of its holocaust remembrance authority is a fascist.

Where YV led, the world’s holocaust organisations followed. Not one holocaust organisation has condemned Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Not one has declared that the lesson of the Nazi holocaust ‘Never Again’ applied to all people, Jewish and non-Jewish, Palestinians included.

That is why, for the fourth year running, we are holding an anti-Zionist commemoration of the Nazi holocaust. Our aim is to challenge the pro-imperialist events as hypocritical virtue signalling. Amongst our speakers will be two Jewish survivors of the holocaust, Stephen Kapos and Suzanne Weiss

Tony Greenstein

Why does 5 Pillars Interview & Give Uncritical Publicity to Nick Griffin, Former Chair of the BNP Who Believes Islam is A ‘Vicious & Wicked’ Religion?

Brighton Picket of Barclays Bank & Fascist Counter-Protest Seen Off 17 January 2026

There is a nationwide campaign to Boycott Barclays Bank because Barclays now invests over £2 billion in, and provides financial services worth £6.1 billion to, companies arming Israel. 40 years ago Barclays was investing heavily in Apartheid in South Africa so nothing much has changed. Barclays is and always has been a racist bank.

Fascist Mother and Her 'Sweet' Zionist Princess

The Fash Minder with a Hitler Moustache

It is therefore not surprising that supporters of the openly White Supremacist Unite the Kingdom should seek to mount a counter-protest, albeit only 3 of them, to demonstrate their support for a ‘British’ bank.

I went along to the picket in North Street, Brighton and noticed after a while a Union Jack with 2 women on either end of it side by side with our own banners, so I thought it would be a friendly thing to go and talk to them.

I asked one of them why it is that fascists are such ardent supporters of Zionism and Genocide and why they were opposing our picket.  The woman I spoke to didn’t seem able to answer my question. Instead she insisted that I should get out of her private space which seemed to extend well beyond her rancid features.

She then pushed me in the chest so I pushed her at which point the other woman came and tried to attack me. I parried her flailing arms and then the male minder with a Hitler moustache joined in as did a load of protesters and the Police.

Picket of Barclays Bank – BHPSC (see their banner at the 30s mark)

They made a bogus complaint of assault but the Police could see it was a case of much ado about nothing and apart from taking my details weren’t inclined to do anything.  Meanwhile these creeps had lost their place on the wall besides other protestors and the police told them to go onto a side street out of the way which meant that no one could see their patriotic mugs.  Mission accomplished.

What is interesting about this is how British fascists now overtly support Zionism and Israel as integral as part of their political agenda thus giving the lie to the assertion that it is us who are anti-Semitic.

There was a time when British fascists used to disguise their anti-Semitism with a self-proclaimed opposition to Zionism when what they meant was Jews. Today their main targets are Muslims and they hide their anti-Semitism behind support for Zionism. Which is of course understandable since even the thickest Zionist now accepts that Zionism and Jewish Supremacim is a manifestation of White Supremacism.

Dilly Hussein Interviews British Neo-Nazi Nick Griffin - For the Second Time

 I mention this because the Islamic fundamentalist site 5 Pillars which is run by Dilly Hussein, doesn’t seem to understand that anti-Muslim racism/Islamophobia and Zionism are two sides of the same racist coin.

In December 2025 it interviewed Nick Griffin, the former Chair of the British National Party in a podcast Civil war, the American deep state and the Zionist lobby.

Griffin has been a longstanding feature of the British neo-Nazi Right. This was the second interview Dilly had with Griffin. The first Jews, Zionism, the far-right, and Islam in Europe was in November 2023.

5 Pillars, which claims to be the most popular Islamic site in Britain, seems to have a fondness for far-right Islamophobes and anti-Semites.

Dilly Hussein

In February 2024 it interviewed Mark Collett, who characterised Jews as ‘shapeshifters who purport to be “normal white” people but are not.’  Mark Collett is a British neo-Nazi who was chairman of the Young BNP. In 2019 he went on to form the fascist, white supremacist Patriotic Alternative.

In an interview later that year with BBC Radio Leicester Collett condemned the wearing of the veil by Muslim women, describing it as a “powerful statement against integration.”

5 Pillars is vehemently homophobic and anti-women's rights, going so far as to praise the Taliban’s exclusion of girls from education. It would seem that their reactionary position on social questions has led them to embrace the worst Islamophobes.

Later in 2024 IMPRESS, a press regulator, ruled that a podcast episode featuring Jayda Fransen, former deputy leader of Britain First, included unchallenged antisemitic conspiracy theories. Fransen is a Christian fascist and it would seem that support for a reactionary social agenda, anti-gay and anti-trans forms common ground between Dilly and Britain’s far-right.

Nick Griffin | Civil War in Britain, American Deep State & The Zionist Lobby

Before writing this I contacted 5 Pillars twice to ask why they were interviewing fascists but I got no response. I did this after having come across an interview by Dilly with one Nick Griffin, the former Chairman of the British National Party.

This is the same Nick Griffin who was acquitted of incitement to racial hatred in November 2006 for describing Islam as a ‘wicked, vicious’ faith.  Griffin today proclaims that he is opposed to Zionism when it is, or should be, obvious that Griffin’s opposition to Zionism is a thinly disguised anti-Semitism.

Griffin was charged after making a speech to BNP supporters at a pub in Keighley, West Yorkshire, in January 2004. During his speech he said that Muslims were turning Britain into a “multiracial hellhole”.

Griffin was acquitted alongside the BNP's head of publicity, Mark Collett. Collett had referred to asylum seekers as “cockroaches”, telling the gathering: “Let's show these ethnics the door in 2004”.

At the time of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 2006 the BNP was a fulsome supporter of Israel, so much so that Ruth Smeed, of the Board of Deputies of British Jews admitted that the BNP website

is now one of the most Zionist on the web – it goes further than any of the mainstream parties in its support of Israel.’ [‘BNP seeks to bury antisemitism and gain Jewish votes in Islamophobic campaign The Guardian, 10.4.08.]

In an article Nationalism and Israel on the BNP’s site Lee Barnes, their legal advisor wrote:

As a Nationalist I can say that I support Israel 100% in their dispute with Hezbollah. In fact, I hope they wipe Hezbollah off the Lebanese map and bomb them until they leave large greasy craters in the cities where their Islamic extremist cantons of terror once stood.

Now it might be that Nick Griffin has had a Damascene conversion to anti-racism and anti-imperialism but somehow I doubt it. In the little of the interview that I watched Griffin made it clear that he doesn’t want Muslims in Britain.

It is issues like homophobia that enable Muslim fundamentalists like Dilly Hussein and anti-Muslim racists like Nick Griffin to find common ground. This is one reason why anti-racists should never compromise on their opposition to homophobia and transphobia or be tempted to adopt a reactionary social agenda.

Tony Greenstein

 BNP leader cleared of race hate charges

Liberation for the Palestinians and the people of the Middle East Will Not Be Achieved on the Backs of the Oppression of Iranian Workers, Women and Youth

We are witnessing the biggest rebellion of Iranians against the theocratic regime in Iran for decades. Whether the regime succeeds in repressing the demonstrations and surviving is an open question. I suspect, at least in the short term, it will survive because the Iranian state's repressive apparatus bears many similarities to those of classical fascism, e.g. in its abolition of trade unions and there is no strong or coherent opposition.

Let us be clear at once for the benefit of the 'anti-imperialists' who have forgotten what socialism means. Socialism is the emancipation of the working class and oppressed not the dictatorship of a theocratic regime.

As the statement of the independent Iranian trade unions make clear, neither Israel nor the United States are in the slightest bit interested in freedom for the Iranian masses. Both states were more than happy to support the vicious repression under the Shah of Iran, whose son Reza Pahlavi they are trying to bring back. The BBC as always is happy to act as their propaganda stooge.

Threats of military action and bombing by the US and Israel, far from weakening the regime, have the opposite effect by forcing people to rally round it. The cynicism of the genocidal Zionist regime and Trump’s neo-cons beggars belief.

The regime of Supreme Ruler Khameini and President Masoud Pezeshkian has been responsible for the murder of thousands of protesters, with the security forces using machine guns and live fire. It is impossible at this time to estimate how many people have been killed but it must run into thousands.

It is now resorting to mass hangings of protesters in an effort to coerce and intimidate the opposition.

There is no doubt that Israel and Mossad have played a part in the protests, but I also have no doubt that Israel has hyped its presence and operations for propaganda reasons.  I find it strange that those who usually doubt everything Israel says are now willing to believe these pathological liars.

It would be a grave mistake to believe that the demonstrations are the creature of Israel. People are on the streets because they have their own grievances with a dictatorial, corrupt and repressive regime.

Israel and the US want to see an end to the Iranian regime but what they don’t want is a democratic society to emerge in its place. Their problem is in finding a replacement which is why Trump’s words have not, so far, matched his actions. The last thing Trump, Israel and the West want is popular sovereignty.

Iran’s regime has its own neo-liberal agenda. Indeed its response to the sanctions has been to further privatise the economy, the exact opposite of what a socialist oriented regime would do. It is the poor in Iran who have paid the highest price for sanctions

Iran’s response to decades of sanctions has involved a turn to market-based policies rather than the socialisation of the economy. The state has pursued privatisation and liberalised certain market mechanisms, resulting in ‘crony capitalism’.

To withstand sanctions, Iran adopted a "resistance economy" strategy. This has integrated neoliberal-style policies, such as: 

·         Privatisation of State Assets: Successive governments have targeted the sale of state-owned enterprises to reduce government spending and settle debts.

·         Subsidy Reform: In late 2025, the government further reduced cash subsidies for energy and food, shifting toward a "ration-style voucher" system to manage fiscal deficits.

·         Price Deregulation: Major industrial producers in sectors like petrochemicals and metals are increasingly allowed to sell at international market prices domestically to maintain profitability despite sanctions. 

Iran’s privatisation efforts have largely benefited quasi-governmental entities. 

·         Institutional Control: Many 'privatised' firms were transferred to institutions linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) or supreme leader-controlled foundations (bonyads).

·         Oligarchy and Corruption: These policies have fostered a "crony capitalist" system based on nepotism, where the powerful maintain control over wealth while the middle and working classes face extreme inflation—projected to reach 60% in 2026. 

The entrenchment of neoliberal ideology and policies has been an alternative to developing effective economic strategies to shield the working class and small craftsmen from the devastating effects of sanctions. Rather than adapting policies to protect vulnerable economic sectors, the establishment has doubled down on two core positions:

1.   Accelerating neoliberal policies

2.   Pursuing compromise with US imperialism, primarily to attract foreign investment.

See Neoliberalism Against Revolution: Iran’s Challenges for Resistance

The hypocrisy of Israel and the United States over the death of protesters is to be expected. However it would be a mistake to take their posturing as reflecting their true views. Israel has perpetrated a genocide of tens of thousands of people in Gaza. The US and the Trump regime has funded and supplied weapons for that genocide. They are hardly likely to be concerned about the death of Iranian protesters.

The ‘support’ of Israel and the US for the demonstrations and protests is cynical and self-serving. Both states are the partners of vicious dictatorial regimes all over the Middle East. The only disagreement they have with Iran’s clerical regime is in its independent foreign policy and its opposition to Israeli hegemony in the region.

The entire Western media refuses to report on the deadly, Mossad-supported wave of riots in Iran, depriving their audiences of context

The anti-government violence has one ultimate objective: to convince the notoriously gullible Trump to bomb Iran on Israel’s behalf https://t.co/iH3yqxaU3C

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) January 13, 2026

There is a section of the anti-imperialist left, represented by people like Max Blumenthall, who take the view that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. This is a  mistake. The same people supported the Ba’athist regime of President Assad of Syria and we know how that turned out.

The Zionists are telling you Mossad did it while laughing on TV and breathless British leftists are still banging on about "the people's protests" and "the glorious workers' uprising". pic.twitter.com/dJEdkfbEQd

— David Miller (@Tracking_Power) January 12, 2026

Anti-imperialism can never be successful when it relies on regimes which are hated by their own people. In the long term this can only strengthen the Israeli state. It allows Zionism and US imperialism to pass themselves off as the friends of the Iranian people.

The origins of the Islamic Republic lie in collaboration with the United States in order to thwart a genuine revolutionary challenge to capitalism and exploitation. This is not surprising since the clerical regime that emerged was based on the Bazaaris, the merchants and shopkeepers of the traditional marketplaces who represent a powerful and heterogeneous commercial class that has functioned as a central pillar of the country's economic and political history.

On 9 November 1978, in a now-famous cable, "Thinking the Unthinkable," the US ambassador to Iran, William Sullivan, warned that the Shah was doomed. He argued that the US should get the Shah and his top generals out of Iran, and then make a deal between junior commanders and Khomeini.

Sullivan's suggestions caused friction with Jimmy Carter but by early January 1979 Carter had concluded that the Shah had to go.

While the U.S. did not formally support Khomeini, historical evidence confirms that the Carter administration engaged in secret diplomatic negotiations with him in January 1979 to ensure an orderly transition and prevent a radical leftist or workers revolution from taking hold. 

In 1979 during the Iranian revolution the US effectively backed Khomeini for fear of a workers revolution. Khomeini initiated a dialogue with the Carter administration to secure his return to Iran and prevent a military coup that might have kept him from power. 

From January 15 to 27, 1979, direct talks occurred in Neauphle-le-Château, France, between Khomeini’s chief of staff, Ebrahim Yazdi, and U.S. diplomat Warren Zimmermann. On 27 January Khomeini told the US just weeks before the overthrow of the Shah's government:

It is advisable that you recommend to the army not to follow Bakhtiar (...) You will see we are not in any particular animosity with the Americans. (...) There should be no fear about oil. It is not true that we wouldn’t sell to the US. (...)

The primary goal of Carter was to preserve US interests and prevent civil war and an opening to Soviet influence. U.S. policy makers believed they could "do business" with the incoming regime, especially with moderate, Western-educated figures like Yazdi and Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, who were close to Khomeini at the time

Their major fear was of a potential communist or socialist takeover, which was a real possibility given the strength of the working-class movement and the influence of the USSR. Accommodating Khomeini was seen as a way to prevent Iran from falling to the left. 

The primary U.S. motivation for communicating with Khomeini was the fear of a power vacuum that would benefit the Tudeh (Communist) Party or Marxist guerrillas. There were three components to US strategy:

·         The "Soft Landing" Strategy: U.S. officials, including National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, feared a chaotic collapse of the state would invite a Soviet invasion or a takeover by local Marxist groups.

·         Khomeini’s Guarantees: From exile in France, Khomeini sent messages to the White House promising that he was not anti-American and that an Islamic republic would be a "stable" bulwark against communism.

·         Neutralizing the Military: To avoid a bloody civil war that leftists might exploit, the U.S. sent General Robert E. Huyser to Tehran to convince the Shah's generals not to launch a coup against the burgeoning revolution. This effectively cleared the path for Khomeini's return. 

Suppression of the Working Class and Leftists

Below is a Collective Statement of Independent Iranian Organizations  and Trade Unions opposing both the threats from Israel and US imperialism and the Islamic regime.  It is a statement that puts to shame all those 'anti-imperialists' like Miller, Galloway and Blumenthall who forget that imperialism is the projection of western capitalism and its concomitant political domination of weaker countries. 

Capitalism is the source of the oppression of workers and peasants, be it the American or the Islamic version. To support the Iranian regime when it is waging class war against its own workers and people is unforgivable.

Once in power, Khomeini moved aggressively to dismantle the secular, working class and socialist movements that had participated in the revolution:

·         Crushing the Left: By 1983, the regime had totally crushed the Tudeh and Fedayeen parties, executing thousands and imprisoning hundreds of thousands of political opponents.

·         Banning Trade Unions: The new regime banned trade unions and independent workers' councils (shoras), replacing them with state-controlled "Islamic Labor Councils" to ensure control over the working class. This is exactly what Hitler did with the formation of the Labour Front on 2 May 1933.

While the Iranian Constitution (Article 26) theoretically permits "professional associations," the 1990 Labour Code and subsequent government actions have replaced genuine unions with state-controlled entities. The Islamic Labour Councils are tripartite organisations involving the Ministry of Labour, employers, and selected workers chosen based on loyalty to the state.

The "Workers' House" is a state-sponsored institution that ostensibly represents workers but is widely criticized for prioritising government policy over labour rights.

·         Intelligence Sharing: Reports indicate that even after the 1979 revolution, the U.S. provided the Khomeini regime with a "hit list" of Tudeh members in 1983 to help eliminate Soviet influence in Iran.

·         Leading global labor bodies like the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) rank Iran in their worst category for workers' rights.

Fear of a Leftist Takeover

·         Communist Strength: Various communist organisations, particularly the Tudeh Party, had significant support, including among the crucial oil workers, and posed an existential threat to both the Shah's regime and the nascent Islamic revolutionary government.

It was unfortunate in the extreme that after 1979 the Tudeh Party supported Khomeini until he turned on them.

·         Soviet Influence: During the Cold War, the U.S. was committed to preventing Soviet expansion. A communist Iran, with a shared border with the USSR, was a major strategic concern.

·         The Power Vacuum: The working-class movement, organised through factory councils known as shoras, had effectively taken control of key industries, including the oil sector, which paralysed the economy and created a power vacuum.

·         Khomeini's Assurances: Khomeini's secret messages to the Carter administration included assurances that he had no "particular affinity" for the Soviet Union and that an American presence was necessary to counterbalance Soviet influence. These messages made U.S. policymakers believe that they could work with the Islamists to maintain a non-aligned Iran. 

Today, unlike in 1979, the left is weak. That is the central problem facing the current demonstrations. Without a strong workers’ party it is difficult to see an alternative government arising.

Anti-imperialists see the present uprising in terms of, above all, the Palestinian question and Gaza. This is understandable but misplaced.

Iran’s anti-imperialism has been forced on the regime primarily by the opposition of the US and Israel to the regime. In order to preserve its power the Iranian regime constructed the Axis of Resistance, which today lies in ruins.

Hezbollah, an indigenous resistance movement, which arose out of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982, has been severely weakened with the assassination of Nasrallah, its leader and the pager attack. Whether it will be able to respond to a renewed Israeli attack on Lebanon, which the US is trying to reconfigure by disarming  Hezbollah, is open to question.

Hezbollah was the jewel in the crown and was heavily engaged in supporting Assad in Syria at Iran’s behest. With the overthrow of Assad the route from Iran to Lebanon for arms supplies has been largely halted.

Hamas in Gaza undoubtedly obtained some help from Iran but it is noticeable that since October 7 Iran has not done anything to support the Palestinians facing Israel’s genocide. Even when it had a chance, when Israel sued for a ceasefire, Iran did not make its agreement conditional on an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

The reality is that the Iranian regime has been in confrontation with imperialism and Israel despite itself. We should not forget that from 1981-86 Israel was supplying Iran with weapons in what became known as the Iran Contra Affair.

Whether or not the Iranian regime survives, one thing is for certain. That it will continue to be a friend of the Palestinians only so long as it deems it in its interests.

The Islamic Regime is a Barbaric Regime

The Iranian regime, with its rate of executions estimated to have doubled to 1,500 last year, is a barbaric state. It has the second highest number of executions of any state after China. Its method of execution, hanging from a crane, strangulation, is also the most barbaric.

The human rights record in Iran includes the persistent use of torture and what Amnesty International called a ‘Wave of floggings, amputations and other vicious punishments.’ Iran is certainly not a model state for socialists or anti-imperialists to idolise.

As regards the current clashes between the Iranian state and protestors, I have no doubt at all that the regime is using massive, lethal violence against the demonstrators. Amnesty International talks about:

a coordinated nationwide escalation in the security forces’ unlawful use of lethal force against mostly peaceful protesters and bystanders since the evening of 8 January....

Verified audiovisual evidence depicts severe and, in some cases, fatal injuries, including gunshot wounds to the head, including eyes, as well as individuals lying motionless on streets or being carried away amid what is believed to be continued sound of gunshots. Other footage shows patients bleeding profusely or appearing lifelesson hospital floors. In several videos, the people filming state that individuals have been killed.

At least two videos show security forces chasing and directly firing at fleeing protesters who appear to pose no threat warranting the use of force, let alone firearms or other prohibited weapons.

In an account shared with Amnesty International, a journalist from Tehran said:

“Tell the world that unspeakable crimes are being committed in Iran… Tell the world that if they do nothing, they [authorities] will turn the country into a graveyard.”

With so much misinformation swirling about the Islamic Republic of Iran, here are my reflections on the revolutionary career of Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei.

This was filmed in the garden of Khamenei's home in Mashhad, Iran, which I visited last year.

It's… pic.twitter.com/ZlPvBrU45A

— David Miller (@Tracking_Power) January 10, 2026

There are shills for the Iranian state like David Miller who, whatever the state does, however many people it hangs, it can do no wrong. 

the Islamic Republic of Iran is on the front lines of anti-imperialism and is actually the main defender of human civilisation that we have left.

There is no reasoning with such nonsense just as talking to 99% of Zionist apologists for genocide is like conversing with a brick wall.

Rioters burned the marketplace in the Iranian city of Rasht to a crisp

Netanyahu, Trump and every leader of the collective West has endorsed this

Of course, they are a model of tolerance toward protesters in their own cities pic.twitter.com/fQ26XDSVnS

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) January 12, 2026

 Israeli Involvement in the Protests

A favourite argument of Miller,  Blumenthall and others is Israel’s claims of massive involvement in the Iranian protests. There is no evidence for this.  It is an attempt by Israel to recover from some of the damage caused by their genocide in Gaza and to pretend that for once they are on the side of human rights.  

Quite frankly I don’t believe half of the nonsense that they and their hasbarists are putting out. It serves Blumenthall and others to go along with this narrative but it is a narrative at the expense of the Iranian people for whom Israel doesn't give a damn.

Deeply disturbing that Israeli TV is claiming that Israel is arming protesters in Iran with "live firearms".

Israel does not care about the Iranian people - and doesn't want a genuinely independent democratic Iran.

It wants Iran to fall into violent chaos and civil war. https://t.co/N6OvCpOz5z

— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) January 14, 2026

I agree (for once) with Owen Jones. It is using the thousands of dead and murdered Iranian people for its own racist and genocidal purpose.  But nothing will make Zionism or Genocide smell more sweetly.  It is useful for Blumenthall and others to latch on to Israeli claims but why believe Israel now when normally we call them liars?

As I said at the beginning, our support for the Iranian state is only against imperialism and Zionism not its own people.

A Region Wide Strategy

The original mistake of the PLO was to always believe that it could become just another Arab regime, as we see with the Palestinian Authority today. Their trust in the Arab regimes was entirely misplaced.

It is also clear that a military strategy against Israel is also doomed. What then?  Is Israel invincible?  I don’t think so.  In addition to its own internal problems with deep divisions in its settler population which the attack on Gaza, Lebanon and Iran have hidden, there is the danger of over extending itself as it invades yet more countries.

The main use of Israel to imperialism has always been its ability to help neuter radical Arab regimes and come to the aid of quisling ones like Jordan. Israel’s utility to imperialism comes from its role as a counter-revolutionary state in the heart of the Middle East.

The real question is to develop a strategy aimed at toppling the main Arab client regimes of the United States, in particular Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Iran does not provide a model to the people of the Middle East. Nor does it seek to overthrow  any of the surrounding regimes. It looks for co-existence with them in much the same way as it would like to co-exist with the United States.

The overthrow of the Arab regimes is the key to the overthrow of Zionism and imperialist influence in the Middle East.  There is no other way.

Tony Greenstein