Anti-war protesters rally outside Westminster, February 28

RCPB(ML) adds its voice to the vehement condemnation of the US/Zionist aggression against Iran. The murderous military attack launched by the US and Israel against Iran on the morning of February 28 has intensified. It is reported that already over a thousand people have been killed in Iran and the conflict has spread to an additional 14 countries in the Middle East and beyond.

Celebration in Tehran of the 47th anniversary of the Islamic Republic, February 11 2026

RCPB(ML) expresses its deepest sympathies to the people of Iran for the loss of their people and the loss of their leader Ayatollah Khamenei who, along with his family members, was assassinated in the attacks on Tehran and other cities. We express our deepest sympathies for the families of all those killed in this and the ongoing hi-tech military attacks, including of the over 160 school girls in Minab, and the crime of bombing a maternity hospital in Tehran.

Iran has the inalienable right to self-defence. This fully includes all the targets that Iran deems to be complicit in the crimes being committed against it and its people. It is common knowledge and on the record that Iran were engaged in the serious negotiations that the US had insisted upon. They have consistently refuted the accusations that their civilian nuclear programme for energy was for the purposes of building nuclear weapons, and were demanding the lifting of US-led sanctions against the country. The negotiations had been underway since February 6. They were then sabotaged and used as a criminal deception by Israel and the US with the illegal and unprovoked military attack.

Anti-war protesters rally outside Westminster, February 28

Here in Britain it is very important to deal with the disinformation when evidence shows that recent events, when people in Iran were protesting against economic difficulties, were manipulated and organised by the secret service agencies of the US, Britain and Israel's Mossad among others. In this way these armed provocateurs were used to destabilise Iran. There are many reports from the US itself boasting that it brought on this latest crisis by deliberately devaluing the Iranian currency adding to the sanctions which precipitated these protests. RCPB(ML) condemns the real support of the British government for yet another illegal war alongside the US and Israel. Keir Starmer announced that he had accepted a US request to use its military bases to strike missile depots in Iran. He agreed to the United States' use of British bases in Britain and abroad to bomb Iran, claiming that this was limited to defensive purposes. How can taking part in a war of aggression against Iran be defensive? It is Iran which has acted to defend itself against a military offensive. Starmer added that he would send experts from Britain and Ukraine to the Gulf states to help the military shoot down Iranian drones. He tried to justify this by saying that Iran should not attack American bases in the region that are being used to attack Iran. These bases are being used to attack Iran and the US itself claims sovereignty over their bases in Britain and in the Middle East.

People of Iran mourning the death of their leader Ayatollah Khamenei who, along with his family members, was assassinated in the attacks on Tehran

RCPB(ML) further condemns the US action of sending a nuclear attack submarine to torpedo and sink an Iranian frigate in international waters off the coast of Sri Lanka with 180 crew members on board and consequent loss of life, the first use of a torpedo in action by the US to sink "an enemy warship", it is said, since World War II. Dan Caine, chair of the joint chiefs of staff, far from expressing regret, boasted that more than 20 Iranian vessels have been destroyed and that its navy has been "effectively neutralised". This is an indication of Trump's utilisation of extreme violence and obliteration without recourse to any international arrangements that peoples throughout the world are resisting and rejecting.

The Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) calls on the working class and people to condemn Britain's involvement in this criminal bombing of Iran by the US and Israel. RCPB(ML) calls on everyone to stand with the peoples of the world against the use of force to settle conflicts between nations and condemn the threats, sabre-rattling and now military aggression of the US and Israel aimed at eliminating all opposition to their impunity in the Middle East. Their aim is to crush Iran and its government that has defended the country's sovereignty. There are no US or other foreign bases in Iran. It has been consistently anti-imperialist since the Iranian Revolution overthrew the regime of the Shah 47 years ago and stood on principle by opposing US and Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people. It has acted in a principled manner to negotiate with the US to resolve differences. These are the facts. People should discuss this latest unconscionable crime and openly stand with the facts.

Condemn the US/Israeli War against Iran! Hands Off Iran!

After the US/Israeli unprovoked attack on Iran on February 28, the anti-war movement immediately launched emergency protests across the country in all the major cities of Britain condemning the attack. Hundreds gathered outside Parliament on the evening of February 28 as well as emergency protests over the following days including Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Newcastle and Cardiff opposing the US-Israel strikes on Iran.

Central to these protests has been the condemnation of Britain's support for yet another illegal war. The British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced on Sunday and then on Monday in Parliament that he had accepted a US request to use British military bases at home and abroad for "limited" and "defensive purposes" to strike Iranian "storage depots or at their launchers" [1]. At the rallies, speaker after speaker condemned Starmer for announcing that he was allowing the US to use British bases in Britain, the Middle East and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to attack Iran by claiming that this was for "defensive purposes" for Britain. How can taking part in an illegal war of aggression against Iran be "defensive"? We must "protest this madness" and demand that "our government takes no part whatsoever in and condemns the catastrophic actions of the US and Israel against Iran". This was the theme of the speeches.

The "launchers and missile depots" which Iran is using are for the purpose of the life and death struggle that Iran is waging to defend itself and its sovereignty against the barbaric bombing and assassination of its people, its elected government and the religious leaders of the Islamic Republic. In fact, by such a move, Britain is once again joining in these continued war crimes of the US and Israel, and now with this announcement is launching bombing attacks on Iran, killing its people and their leadership and causing massive destruction. The claim that Britain is distinguishing between "defensive" and "offensive" military action is a fraud, as everyone can see.

On Monday, Starmer went on to try and claim to Parliament: "We have learned from the mistakes of the past. We were not involved in the initial strikes, and we will not join offensive US strikes. But in the face of Iran's dangerous escalation, we will defend British nationals and support the collective self-defence of our allies. That is our duty to the British people." Not only is supporting this attack on a sovereign nation not defending British nationals in the region but it is putting them in serious harm alongside the Iranian people and people of the region by supporting the US/Israeli unprovoked attack on Iran. In fact, no lessons have been learnt by the government, or the cartel party system at Westminster. They have continued their support for illegal interventions and wars. Neither can anyone with any knowledge of the facts, or logic, dismiss Britain's involvement in the US/Israeli initial strikes on Iran which Starmer denied. Over the last two years Britain has given its full logistic and weapons support to Israel's genocide against the Palestinians. This is further proven with the unconscionable, outrageous and vindictive claim that with the sudden US/Israeli attack on Iran during the ongoing negotiations between US and Iran that the war was seen by Starmer as due to "Iran's dangerous escalation".

Any opposition of the cartel party system to Starmer's oral statement in Parliament was minimal and mainly confined to whether the Prime Minister would "commit to a vote in this House on any UK involvement in this war". To which Starmer replied negatively to one MP, Dr Ellie Chowns, North Herefordshire, Greens, saying that "we are not at war, and we are not getting involved in offensive action that the US and Israel are taking. We have published a summary of the legal advice in relation to the decision that we took last night. That is in accordance with practice. It is not practice to publish legal advice or summaries in relation to defensive action." In other words, the system of police powers exercised by the executive, which in no way reflects the will of the electorate, brooks no involvement in their powers to wage war (as long as it is supposed to "defend" British citizens, and perhaps Britain's "allies", and perhaps a number of other fraudulent categories to cover over aggression).

The independent MP Jeremy Corbyn also asked the Prime Minister a question saying; "Are we - this country - sharing information with the US to further its war aims against Iran? Could we not instead adopt a stance of trying to bring about an immediate ceasefire to prevent further dreadful loss of life across every country in the whole region and the danger of this escalating into a semi-global conflict?" [2] In his reply Starmer again did not answer the question. He tried to claim that "the uses of the bases are for the collective self-defence of our allies" (of which he includes Israel and the US that has bases all over the Middle East - Ed.), whilst he also claimed "that they were not using Cyprus for this purpose". This is the base of Akrotiri in Cyprus that Britain has already used to supply weapons to Israel and spy flights over Gaza to support Israel's genocide against the Palestinians and the Anglo-US bombing of Yemen.

Zarah Sultana, Your Party MP for Coventry South, said: "US congressional staff were told on Sunday that Iran was not planning to strike American forces or bases unless Israel attacked Iran first. In other words, there was no intelligence indicating an imminent threat. Yet we have already seen 'pre-emptive' strikes attacking a girls' school, killing over 100 children. This has been condemned by UNESCO as a grave violation of humanitarian law, yet the Prime Minister did not bother to mention it. Continuing such actions is unlawful, and allowing them to take place from UK bases is unlawful, so I ask the Prime Minister: is the genocide of the Palestinian people not enough for this Labour Government? Is he proud to be another Labour Prime Minister obediently following Washington into yet another illegal war in the Middle East, making us all less safe? Finally, how much does he enjoy being Donald Trump's poodle?" To which Starmer became even more rattled, saying only, "I have set out the decisions I made over the weekend and the reasons for them...."

HMS Dragon a Type 45 destroyer

On Thursday, March 5, Starmer also held a press conference [3] where he claimed that Britain was providing "calm, level-headed leadership". This "leadership" revealed itself as Britain's frantic military preparations "to defend our interests sending, fighter jets, defence missiles and drones to Cyprus". He then said that on Saturday, February 28, "we immediately put those jets into the sky flying over Cyprus and the wider region" to "protect our people and our allies" and "shooting down drones" and "responding to requests". He said that Britain was now sending helicopters to Cyprus and HMS Dragon to the Mediterranean, and that "the Defence Secretary is on the ground in Cyprus right now co-ordinating our work".

As Workers' Weekly reported earlier on February 7: "As we write, the US warmonger Trump continues the dangerous US war escalation with military build-up in the Middle East threatening Iran....This is the reality of the crimes against peace by Trump and his allies. It is in fact now support for Trump's lashing out with even more extreme violence, destruction and obliteration of anything which stands in his way" [4]. At that time, when Starmer was in China, he emphasised the nuclear pretext to justify Trump's meetings with Netanyahu and their military build-up for this second attack on Iran since June 12 last year. This can be compared with how Tony Blair had used "weapons of mass destruction" as a pretext for the Anglo-US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

However, Starmer, when asked this week by the BBC in a press conference whether the government had properly prepared for dealing with a crisis of thousands of British citizens stranded in the Middle East, only admitted they were preparing with Britain's own military build-up. He said in answer that they were "pre-deploying to the region particularly in January, February and that they sent fighter jets, missiles and advanced radar to Cyprus in the course of 8 or so weeks and that we did that in conjunction with the US and our allies [Israel - Ed.]."

What is so noticeable is that in none of the Prime Minister's statements this week has he opposed the US/Israeli illegal attack on Iran. He has only tried to make the claim that "they did not join the initial strike". Yet to claim that British fighter jets were immediately in the sky shooting down Iranian drones rings really even more hollow. Now Starmer is agreeing that the US can use British bases to attack Iran. At no time has he distanced the government from the attack on the sovereignty of Iran and its government and people, or the atrocities of the US and Israel in Iran. He has made Britain complicit in these crimes against humanity.

The anti-war movement's demands are just. It demands that the government end all support for the war on Iran. It demands that Britain support Iran in exercising its right to self-defence against all those complicit in this attack on their sovereignty, and demands that the US and Israel cease their attacks on Iran and end their genocide against the Palestinian people.

Hands Off Iran!

Notes
1. Hansard - Middle East Volume 781: debated on Monday 2 March 2026
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2026-03-02/debates/C3BE6001-08B4-4DF8-8193-A4BFF0C57E9B/MiddleEast
2. On March 4, The Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn tabled a Presentation Bill on titled The Military Action (Parliamentary Approval) Bill. The bill would require MPs to exercise stronger oversight over how foreign states use UK military bases.
3. Watch live: Keir Starmer's press conference on the situation in the Middle East - March 5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4oxTmy_Lrc
4. Hands Off Iran! Hands Off the Middle East! Free Palestine! - Workers' Weekly February 7, 2026
https://www.rcpbml.org.uk/wwie-26/ww26-03/ww26-03-01.htm

Anti-war protesters rally outside Westminster

Hundreds of anti-war demonstrators gathered outside Parliament on Saturday, February 28, voicing opposition to the US and Israel-led unprovoked attacks on Iran.

The protest was organised by the Stop the War on Iran Coalition, supported by the Islamic Human Rights Commission, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Stop the War, Campaign Against Sanctions, Military and Imperialist Interventions (CASMII), and others.

Addressing the crowd, Professor Abbas Edalat from the CASMII pointed out that Iran's historic solidarity with Palestine was one of the main reasons that the West was bombing Iran.

He stated that Iran had been the only country to fulfil its obligations under the Genocide Convention. Iran has refused to abandon Palestinians for 47 years, despite crippling sanctions and threats of regime change.

He also called on anti-war activists not to play into the hands of imperialist warmongers by attacking the Iranian government. He urged unity in defending Iran against the onslaught.

Chris Nineham from Stop the War said that there was a "real sense that Trump and the Americans and the Israelis are taking us to the brink of absolutely disastrous events, and we have to stop them".

Newcastle

Emergency protest at the Monument, Newcastle, March 2

On Monday March 2, around 70 people took part in the emergency protest at the Monument to condemn the US/Israeli unprovoked and criminal attack on Iran whilst negotiations were ongoing between the US and Iran. The protest condemned these murderous and reckless acts that have led to the death of more than 150 young girls in the bombing of a school and massive destruction in Iran. Also, that this threatens a wider war across the region with unimaginable consequences. The protest sent deepest sympathies to the people of Iran for the loss of their people and the loss of their leader Ayatollah Khamenei who, along with his family members, was assassinated in the attacks on Tehran and other cities. Speaker after speaker expressed full support for Iran's right to self-determination and self-defence. The Chair of the protest Tony Dowling condemned Starmer for announcing that he was allowing the US to use British bases to attack Iran by claiming that this was "self-defence" for Britain. He said how can taking part in an illegal war of aggression against Iran be defensive. He said that we must protest this madness and demand that our government takes no part and condemns Israel's and US's catastrophic actions.

Speakers were: Cath Davis, Your Party Central Executive Committee; Martin Levy, president Newcastle Trades Union Council; Sean Kelly, chair NEU Regional Council; Marika Asgari, Newcastle University UCU; Molly Storm, Revolutionary Communist Party; Halimah Begum, Newcastle Green Party; Pam Wortley, vice-chair Newcastle Stop the War; Geoff Abbott, Stand Up to Racism North East; Jane Byrne, Independent Newcastle Councillor Monument Ward; Roger Nettleship, South Tyneside Stop the War

Emergency online rally

Stop the War hosted an online public meeting on March 3 to discuss the rapidly developing situation with almost 1,000 participants. Speakers include Jeremy Corbyn MP, Tariq Ali, Maryam Eslamdoust (General Secretary, TSSA), Lindsey German (StW), Kate Hudson (CND) and Daniel Kebede (General Secretary, NEU, alongside political analyst Tritsa Parsi. The rally urged everyone to build a stronger movement against the war in Iran and to do all they can to stop Britain from getting further involved in this catastrophe that is unfolding.

March to the US Embassy

A demonstration in London will march to the US Embassy on March 7, assembling next to Victoria Tower Gardens on Milbank at noon. The demonstration will be under the banners, "Stop Bombing Iran", and "Hands Off Palestine and the Middle East".

Demonstration and peace vigil at Fairford US air base

The demonstration and peace vigil is being organised by Drone Wars UK, CND and Oxfordshire Peace Campaign on March 7. The organisers write:

"The UK, too, is deeply complicit in Trump's war despite a government campaign aimed at fooling the media and public into believing it is merely standing on the side lines and defending its 'national interests'. US Air Force attack aircraft from Lakenheath air base in the UK have deployed to the Middle East, including F-35 jets which have moved to Saudi Arabia and F-15Es deployed in Jordan. Special forces aircraft from Mildenhall air base have also flown to the Middle East. Despite claiming that bases like Fairford and Diego Garcia will not be used to bomb Iran, the UK has allowed US aircraft flying to the Middle East for its military build-up to use bases such as Lakenheath, Mildenhall, and Prestwick airport in Scotland as staging posts for overnight rest stops and refuelling. Following the initial attacks on Iran, the UK government has decided that US bases on UK territory can be used to attack Iranian missile sites in Iran. UK Typhoon and F35 aircraft are also flying to 'defend ' Israeli and US forces and bases - freeing up aircraft for use in attacks. It is highly likely that the UK has shared intelligence information with the US in support of the attacks - for example information gained as a result of RAF Reaper drone flights close to Iran aimed at provoking a response from Iranian forces."

Regional demonstrations on Saturday, March 7, are being held in:

Exeter - 11am, Bedford Square
Durham - 12 noon, Framwellgate Bridge
Hull - 12 noon, Queen Victoria Square
Bournemouth - 12 noon, Bournemouth Square
Norwich - 12 noon, City Hall

Massimiliano Ay, General Secretary, Communist Party (Switzerland)

The Islamic Republic of Iran is not a theocratic regime where power is exercised by the clergy as a religious class indistinguishable from political authority and where religious norms coincide with State laws. The political regime that emerged from the 1979 Revolution is rather theocentric in nature: power is in fact mediated by legal and political institutions and is not automatically exercised by the clergy as a unified body. On the contrary, there are elected bodies, a Constitution and a republican state apparatus, as well as a complex set of institutional checks and balances.

The most widespread first mistake in the West is therefore to believe superficially that the Islamic Republic of Iran is a kind of medieval and obscurantist absolutism: alongside undeniable backward-looking legacies contrary to a liberal-democratic conception of the State, forms of modernity are emerging that must be recognised in order to understand the persistence of this 40-year experience. Suffice it to say that it was the Islamic Revolution that universalised the right to education for Iranian women, which, at the time of the Shah, was granted only to a few representatives of the wealthy classes: today, 60 per cent of university students in Iran are women, and over 40 per cent of companies are run by female entrepreneurs. Even on the civil rights for transgender people, it was Ayatollah Khomeini who signed a law in the 1980s that not only authorises gender transition but also places the costs entirely on the State.

The second mistake is to underestimate the enormous responsibility that Atlantic imperialism has (in history and still today) due to its systematic interference in Iranian political dynamics. It was only with the 1979 Revolution, where religious leaders and communists initially worked together, that the Iranian people regained political, economic and cultural sovereignty, freeing themselves from Western capitalist diktats and the bloody tyranny of Shah Reza Pahlavi.

Since then, the country has been constantly demonised, if not directly attacked militarily or through terrorism, by the US, the EU and Israel. However, if Iran is now ruled by a theocentric regime, which was consolidated by the subsequent tragic repression of the communists in the 1980s, it is also because Atlantic imperialism overthrew the secular and socialist government of Mosaddegh, imposing an absolute monarchy that allowed the West to plunder its resources and against which popular anger erupted in 1979. Even today, there is no shortage of external attempts at destabilisation: from the declaration of readiness for a US military attack with the aim of turning Iran into a new Syria and the infiltration of Zionist Mossad into popular and youth movements. The violent degeneration of recent street demonstrations, initially peaceful and based almost exclusively on the difficult economic conditions and not on civil rights or the political-institutional system, is there to prove it.

The third mistake is that made by the Western left, which has given up on anti-imperialism as the central axis of its identity, thereby lending support to the narrative of the right and to structural racism towards all peoples who do not obey our liberal and Atlanticist value system. After Russophobia and Sinophobia, as we stated during the 25th Congress of the Communist Party of Switzerland, we are now moving on to Islamophobia, which, more typically confined to right-wing circles, has been fomented not only by Zionists but also, unwittingly, by that part of the left which, after supporting movements hostile to the Iranian Islamic Revolution, has agreed to repeat as an "act of faith" the condemnation of the actions of the Palestinian or Lebanese resistance in response to Israeli crimes.'

From this perspective, communists distance themselves from the Swiss left, which took to the streets with nostalgic monarchists waving the tricolour flag bearing the image of the lion of the former "Imperial State of Iran" ruled by the tyrannical Pahlavi dynasty. A correct class-based and anti-imperialist approach, instead, grasps another decisive political fact, namely that the Iranian reality operates in a new global context, constituting today a bulwark of primary importance in hindering Atlanticism and Zionism. Without it, the Palestinian resistance could be compromised, but even the new Silk Road promoted by China would be weakened.

Among the Iranian diaspora there are numerous organisations that historically looked to Marxism, but which today openly operate as fifth columns of imperialism and Zionism, even though they still declare their ideal adherence to socialism. It is important, as serious Marxists, not to make a fourth mistake, namely, to analyse not the material reality of today but to be under the illusion that everything has remained unchanged since 1953 (the coup against Mosaddegh) or 1979 (Khomeini revolution) and thus limiting ourselves to taking for granted the sometimes even rambling public statements of this or that organisation of the left-wing diaspora, which is completely irrelevant in the Iranian national reality. Entrusting, for example, the communists of "Tudeh" or "Toufan" (who have less support in their homeland than the monarchists) with a utopian messianic task of -- as we read in some public statements of left-wing comrades -- "building an alternative hegemony starting from the bottom, from the bazaar and the universities, to prevent the fall of the mullahs from leading to a new colonial subjugation" is not Marxism, but pure fantasy that does not help to develop a credible movement for peace and against imperialism. The "Tudeh" itself, moreover, admits to "the absence of a coherent progressive national leadership".

In Iran today, the unrest is primarily economic, due to Western sanctions that affect wages, fuel inflation and worsen the quality of life. However, it seems rather unrealistic to believe that popular support for political and religious institutions has waned, as Atlanticist war propaganda would have us believe, and that the definitive disintegration of the "historic clerical-conservative bloc" is underway and that "the regime no longer has hegemony (moral and intellectual consensus) but only domination (repressive apparatus)". Even more illusory is the belief that the Zionist and American puppet of the Pahlavi dynasty, which sold out the country, can enjoy mass support. He will be able to return to the throne not through a popular uprising, but solely and exclusively through military force and foreign military action, following the model of what recently happened in Venezuela.

At the same time, and this is the fifth mistake we must avoid making, it is important not to believe the information provided by the Western media, which is almost entirely biased, without any real pluralism, by American and Israeli press agencies that are building mass consensus for the next war! The demonstrations staged by the opposition are numerous, but they are much less well-attended than those of the patriotic masses who express hostility to US interference and defend the institutional structure of the Islamic Republic. Furthermore, the opposition is able to mobilise almost exclusively in large urban centres among the upper-middle class, who demand liberal, Western lifestyles and consumption models, but who clash with the feeling of loyalty to the government in the suburbs.