Demonstrators wave Iranian flags in front of the U.S. Consulate during a protest against the Israel-Iran conflict and to express solidarity with Palestinine. Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images
The imperial assault on Iran is punishment for the crime of sovereignty, a protracted siege that oppressed nations worldwide recognize as a weapon threatening their own future.
Originally published in Communist Party Marxist - Kenya.
From the Office of the General Secretary
Communist Party Marxist Kenya
Booker Omole
30 January 2026
The Communist Party Marxist Kenya speaks at a moment of grave danger and great possibility in world history.
The drums of war beat once again.
The sanctions tighten once again.
The same old empire sharpens its knives once again.
Today the target is Iran.
Let us speak plainly and without diplomatic cowardice. Iran is not under attack because it is cruel. Iran is not under attack because it is backward. Iran is not under attack because it has failed its people.
Iran is under attack because it refuses to kneel before United States imperialism.
That is the crime.
That is always the crime.
For more than four decades the Iranian nation has refused submission. It has refused to hand over its oil. It has refused to surrender its sovereignty. It has refused to convert itself into a puppet state policed by Washington and Tel Aviv.
And for this refusal it has been punished with sanctions, sabotage, encirclement, threats, and endless propaganda.
This is not diplomacy. This is siege warfare.
Sanctions are not policy instruments. Sanctions are weapons.
They are weapons aimed not at ministers but at workers. Not at generals but at children. Not at palaces but at the poor.
Sanctions mean hospitals without medicine. Factories without parts. Families without bread. Youth without a future.
Sanctions are bombs that explode slowly.
And when slow death fails, imperialism prepares fast death.
Warships gather. Bases multiply. Terrorist designations are issued. Psychological warfare floods the airwaves. Regime change is openly discussed in Washington boardrooms.
This is the same script we have seen before.
It was used against Iraq. It was used against Libya. It was used against Syria. It was used against Venezuela. It is used daily against Cuba and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
And we in Africa know this script better than most.
We have buried its victims.
Congo was looted in the name of stability. Libya was destroyed in the name of democracy. Somalia was militarised in the name of security. Across our continent the IMF dictates policy while our people tighten their belts.
Kenya itself is not free.
Foreign military bases sit on our soil. Debt chains our economy. Our budget answers to the World Bank before it answers to the people. Our youth migrate because imperialism has suffocated national development.
So when Iran is strangled, we do not observe from a distance.
We recognise the same hand on our own throat.
Those who imagine that the destruction of Iran would mean freedom for its people are either naïve or dishonest. Wherever imperialism intervenes, it leaves only ashes. It does not build nations. It breaks them. It does not bring democracy. It installs puppets.
Imperialism does not liberate. It dominates.
As Marxists we analyse scientifically.
We ask one decisive question.
Who benefits.
Do sanctions hurt Wall Street or Iranian workers. Do threats weaken the Pentagon or the Iranian peasantry. Does regime change strengthen the masses or multinational corporations.
The answer is obvious.
Therefore the principal contradiction is clear.
The main enemy is not the internal contradictions of Iranian society. Every society has contradictions and the Iranian people alone have the right to resolve them.
The main enemy is external aggression by US imperialism and its allies.
And Marxists always strike the main enemy.
To side, even indirectly, with imperialist narratives is to disarm the oppressed. To echo the propaganda of Washington is to serve the very system that loots Africa and Asia.
We refuse such revisionism. We refuse such confusion.
The Communist Party Marxist Kenya stands firmly and unequivocally with the sovereignty of the Iranian nation.
We affirm that no people can be bombed into freedom.
We affirm that no nation can be sanctioned into democracy.
We affirm that self determination cannot grow under foreign occupation or economic strangulation.
Iran today stands as a line of resistance against the arrogance of the powerful United States empire. By refusing submission, it defends not only itself but all oppressed nations.
When Iran resists, the empire is weakened.
When the empire is weakened, Africa breathes.
When one nation stands upright, others learn that they too can stand.
Thus Iran’s struggle is not separate from ours.
It is connected to Kenya.
It is connected to Congo.
It is connected to Palestine.
It is connected to every worker and peasant fighting to live with dignity.
Internationalism is not charity. It is shared destiny.
For this reason the Communist Party Marxist Kenya declares:
We oppose all sanctions against Iran.
We oppose all military threats and preparations for war.
We condemn all imperialist interference in Iran’s internal affairs.
We uphold the right of the Iranian people to determine their own political and economic future.
We call upon the workers, youth and patriots of Kenya and Africa to intensify the struggle against imperialism in all its forms.
Let the imperialists understand this clearly.
The age when Africa and Asia could be bullied without resistance is ending.
The era of submission is over.
The oppressed are learning to stand.
Iran stands today as a symbol of dignity, sovereignty, and defiance.
And in defending its sovereignty, it defends the dignity of Kenya. It defends the dignity of Africa. It defends the future of all oppressed humanity.
History is not written by empires in decline.
History is written by the peoples who resist.
Long live proletarian internationalism.
Long live African and West Asian solidarity.
Down with US imperialism.
Forward to sovereignty, dignity, and socialism.
Booker Omole
General Secretary
Communist Party Marxist Kenya
The same sports media that celebrate Jaxson Dart's endorsement of Donald Trump called Kaepernick's anti-police violence protest disrespectful. The racial double standard has not changed since the…
"Short word problems: do the math" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
On May 30, 2026, a Celebration of the Life and Legacy of Assata Shakur was held at the Riverside Church in New York City. Dhoruba Bin Wahad, co-founder of the Black Liberation Army, wrote these words…
Former Bolivian president Evo Morales Ayma spoke with Black Agenda Report correspondent Clau O’Brien Moscoso.
