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More evident than ever: The escalation of imperialist war
Via the Communist Party of Greece Military operations and the expansion of the battlefields are more visible than ever, from Ukraine and the Black Sea to Iran, the Persian Gulf, Yemen, Lebanon and Syria. This stands as irrefutable evidence of the escalation of imperialist war. No two days on the battlefield are the same. The war is spreading, sometimes slowly and sometimes more rapidly. Here are just a few examples of recent developments... In the conflict between NATO and R

The Left Chapter
Sep 183 min read


Iran Reverses the Asymmetry
Public domain image. By Vijay Prashad On 2 September, fragments from a US missile tore through the roof of a wedding celebration in Kuhestak, in Iran’s southern county of Sirik. Four people were killed, including a child, and sixty-eight were wounded. The United States has made a custom of bombing weddings – in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and now Iran. When US Vice-President J. D. Vance was asked about the dead, he shrugged: ‘Things happen’. The sentence should be entered into

The Left Chapter
Sep 66 min read


Pattern of overwork, abuse, poor working conditions across US Armed Forces
The conditions have been reportedly so horrible on the USS Lincoln that, according to a video obtained by The Crimson Ledger, it left 6 sailors to choose between life on the boat, and potential death in the water. By R. L. Richards, The Crimson Ledger, Washington DC In the North Arabian Sea, the illegal and unauthorized war into the sovereign state of Iran pushes onward despite legal and political resistance to US President Donald Trump’s clearly genocidal and colonial campai

The Left Chapter
Aug 255 min read


Iran Is Being Driven Towards the Nuclear Threshold
Iranian missile display at the Holy Defense Museum in Tehran -- Fars Media Corporation, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Vijay Prashad The gravest danger in the present war is not that Iran has already decided to manufacture a nuclear weapon. There is no verified evidence of such a decision. The danger is that another major US escalation could convince Tehran that remaining a non-nuclear state inside the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) no longer provides protection, recogni

The Left Chapter
Aug 256 min read


Against the False Symmetry of the Scissors: An Open Letter While Iran Resists an Illegal War of Aggression
Axadem, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Vijay Prashad Dear friends and colleagues, The United States and Israel launched a war of aggression against Iran in February of this year. For six months, US missiles and bombs have fallen upon civilian and military targets inside the country. Hospitals, schools, energy facilities, and neighbourhoods have been struck. The 168 schoolgirls killed in Minab have become the terrible symbol of this war. Iranians have been forced to live

The Left Chapter
Aug 237 min read


Iran Has Changed the Question. Washington Has No Answer
Vessels in the Staright of Hormuz -- image via news video screenshot By Vijay Prashad For more than three decades, the United States has treated Middle Eastern diplomacy as an exercise in writing the terms for others. Iran’s emerging regional strategy is challenging that privilege. The immediate evidence is emerging in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran and Oman are negotiating an arrangement under which Tehran could oversee vessels entering the Gulf while Muscat manages outbound tra

The Left Chapter
Aug 76 min read


"Endless War" and the Perilous Future Facing Iran and the Middle East
Battalion Landing Team 3/5, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, conducting a maritime interception operation, July 16, 2026 -- public domain image Via the Tudeh Party of Iran Translated Excerpts from the Editorial of Nameh Mardom, issue no. 1265, published Monday 27 July 2026 The devastating war unleashed by the third act of aggression by United States-led imperialism against our homeland [in just over one year] has, over the past thirteen days, inflicted severe damage on the cou

The Left Chapter
Aug 38 min read


A Brief History of How Countries Sleepwalk Into War
From the Civil War and World War I to the ongoing conflict in Iran, America’s and other nations’ expectations of war have repeatedly been challenged by the realities that emerge once fighting begins. U.S. Marines in their gas masks during a gas mask drill, France, WWI, 1917 By John P. Ruehl A nominal ceasefire reached in April 2026 has done little to halt the escalation in the Persian Gulf. After Iran’s “attempted surprise attack” against US forces on July 28, the US retaliat

The Left Chapter
Jul 308 min read


Washington’s Nuclear Double Standard in West Asia
Marco Rubio meets with the Saudi Foreign Minister, June 25, 2026 -- public domain image By Vijay Prashad On 22 July, the United States and Saudi Arabia signed what Washington calls a ‘peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement.’ The agreement has been presented as a commercial arrangement that will help Saudi Arabia diversify its energy system while creating a vast new market for US-based nuclear companies. But its significance goes far beyond the construction of power stations.

The Left Chapter
Jul 288 min read


Ukraine: America’s Enduring Proxy War on Russia
Eisenhower’s warning that US policy would be captured by a scientific-technological elite supplies a specific reason the US sustains the Ukraine war: Ukraine has become a unique, live-fire laboratory for AI warfare at scale. President Donald J. Trump with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the 2026 NATO Summit -- public domain image By Jeffrey D. Sachs and Sybil Fares, Common Dreams In his farewell address of January 1961, Dwight Eisenhower warned Americans against th

The Left Chapter
Jul 217 min read


South African Communists condemn US-Israel war against Iran
SACP condemns the continued US-Israel war against Iran Sunday, 19 July 2026: The South African Communist Party (SACP) condemns the continued US-Israel war against Iran, which has caused massive devastation to the people of Iran and undermined the ceasefire. This is a violation of international law. Following a brief period of cessation of hostilities, the US government resumed its military campaign against Iran, seeking to elevate its war operations. The 82-day ceasefire brok

The Left Chapter
Jul 202 min read


Elbows Up Farce: Con Man Carney Capitulates to Trump - The Left Chapter w. Michael Laxer
The Left Chapter's editor Michael Laxer looks at how Con Man Carney's BS about "Elbows Up" is a total farce as the Canadian government capitulates to Trump. Con Man Carney's cowardice has never been more on display than in recent days as he backed Trump's renewed attacks on Iran and, even more shamefully, abstained in the vote at the UN to allow a debate around the intensified, genocidal blockade of Cuba.

The Left Chapter
Jul 101 min read


Ceasefire but Not a Grand Bargain Between the United States and Iran
Trump signs a Memorandum of Understanding between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States on June 17 -- public domain image By Vijay Prashad The Iran–US Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) emerged not from reconciliation, but from exhaustion and strategic failure by the United States and its allies. It was the product of a war that had reached its political limits. Washington and Tel Aviv presented their illegal war of aggression as a necessary response to Iran’s nuc

The Left Chapter
Jun 237 min read


War is a way of life for the bourgeoisie
A U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon, June 5, 2026 -- public domain image Via the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Statements by representatives of various bourgeois staffs expressing concern over the escalation of imperialist competition and warning of the irreversible trend toward the generalization of conflicts are becoming increasingly frequent. Referring to the successive crises of the past fifteen years, the Managing Director of the IMF director said a few days ago that

The Left Chapter
Jun 203 min read


La máquina y la escuela: Anthropic y la guerra de los EE. UU. contra Irán
Funeral of the victims of the Minab Primary School for Girls bombing -- Tasnim News Agency, via Wikimedia Commons By Vijay Prashad En la ciudad de Minab, al sur de Irán, donde el calor se eleva de la tierra en ondas resplandecientes y la realidad del imperialismo persiste en cada puerto e instalación militar, un misil impactó en una escuela el 28 de febrero de 2026. El ataque mató a 156 personas, entre ellas 120 escolares, lo que el gobierno iraní calificó inmediatamente de “

The Left Chapter
Jun 185 min read


The Machine and the Schoolhouse: Anthropic and the US War on Iran
Funeral of the children of Minab Primary School for Girls killed during Saturday 28 Feb. 2026 bombardment of the school -- Tasnim News Agency, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Vijay Prashad In the southern Iranian city of Minab, where the heat rises from the earth in shimmering waves and the reality of imperialism lingers in every port and military installation, a missile struck a school on 28 February 2026. The strike killed 156 people, notably 120 schoolchildren, which t

The Left Chapter
Jun 165 min read


The Desolation of the Word “Ceasefire”
Israeli forces operating around Beaufort Castle in Lebanon on May 31 -- IDF Spokesperson's Unit By Vijay Prashad There are moments in history when words lose their meaning. Not because dictionaries are rewritten, nor because language itself changes, but because political power empties words of the realities they once described. The word ceasefire has increasingly acquired this desolate quality when used by Israeli and US officials. What was once understood to mean the suspens

The Left Chapter
Jun 35 min read


Trump’s State Visit to Beijing and the New Cold War on Asia
Trump arrives in Beijing -- image via the White House on X By Tings Chak From Beijing this week, the first US state visit to China in nine years is being staged for the world to see. The Great Hall of the People is open to Donald Trump, who has traveled with eighteen US executives—Apple, Tesla, BlackRock, Boeing, and Nvidia among them. A state banquet on Thursday, followed by tea and lunch on Friday. On the streets of Beijing, ‘the Beast‘ has been securing the motorcade route

The Left Chapter
May 134 min read


Cuba hits back at Trump with Iran style Lego video
Screenshot from video Cuba has responded to Trump’s aggressive, bombastic and overtly violent and imperialist rhetoric towards the socialist nation with a symbolic Lego-style video inspired by Iran’s viral AI animations, emphasizing resilience and national dignity. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and other officials strongly criticized Trump’s comments suggesting Cuba’s government was in its “last moments.” Cuban leaders have said these remarks are attempts to pressure and

The Left Chapter
May 132 min read


From Ahura Mazda to Hormuz: What American Power Fails to See
Tracing the origins of the Strait of Hormuz to ancient Persian cosmology reveals how U.S. foreign policy toward Iran turns historically layered places into strategic abstractions, fueling instability across the Middle East. Marco Polo with elephants and camels arriving at Hormuz -- Boucicaut Master, (fl.1390-1430) (and workshop), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Martina Moneke To speak of the Strait of Hormuz today is already to enter a language of reduction. In policy

The Left Chapter
May 126 min read
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