President Bill Clinton's decision to slap a trade embargo on Iran is an outrageous assault on the national sovereignty of that Persian Gulf country. The labor movement should demand that Washington withdraw the trade ban immediately.

Washington can never forgive the workers and peasants of Iran for the revolution they made in 1979 that overthrew the U.S.-backed regime of the Shah and tore down a pillar of imperialist domination in the Middle East. The economic embargo aims to brutalize the toiling majority of that country.

In addition, the U.S. ruling families see Iran's growing economic and political clout in the region as a menace to their interests.

The hypocrisy of the bipartisan gang in Washington on the question of nuclear weapons and "terrorism" can't even be read on the scale. The U.S. government - the only one ever to drop atomic bombs on human beings, and the largest stockpiler of nuclear warheads - is trying to maintain the nuclear status quo in the current talks on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons treaty. Washington prefers that its friends and clients holding the bomb - such as Tel Aviv - be allowed to do the same. At the same time it demands that the rest of the world never build nuclear weapons, it insists on its right to both stockpile and use them.

Surely, the government that waged a war in which 3 million Vietnamese were killed, is the chief backer of the genocidal Guatemalan military, organized the war against the Nicaraguan revolution and the slaughter of tens of thousands of Iraqis, and incinerated scores of men, women, and children at the Branch Davidian complex in Waco, Texas, has no right to pretend it is an opponent of "terrorism."

The concern in the big-business press for how the embargo will affect large U.S. oil companies is largely a smokescreen. The tentacles of Big Oil reach far and wide, and the oil barons are not overly concerned; they know they'll be able to get plenty of crude to satisfy their profit hunger. Who can say where oil that Exxon refines really comes from?

The White House and its applauding counterparts in the legislative branch also have other targets in mind: the U.S. ruling families' rivals in Japan, and the Russian government.

Japan imports about 600,000 barrels of oil per day from Iran. With little oil resources of its own, the island is extremely vulnerable to threats to its supply. Choking off a portion of Tokyo's oil supply is a dagger aimed at the heart of its economy. Washington is sending a warning to its imperialist rivals in Japan.

It is worth recalling that it was Washington's imposition of an oil embargo against Japan prior to World War II that led to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The White House is also using the opportunity to pounce on the Russian government. Washington is furious over Moscow's repeated refusal to kowtow to U.S. economic and diplomatic dictates. The Yeltsin regime's opposition to the expansion of NATO and its trade initiatives have irritated the U.S. government, which expects Moscow to yield like an obedient dog for a few dollars of loans from the International Monetary Fund.

Hands off Iran!

Cancel the trade embargo!  
 
 
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