The “inspectors” of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should get out of Iran now. The IAEA is simply acting as a worldwide police force to pressure Iran and other targeted countries into submitting to imperialist demands and abrogating their sovereign rights.

The latest moves by the three European powers and Washington to oppose the start-up of Iran’s nuclear fuel plant in Isfahan are part of a broader campaign by the imperialist powers, carried out in the name of preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, to prevent semicolonial nations from developing whatever sources of energy they need for economic, social, and cultural development.

The U.S. rulers are also targeting north Korea, demanding that it not construct light-water nuclear power reactors. Meanwhile, Washington’s allied regime in Seoul already has 20 such reactors and eight more under construction. And while Washington warns the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea against developing nuclear weapons, the regime in south Korea has admitted it produced weapons-grade plutonium and uranium in tests conducted as recently as 2000.

Nuclear power, of all the available energy sources today, produces the greatest amount of energy with the least use of resources and the least atmospheric pollution. As the supplies of oil, natural gas, and coal diminish and the economic and environmental cost of their use increases, more and more countries are looking to develop nuclear energy.

Iran has large reserves of oil today. These, the major powers arrogantly claim, are enough for Iran. Working people should respond: no, only Iran has the right to decide what resources to develop and how—not the imperialist overlords. Secondly, the Iranian people’s need to expand access to electrical power throughout the country is a real and growing need. The population of Iran has more than doubled since the 1979 revolution and Iran’s capacity to generate electricity through its aging oil- and gas-based system has not kept pace. Washington knew this was true three decades ago, when the U.S. government agreed to help their puppet there, the shah, begin developing nuclear energy.

Iran’s case is not unique. Two billion people—one-third of the world’s population—have no access to modern electricity. Electrification, an elementary precondition for the development of modern industry and cultural life, must be extended to all of the world’s 6 billion people. This is necessary to bridge the gap in economic and cultural conditions between toilers in the imperialist countries and colonial world. Supporting such efforts is essential to forge an international alliance of workers and farmers to fight for our common interests against the imperialist rulers and their worldwide system of exploitation and oppression.

The labor movement in the United States and internationally should side with Iran and other oppressed nations in their efforts to develop nuclear energy, and oppose the aggressive drive against them by Washington and its allies.

Imperialist hands off Iran and north Korea!
 
 
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Bush: war option vs. Iran ‘on table’  
 
 
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