The following is a lightly edited transcript of a speech given at a Peace Action Wellington vigil on 2 March 2026, within days of attacks on Iran by Israel and the USA.
A video recording of this speech is available here: https://youtu.be/6LMDO3QA–M
Ko Serah tōku ingoa. I’m a member of the International Socialist Organisation and the Pōneke Anti-Fascist Coalition, and I’ve been asked to share a few words this afternoon. Thanks all of you for being out here, standing for what is right; standing against war.
The USA calls the attack on Iran “Operation Epic Fury” and according to president Donald Trump this is “the largest, the most complex, the most overwhelming military offensive the world has ever seen.” Of course we all know Trump is one of those people whose ego and ambition is paramount and who has little regard for the truth, so we can take such words with a mountain of salt; but nonetheless this kind of rhetoric belies the president’s, and the USA state’s, enthusiasm for and dedication to military onslaught and imperialist intervention in general. The term we heard through the early 2000s, in the USA’s invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, was “shock and awe.” Trump is demonstrating himself as committed to the same project; he’s just even less articulate than George W. Bush was.
Trump has said of the deaths of USA military personnel resulting from Iran’s response: “sadly there will likely be more before it ends… because that’s the way it is.” The USA military actively targets recruitment from high schools in low-income and rural communities. The warmongers who rule the USA are more than willing to throw the oppressed of their own nation into the military meat grinder to fuel their imperialist machine.
New Zealand’s own far-right shitstain David Seymour wrote on social media, shortly after Israel and the USA’s attacks and alongside an image of the monarchist Iran flag: “Let freedom reign this time.” I won’t be shedding any tears for the death of Iran’s so-called supreme leader, Khamenei. But no one should be under any illusions that his murder is in any way a win for the oppressed of Iran. First, Khamenei’s death isn’t isolated. At the time of writing this speech, the death toll from an airstrike on a single school is 148, and many more innocent civilians will be murdered with each of the USA’s and Israel’s attacks. The USA’s murder of Vietnam’s civilians in the 1960s were disingenuously called “isolated incidents.” When the USA attacked Iraq in the 1990s, civilian deaths were dispassionately called “collateral damage”. The USA’s position is clear: the murder of civilians is acceptable to achieve imperial goals. War on Iran does not create any kind freedom for Iran’s people, regardless of what Seymour or others want us to believe. Freedom will come from the people of Iran themselves rising up against and overthrowing their oppressors.
Israel is using the strikes in part to distract from the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, the ongoing oppression of Palestinians in the West Bank, and the turn of a tide of global opinion as more and more people become aware of Israel’s absolute illegitimacy. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu also has ambitions for a so-called “greater Israel“, and any display of military might and ruthlessness serves that expansionist goal. Trump, too, is distracting from his own internal troubles: his dominance of the USA is challenged by powerful and effective resistance to the fascist street-thugs of ICE, building on organising experience from the Black Lives Matter movement.
Sadly, some foolishly look to a monarchist solution to Iran’s woes, supporting the return to power of a so-called prince, son of Iran’s shah who preceded the current theocratic regime. That shah sat atop power obtained by the UK- and USA-backed 1953 overthrow of Iran’s democratically-elected prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. Western imperialism is showing itself to be nothing if not persistent.
Events such as these can be disheartening. Recognising the sheer scale of our opponents, and of their persistent commitment to slaughter, can be heartbreaking. What is critical in this moment is that we don’t lose hope and we don’t lose resolve. What stops the war machine is effective resistance of the oppressed against the oppressors. Simultaneously. Everywhere. We’re not free until we’re all free. That means standing in solidarity with the people of Iran who deserve to be free from Israel’s missiles and USA’s bombs and the Iranian regime’s brutal repression. That means standing in solidarity with the people of the USA who take to the streets and resist their government’s slide into fascism. That means continued solidarity with the Palestinian cause. And that means us fighting against the ruling class here in New Zealand; taking to the streets like we’re doing right now, demanding our government condemn the USA and Israel. Demanding we withdraw from the Five Eyes spy network. Demand the expulsion of the FBI office from New Zealand. Demand we don’t share our peoples’ biometric data with the USA government. Demand we stay out of AUKUS. And demand a better future for all of us in Aotearoa and the whole world.
A better world is possible. Let’s achieve it together!
Image caption: Call to vigil: “No NZ support for US/Israeli war on the people of Iran”
