The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) condemns the United States government, led by Donald Trump, for sponsoring Apartheid Israel, in its war against Iran. What we witnessed was the American empire, once again, drunk on its own power, and driving an imperialist campaign in the Middle-East. Last weekend the U.S. implemented ‘Operation Hammer’ where it dropped a series of bombs on Iran. According to news reports, three nuclear facilities were targeted, Fordo, Natanza and Isfaham. The attack included fighter jets, enemy aircraft and surface-to air missiles, as well as ‘bunker buster bombs’.
The direct involvement of the United States was sparked by the Apartheid state of Israel, which launched an unprovoked attack on Iran on the 13th of June killing some of Iran’s top military officials, nuclear scientists and bombing targets across the country. Apartheid Israel claims that the strike was ‘preventative’ because Iran is on the verge of making a nuclear bomb. (It is important to highlight that Israel has been making this claim, without evidence, since 1996). There is no evidence of Iran making a nuclear weapon, however, Apartheid Israel reportedly has nuclear weapons.
Iran has consistently stated that its nuclear programme is used for peaceful purposes such as medical and scientific research and development as well as generating affordable electricity. The U.S Director of Intelligence told Congress in March this year that America’s intelligence agencies found that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon, and that, the nuclear weapons program has been suspended since 2003. Furthermore, the International Atomic energy Agency of the U.N. has been monitoring Iran and found that Iran was not actively developing a weapons program.
It is also important to remember that war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu was also leading the charge when he lobbied the Bush administration in 2002 to attack Iraq because he falsely claimed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. This piece of false propaganda resulted in regime change in Iraq, and the country has been destabilized ever since.
Since the attack by Israel, Iran responded by also sending missiles directly into Israel, on the basis that it has a sovereign right to defend itself.
The initial attack by Apartheid Israel was fully supported by the United States government which delivered 300 hellfire missiles to support Israel in the attack. It also provided air and sea support to shoot down Iranian missiles, and its technology was used to counter Iranian attacks.
Since then a fragile ceasefire is in place which was negotiated by President Donald Trump. But this ceasefire is tenuous and at any time, war-mongering Israel may violate the ceasefire and attack Iran. Furthermore, it is important to note that because the U.S. is directly involved in the war by providing military support to Israel, it is nonsensical to view their role as ‘peacemaker’ when they are directly involved in fuelling and funding Israel’s aggression in the region.
NUMSA is a peace-loving union and we hate war for the simple reason that those who suffer the most in a war, are the working class and the poor. Hundreds of civilians have been killed, and this is why we condemn both Apartheid Israel and the U.S. for attempting to deliberately destabilize the region.
What is the end game?
It seems evident that both Israel and the U.S. are determined to implement regime change in Iran. According to German media house, DW Donald Trump has tweeted about this on social media saying,
“It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change?? MIGA!!!”
Trump has also claimed that if they wanted to, they could kill Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Netanyahu has also called on the ‘proud people of Iran’ to stand up for their freedom against a ‘repressive regime’.
This is not the first time the United States has abused its power and sowed chaos in order to remove leaders of nations that it did not like. History is littered with the corpses of leaders that the U.S. assassinated such as Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso; Patrice Lumumba of the Democratic Republic of Congo; Muammar Gadaffi of Libya; the U.S. sponsored an attempted coup in Venezuela, and now it has its eye on Iran’s leader as well. In this case it seems the modus operandi is to create chaos in the local population by bombing them to smithereens, so that they lose confidence in the government, and overthrow it.
Israel has admitted it could not have waged war against Iran without the help of the U.S. This should not surprise us at all because previous administrations have consistently supported Israel by giving it billions of dollars to fund its war machinery. Both Biden and Trump are the same, and have jointly given over 20 billion dollars in support for Israel.
At the NUMSA NEC which was held from the 12th to the 15th of February 2025 we said the dominant two-party political system led by the Republicans and the Democrats, have the same imperialistic, Zionist ideology;
“On the emergence of Trump, who is no different to Biden’s tenure of leadership and Kamala Harris, the NEC was unanimous in pointing out that in as much as Biden would have appeared to be different to Trump, his complete refusal and his uncompromising stance in sending the latest modern weapons to Netanyahu which were directly used in killing Palestinians to take forward the genocide was a clear confirmation according to NUMSA NEC that he was nothing less than a racist Zionist. As such in a few months it has become clear that in Trump the US is led by the worst monster that is worse than Biden in pursuing Netanyahu’s Zionist interest in Palestine. This according to the NEC has demonstrated to the progressive people of the world that we are going to be confronted by worse forms of racism and that the people of Palestine are facing the worst forms of attack from a Zionist racist Netanyahu-Trump alliance that has resolved right from the beginning to embark on ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in their own land with exactly the same features of Hitler who embarked on a genocide against the Jews. Clearly the combination of Trump and the arrogant racist billionaire Elon Musk has bestowed once again backward and primitive dictatorial leadership on the global stage. In fact, the NEC was very clear that we are confronted by fascism. And whenever billionaires are involved it is the people who continue to be the losers”.
The United States has been funding endless wars for decades, because its economy is built on the military-industrial complex. Capitalism by its very nature is brutal therefore it should surprise no one that America is willing to sacrifice its sons and daughters in order to feed the war machinery and generate infinite profits for the military.
NUMSA is in solidarity with the people of Iran
NUMSA stands in full solidarity with the Iranian people. Resistance to imperialism and oppression is both legitimate and necessary. The international community continues to be silent in the face of Israel’s violation of international law. They are being allowed to destabilize an entire region, and that also includes violating the principles of peace, human rights and self-determination. Israel has completely destabilized the Middle East by launching wars against Syria, Yemen, Iran and Lebanon and it has been systematically wiping out Palestinian people through a genocide in Gaza and the West Bank.
Israel’s litany of war crimes includes the bombing of all of Palestine’s hospitals; it has deliberately targeted and destroyed universities and schools. It has wiped out entire families, and its soldiers deliberately shoot children and women. Journalists have not been spared with Israel having the dubious record of having murdered the highest number of journalists in the world. It has openly burnt people alive, including children. There seems to be no limits to its depravity and in its goal to ethnically cleanse Palestinians.
Despite its unforgivable actions, and its deliberate violation of basic human rights and international law, the Western world has turned a blind eye to its rogue activities. The question is when will Israel’s lust for blood be satisfied? How much chaos and how many people must die, before Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet of war criminals are satisfied?
NUMSA has consistently called for sanctions to be imposed on Israel and we continue to make that call. We are also in full support of the South African government’s moral stance to take this matter to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in order to ensure that Israel is held accountable for its war crimes.
This is why at the same NEC we further endorsed that NUMSA must participate on a campaign that Glencore must not continue to export our countries coal to a genocidal Israel that is killing the people of Palestine. NUMSA will engage on this campaign with all other progressive formations, including the BDS movement.
“The NEC was very unanimous that the only way of confronting the global challenge of fascism and the new geopolitical shifts is to go back to basics. That of organising and uniting the working class as the working class is the only class capable of carrying the revolution to its logical conclusion.
The NEC made a clarion call that the union must continue to champion and promote a united struggle of workers of the world with a particular focus on our own continent where we must promote worker-to-worker and union-to-union contact and continue with our correct position of making a clarion call to end all the wars in Africa, and in the world”.
Only a militant, progressive united working class, driving its own agenda can defeat fascism and this is the time for the working class in South Africa, and also on the continent and around the world, to unite. NUMSA is inspired by the words of Fidel Castro who said, “No thieves, no traitors, no interventionists! This time the revolution is for real!”.
When united behind a common vision, the working class becomes an unstoppable force for transformation. Now more than ever, we must forge deep, principled unity within our own formations, rooted in discipline, solidarity, and shared purpose. At the same time, we must actively consolidate alliances with progressive, like-minded forces that are equally committed to dismantling systems of exploitation and building a society that serves the needs of the majority, not the interests of the elite. Our own experience in the battle against apartheid in South Africa has shown us that revolutionary unity is not an abstract ideal, it is a weapon against oppression.
ENDS.
Issued on behalf of NUMSA.
Irvin Jim
NUMSA General Secretary
For more information, please contact:
Phakamile Hlubi-Majola
NUMSA National Spokesperson
0833767725
NUMSA Head Office number: 0116891700
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NUMSA Twitter account: @Numsa_Media
NUMSA Website: https://numsa.org.za/
PDF DOWNLOAD: NUMSA statement on the U.S. sponsored war against Iran