The Threat of Bigger War Is Growing

May 4, 2026

The following is taken from speeches given at the meeting in Detroit on April 26.

Two months ago, Trump, aided by his partner Netanyahu, started the latest attack in the U.S. government’s continuing war against Iran. While Trump’s envoys were in the middle of supposedly negotiating an agreement with Iran, Trump suddenly ordered a sneak attack. The U.S. military, along with the Israeli military, began dropping bombs and firing missiles into Iran. Israel took advantage of the U.S. attack on Iran to bomb and invade Lebanon.

The consequences of this barbaric war have been devastating. While Trump acts like an unhinged madman, proclaiming himself doing “God’s work,” the war he ordered has killed thousands of people in Iran and thousands more in Lebanon. The U.S. hit military targets in Iran, but also bombed many populated areas, including Tehran, a city of almost 10 million people. On the first day of the war, a U.S. missile blew up a school, killing over a hundred young girls. Since then, the U.S. has bombed more schools and a number of hospitals in Iran. This is terrorism carried out by the U.S. government. Pure and simple terrorism.

In Iran, U.S. attacks have destroyed factories, steel plants and oil infrastructure, putting millions of people out of work and devastating the Iranian economy.

In Lebanon, Israel dropped bombs on Beirut, a city of over 2 million people. Netanyahu’s military forced a million people in southern Lebanon to flee their homes and many now have no home to go back to. Even after a ceasefire was called, Israel bombed out all the bridges going into southern Lebanon.

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In response to the U.S. attack, the Iranian regime has blocked the Strait of Hormuz. Not to be outdone and to show that he is in control of everything, Trump ordered his own blockade on Hormuz. Now a water route that is crucial for the whole world’s economy is shut down, and this blockade is disrupting supply chains everywhere. About 20% of the world’s oil and natural gas passes through the Strait. So do crucial supplies of fertilizer, helium that is needed for computer chips, and other chemical products. Supplies of all of these products are dwindling, and prices are going up around the world. In the U.S., we are paying higher gas prices. In parts of Asia, gas is running out. Farmers in Africa and much of the world depend on the fertilizer supply from the Middle East, meaning that food production around the world is being endangered and may be reduced.

The damage that has already been done to the world’s economy may be irreparable.… At the very least, it will take years, or even decades, to put back together this economic system that depends on oil and other resources from the Middle East.

Today there is a supposed ceasefire in this Middle East war. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow. But even if there is an agreement announced, it doesn’t mean that this war is over. Remember, Trump bombed Iran last June, and just 10 months later, Trump came right back and started another war.

What we do know is that the whole world is tied together economically, and the economic consequences of this war are going to lead to more wars in the future. The threat of more wars is even greater today because Trump started this war against Iran.

Trump is acting like a deranged madman, but it is important to understand that this war is not just about Trump. The whole capitalist class that Trump is part of, that class is behind Trump. If Trump was going against the interests of the capitalist class who run this society, they would have gotten rid of him.

No, this war against Iran is not about only Trump. Wars are about capitalism. Wars are the logical consequence of the normal functioning of the capitalist system. The capitalists of each country exploit the labor of their own populations. But the capitalists also compete with each other, looking for cheaper labor and control of raw materials and natural resources around the world.

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Today the number of active wars has reached a level unseen since the end of World War Two. Today nearly half of the world’s population live in countries affected by war.… Today we can say that we are already in World War Three.

The Trump administration has said that it wants the U.S. military budget to be increased to 1.5 Trillion Dollars. And on top of that 1.5 Trillion, the U.S. government wants another 200 Billion Dollars to pay for the war in Iran. All of that money would mean a budget increase of over 50% from this year to the next. That increase would be the biggest year-over-year increase since World War Two.

The corporations that produce weapons and war materials and who profit from war are being asked to increase production. The government has already talked to other companies, including Ford and GM, about producing military materials, like they did during WWII.

The Trump administration is now going to automatically register every young man for military service when they turn 18. Young men are required right now to sign themselves up, but about 20% of them don’t do it. So, Trump is going to make sure that no one can get away without signing up. Doesn’t it sound like they are preparing to restart the draft?

The population in this country is already paying a price for the war against Iran.… The government has already cut social programs, like Medicaid, food stamps, education and childcare, to pay for the current military budget. The government is now planning even bigger cuts to programs that people need in order to pay for their increased military budget next year.

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The Working Class Needs Its Own Party

If we take a moment to think about it, we have been at war for so many years, in one part of the world or another, wars that most people don’t agree with. Using our wealth to kill and destroy. Why does it keep happening that we are sucked into conflicts that we don’t agree with?

Gas prices and grocery prices are on the rise. Jobs that provide a livable wage and affordable housing are few and getting worse. Those that have jobs are being pushed to do more and more and are seeing effects on their health. Household sizes are growing because people are unable to afford to live on their own. The cost of healthcare is so high that most people can’t afford it, with or without insurance.

The conditions we are living through now are not new. We have seen economic hardship, racial oppression and an out of touch government for a very, very long time. It is easy and accurate to blame Trump and his administration for what we are currently seeing in the Middle East. But the manipulation and oppression of the working class did not start with him. President after president, Democrat or Republican, there have been wars and there have been attacks on the working class.

Over the decades we have seen ordinary people like you and me rise up to confront these problems head on and push back on the capitalist steamroller. In the 1930s, during the time of the Great Depression, there were no jobs, no food, no housing, but the working class found a way to organize itself and fight back. People organized defense for those that were unemployed. Ford workers at the Rouge plant came together and marched to fight hunger. There were general strikes in Toledo, San Francisco and Minneapolis. Here in Michigan, we had the Flint sit-down strike where for 44 days, workers occupied the factories and were able to organize themselves to have the necessities for daily life. By 1936, there were over 2,200 strikes all over the country.

Faced with increasing pressure on their profits, the capitalist class was forced to recognize unions, and millions of unskilled industrial workers were organized into industrial unions. This worked to the advantage of the ruling class because they then used union leaders as a way to control workers.

Union leaders were used as tools to hold the workers back, instead of using their own power. There were huge decreases in the number of workers’ strikes. Strikes were stopped and workers were told to fall in line behind the Democrats.

Then there was the Black mobilization, which occurred over generations, from 1943 to 1971. It started with the civil rights movement, whose focus was to overturn Jim Crow laws but quickly morphed into so much more. There was the Alabama bus boycott in 1955, which eventually spread to over 150 cities. There were sit-ins at lunch counters, and the Freedom Riders. By 1963, a younger generation was fed up with treatment they received and began to take it to the streets. There were huge uprisings all across the country, and a revolution seemed possible. But as many of you know, it was violently pushed back. The Black mobilization had the human forces and the determination, but they were not prepared to take the fight up and over the obstacle directly in front of them. They were not organized on the basis of class. So, the population was, once again, only given small crumbs and saw only a few gains. But as soon as things quieted down, many of the gains were taken back. And just like with the strike wave in the ’30s, the black population was told to just follow the Democrats and change would come. Once again workers were told to stay within the system, told that now is not the time to form your own party, to have your own voice.

Both the strike movement in the 1930s and the Black mobilization in the 1940s to 1970s rocked the foundation of this class society, but that wasn’t enough to tear it down and build anew. In both examples, the working class was fighting against oppression and had the forces to do it, yet the corporations and their politicians were able to organize themselves to undermine working-class actions. They used the movements’ own leaders, they used the media, churches, politicians, labor spies and even organizations like the KKK, to try and stop the progress of the working class.

Both the Democrats and the Republicans serve the capitalist class. We need a party to represent us, the working class. In order to do that, we must begin to organize ourselves on a class basis. Not by race, gender, religion or sexual orientation. The capitalist class are able to divide and conquer when we shrink ourselves into small buckets rather than standing as a class, the working class.

We are trying to build this party. Our votes have increased year after year, we can see that people like what we are saying. But our party is still small. We need to spread the idea that working-class people need and can build their own party. We have no PAC money and no big corporations throwing money at us, so you won’t see television and billboard ads. This idea spreads through you and then those you know, and then who they know. This idea is not a Michigan idea; this idea needs to spread to every state. We have no borders.

But really, we all should know that it is going to take more than just a vote to change this society. Just look at who is in office. It is going to be the forces of those voters to push, tug and fight for the change that is necessary.

When we look back at history, whether it be the strike movement or the Black mobilization, people were ready to do all that was necessary to change their conditions. We must do the same. We must stop accepting the same old excuses: “It’s not the time to vote for a third party.” Or, “It’s a wasted vote.” We need to build the confidence in ourselves, as a class.

The Working Class Party will not be built by one or two or even ten people, it will be built by you. And it can only be built when the working class looks past our differences and begins to fight on the basis of what we have in common. The whole pie is ours, not just the crumbs. We grow the ingredients, we make it and we bake it. It is now time for us to eat it and leave them the crumbs.

We are the working class, and we must begin to stand up and protect others within our class, like the capitalists protect their own. Let us fight to build the Working Class Party.