On the afternoon of March 8, a large number of school pupils, students and young workers gathered for an online meeting of the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE). Under the title “Stop the war against Iran!” the participants discussed the devastating escalation in the Middle East and the need to mobilise the international working class against the looming danger of a Third World War.

Florian Hasek, spokesperson for the IYSSE in Stuttgart, chaired the event and immediately assessed the gravity of the situation. He referred to the attack by the US and Israel on Iran on February 28, which after just one week had already taken on the character of a war of annihilation. Hasek reported on the more than 2,000 deaths, targeted bombings of residential areas, hospitals and schools—including a girls’ school with over 140 victims between the ages of 7 and 12. He emphasised that the methods tested in the genocide in Gaza were now being applied to Iran.

Organised state murder and the tradition of “total war”

Tamino Dreisam, spokesperson for the IYSSE in Germany, gave the introductory report and painted a harrowing picture of imperialist aggression. He described the aggression against Iran, a country with 93 million inhabitants, as an “undoubted campaign of extermination.” Dreisam quoted the bloodthirsty rhetoric of US President Donald Trump, who openly declared: “We will bomb the hell out of Iran.”

This targeted extermination of the Iranian leadership and the ruthless bombing of civilians are no coincidence. Rather, they are examples of “organised state murder.” Dreisam drew a direct historical parallel to the Nazis’ declaration of “total war” and referred to the Nuremberg Trials, which classified the unleashing of a war of aggression as the supreme international crime.

Dreisam was particularly critical of the role played by the German government. He said that Chancellor Friedrich Merz had already shaken hands with Trump in the White House and pledged his full support for the overthrow of the regime in Tehran, while at the same time rearming the German army and reintroducing conscription. Dreisam also exposed the nefarious role of the Left Party: its chairman, Jan van Aken, openly cheered the assassination of Iranian state representatives with the words, “May they rot in hell,” thereby providing political justification for war crimes.

In the ensuing discussion, IYSSE members analysed the deeper causes of the escalation. Student Semyon explained that concerns about an Iranian nuclear bomb were a “lie from the outset.” In reality, he said, the issue is physical control over the oil and gas reserves of the Middle East and the strategic encirclement of China and Russia. Referring to a quote from Albert Einstein, he warned that imperialist rivalry was driving human civilisation to the brink of nuclear annihilation.

Semyon went on to explain that European powers such as Germany and France were supporting the war in order to secure their share of the spoils and at the same time keep the US on track in its proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. The crisis of world capitalism leaves only two paths open: the barbarism of world war or socialism.

Socialist consciousness vs. bourgeois propaganda

A central point of the discussion was the question of how to organise effective resistance. Joshua Seubert, a member of the IYSSE, sharply criticised the leadership of the recent school strikes against conscription. Although 50,000 students demonstrated nationwide last Thursday, the Stalinist leadership (SDAJ) deliberately excluded the war against Iran in order to limit the movement to the “lowest common denominator.” He warned that without an extension to the international working class, the movement would be co-opted, as had happened with the Fridays for Future movement.

In this context, student Tilo raised a crucial strategic question. He reported on the widespread illusion that the abolition of conscription alone would be enough to restore peace. Tilo asked how one could effectively convince people that socialism is the only way out, rather than limiting themselves to merely rejecting conscription. Joshua and Tamino replied that conscription was not an isolated problem but served to recruit young people as “cannon fodder” for imperialist wars, which is why the struggle against war must be inseparably linked to the struggle for socialism.

Thirteen-year-old schoolboy Henning took up this point and criticised the fact that young people in schools hardly ever get the chance to obtain real information about the background to political events. He emphasised that current events such as the attack on Iran are often not analysed enough in public, which is why many people do not understand where this development is leading.

Henning also emphasised the necessity for a genuine understanding of socialism, which must be understood as an international system and not confused with the Stalinist degenerations of the past. WSWS author Katerina Selin also emphasised the need for political education.

She explained that the ruling class systematically attempts to manipulate the consciousness of young people through the rewriting of history and visits by the armed forces to schools. “The first and most important task of a revolutionary is always to tell it like it is,” Katerina said. She pointed to the close connection between internal repression—such as the establishment of a dictatorship in the United States—and external aggression.

Maximilian, a young nurse, added that the one-sided presentation of history in school lessons was not an accident but a calculated move to portray capitalism as irrevocable. He called for the use of independent sources of information such as the World Socialist Web Site and tools such as Socialism AI.

Philipp Frisch, a long-time IYSSE member, reported on increasing censorship in schools, where teachers are being summoned to the school administration for mentioning the genocide in Gaza. He emphasised that teachers are dependent on student protest and called for political education in the tradition of the Russian and German revolutions.

At the end of the event, Florian Hasek invited all participants to join the IYSSE and take part in upcoming events in Leipzig, Berlin and Nuremberg on the theme “Where is America headed: Fascism or socialism?” He also referred to the WSWS international webinar on the same evening. Hasek concluded with an urgent appeal to understand political clarification as a prerequisite for victory over imperialism: “We must stop the war. This is a difficult task, but a feasible one.”