The Socialist Equality Party and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality are holding a series of public meetings in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Newcastle and in Wellington, New Zealand, to discuss the socialist and internationalist strategy that must be adopted to stop the war against Iran.

The world stands at one of the most dangerous crossroads in modern history. On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel launched a massive, unprovoked military assault against Iran—a historically oppressed nation that posed no military threat. Iran’s Supreme Leader and dozens of senior officials were killed. A girls’ elementary school was bombed, with scores of children among the dead. Thousands of people have since been murdered by US and Israeli bombs.

The Trump administration is waging this criminal war despite mass opposition from the American working class and the vast majority of the world’s population. Hundreds of millions of people are being plunged into poverty and hunger due to the blocking of the critical Strait of Hormuz supply route.

Meanwhile, Israel wages a brutal war of extermination in Lebanon and is extending its genocide of Palestinians from Gaza into the West Bank. These wars, along with the attack on Venezuela and the ongoing war against Russia over Ukraine, are not isolated conflicts.

The war in Iran is the culmination of a 35 year period which began with the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union. Trump’s threats to “end their civilisation” is the most grotesque expression of the policy of military war to resolve US imperialism’s declining economic situation. This is part of a developing Third World War, in which US imperialism is seeking to seize markets and resources and redivide the globe at the expense of Russia and China.

The capitalist class in Australia and New Zealand are not bystanders: these junior imperialist powers want a seat at the table for the violent redivision of the world. Both governments—Anthony Albanese’s Labor government in Australia and the conservative coalition led by Christopher Luxon in NZ—have lined up squarely behind the criminal US-Israeli onslaught.

Australian military personnel were aboard the US submarine which sank the unarmed Iranian navy ship IRIS Dena—an act of cold-blooded mass murder—and Australian SAS forces have been deployed to the Middle East. In New Zealand, Luxon has echoed the lying war propaganda from Trump and Netanyahu, saying that the war is “to prevent Iran from continuing to threaten international peace and security.”

The political establishment in both countries is committing to record levels of military spending, in order to integrate into the US-led military encirclement and far-advanced preparations for war against China—the main rival of US imperialism. The massive levels of spending on war are being gouged from the social programs of health, education and welfare payments plunging the working class in both countries into further poverty.

The critical question is: How can the working class stop the global descent into barbarism and war?

These meetings will expose the politically criminal role played by pseudo-left organisations, such as Socialist Alternative in Australia and Socialist Aotearoa in NZ. As they have done throughout the Gaza genocide, these middle class groups are seeking to channel anti-war sentiment behind the pro-imperialist Labor and Green parties and the trade union bureaucracy.

Speakers from the Socialist Equality Party (Australia), the Socialist Equality Group (NZ) and the IYSSE will discuss the origins and driving forces of the US-Israeli war. They will explain the socialist political program that must be adopted to unite the working class internationally to put an end to war and fascist dictatorship by abolishing the capitalist system which is their root cause.

We urge all our readers to share this meeting notice widely, and to register and make plans to attend one of the following meetings and participate in this critical discussion:

NEW ZEALAND
When: 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 19
Where: AM101 in the Alan MacDiarmid Building at Victoria University of Wellington (Kelburn campus).
Register here

MELBOURNE
When: 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 24
Where: Community Hall A, Djerring Flemington Hub, 25 Mt Alexander Road, Flemington
Register here

SYDNEY
When: 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 31
Where: Community Room 1, Bryan Brown Theatre, 80 Rickard Rd, Bankstown
Register here

BRISBANE
When: 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 31
Where: Richlands Community Centre, 75 Old Progress Rd, Richlands
Register here

NEWCASTLE
When: 1 p.m. Saturday, June 5
Where: VG07 University of Newcastle (Callaghan campus)
Register here