Around a thousand participants gathered in Frankfurt’s Römerberg square last Sunday for a rally under the slogan “Hands off Iran—stop US-Israeli aggression.”

The rally was organised by the Islamic Religious Community of Hesse (IRH), supported by the Peace and Future Workshop Frankfurt am Main led by Willy van Ooyen, a leading member of the Left Party. The Peace and Future Workshop acts as a kind of political fig leaf for the policies of the Left Party in Hesse. But neither the Left Party in the state of Hesse nor any trade union officially joined the call for the rally.

On the contrary, there were fierce attempts to ban the rally beforehand. In particular, Hesse's antisemitism commissioner Uwe Becker (Christian Democratic Union, CDU) and Frankfurt's mayor Nargess Eskandari-Grünberg (Greens) strongly condemned it.

They both claimed it “glorified the mullah regime” and spread “antisemitism.” In the end, the Frankfurt Public Order Office did allow the rally to take place, as it clearly posed “no threat to public safety.”

Hundreds of Iranian, Palestinian and Muslim workers from the Rhine-Main region and beyond gathered on the Römerberg, many with their families. Both supporters and opponents of the Tehran government were clearly represented.

Some held photos of the children killed at the girls’ school in Minab, where on the first day of the war at least 168 people, including mainly schoolgirls aged seven to twelve, 26 teachers and four parents, were killed in a US attack. One sign read (in keeping with International Women’s Day on 8 March): “For women's rights – but they are bombing a girls’ school!”

According to figures from the Iranian Red Crescent, which were discussed on the same day, 8 March, in a webinar organised by the International Committee of the Fourth International, more than 6,000 civilian facilities had already been destroyed or damaged in Iran on that day, including 5,535 residential buildings, 64 schools and 14 hospitals and medical facilities; and more than 1,300 people had already been killed in the war.

Many participants came to the rally out of concern for their families in Iran. Nurse Sarah, who had come with her friend Hira from Düsseldorf, said: “We are very worried about our families living in Iran. This war must be stopped! It very clearly violates international rules and laws.

“The war was instigated in the midst of the Geneva negotiations on nuclear disarmament. Iran is being bombed, and they have even destroyed a girls’ school with 160 children!”

Sarah went on to say: “In Western countries, politicians often talk about democracy and justice—but if they don't abide by it themselves, what can we expect? It's all unacceptable.”

Amir, a young Iranian who works in Frankfurt and was taking part in a demonstration for only the second time, said: “I was born in Iran myself, I have relatives in Isfahan and I am very concerned. A war that violates international law will invariably turn against those who started it. It cannot be won.”

Samad, a retired software engineer, had come with his wife from the Black Forest. He has been living in Germany for many years and addressed his German colleagues with the words: “Actually, no one on this earth can be in favour of the two worst criminals, Netanyahu and Trump, bombing a country now—regardless of whether it is my country or not.”

He continued: “Now they want to bring back the Shah's son. It’s disgusting that the monarchists are now cheering. It’s outrageous. His father, the Shah at the time, crushed all left-wing movements. He tortured and killed people en masse. The entire history shows that the West, especially the US, has brought nothing but evil to Iran. In the US itself, many workers are suffering hardship today and there are many people who are starving.”

Many spontaneously agreed with the demands on the flyers of the WSWS: “For the building of an international, socialist anti-war movement of the working class.” One woman said: “The Berlin parties have all accepted the genocide and supported the so-called ‘reasons of state’ [pro-Israel], even the Left Party! That disappointed me greatly.”

The speakers on the podium, however, had no viable perspective to offer. Similar to the London rally the day before, they simply appealed to the world’s ruling politicians, without believing in the success of their appeals themselves.

The ruling class is recklessly heading toward a Third World War. Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who only after the start of the Iran war in Washington kissed Donald Trump’s “ring” and assured him of German support, is pursuing a policy of massive rearmament with his coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party SPD, which will have to be paid for by the workers. The Left Party also supports this course, including the regime change operation in Iran, which it only wants to achieve by other means.

This ever-expanding war front proves that appeals to the ruling class, as presented on the stage of the demonstration, will achieve nothing. It is time, as the WSWS has demanded, to build an international, socialist anti-war movement in the working class that is directed against capitalism.