This is what I see in the procession of diplomats & world leaders to the funeral. The part of the world that is growing is mostly there, the part of the world that is dying, mostly not. Which do you prefer?

[2026-07-04] Dhaka Papers

Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei was not simply the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He became a global symbol of resistance against imperialism, colonial domination and foreign aggression. His voice reached far beyond the borders of Iran and resonated throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kenya (Marxist), Booker Omole, has issued a lengthy political statement of condolence following the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei. Titled “Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s Legacy Will Outlive US Imperialism,” the statement presents the party’s perspective on Khamenei’s political legacy, his anti-imperialist stance, the question of Palestine, recent developments in West Asia, and various issues in international politics. For the readers of Dhaka Papers, the statement is published below in its entirety and without alteration.

The statement:

The Central Committee of the Communist Party Marxist Kenya extends its deepest condolences to the people of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the family of Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and all progressive, anti imperialist and freedom loving peoples across the world as they bid farewell to one of the defining political figures of our time.

His passing comes at a decisive moment in world history. The imperialist system is entering a deeper period of crisis. The contradictions of global capitalism continue to sharpen. The peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America are asserting their sovereign right to determine their own future, while the unipolar order imposed by United States imperialism faces mounting resistance across the globe. It is within this historical context that the life and legacy of Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei must be understood.

Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei was not simply the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He became a global symbol of resistance against imperialism, colonial domination and foreign aggression. His voice reached far beyond the borders of Iran and resonated throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America. To countless oppressed peoples, he represented steadfastness in the face of overwhelming pressure and unwavering commitment to national sovereignty.

He was a true friend of the oppressed world. At a time when many governments capitulated before imperialist intimidation, Ayatollah Khamenei stood firm. His political legacy cannot be confined within the borders of Iran nor reduced merely to his religious office. He emerged as one of the foremost voices of the Global South’s resistance against imperialist hegemony, inspiring nations to defend their dignity, independence and sovereign right to determine their own future.

The Communist Party Marxist Kenya is a Marxist Leninist party. We do not share Ayatollah Khamenei’s religious worldview, nor do we approach society from the standpoint of political theology. Yet revolutionary honesty demands that we recognise those who consistently stood against imperialism and defended the sovereignty of oppressed nations. Our admiration for Ayatollah Khamenei was never based upon religion. It was based upon his uncompromising opposition to imperialism, Zionism, colonial domination and the arrogance of the powerful states that continue to exploit the peoples of the world.

This distinction is politically important. Marxism Leninism and the political philosophy of the Islamic Republic arise from different ideological traditions and rest upon different philosophical foundations. Our solidarity therefore does not arise from agreement on every question of philosophy, religion or social organisation. It arises from a concrete analysis of the principal contradiction confronting oppressed nations in the present epoch. Wherever peoples resist imperialist domination, defend their sovereignty and oppose colonial aggression, objective conditions create the possibility for common struggle despite ideological differences. This reflects not tactical convenience but the dialectics of the international anti imperialist movement.

Throughout decades of sanctions, threats, sabotage, assassinations and relentless propaganda, the United States and its allies sought to isolate and demonise him. Yet no campaign by the imperialist powers succeeded in separating him from the millions who regarded him as a principled defender of national independence. His moral and political authority among many oppressed peoples endured because it rested upon consistency rather than expediency.

One of the defining features of his international legacy was his unwavering position on Palestine. Long before it became widely acknowledged in international discourse, Ayatollah Khamenei consistently maintained that the Palestinian question was fundamentally one of settler colonialism, occupation and the denial of an entire people’s right to self determination. His steadfast support for the Palestinian people made him a source of hope for millions who continue to resist colonial domination and dispossession.

For decades, while many governments normalized relations with the Zionist entity or remained silent before the crimes committed against the Palestinian people, Ayatollah Khamenei insisted that Palestine remained the central question of justice in West Asia. He understood that the struggle of Palestine was not an isolated national question but one expression of the wider struggle against colonial domination, racial oppression and imperialist intervention. In doing so, he gave political expression to the aspirations of millions across the Global South who refused to accept the legitimacy of occupation and apartheid.

His words continue to inspire those who refuse to surrender before imperialist domination.

“Resistance is the only way that can reduce the enemy’s acts of aggression.”

“The Iranian nation has shown that it will never surrender to bullying and coercion.”

These were not merely political slogans. They reflected a lifetime of commitment to the principle that no people should bow before foreign domination regardless of the balance of military power.

As Marxist Leninists, we know that history advances through the struggle of peoples against oppression. While our philosophical foundations differ, we also recognize that objective contradictions often unite diverse political forces against a common enemy. The international anti imperialist movement has never been ideologically uniform. Throughout history it has brought together workers, peasants, national liberation movements, progressive governments and patriotic forces whose immediate unity arose from the necessity of defeating colonialism and imperial domination. In that historic struggle against imperialism, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei occupied an important place.

The Dialectics of Imperial Decline

Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s political thought was distinguished by his ability to analyses power not as something static but as something shaped by contradiction. In one of his notable observations, he argued that the extensive network of United States military installations in West Asia would ultimately become a source of weakness rather than strength for the United States. This was not merely a military assessment. It reflected a dialectical understanding that every apparent strength carries within itself contradictions that can, under changing conditions, become a source of vulnerability.

The recent military confrontation in West Asia has once again brought this proposition into sharp focus. Rather than guaranteeing stability or unquestioned dominance, the extensive military footprint of the United States has itself become deeply entangled in the region’s escalating contradictions, exposing its forces and strategic assets to heightened risks while further intensifying anti imperialist sentiment across the region. From a dialectical standpoint, this illustrates that imperial expansion inevitably generates the very conditions that undermine its own permanence.

The recent war demonstrated once more that imperialism possesses enormous destructive power but diminishing political legitimacy. Military superiority can destroy cities, assassinate leaders and devastate infrastructure, but it cannot manufacture consent among peoples determined to defend their sovereignty. This contradiction between overwhelming military force and declining political legitimacy increasingly defines the present stage of imperialism.

Marxists recognize this as a fundamental law of historical development. Every social system contains internal contradictions that drive its transformation. Capitalism itself generated monopoly. Monopoly generated imperialism. Imperialism has generated a world increasingly divided between oppressor and oppressed nations while simultaneously producing the conditions for its own historical negation. In this respect, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei demonstrated an important capacity for dialectical analysis by recognizing that imperial overextension can transform strategic assets into strategic liabilities. Whether expressed through the language of revolutionary theory or through his own political tradition, his analysis converged with a central insight of dialectical materialism that quantitative expansion, when pushed beyond its limits, gives rise to qualitative change.

Lenin demonstrated that imperialism represents the highest stage of capitalism, characterized by monopoly, the domination of finance capital, the export of capital, the division of the world among monopolies and the territorial partition of the globe among the great powers. These characteristics are not temporary policies. They arise from the objective laws governing monopoly capitalism itself. Imperialism therefore cannot abandon aggression without ceasing to be imperialism. War, sanctions, regime change operations, military encirclement and economic coercion are not accidents of policy. They are structural expressions of the imperialist system.

The strategic assessments advanced by Ayatollah Khamenei repeatedly exposed these same contradictions as they unfolded within the concrete realities of West Asia. His analysis recognized that imperialism cannot indefinitely sustain global domination because the very methods through which it seeks to preserve its supremacy deepen the contradictions that undermine it. Every military intervention creates new resistance. Every sanction accelerates the search for alternative economic arrangements. Every attempt to isolate sovereign nations encourages new forms of international cooperation outside imperialist control. Thus the mechanisms of domination increasingly become the mechanisms through which imperialism accelerates its own historical decline.

The contradictions of imperialism are also expressed through the law of uneven development. Lenin demonstrated that capitalist development proceeds unevenly, producing continual shifts in the balance of economic, political and military power. No imperialist order remains permanently stable because the very dynamics of monopoly capitalism generate new centers of production, new political alignments and new forms of resistance. The contemporary world increasingly reflects this reality. The unipolar moment that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union is steadily giving way to a more complex international order in which the peoples and nations of the Global South are asserting a greater degree of political and economic independence.

Within this changing historical landscape, the Islamic Republic of Iran emerged as one of the principal centers of resistance against imperialist domination in West Asia. Despite decades of sanctions, military threats, sabotage, assassinations and diplomatic isolation, Iran refused to surrender its sovereignty or abandon its support for the Palestinian people and other oppressed nations. This demonstrated that the capacity of imperialism to dictate the course of history is neither absolute nor irreversible. Every act of coercion generated new contradictions. Every attempt at isolation strengthened new forms of cooperation among states seeking greater strategic autonomy. Every military escalation exposed the declining ability of imperialism to impose unquestioned political authority.

The emergence of a more multipolar international order should therefore not be understood as the disappearance of imperialism. United States imperialism remains the principal aggressive force in the contemporary world and continues to possess immense military, financial, technological and ideological power. Yet Marxism teaches that historical strength must never be confused with historical permanence. The growing crisis of imperialism is measured not only by economic indicators or military expenditure but also by its diminishing capacity to secure political legitimacy, its increasing reliance upon coercion, the sharpening rivalry among imperialist powers themselves and the growing confidence of oppressed peoples to determine their own destinies. These are not isolated developments. They are expressions of a historical transition driven by contradictions that no ruling class can permanently suppress.

It is within this broader movement of history that Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s political legacy should be situated. Whatever differences exist between Marxists and the ideological foundations of the Islamic Republic, his consistent opposition to imperialist domination formed part of the wider international struggle through which oppressed nations continue to reshape the global balance of forces. His political life became one expression of a larger historical tendency in which the era of uncontested imperial hegemony is steadily giving way to an era of intensified resistance, national sovereignty and the growing assertion of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

For the Communist Party Marxist Kenya, the lessons of the recent war extend far beyond military developments. They confirm once again that no imperial power, however formidable its arsenal, can indefinitely impose its will upon peoples determined to defend their sovereignty. Imperialism may delay history through violence, but it cannot arrest history altogether. The contradictions that define the imperialist epoch continue to deepen, while the capacity of oppressed peoples to organize, resist and shape the future continues to expand. History therefore remains on the side of those who struggle for liberation rather than domination.

History Will Deliver Its Verdict

History teaches that no empire is eternal. Every imperial order, however mighty it may appear, carries within itself the contradictions that ultimately produce its decline. Empires rise. Empires expand. Empires imagine themselves invincible. Yet the same contradictions that fuel their expansion eventually become the conditions of their decay. The oppressed endure, organize and struggle until they transform history in their favor.

Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei understood that genuine independence cannot be granted by imperialism. It must be defended through steadfastness, sacrifice and the confidence of a people determined to shape their own destiny. His unwavering defense of national sovereignty, his uncompromising solidarity with the Palestinian people and his consistent opposition to imperialist aggression have secured him a place among the enduring figures of the international anti imperialist movement.

Military aggression may destroy infrastructure. Economic sanctions may inflict suffering. Assassinations may remove individual leaders. Propaganda may distort reality.

Yet none of these can extinguish ideas that have taken root among millions of oppressed people.

Individuals die.

Ideas endure.

The principles for which Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei stood cannot be buried by bombs, sanctions, siege or threats because they have become part of the collective political consciousness of peoples struggling against domination. Once an idea is embraced by the masses and translated into organized struggle, it acquires a historical force that no army can permanently defeat.

The Communist Party Marxist Kenya believes that Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s political legacy will continue to inspire future generations across Asia, Africa, Latin America and every part of the world where peoples continue to resist imperialism, colonialism, Zionism and national oppression. His legacy now belongs not only to Iran but also to the broader history of humanity’s struggle for sovereignty, dignity and liberation.

History remembers leaders not simply because they occupied high office, commanded armies or exercised state power. It remembers those who, in decisive moments, gave political expression to the aspirations of their people and stood firm when surrender appeared easier than resistance. Whether future generations agree with every aspect of Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s political philosophy is a question history itself will continue to examine. What cannot be denied is that he became one of the defining symbols of resistance to imperial domination during the opening decades of the twenty first century.

The struggle against imperialism has never depended upon one individual. It began long before Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and it will continue long after all of today’s leaders have passed into history. The movement of history is driven not by great personalities alone but by the organized activity of millions of workers, peasants, youth, women, intellectuals and oppressed nations determined to secure their liberation. It is the masses who ultimately make history, and it is through their struggles that every empire is brought to an end.

For this reason, mourning must never become political resignation. The greatest tribute that can be paid to those who resisted imperialism is not simply to remember them but to continue the struggle to which they devoted their lives. Every generation inherits unfinished tasks from those who came before it. Our generation has inherited the task of defeating imperialism, ending colonial domination, securing the liberation of Palestine, defending national sovereignty and advancing a world founded upon justice, equality, peace and genuine international solidarity.

History will deliver its own verdict.

Empires will decline.

Nations will liberate themselves.

The peoples of the world will continue to resist.

Palestine will be free.

Imperialism will be defeated.

In that historical process, the legacy of Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei will outlive United States imperialism because ideas rooted in the aspirations of oppressed peoples cannot be destroyed by force. States may wage war against nations. Armies may occupy territories. Economies may be subjected to sanctions. Leaders may pass away. But no power can permanently extinguish a people determined to be free.

Today we stand in solidarity with the people of Iran during this period of mourning. We honor a leader who refused to kneel before imperialism, who remained steadfast in defense of Palestine, who inspired millions to believe that sovereignty is worth defending and that resistance against domination is both legitimate and necessary.

May the people of Iran continue to defend their independence.

May the Palestinian people achieve complete national liberation.

May the peoples of the world deepen their unity against imperialism.

Long live international solidarity.

Long live the struggle against imperialism.

Long live the liberation of Palestine.

Issued by the General Secretary, Central Organizing Committee

Communist Party Marxist Kenya

4 July 2026