the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Mar 16, 2026
Since the U.S. and Israel began bombing Iran on February 28, at least a dozen oil tankers and cargo ships have been hit by missiles in or near the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian officials have claimed responsibility for some of these attacks, and they have threatened more. As a result, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has come to a near standstill—falling from more than 150 ships per day to less than 10, of which most are probably Iranian ships.
Since about 20% of the world’s oil and natural gas is transported through the Strait of Hormuz, experts are already calling this crisis the biggest disruption to oil supplies in history. Oil prices have soared to around 100 dollars a barrel—a 40% increase since before the war began. And many countries around the globe are already experiencing an oil shortage and an increase in gas prices—not to mention the shortage of other crucial industrial goods shipped out of the Middle East, such as plastics, fertilizers and helium gas.
Commentators say that the U.S. oil supply is not directly affected by this crisis. No matter, U.S. gasoline suppliers have also begun to jack up the price at the pump sharply, using the war as another excuse to boost their profit.
No one knows when the Strait of Hormuz will open to traffic again. Trump has issued threats to Iran, but so far military threats alone don’t seem able to resolve the crisis. The Iranian regime has been digging in and fighting back. Whether the U.S. expected it or not, this war it started has been escalating.
The war also carries the risk of spreading beyond the Middle East. For example, seventy percent of all crude oil shipped through the Strait of Hormuz is destined for Asia, so this disruption is affecting some large Asian economies like Japan and India. As for China, it seems to have prepared itself, building up a much bigger oil reserve than anyone else.
This war, and the Strait of Hormuz crisis in particular, show how dangerously we all live in a world marked by capitalist competition. Imperialist powers, above all the U.S., start wars to better control the world’s resources for the benefit of their own capitalists. But even these big powers cannot control the fires that they are throwing the world into.