On Tehran Bureau, an interesting new blog on PBS’s website about Iran, an Iranian friend of ours - writing under a pen name – published an important article last week with some sound strategic advice on nonviolence for the Green Movement.
The goal is to erode the pillars of support for the regime until loyalties shift, practical power begins to drain away, and the regime starts crumbling from within. Civil disobedience is thus not primarily aimed at demonstrating the moral superiority of the opposition movement — though that is admittedly one objective — but rather to disrupt the “normal” flow of commerce, politics, and everyday life. Clearly, a violent struggle against a much stronger foe has little chance of disrupting “normal” conditions except for fleeting moments, since violence gives the state license to stamp out its opponents with the full range of instruments at its disposal.
Moreover, violence he argues would only cede the religious “center,” which includes most clergy and millions of everyday citizens, to the hardliners. He then enumerates several critical strategic principles, including:
Just over a week ago, I was fortunate enough to attend a conference at The New School called “Iran: Politics of Resistance.” Many great scholars on Iran, both American and Iranian, took part in three panel discussions throughout the day. I was only able to attend the first one—which focused primarily on the Green Movement and whether it can accurately be called a full-fledged revolution—but the others looked to be just as fascinating. Fortunately, they are now all online.
Three activists began an occupation of Marfork Coal Company’s main offices in West Virginia yesterday. Marfork is a subsidiary of the coal extracting giant Massey Energy. The protesters plan to present a citizen’s arrest warrant and list of violations on the Marfork processing plant.
About 400 demonstrators gathered in Aldermaston England on Monday to block the entrances of the Atomic Weapons Establishment, where warheads for Trident submarines are made. Twenty-six were arrested, including Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire.
Greek customs workers announced 48-hour rolling strikes yesterday—the day that was supposed to be the last of a three-day strike to protest government austerity measures designed to pull Greece out of a debt crisis.
Belgian train drivers went on strike Tuesday to protest safety conditions after the collision of two commuter trains left at least 18 people dead.
About 300 protesters, mostly doctors dressed in white coats, chanted “the health-care system is in danger” and waved soccer-style red cards in the direction of the building where Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia has his office.
Thousands of civil servants have marched through Athens, the Greek capital, as they went on a 24-hour strike in protest against the government’s plans to freeze wages, gather more taxes and reform pensions. The action left flights grounded and many schools and government offices closed, while public hospitals were expected to only take emergency cases. A two-million-strong federation of unions will also start a general strike Feb. 24.
Ikea offered Wednesday to meet with labor union leaders after strikes shut down several stores in France — but only if six workers end a sit-in at its Paris office first. Workers walked off the job starting Saturday in protest over pay.
In Iran, numerous opposition figures reported police harassment on Thursday, including the firing of tear gas and paint balls at protests in the capital Tehran.
Also in Tehran, workers of Tohid Tunnel gathered in front of the entrance of the tunnel they work for in protest of unpaid salaries. The gathering resulted in the closure of the connections between north and south Chamran Freeway from Milad tower to the entrance of Tohid tunnel.
Tomorrow, citizens of Florida and Destin will have the opportunity to show their opposition to oil drilling off Florida’s coastline. Hands Across the Sand encourages Florida residents concerned with pending drilling legislation to gather on beaches at noon and hold hands forming lines in the sand against oil drilling in coastal waters.
Blurred Vision, a Canadian band comprised of two brothers originally from Iran, just released a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall, part II” with a slight lyrical twist that changes the song’s antagonist from controlling teachers to the repressive Iranian regime. The new chorus supports the many young people who protested Ahmadinejad’s reelection by demanding, “Hey Ayatollah, leave those kids alone.”
The music video goes a little further with its message, showing a fictional young Iranian woman on the run from what appears to be the Basij militia as she tries to upload footage from a protest on her iPhone. The video is inter cut with actual footage taken by Iranian protesters, depicting protesters getting beaten by government forces.
While it’s hard to criticize artists who clearly mean well and care more about their political message than their commercial appeal, there are a couple popular misconceptions being forwarded by this song and video. As we’ve written about before, the role of social media has been greatly overstated—not only does it provide questionable information from a small segment of the Iranian population (wealthy, educated city dwellers who dislike Ahmadinejad’s social welfare programs) but it’s also not a reliable way to organize protests given the government’s penchant for internet crackdown.
Like everyone else trying to follow Iran from afar, the members of Blurred Vision may be (pardon the pun) blinded by their desire to see Iranians win greater freedom and civil liberties to the point where they are overlooking and distorting key facts. In a CNN interview they refer to the June elections as “rigged”—something even the mainstream magazine Foreign Policy says is untrue, citing a recent report from the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland.
It’s important to point out these misconceptions because if furthered they could lead to several undesirable consequences, such as the justification for a US intervention or the installation of a new president without the fundamental changes to Iran’s political structure necessary for real change. As discussed in previous posts, the only way the Green Movement can hope to be successful is to support radical reform that incorporates not just the social reform everyone in Iranian society desires but economic reform that meets the needs of the poor.
Residents of cities in southern Yemen on Sunday staged a general strike to protest what they termed government oppression as well as action taken against a daily newspaper, activists and witnesses said. The strike was almost total in the southern provinces of Dhale, Lahaj, Shabwa and Abyan as all shops were shut and transportation ground to a halt,
In Iran, more than 100 police and plainclothes officers broke up a gathering of the Mourning Mothers in Laleh Park Saturday afternoon. The group — formed by women whose children have been killed in recent anti-government protests — gathers every weekend at the park to call attention to the deaths.
Hundreds in Hong Kong ringed the city’s legislature on Friday as public frustration mounted over government attempts to bulldoze through a high speed railway, an issue that has also catalyzed a fresh push for full democracy.
Unionized workers of South Korea’s third-largest carmaker Kia Motors Crop. will hold a partial strike for four hours a day this week in a protest against wages.
About 300 Egyptian workers at the fishing boats of Nea Michaniona (a village near Thessaloniki, Northern Greece) continue their strike, which began on Christmas, after blockading the small port of the village last week to protest a severe decrease in their income over recent months.
The mainstream media has started referring to the recent surge of protests in Iran as “the tipping point” for the opposition movement. While this assumption isn’t totally baseless—as evidenced by the spread of protests from Tehran to the heartland—there’s still a sense of wishful thinking that pervades the coverage.
Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi is not a radical reformer, which means he’s not interested in doing away with the Islamic system. This should be a sign that the greater social freedoms sought by the protesters do not go hand in hand with his assumption of power. By resting their so-called revolution on the shoulders of a politician like Mousavi, Iranians may end up with little more than a kinder gentler oppressive regime.
Perhaps that’s something we Americans can relate to. The movement that helped usher President Obama into office was motivated by his message of hope and promise of change. But after almost a year in office, he has shown himself to be scarily similar to his predecessor. Even the harsh treatment of activists has continued—something the much-maligned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently called to attention in his own defense:
When asked about the “awful scenes of violence on the streets” of Iran during the crackdown on demonstrators who claimed that his election victory was a fraud, Mr. Ahmadinejad said, “the American police beat people in Pittsburgh, they arrest people and use batons and tear gas against people.”
Given this sad reality, we should all realize how little change actually occurs when a movement only seeks to replace a leader. For real revolutionary change to occur, the entire system of government needs to be overhauled as well. It’s not clear if that is a demand of the Iranian opposition movement. Right now it seems to be more about election fraud. Perhaps the movement will evolve to incorporate radical reform, as well as address the interests of the poor and marginalized—a characteristic of a strong nonviolent movement. When that happens, there will be no question that a tipping point has been reached.
The streets of Qom, Iran’s holy city and the center of its religious life, filled with tens of thousands of mourners on Sunday. They came both to honor a founding father of modern Iran, Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, and to protest the government he had come to oppose.
In New York City, students left school early on Monday in a walk-out to protest the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s plan to stop giving students free Metrocards. The youngsters left school at 2 pm and gathered in front of the MTA’s headquarters to demand that the agency find a way to fill its $400 million budget shortfall that won’t force students to pay to commute to city schools.
Some 300 municipal staff began a sit-in at the Town Hall in Alcoy, Spain on Monday against the local government’s decision to sack nine workers, saying they will remain there until this afternoon.
Over 5,000 indigenous, Afro-Colombian and farming community members are occupying the community center of Piñuña Negro in the department of Putumayo, Colombia. A crowd of all ages has gathered at the highest government office in the area—the Police Inspector’s office—to demand negotiations with local and national government representatives and an end to military and paramilitary harassment and coca eradication programs that are causing thousands of residents to be displaced.
The Islamabad Bar Association (IBA) on Saturday protested near Sihala police training college in Islamabad to urge the government to expel the US private security company Blackwater, which lawyers said was operating inside Sihala college.
Greenpeace activists posed as the Four Horsement of the Apocalypse and rode through downtown Copenhagen yesterday to remind world leaders of the consequences of inaction on climate change. Each represented one of the potential impacts of climate change: death, pestilence, war and famine.
Saharawi non-violent activist Aminatou Haidar, known by many as the “Saharan Gandhi” entered the 29th day of her hunger strike yesterday. Doctors say she may be hours away from death, a risk she is willing to accept unless her single demand—to be allowed to return to her country—is met.
Iranian men are posting pictures of themselves on the Internet wearing women’s head scarves in an effort to protest the recent arrest of a male anti-government protester, who was shown in a press photo wearing a female garment. Bloggers believe the photo was manipulated to embarass the man. So they are showing that there is nothing wrong with women or veiling.
Native Hawaiians staged a protest yesterday morning near the Hawaii State Capitol over alleged attempts by Hawaii’s U.S. senators to sneak the Native Hawaiian Recognition Act onto one of the large federal appropriations bills. They say it reduces Native Hawaiians to a tribal status and does not address the true issue of the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Dozens of children from a Jewish Sunday school marched from Boston Common to the Hyatt Hotel in center city, chanting denouncements of Hyatt’s firing of 98 housekeepers in August. Upon reaching the hotel, the leaders of the march read a statement to hotel workers before handing over a petition.
Gay rights activists marched in front of New York State Sen. Carl Kruger Brooklyn home Sunday to protest his decision to vote against gay marriage. Organizers of the event say they intend to protest at the homes and offices of many of the 38 senators who voted against the bill.
Over 300 coalfield residents and their allies rallied at the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection yesterday to protest the blasting of Coal River Mountain and support a transition to a clean energy future.
More than 200 people were arrested in Tehran on Monday during protests by tens of thousands at universities nationwide, marking the biggest anti-government demonstrations in months. Thousands continued protesting for a second day yesterday, as Iran threatened a tougher crackdown on the opposition.
The Iranian opposition movement resumed mass street protests on Wednesday and faced a violent crackdown by the security forces, as official rallies mark the 30th anniversary of the storming of the US embassy in Tehran.
A daylight hour protest fast involving about 800 women in Tonga is continuing. Tongan Women’s National Congress members have been fasting for about three weeks between six am and six pm to protest against what they describe as poor governance of the prime minister, Feleti Sevele, and to call for his and his deputy’s resignation or removal.
A one-day rail strike across Belgium caused widespread disruption for commuters Thursday, forcing many people to stay home and leaving some highways jammed.
Strike action by the sugar workers represented by the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) continued this week even as both the union and the sugar corporation await the start of the arbitration process.
Palestinian hunger strikers at Israel’s Nafha prison have faced “repressive” action and been denied family visits since the start of their protest on Monday against constant bunk raids and maltreatment by Israeli prison guards.
Several hundred Transit Workers Union members and their supporters in New York marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall Wednesday to protest the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s refusal to implement a new contract established by arbitrators earlier this year.
A general strike paralyzed Royal Mail on Thursday, with unions launching a phased walkout involving up to 120,000 workers in a protest against job cuts. The Communication Workers Union said the walk off would last until Saturday.
In the UK, Iraqi refugees locked up in Brook House and Colnbrook detention centres have been on hunger strike since October 19, to protest against their inhumane treatment and demand their immediate release.
In India, members of various trade unions in the state of Manipur, employees and workers staged a sit-in-protest on Wednesday against the price hike of commodities, downsizing of employees and irregular release of salaries to employees and workers.
Some 10,000 high school students here formed a human peace symbol during a mammoth rally held Wednesday in support of the call for world peace and non-violence. Meanwhile,more than 2,000 students, soldiers from the Philippine military, government officials and NGO workers joined the colorful World March for Peace and Nonviolence in Manila’s Malate district.
1,700 employees of Iran’s Pars Wagon Company, maker of freight wagons and passenger coaches, went on hunger strike yesterday to protest delays in salary payment.
The Iranian opposition staged its first major protest in six weeks, with tens of thousands gathering in Tehran on Saturday, upstaging Ahmadinejad's planned annual pro-Palestinian rally.
About 140 SA Clothing and Textile Workers Union members in Johannesburg, South Africa were arrested while peacefully picketing for a wage increase in front of textile companies on Thursday.
Thousands gathered in the northern Spanish town of Zaragoza on Saturday to protest the possible closure of a local Opel car factory that could mean the loss of thousands of jobs.
About 100 people, including Buddhists, activists and local residents, took to the streets in Makung, Taiwan on Saturday to protest the passage of a law that would allow casinos to enter the region. The protesters fear such a move will bring the sex trade with it and would prefer to see the region develop environmentally friendly tourism.
On Tehran Bureau, an interesting new blog on PBS’s website about Iran, an Iranian friend of ours - writing under a pen name – published an important article last week with some sound strategic advice on nonviolence for the Green Movement.
Just over a week ago, I was fortunate enough to attend 
The mainstream media has started referring to the recent surge of protests in Iran as “
