Mousavi Has Called for a General Strike

We can help by doing the exact thing the Iranians are doing. Protest! Call a general strike! Do not spend a single penny on any company that does business with Iran. Make those companies go bankrupt. Make sure everyone in the entire world knows that if they so much as say "hello" to the Iranian government, they will be ostracized and ignored until they exist no more.

You are pussies if you think you can't do anything. Wimps looking for a way out. It is as easy as just paying attention to where you spend your money. Do not spend any money on any companies that deal with Iran.

That said, we need a lost of companies to boycott. Nokia is definitely one. They are already feeling the heat. We need more so we can start making an official list. Everything on the list needs to be verified, too, and then we will post it regularly in places like this. Those companies have to be ostracized, letters written to them and newspapers about them, and anything else that can be done to make sure they know that if they deal with Iran they will loose every penny they own.

The Iranians have called a general strike. There is no reason that strike has to be in Iran only. The world strikes with the people of Iran!

Dude, take a breath for frack's sake. Think a little. The Iranian economy links everyone together. The protesters need money to survive just as much as the diktator does.

When you hit the economy you hit everyone, indiscriminately. That's not what you want here.
(Same goes for Internet bandwidth, so don't DoS any government servers. Just SlowLoris'em. )

The protesters have called for a general strike already! They aren't participating in the economy! It won't be hurting them! This is their idea! Do you even know what a general strike is? The ones this will hurt is the government, and the government is the only group that would want to stop it!

Dude, if you try to cripple the economy from the outside like you proposed, you won't have any control over how long Iran is affected, you can't limit things to 3 consecutive days like the Iranian strikers can. In fact, if the Iranian economy will be doing badly for a while because of outside actions, the general strike on the inside will actually have LESS IMPACT (it will make less of a negative difference in productivity), so your boycott bullshit will actually be HURTING THE IRANIAN STRIKE.

Agreed, there's no better form of economic pressure than the one that is generated from within.

Externally, targeted pressure makes sense to deprive the government of instruments of repression (e.g. certain kinds of technology; refusing to provide it with fuel if there is a strike in the oil sector).

LOL, are you guys going to try and talk the protesters out of doing a general strike, too. All your arguments against a boycott apply to the general strike as well.

There was a general strike for months before the shah was eliminated. The Iranians did it themselves. You do not understand anything about Iran at all, do you?

Mousavi has called for a general strike again. There is no need for it to be only in Iran. If they strike, I am going to strike as well, just like that other guy. They have to face the bullets and batons alone, but at least in this way I can help. We all can. You can too, if you really care.

I don't see how boycotting nokia is going to hurt the Iranian people. Or Iranian oil for that matter. Make their government go bankrupt. They won't be able to afford bullets to shoot them with anymore. When the government crumbles, the boycott ends. It cannot hurt things any more than they already are, and it opens a way for it to end. There is no end the other way.

Destroying or smearing Nokia's reputation for partaking in this matter will, at least in the short term, partly salve the hunger for revenge among those who are angered by the atrocities.

There might be other companies in league with what's happening in Iran, but because Nokia was the first and most visible, it is therefore the main target.

Making the farce that is called the Iranian government go bankrupt is but one way to hit them in the money.

The problem is that a lot of countries, including mine, allways talk a lot about human rights but refuse to buy one barrel of oil less from Iran because it would hurt their own wallets.

During the Iran-Iraq War (of first gulf war, depending on your location), the fighting could only continue because both sides earned money by selling oil. An oil embargo would have made both countries sue for peace withing a few months.

You can strike all you want but unless you stop the oil from flowing, my guess is that the regime will stay in power.

Nokia is one, and any other companies that help their military or government in any way. Many things are dual use. We need to start making a list. Nokia is definitely on it. Who else supplies them? Where do they buy the batons they are using to beat the people with? Who makes the motorcycles they ride on? If they are made in Iran, what companies supply the parts they use? What about their bullets? Where do they get the money to pay for these things, too?

'tis true. I'm not saying there's no place for symbolic acts, but overall it's better to spend our energy in ways that are effective.

The people inside of Iran can stop the oil flowing themselves, by striking at the places where it is produced. No one working there, they shut down. But we can help. They don't have to do it themselves.

It would be more than symbolic if enough people took it seriously, and participated. The Iranians have shown it can be done. We could learn something from them.

^^^For sure. But I don't believe that there's sufficient popular support for a strike to be called, that would other than the former.

As the son of a business owner, may I highly recommend you all PLEASE include business owners and management in the planning of this strike. Make sure they support the movement and are willing to suffer business loss and money loss as well. The objectors to this demonstration method have a point that strikes damage businesses, and that is very very relevant in garnering support for your movement. It won't help to make enemies of business owners and management.

You can try to convince supervisors, company presidents, managers, and business owners to allow this strike (as employers) in show of their support. You'd be very surprised how many would be willing to help, if in such an indirect way.

And yes, I acknowledge that some employers maybe against this movement and would fire a employee straight away if he found out he was a protester, or simply do so out of fear. So be cautious as well.

Question:
I don't know what the labor laws are in Iran are, but what are the regs and procedures for calling in sick, if there are any?

The only way to stop the government from buying bullets would be to boycott all their possible sources for bullets and that's not possible. Pretty much everything else proposed here would hurt the economy in general and thus the impact of people going on strike (when business sucks for external reasons, it doesn't send such a big signal anymore that Iranians themselves are trying to make it suck more; how do you retards not get this?).

Just don't show up for work, and when they ask why, say the protests stopped you from getting there. The government has arrested a lot who weren't even protesting, just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Fear can keep people from coming to work. Say it was not safe for you to try and get there.

It may not be a lie, in many cases.

Um, how is that not possible? How is it not possible to choose not to buy from a certain list of companies? Do they automatically vacuum my money out of my wallet, and I have no control over it? The last time I checked, I had to reach in my wallet myself, take the money out, and hand it to someone. Didn't know it didn't work that way.

I'm glad someone said it. It's understandable to want to be more active in these affairs, but there really isn't much to do abroad that won't end up being counter-effective. Worst case scenario, you'll just end up being an hero. There are other, better ways to show solidarity (like offering the aid that people actually fucking asked you for), but the best thing to do is spread as much information as possible—anything that counteracts the regime's violent rape of freedom of speech.

Accept the fact that, as an outsider, your role is limited. In that case, you provide ammunition (truth) to the people by showing just how foolish the government's accusations of meddling are. The same goes for how promoting nonviolence weakens the accusation that the protesters are actually terrorists inciting chaos and wanton destruction.

tl;dr: Don't do stupid shit that nobody asked you to do, especially when you don't know the mechanics of the situation or the side-effects.

That is the talk of a quitter and a defeatist. I am sorry for you.

This is crazy. Ya do realize what happened to Iraq when the US went to war against it, right?

Uday: DEAD
Qusay: DEAD
Iraqi Troops: SLAUGHTERED
Sadaam: OUTSTED and EXECUTED
Iraqi Information Minister: IRRELEVANT

Hoping for a quagmire is a vain hope when you're dead and overthrown.

No, he's being a realist. A pessimistic one, but still a realist.

If the Iranian people listened to your "realist" talk, they'd still be under the shah's rule.

Sad. They make so many of you look like the cowards.

Go play your gameboy, and search for your internet porn with the computer mommy and daddy bought you. You don't have the cahones to be part of the real world.

Now you're just trolling. Heh.

This is the truth, proven by the fact that many people outside of Iran, including myself, who sympathize with the protesters feel frustrated that there is only so much they can do.

You decide what you can and can't do. You set the limits, and you are short-changing yourself by setting them artificially low. You can do a lot more than you admit, but by saying you can't you give yourself an excuse to not try.

You can do better.

I think the troops more surrendered and went AWOL than were slaughtered because the sanctions and air campaign worked and they were starving and living in miserable conditions..

True, though I never looked at the reason.

But those who did try to fight didn't stand a chance. Now, Iran's mlitary is supposed to have a better reputation. But I can't imagine it being possible to defeat the US military without using guerilla tactics. I don't think any country wants to have to fight a guerilla war on its soil.

Well, what would you expect outsiders to do then? You should realize there aren't many practical things that one can do beyond offering spiritual support and medical/technological advice.

Exactly. That is our limit, nothing wrong with seeing that or being realistic over the matter of Iran. But in the things we can do, we might as well try to do well.

There's been a call for a general strike for almost a week off/on and I don't think anyone has ever seen it materialise. The problem here, I think, is that Mousavi is really just not the greatest strategist in the world.

Some awful Mousavi plans:

"Let's go to the Bazzar and not buy anything ...when Basij ask why we're walking around ...say we're shopping" <=== translation: Let's go do nothing for eight hours and if the cops beat us up, claim we're just browsing aimlessly for eight hours hoping they're really THAT stupid

"Let's release green balloons, that'll show em" <=== this one speaks for itself.

You have to understand what is happening in the country and how it works, i am an outsider but have a good insider source. The bazaars are a MAJOR source of income. by having ppl go to the bazaars it would accomplish 1. showing solidarity and that the revolution still lives. 2. closing the bazaars one way or the other thus costing the govt a lot of lost revenue. 3. It is a harmless, innocent way to protest.

I also agree they need more direction but this is hard when their leaders are being watched 24/7, with the levels of censorship going on, the govt controls the phones, internet, tv. It is becoming more of a covert operation, a pot left to boil, a slow burn, eventually it will boil over at the right time.

As to the trolls, just please ignore them, don't bother to reply, this is what they want, to sidetrack a useful discussion of how to help into a childish battle.

dr3k = MOSSAD attaché to the CIA - trusted source within the DHS and Defense Intelligence Agency

That must be why he is in here with the trolls, trying to spread doubt and make people think this is not possible. Those darn Israelis! First they start this, then they make fun of people and try to dash their hopes by making fun of it! They just can't make up their minds, now can they?

Now that is a really good point, they might be Gov Trolls or the people you mentioned ...
Bless the Sea of Green