Jun 16 2009

Activism: How Do We Support The Iranian People’s Protests?

(10:30AM EST – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)

I’ve been riveted all day to the news coming via Twitter about Iran.

I seem to recall an election in the US in which there was a similar dispute about who had won.  I don’t recall millions going into the streets.  I don’t recall the “defeated” candidate calling on people to bring on non-violent, silent protests and mass gatherings.  I wish that had happened in the US. But, sadly, it didn’t.  And look what the next 8 years brought.  The Iranian people unlike the US seem to understand the significance and the consequences of a stolen election.  And they appear to want to do something about it.

So it appears that Iran has at this moment a time of both intense risk and enormous opportunity.

As I type this, hundreds of thousands of people are in the streets across Iran because they know that their election was stolen, that their votes were not counted, that the election was a sham, that their democracy has failed them.  They are angry, and they want a restoration of their democracy.  And they are going to demand a fair election and a fair counting of the votes.

How do we in the US support the Iranian People’s Protests?

I turn to you for the answers, for the tactics, for the approach.  The Iranian People’s Protests deserve our support.  Let’s put our heads together.

Here are two small examples of what we’re looking for. Twitter users are being urged to change their location to Tehran and their time zone to GMT +3 to give protection, however slight, to those in Iran who are reporting the news who are being followed by the authorities.  A second example:  Twitter was scheduled for maintenance this evening.  That would have shut off the Iranian news tweets.  Twitter re-scheduled its maintenance.

And now I ask again: what can we do to help?

Update: 6/16/09, 8:40 ET: Green icons for twitter are a click away.

16 comments

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  1. This is, of course, cross-posted from The Dream Antilles.

    Let’s get after it.

    • Alma on June 16, 2009 at 04:52
    • #

    I see its gotten quite a few comments at the orange. 🙂  Do you plan on making a list of the ideas and posting another essays with them in it so we can do what we can?  I hope the answer is yes.

  3. SOLIDARITY WITH IRAN: WEAR GREEN!

    Just located a petition from CARE2 — here it is:  Signatures Against the Results of Iranian Election

  4. So you want to help Iran, but you’re not actually in Iran? here’s what you can do to help.

    • Change your location and time zone on Twitter to Tehran, Iran (that’s GMT+3:30
    • Change your profile icon to green in some way.
    • Set up a proxy. and send a DM to @ProtesterHelp.  On Windows, do this and on Linux do this. On Mac, do this
    • DO NOT retweet posts from Iran. This puts the users at risk. The Iranian Minstry of the Interior is watching Twitter closely now.
    • Submit e-mails to CNN and other news sources about the Iranian Revolution- demand more coverage

    What do we want?

    1. Remove Khamenei from supreme leader
    2. Remove Ahmadinejad because he took it forcefully and unlawfully
    3. Put Ayatollah Monazeri as supreme leader until a review of the constitution is set up
    4. Recognize Mousavi as official president
    5. Let Mousavi rule as the constitution is reformed
    6. Free all political prisoners, immediately
    7. Call off all secret militia and offices

      8. Where else should you do? Follow people you’re interested in, show your support. Also, RT the advice from @ProtesterHelp. They are tweeting suggestions for Iranian protesters in English and Farsi (granted, it’s broken Farsi, but Farsi nonetheless!
      And of course, RT this post

  5. Photobucket

  6. CARE2, including many videos and other “twitter” stuff (haven’t caught the gist of “twitter” yet, myself), and the action site.  I am having trouble accessing the petition site of CARE2, but there are two NEW petitions on Iran, as well as the one “Where’s My Vote.”  Iranians Protest Election of Ahmadinejad.  If you can access the petition site (see menu at top of Iranians Protest, etc., then click Politics, the left Menu, and I think you’ll be able to access the two NEW petitions.

    Also, AVAAZ also has a petition here.

  7. For those of you who may have attempted to sign petitions on the CARE2 site, I received the following e-mail concerning site failure:

    Dear ,

    You may have noticed site problems when you clicked through from an Action Alert today. Our site has been under attack from what is known as a Denial of Service Attack since last night.

    Someone is attacking our site – and several other activism sites – presumably because they disagree with the positions of some of the actions on our site.

    In effect, they are trying to silence the voices of Care2 activists who are working for positive change in the world.

    Our engineers are working hard to stop the attack, and they are making progress. Because we don’t know whether or how those who are trying to shut us down will counter, we can’t guarantee when the problems will be completely resolved.

    We expect that things should start working for some of you almost immediately, but it may take up to a day for the rest. As things are resolved, the links in your messages will start working.

    We urge you to keep trying to take action. Thank you for sticking with us and continuing to speak out on the issues you care about.

    Sincerely,

    – The Care2 Campaign Team –

    Rebecca, LiAnna, Natasha, Jerry, Robyn, Samer, Karina and Joe

  8. Iran has cracked down on hundreds of thousands of protesters who have poured into the streets in an act of breathtaking defiance to protest the contested results of last week’s presidential election. Let Iran know that the global community is monitoring their every move.

    Dear ,

    The government of Iran swiftly kicked the machinery of repression into high gear over the last several days in response to the largest public demonstrations of opposition that country has seen in 3 decades.1

    Iranian authorities have violently cracked down on the wave of protesters who have taken to the streets since June 13th in an act of breathtaking defiance to protest the contested results of Friday’s presidential election.

    Up to 1 million people poured into the streets yesterday despite a ban on opposition protests. Basij (paramilitary) forces opened fire indiscriminately, killing at least one person and injuring several others.

    According to reports, as many as five students at Tehran University were shot dead over the weekend and another person was wounded when security agents opened fire on a demonstration. Motorcycle-mounted riot police have severely beaten large numbers of protestors with clubs and night sticks.

    Authorities have detained 170 people since June 12, including the brother of former President Mohammad Khatami.

    Iranian authorities have taken aggressive measures to stifle dissent and stem the flow of information – both inside and outside of the country – about the widespread unrest.

    While the Iranian government had granted journalists short-term visas to cover the elections, authorities have subsequently curtailed freedom of speech through blocking cell phones, text messaging, email and Web sites.2

    Nonetheless, Iranian protestors have circumvented efforts to seal off the country and have succeeded in transmitting accounts of the explosive violence of the last few days to the outside world.3

    Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in an unprecedented announcement yesterday that an investigation into alleged election fraud would be carried out. Public protests are likely to continue as Iranian authorities attempt to resolve the hotly contested election results. And many fear that Iranian authorities will continue to respond with attempts to stamp out the demonstrations.

    We need to ensure that those at the highest echelons of power in Iran are aware that, despite their best efforts at concealing their bloody crackdown, the global community is monitoring their every move.

    Help us send the vital message today to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that we refuse to remain silent when authorities use bloody violence to crush dissent and deny Iranian citizens their freedom of speech and association

    Thank you for your action,

    Elise, Zahir, Steve and the rest of the Iran rapid response team

    Please sign on with Amnesty International!

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