Ten Green Movement Strategies to Make the Islamic Regime Yield

The Green Movement activists are breathing in a post-ideology era and do not seek a charismatic leader. Looking for democracy and human rights, they have flexible strategies to reach these goals. After the crackdowns of June and July of 2009, the movement lacks field organizers and leaders; in this situation, a specific group is not able to draft the movement's strategies. Activists' positions and actions reflect these strategies. Through participation in dialogues on the web and small meetings, the activists have reached an agreement to redirect their actions based on these strategies.

The Green Movement involves a series of nonviolent campaigns but this does not mean that there is not a battle between the government and the Green Movement activists. At one end, there are the military commanders and security directors sitting in their war rooms and planning for terror, oppression, and crackdowns. At the other end, the Green Movement activists are not sitting idle; they resort to a series of media and political strategies in different contexts to weaken the other side and make it yield. The common sense and collective wisdom of the movement have pushed it through difficult paths, and now the movement is waiting for strategic mistakes of the military rule to use them for its own purposes.

The movement leaders have focused on maintaining the plurality, integrity, morale, and hope of the participants, and supporting the victims and their families. To win the political, media and field operation battles and demoralize the government forces, the Green Movement activists have adopted ten strategies in the last twelve months. These strategies are as follows:
 
Media Strategies

1. Clarifying the Government's Internal Disagreements
To dismantle the regime's strength in fighting against the protesting actions, it is vital to make the internal struggles and differences in the ruling class clear. The government and ruling clergy claim unity and solidarity of its forces. Any analysis that debases this claim is poisonous for the entire regime. The movement's analytical explanations have successfully questioned the regime's unity in the public arena.

The government's social base is against democracy and human rights, but groups in this base differ regarding how to distribute power and wealth and how to exploit government-given and ideological privileges. One example of these explanations is about the ideological variance such as developmentalist, traditionalist, and militarist authoritarianism inside the ruling faction.
  
2. Informing the Public about Departing Forces
The media close to the movement agenda encourage people who have left the government positions and affiliations to speak out. They are asked to explain why they are no longer loyal to the government. If there are such explanations in blogosphere, the alternative media highlights them. Due to the tolerance of the movement forces, the departed individuals began to talk about their past. Nevertheless, to avoid accusations of working for the regime, they are not willing to go into the details. This process of publishing and posting information on members of the ruling caste and their family members is shedding some light on the fragility of the entire regime. 

3. Whistle Blowing
For three decades, the government has interfered in people's private lives. In the post-presidential era, this is the people's turn to interfere in the public and private lives of the rulers. The Green Movement activists believe that every citizen should monitor the lives and actions of the rulers. They want to know how much their rulers make and own, how they spend their vacations, how many wives they have, what their children do, whom they are related to, and in which economic sector they are involved. Some of the reformists who have this information are opening up.

Having uncorrupted and austere leaders in a society where the media is not free is a myth. By unraveling this myth to the Iranians, the legitimacy of the regime is evaporating.
 
4. Comparing the Government with Its Enemies
The most effective comparisons are with Israel, Great Britain, and the U.S.  Analysts of the Green Movement have shown that the violations of human rights in Iran is beyond that of other countries. (See: "Mohammad al-Dourah, Caspian and Similarities of Conflicting Poles" by Amin Bozorgian, Radio Zamaneh, March 26, 2010.) This strategy is to show the critiques of the western countries inside Iran how to transfer from political nihilism to ethical and political balance.

This strategy also focuses on analyzing the friends of the Islamic Republic in the region and the rest of the world. The Green Movement activists have shown that the closest friends of this regime are the most authoritarian (Russia, China, and North Korea), the most corrupt (Zimbabwe and Syria), and the most violent (Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas) countries and groups in the world.    

5. Production and Reproduction of Information
The totalitarian regimes get their strength from disassociation with reality. The propaganda machine of the Islamic regime presents an imaginary world to the public. By spreading the information in the post presidential era, the Green Movement activists have delegitimized this propaganda machine. The government's only way to stop this trend is to limit the flow of information by filtering the Internet, jamming satellite TV signals and censoring the press. 

Political Strategies

6. Let Them Shoot Themselves
Many of the repressing actions of the government have been similar to shooting oneself or suicide (such as Khamenei's fatwa to forbid Chahar Shanbeh Suri, an Iranian festival of fire before the Iranian New Year). The Green Movement activists' advice to other countries is to stay away and see how the government is digging its own grave. Any military attack against Iran is a God given gift to the regime.

7. Supporting the Former Regime Loyalists who Join the Movement
The Green Movement activists have shown the regime's loyalists that their arms are open to them if they join the movement. They have established some funds and associations to support these former regime loyalists and immigrants. Reporters without Borders supports Iranian immigrant journalists, even if they had been working for authoritarian led media and news agencies. Almost everyone in the opposition has supported Mohammad Nourizad, former writer for Kayhan daily and now in prison, and Mohammad Heydari, former Iranian diplomat to Norway.   

8. Dishonoring the Officials
The high-ranking Iranian officials no longer feel that being appointed to a position by the leader entitles them to high social statuses. There is pressure on individuals not to accept governmental positions, and not to compete for them. Most of the famous filmmakers denied being members of the jury in the 2009 Fajr film festival. Protesters dishonor individuals who attend ceremonies in Khamenei and Ahmadinejad's offices (such as the coach of Iran's national soccer team and some actors) in public. The positions are downgraded and not the persons. 

Public Protest Strategies

9. Decreasing the Human Costs
After months of street protests and the ensuing government crackdown, Green Movement activists decided not to get involved in face-to-face engagement with military and paramilitary forces. They later adopted these three tactics:

9.1 No to Governmental Ceremonies
In the early phase of the movement, protesters aimed to hijack the regimes' formal ceremonies but gradually the military and disciplinary commanders learned how to control the crowd. After the February 11th demonstrations, the 31st anniversary celebrations of the 1979 revolution, the Green Movement activists decided to have their own events (such as Chahar Shanbeh Suri) based on national and non-governmental events.
 
9.2 Prudent Actions
Declaring the time and place of protests provided the government with the opportunity to plan its crackdowns. The protest in Hafezieh (Iranian poet Hafez mausoleum in Shiraz) on the eve of the Iranian New Year proved that the Green Movement activists should be prudent in dealing with possible attacks from governmental forces.

9.3 Scattered Protests
The government confronted any and all protests with its iron fist. For this reason, the Green Movement activists decided to scatter their protests in different neighborhoods. After the unsuccessful collective protests that took place on Ashura and February 11, 2010, the failure of the government to stop the ceremony of Chahar Shanbeh Suri encouraged the movement's activists. 

10. Increasing the Government's Cost to Survive
To repress such a massive movement with millions of people involved, the government has paid a high price so far. The movement has pushed the ruling caste to expend the public funds on its repressive operations instead of plundering them for its own benefits. In the last twelve months, the bonuses and overtime payments for military, disciplinary, and security forces have increased exponentially. This is a huge burden on the government in the long process of oppression.

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The Green Movement activists are breathing in a post-ideology era and do not seek a charismatic leader. Looking for democracy and human rights, they have flexible strategies to reach these goals. After the crackdowns of June and July of 2009, the movement lacks field organizers and leaders; in this situation, a specific group is not able to draft the movement's strategies. Activists' positions and actions reflect these strategies. Through participation in dialogues on the web and small meetings, the activists have reached an agreement to redirect their actions based on these strategies.