Were there strikes in Tehran yesterday?
Posted by Admin on June 25, 2009
People are going to work. No one has asked the people to stay at home. No one has called for a strike. Mousavi has not asked people to do this. In fact, I was at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar yesterday. I spoke to many of the merchants. I told them I heard there was a strike today but you’ve all showed up to work. As one of them said, “Lady, I voted for Mousavi. If Mousavi asks us to go on strike, I will. But who will pay my bills?”
I also spoke to a restaurant worker yesterday. He said he also voted for Mousavi. He said if I don’t work for a week, I have nothing to live on the week after. I have no way to feed my wife and kids.
But strikes could happen. The mood is tense and the environment for strikes is actually there. There is a lot of talk about it. Everyone is discussing the possibility of strikes. But so far no one has gone on strike. The banks are open for business. All the stores in the Bazaar were open.
I’m looking over Modares Avenue. Traffic is as normal as ever.
One thing Mousavi has asked people to do however is to turn up on their rooftops at 10 pm and shout “Allah o Akbar” [God is Great]. And this does take place. It takes place in full force from about 10 to 10:30 or 10:45 every night. No matter what neighborhood you’re in Tehran, you will hear this.
People have started to scribble slogans on money that is passed around. On one bill I got yesterday someone had written “Where is my vote?”
If people are not turning up in the streets to protest, they are finding other ways to engage in civil disobedience. On Monday, for example, Mousavi had asked people to turn on their headlights in the street from 5 to 6 pm.
But this demonstration that was supposed to take place in Baherestaan was not called for by Mousavi. I don’t know if people turned out, or how many; I wasn’t there. But those things generally tend to have a life of their own. Those demonstrators are not waiting to hear from Mousavi.
Those who are middle aged are taking this a lot better than we are. They have been through something like this before (1978-79) and have a lot of patience. They are hopeful about all this. My generation is glum. They’re depressed. There is so much crying.
I wish there was a way the world could do more. Even embassies like the Italian one, which tried to open its doors and take in those who were injured, was stopped from doing so by the police here.
