June, 23 2009, 04:03pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
General Strike: Possible in Iran? In the US?
WASHINGTON
The British Guardian reports today that Mir Hossein Mousavi "appears to be planning a general strike. A discussion on his Facebook page says: 'We are working on a general strike plan. Please help us with your ideas if you have expertise on this issue.'"
BILL FLETCHER
Fletcher is co-founder of the Center for Labor Renewal and author of the book Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice.
He said today: "For a general strike to be successful, you have to have organized supporters to withstand the attacks that will result. ... People in Iran are responding in a way that we should have regarding Florida in the 2000 election."
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NELSON LICHTENSTEIN
Lichtenstein is professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he directs the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy. He is the author of State of the Union: A Century of American Labor and The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business.
He said today: "By making the secondary boycott illegal in strikes and organizing campaigns, the 1947 Taft-Hartley law made solidarity itself illegal, thus ending the great tradition of general strikes which had broken out each decade since the massive railroad strike of 1877 first shut down American commerce 70 years before."
A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.
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