I seem to remember a certain authentic journalist discovered the limits of someone's solidarity with the cause over a few rules for folks wanting to make radical change...

Rule 2: Never go outside the experience of your people.
The result is confusion, fear, and retreat.

Rule 3: Whenever possible, go outside the experience of an opponent. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat.

Rule 4: Make opponents live up to their own book of rules. âYou can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.â

Rule 6: A good tactic is one your people enjoy. âIf your people arenât having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic.â

Rule 7: A tactic that drags on for too long becomes a drag. Commitment may become ritualistic as people turn to other issues.

Rule 8: Keep the pressure on. Use different tactics and actions and use all events of the period for your purpose. âThe major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this that will cause the opposition to react to your advantage.â

By getting everyone to the same physical place in a way that the authorities are going to have trouble preventing, they're also making it possible for people to communicate with each other and coordinate and get word from the outside. That will have to be done carefully, of course, in such a public place - but I imagine it's a lot more possible in a crowd than by trying to get information widely disseminated by word of mouth without drawing suspicion with more "normal" popluation movement.

I agree wholeheartedly with your rules. All of these come into play in planning and organizing. Check out my website (http://reflectingobama.blogspot.com), where I incorporate and build on your ideas.

Thanks for putting this out!

I may just be projecting a Western stereotype, but this is very amusing in light of the prominent role of women in the Iran protests. Women love to shop! How could there POSSIBLY be anything wrong with women going shopping? All of them. At the same place. Simultaneously. heheheh

This isn't just a smart move in and of itself, but also a well-timed feint as the government moves further to crack down on photos and videos of the "Sea of Green." What better counter (and something of a tweak at the regime's whiskers) than delivering the empty simulacrum of Business As Usual that the ruling regime proved inept at creating on their own - and throwing it back in their faces?

Al, you've talk about how this episode in history will reveal strategies and tactics to be emulated in the future, and this is IT.

After 911 GWB said we should all go shopping, but now we see we should just pretend to go shopping!

Kidding aside, looking forward to seeing how this next phase plays out... fascinating. And since I have no way to tell one from the other, I'm assuming this FB posting is legit? It certainly has the ring of truth to it.

Iranians, this sounds plausible. My thoughts are with you. How I wish I could contribute. Be peaceful, be careful.Â

The first thing I thought of when I read this was "Hey, somebody in Moussavi's clique has a copy of Rules for Radicals and is not afraid to use it."

In fact -- takes quick break to hunt down my own copy; flips through pages -- on pages 146 through 148, we have a very similar planned action, against an upscale department-store chain that refused to hire blacks for any but the crummiest jobs. Alinsky's plan -- which he made sure was leaked to the store's managers by the known stool pigeons in the group's midst -- was to have three thousand black people, all in their Sunday best, descend upon the store for some "shopping". This many black people in a hitherto-lily-white spot would send the regular clientele running for the exits. Even better: The black people would be trying things on, asking clerks questions, having them check to see if the merchandise came in different colors, et cetera -- and then not buy a single thing until the very last hour of the day, when all sorts of items would be selected and demanded to be shipped to the "purchaser's" house COD -- and then rejected.

The plan never needed to be implemented, because as expected, the stoolies reported the news to the management, and the management immediately scheduled a meeting with Alinsky's group. Soon thereafter, 186 jobs opened up and blacks were hired for the sales floor and executive training.

Â