The Vancouver Sun reports, “Kalle Lasn, the Vancouver-based editor whose left-wing magazine launched the Occupy Wall Street movement, hopes that protest tents remain through the winter in this city and others in North America. …In its July issue, Lasn’s anti-consumerism Adbusters called for an ‘occupation’ of Wall Street on Sept. 17. The idea caught fire in the American activist community – and the success of the Wall Street camp became a big media story, prompting activists in other cities, including Vancouver, to create their own versions of the protest.”
“Lasn expects that many protesters will leave the various Occupy tent cities during the winter. But he hopes some will remain to spark a new round of activism in the spring. ‘It’s inevitable, as winter approaches, that some people just won’t want to stay there,’ said Lasn. ‘But if a few people can make it through the winter at Zuccotti Park [in New York] and Vancouver this winter – that to me is very inspiring and I hope they do.'”
“Lasn said the Occupy movement will survive into the new year and take on new shapes. ‘We may enter an even more interesting phase where crystal-clear demands may start emerging,’ said Lasn. ‘And I think there will be myriad actions and initiatives bubbling up all over the world.’ Among these actions, said the Occupy movement’s birth father, could be the ‘beginnings of a third political party in America, which is going to be much stronger and more effective than Ralph Nader ever was’.”
To hear Lasn on CBC Radio’s As It Happens from last night, please go to http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/weekly/2011/11/01/featured-audio-occupy—adbusters/. The web-blurb for the interview notes, “The Occupy movement promises not to go away. But where is it going? Carol Off speaks with the man who first dreamt up the idea.”
In the interview, Lasn suggests that while some of the occupations will last through the winter, they will gradually wind down. He says the second phase will emerge in the spring. That second phase could include young people fighting for the deep transformation of capitalism and our current political systems. He describes the movement as seeking a global Tahrir Square moment.
