- Internet activists have taken to Twitter, other sites to "Occupy Wall Street" on Saturday
- AdBusters co-founder Kalle Lasn says digital uprisings in places like Egypt and Iran are an inspiration
- Organizers expect tens of thousands of peaceful protesters of what they call injustice in the financial world
(CNN) -- It worked in Tahrir Square. Now, taking their cue from social-media fueled uprisings in places like Egypt and Iran, a band of online activists are hoping it will work on Wall Street.
Kalle Lasn, co-founder of the venerable counterculture magazine AdBusters, has taken to Twitter and other websites to help organize a campaign encouraging tens of thousands of Americans to hold a nonviolent sit-in on Saturday in lower Manhattan, the heart of the U.S. financial district -- a protest monikered, hashtag and all, as #occupywallstreet.
This past spring and summer saw a massive groundswell of populist demonstration against authoritarian regimes in North Africa and the Middle East -- the "Arab Spring" of 2011.
In Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain and Syria, protestors took the streets and occupied public spaces in protest of stagnant economies, lack of freedom of expression, and regimes which seemed more concerned with consolidating power than addressing the needs of their people.
Each of these revolutions began in a different way, but they all shared a single common denominator: They were organized and fueled by tech-savvy users of social media, particularly Facebook and Twitter. Is the U.S. ripe for protests akin to those of the Arab Spring?
"There's a very visceral anger against the financial community," Lasn said. "Many people feel that these people who are financial fraudsters, who basically got away with it, have yet to be brought to justice ... . It seems like 'We the People' now have to congregate on Wall Street and other financial districts around the world, and force the global economic system to move in a better, more just direction."
Adbuster's protest campaign began in July, with the launch of a simple campaign website calling for a march through the streets of Lower Manhattan, culminating with a sit-in at the New York Stock Exchange, just as demonstrators in Tunisia occupied Tunis' November 7 Square, or as Egyptians did in Cairo's Tahrir Square.
After a full-court-press on social media websites in mid-Summer, the campaign got a sizable boost in August from the infamous hacktivist group 'Anonymous,' which released a short video urging its supporters to participate in the sit-in.
Since then, the movement has seen the addition of planned protests in other countries, including Japan, Israel, Canada and a half-dozen European nations.
The stated aim of #occupywallstreet is to draw 20,000 protestors to New York's financial district, although Lasn hopes that number could climb as high as 90,000.
"In Tunisia and in Egypt, the internet was used to organize surprising numbers of people to get out into the streets and start a radical, democratic movement for regime change," Lasn said. "Of course, the situation here in America and many European countries is quite different. We're not living under a torturous dictatorship, for one."
"Nonetheless, there's a feeling that the global financial system, the heart of which is in the U.S., in New York, that this system is somehow having its way with us," he continued. "There's a feeling that we need a revolution in the way that our economy is run, the way that Washington is run."
This isn't, Lasn stresses, an excuse for rioting and looting like the world witnessed recently in the U.K. (Another situation touched off on social-media sites). It's a call for radical change, but in the tradition of nonviolent protestors like Mahatma Ghandi, he says. If protests turn violent, he fears the message will be lost amid grisly news stories about columns of riot police and bloodied protesters.
"What we are hoping for is to have a very large number of people turn up in Lower Manhattan and start waking towards Wall Street peacefully, signs in hand," Lasn said. "If we have peaceful assemblies and debates about what our demands to President Obama should be, then bit by bit we can create a situation that will rival what happened in Egypt."
"That would be a wonderful, energizing and positive moment to feel like 'We the People' are in charge, and it isn't just the tea party who are driving popular debate," he said.
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