Here is a fine interview with Naomi Klein from December 2011 offering a range of thoughts on the status and nature of the Occupy movements, current and possible future strategies, as well as how they shifted the national conversation to allow public pressure to influence the policy direction of the Obama Administration on the Keystone pipeline project.
This is most interesting since Obama decided yesterday to agree with the State Department that the project should not be given the green light until issues concerning its route are addressed. Presumably his re-election team saw the rubber stamping of this project as a liability for the 2012 presidential race.
While it’s likely the project will eventually be granted permission to continue, the Obama decision does give temporary life to the notion that organized pressure can indeed influence policy.
