Naomi Klein
Born	May 8, 1970 (1970-05-08) (age 38) Montreal, Quebec
Occupation	journalist, author, activist
Subjects	anti-globalization, Neo-Liberalism
Official website

Naomi Klein (b. 8 May 1970, Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian journalist, author and activist well known for her political analyses of corporate globalization.

Klein ranked 11th in an internet poll ^[1][2][3] of the top global intellectuals of 2005, a list of the world's top 100 public intellectuals compiled by Prospect magazine^[4] in conjunction with Foreign Policy magazine. She was the highest ranked woman on the list.

Early career

Klein's writing career started early with contributions to The Varsity, a University of Toronto student newspaper, where she served as editor-in-chief. She credits her wake-up call to feminism as the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre of female engineering students. She dropped out of University of Toronto to become an intern at the Toronto Globe and Mail, followed by an editorship at This Magazine. She returned to college in 1995 to get a degree.

Career in journalism

In 2000, Klein published the book No Logo, which for many became a manifesto of the anti-corporate globalization movement. The book lambastes brand-oriented consumer culture by describing the operations of large corporations. These corporations are also accused of being often guilty of exploiting workers in the world's poorest countries in pursuit of ever-greater profits, she writes. Klein criticized Nike so much in the book that Nike published a multi-point response to the issues raised in the book.^[5] No Logo became an international bestseller, selling over one million copies, and translated into over 28 languages.^[6]

In 2002 Klein published Fences and Windows, a collection of articles and speeches she had written on behalf of the anti-globalization movement (all proceeds from the book go to benefit activist organizations through The Fences and Windows Fund). Klein also contributes to The Nation, In These Times, The Globe and Mail, This Magazine, and The Guardian.

She has continued to write on various current issues, such as the war in Iraq. In a September 2004 article for Harper's Magazine entitled Baghdad Year Zero: Pillaging Iraq in pursuit of a neocon utopia,^[7] she argues that, contrary to popular belief and criticisms, the Bush administration did have a clear plan for post-invasion Iraq, which was to build a fully unconstrained free market economy. She describes plans to allow foreigners to extract wealth from Iraq, and the methods used to achieve those goals.^[8][9] The 2008 film War, Inc. was partially inspired by her article, Baghdad Year Zero.^[10]

Also in 2004, Klein and her husband, Avi Lewis, released a documentary film called The Take, about factory workers in Argentina who took over the closed plant and resumed production, operating as a collective. The first African screening was in the Kennedy Road shack settlement in the South African city of Durban where the Abahlali baseMjondolo movement began.^[11]

The Shock Doctrine

Klein's third book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, was published on 4 September 2007, becoming an international and New York Times bestseller,^[6] translated into 20 languages.^[12] The book documents the concept of economic shock therapy and argues that the deregulated policies of free market neoliberalism, as advocated by the Chicago school of economics, have not risen to prominence because they were democratically popular, but because they were pushed through at various times when citizens were in a state of shock from a traumatic event, such as a natural disaster, a war, a coup, or an economic crisis. Detailed in the book are case histories of Chile under Pinochet, Russia under Yeltsin, New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and the privatization of Iraq's economy under the Coalition Provisional Authority.

The Shock Doctrine was also adapted into a short film of the same name, released onto YouTube. The film was directed by Jonás Cuarón, produced and co-written by his father Alfonso Cuarón. The video has been downloaded over one million times.^[6]

Reception

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Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz wrote a generally positive review of The Shock Doctrine for the New York Times, adding, "the case against these policies is even stronger than the one Klein makes."^[13] Paul B. Farrell from the Dow Jones Business News called it "one of the best economic book[s] of the 21st century".^[14] John Gray wrote in The Guardian, "There are very few books that really help us understand the present. The Shock Doctrine is one of those books."^[15] William S. Kowinski of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "Klein may well have revealed the master narrative of our time,"^[16] and it has been named one of the best books of 2007 by the New York Times,^[17] the Village Voice,^[18] Publishers Weekly,^[19] The Observer,^[20] and the Seattle Times.^[21]

The book has received mixed reviews from Shashi Tharoor in the Washington Post,^[22] and Tom Redburn in the New York Times.^[23]

Critics of the book include George Mason University economist Tyler Cowen, who called the book a "true economics disaster" which "offers not so much an argument but rather a Dadaesque juxtaposition of themes and supposedly parallel developments in the global market." ^[24] In the London Review of Books, Stephen Holmes is critical of what he sees both as Klein's "naive celebration of ‘joyous’ populism, democracy and mass movements", and claims that she conflates "'free market orthodoxy' with predatory corporate behavior."^[25] John Willman of Financial Times describes it as "a deeply flawed work that blends together disparate phenomena to create a beguiling – but ultimately dishonest – argument."^[26] Robert Cole from The Times said it is "too easy to dismiss Shock Doctrine as a leftist rant".^[27] Johan Norberg has contested much of the book in a 20 page briefing paper,^[28] and the section on Russia has been challenged by Anders Åslund^[29] and Fred Kaplan.^[30]

Other activities

Klein once lectured as a Miliband Fellow at the London School of Economics.^[31]

Klein was the keynote speaker at the Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians (ACJC)'s first National conference.

Books

• 2000. No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs. ISBN 0312421435
• 2002. Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate. ISBN 0312307993
• 2007. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. ISBN 0805079831

Filmography

• The Corporation
• The Take
• The Shock Doctrine

Family

Klein was brought up in a Jewish family which has a history of activism, as does that of her husband, Avi Lewis. Her grandfather was fired for labour organizing at Disney in the United States. Her father Michael, a physician, was a Vietnam War resister and a member of Physicians for Social Responsibility. Her mother, film-maker Bonnie Sherr Klein, directed and scripted the anti-pornography documentary film, Not a Love Story.^[32][33] Her brother Seth is director of the British Columbia office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Her in-laws are Michele Landsberg and Stephen Lewis, son of David Lewis. An aunt of Lewis's is married to architect Daniel Libeskind.

References

External links

• Official website
• The Shock Doctrine on Macmillan.com
• Search for Naomi Klein's articles at The Guardian
• Index of Naomi Klein's articles at The Nation
• Physicians for Social Responsibility

Media

• Video: The Shock Doctrine by Alfonso Cuarón and Naomi Klein
• Video: An Introduction to Naomi Klein's No Logo
• Video: A conversation with author Naomi Klein
• CBC Archives - CBC Television's Hot Type Klein talking about her book No Logo (2000).
• Video: Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (December 7, 2007), lecture from 2007 book tour.
• Video: A Big Think Interview with Naomi Klein