Klein, Naomi (1970–)

Naomi Klein has been one of the key public figures associated with the counterglobalization movement, which came to prominence around the turn of the millennium. She continues to produce important critiques of global corporatism in a variety of media. She was born in Montreal, Canada, into a politically and culturally active family: Her father, Michael, is a doctor, who came to Canada as a Vietnam War resister, and her mother, Bonnie, is a filmmaker, best known for the anti-pornography film Not a Love Story. Klein is married to Avi Lewis, who is also a documentary filmmaker, and who also is, in turn, the son of Stephen Lewis, the United Nations special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, and journalist Michele Landsberg.

Klein is well known for her bestselling book No Logo, which appeared in January 2000, and was in press while thousands of protestors in Seattle disrupted the November 1999 World Trade Organization talks in that city. No Logo analyses the marketing and branding practices of global corporations, looking at ways in which contemporary capitalism seeks to reframe individuals' consciousnesses along branded lines. It also offers an analysis of some of the resistant [Page 805]responses to branding, such as culture jamming in the magazine Adbusters, reclaim-the-streets protests, and lobby efforts that target corporations instead of governmental bodies. Klein offers a comprehensive and comprehensible take on the discontent that is expressed in the counterglobalization movement, and her book has proven very timely, allowing her to become a popular media figure. No Logo has been translated into 28 languages and has aided her subsequent attempts to track anti-corporate activism. She has been a frequent contributor to periodical publications such as the Globe and Mail, Guardian, The Nation, and Harper's, and writes an internationally syndicated column.

In 2002, Klein published Fences and Windows, a volume of her essays on the counterglobalization movement written since No Logo. These essays range from a study of the major protests in the movement, from Seattle to Prague, to an analysis of the criminalization of dissent, and a study of the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico. Examining such topics as the Free Trade Area of the Americas, the ongoing World Social Forum—which searches for alternatives to corporate globalism—and genetically modified foods, this second book establishes Klein's grasp of the main issues confronted by the counterglobalization movement. A subsequent film called The Take, codirected with Avi Lewis, examines the closure of an Argentine car parts plant and its subsequent reopening as a workers' collective, looking at economic reforms in South America. Naomi Klein lives in Toronto and is currently completing a new book.