Born: 8 May 1970
Nationality: Canadian
Naomi Klein is a Canadian author, award-winning journalist, social activist, and filmmaker known for her political analysis and criticism of corporate globalisation and of corporate capitalism. She is a member of the board of directors for 350.org, a global grassroots movement tackling the climate crisis.
Born in Montreal, Quebec, she was brought up in a Jewish family with a history of peace activism. Her parents were self-described "hippies" who moved to Montreal from the U.S. in 1967 as war resisters of the Vietnam War.
In 2000, Klein published No Logo, a book that for many became a manifesto of the anti-corporate globalisation movement. In this book, she attacks brand-oriented consumer culture and the operations of large corporations. She also accuses several such corporations of unethically exploiting workers in the world's poorest countries in pursuit of greater profits.
However, Naomi Klein is best known for a 2007 New York Times number one international bestseller, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism which is being published in 30 languages and has over a million copies in print. Central to the book's thesis is the contention that those who wish to implement unpopular free market policies now routinely do so by taking advantage of certain economic, political, military or natural features in the aftermath of major disasters. The book appears to claim that these shocks are in some cases intentionally encouraged or even manufactured.
Klein frequently appears on global and national lists of top influential thinkers. As a journalist devoted to a restless struggle for social justice and a better future, she is one of the Greatest Utopians of our time.