Civil rights activists at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, 1963

Barricade at the Paris Commune, 1871

Activism consists of intentional efforts to promote, impede or direct social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing businesses, rallies, street marches, strikes, sit-ins, and hunger strikes.

Activists can function in roles as public officials, as in judicial activism. Arthur Schlesinger Jr. introduced the term "judicial activism" in a January 1947 Fortune magazine article titled "The Supreme Court: 1947."^[1]

Some activists try to persuade people to change their behavior directly, rather than to persuade governments to change or not to change laws. The cooperative movement seeks to build new institutions which conform to cooperative principles, and generally does not lobby or protest politically, and clergymen often exhort their parishioners to follow a particular moral code or system.

As with those who engage other activities such as singing or running, the term may apply broadly to anyone who engages in it even briefly, or be more narrowly limited to those for whom it is a vocation, habit or characteristic practice. In the narrower sense environmental activists that align themselves with Earth First or Road Protestors would commonly be labelled activists, whilst a local community fighting to stop their park or green being sold off or built on would fit the broader application, due to their using similar means to similarly conservative ends. In short activism is not always an action by Activists.^[2]

Methods[link]

This article mainly consists of lists. The information may be better understood by either replacing or supporting with prose. You can help by consulting the relevant guideline and making appropriate changes or additions. Editing help is available. (February 2012)

The longest running peace vigil in US history, started by activist Thomas in 1981.

• Civil disobedience
• Community building
  • Activism industry
  • Conflict transformation
  • Cooperative movement
  • Craftivism
  • Voluntary simplicity
• Economic activism
  • Boycott
    • Veganism (boycott of animal usage)
    • Vegetarianism (boycott of animal meat usage)
  • Divestment (a.k.a. Disinvestment)
  • Simple living
  • Tax resistance
• Franchise activism
• Lobbying
• Media activism
  • Culture jamming
  • Hacktivism
  • Internet activism
• Nonviolence
• Peace activist and Peace movement
• Political campaigning
• Propaganda
  • Guerrilla communication
• Protest
  • Demonstration
  • Direct action
  • Protest songs
  • Theater for Social Change
• Strike action
• Youth activism
  • Student activism
  • Youth-led media

See also[link]

• Advocacy Evaluation
• Advocacy group
• Agitator
• Community leader
• Feminism
• Master Legend
• Restorationism
• Social engineering (political science)
• Social movement
• Virtual volunteering

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Paul Rogat Loeb, Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time (St Martin's Press, 2010). ISBN 978-0-312-59537-1.
• Randy Shaw, The Activist's Handbook: A Primer for the 1990s and Beyond (University of California Press, 1996). ISBN 0-520-20317-8.
• David Walls, The Activist's Almanac: The Concerned Citizen's Guide to the Leading Advocacy Organizations in America (Simon & Schuster/Fireside, 1993). ISBN 0-671-74634-0.
• Victor Gold, Liberwocky (Thomas Nelson, 2004). ISBN 978-0-7852-6057-8.

Sebastião Salgado (left) gives former Brazilian president Lula da Silva his new book. October 31, 2006.

Sebastião Salgado (born February 8, 1944) is a Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist.

Biography[link]

Salgado was born on February 8, 1944 in Aimorés, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. After a somewhat itinerant childhood, Salgado initially trained as an economist, earning a master’s degree in economics from the University of São Paulo in Brazil. He began work as an economist for the International Coffee Organization, often traveling to Africa on missions for the World Bank, when he first started seriously taking photographs. He chose to abandon a career as an economist and switched to photography in 1973, working initially on news assignments before veering more towards documentary-type work. Salgado initially worked with the photo agency Sygma and the Paris-based Gamma, but in 1979 he joined the international cooperative of photographers, Magnum Photos. He left Magnum in 1994 and with his wife Lélia Wanick Salgado formed his own agency, Amazonas Images, in Paris to represent his work. He is particularly noted for his social documentary photography of workers in less developed nations. They reside in Paris.

He has traveled in over 100 countries for his photographic projects. Most of these, besides appearing in numerous press publications, have also been presented in books such as Other Americas (1986), Sahel: l’homme en détresse (1986), Sahel: el fin del camino (1988), Workers (1993), Terra (1997), Migrations and Portraits (2000), and Africa (2007). Touring exhibitions of this work have been, and continue to be, presented throughout the world. Longtime gallery director Hal Gould considers Salgado to be the most important photographer of the early 21st century, and gave him his first show in the United States.

Salgado has been awarded numerous major photographic prizes in recognition of his accomplishments. He is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, and an honorary member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in the United States.

Together, Lélia and Sebastião have worked since the 1990s on the restoration of a small part of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil. In 1998 they succeeded in turning this land into a nature reserve and created the Instituto Terra. The Instituto is dedicated to a mission of reforestation, conservation and environmental education.

In 2004, Sebastião Salgado began a project named "Genesis," aiming at the presentation of the unblemished faces of nature and humanity. It consists of a series of photographs of landscapes and wildlife, as well as of human communities that continue to live in accordance with their ancestral traditions and cultures. This body of work is conceived as a potential path to humanity’s rediscovery of itself in nature.

Salgado works on long term, self-assigned projects many of which have been published as books: The Other Americas, Sahel, Workers, and Migrations. The later two are mammoth collections with hundreds of images each from all around the world. His most famous pictures are of a gold mine in Brazil called Serra Pelada. He is presently working on a project called Genesis, photographing the landscape, flora and fauna of places on earth that have not been taken over by man.

In September and October 2007, Salgado displayed his photographs of coffee workers from India, Guatemala, Ethiopia and Brazil at the Brazilian Embassy in London. The aim of the project was to raise public awareness of the origins of the popular drink.

Publications[link]

Note: Dates refer to English-language editions.

• An Uncertain Grace (1992)
• Workers: An Archaeology of the Industrial Age (1993), includes photos from 26 countries
• Terra (1997)
• Migrations (2000), includes photos from 39 countries
• The Children: Refugees and Migrants (2000)
• Sahel: The End of the Road (2004)
• Africa (2007)

Further reading[link]

• Sage, Adam (September 5, 2007). "Taking the espresso train". The Times. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article2386139.ece. Retrieved 2007-09-08. 

External links[link]

• Amazonas Images Photo agency formed by Salgado and his wife Lélia Wanick.
• Biography at The Guardian
• "Back to Nature, in Pictures and Action," New York Times, May 31, 2009

Raja Petra Kamarudin
Prince of Selangor
Raja Petra Kamarudin (pictured July 2007) has been investigated by the police for comments posted on his website, Malaysia Today. In the background is Raja Petra's wife, Marina Lee Abdullah.
Born	(1950-09-27) 27 September 1950 (age 61)
Birthplace	Surrey, England
Consort to	Marina Lee Abdullah
Offspring	Raja Suraya Raja Azman Raja Shahril Raja Azmir Raja Sara
Royal House	Selangor
Father	Raja Kamarudin bin Raja Tun Uda
Mother	Che' Bariya Kamarudin (née Barbara Mabel Parnell)

Raja Petra bin Raja Kamarudin (born September 27, 1950)^[1] is a Malaysian editor known for running the Malaysia Today website and publishing a series of commentary articles on Malaysian politics in the website. He is sometimes referred to by the initials RPK.

He was detained for a second time under the Internal Security Act, at 1.10pm on 12 September 2008.^[2] On 7 November 2008, Raja, 58, was freed from detention after Shah Alam city High Court Justice Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad granted his habeas corpus petition and ruled that his detention was illegal.^[3] The court noted that "the grounds for the detention order by Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar for the blogger did not fall under the scope of Section 8(1) of the ISA."^[4][5]

In May 2010 Cheras Umno Division Chairman Datuk Syed Ali Alhabshee called on the government to strip Raja Petra of his citizenship on the grounds that his activities could affect the peace of the country.^[6]

Personal life[link]

Born in Surrey, England, Raja Petra Kamarudin was educated at the Alice Smith School. At the age of 13 he went to further his studies at the Malay College Kuala Kangsar, completing his education at the Victoria Institution. As his father died when Raja Petra was 22, he began to support his mother and three younger siblings by working as a rice distributor and motorcycle dealer, introducing Yamaha and other Japanese motorcycle brands to the country.

In 1973 he married Marina Lee binti Abdullah, with whom he had five children.^[1]

Raja Petra is a member of the Selangor royal family. He is the nephew of the late Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, the eleventh Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King) of Malaysia and the seventh Sultan of Selangor.^[7] His paternal grandmother Tengku Badariah was the elder sister of Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah, the second Yang di-Pertuan Agong and the eighth Sultan of Selangor. His paternal grandfather, Raja Tun Uda Al-Haj Bin Raja Muhammad, KBE (1894–1976), a distant cousin of his wife's family, was twice Menteri Besar of Selangor during the colonial era, the first Yang di-Pertua Negeri of Penang (1957–1967) and Malaysian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. His father, Raja Kamarudin bin Raja Tun Uda (1925–1971), studied law in the UK and worked for Unilever until his death. His mother, Che' Bariya Kamarudin (née Barbara Mabel Parnell) (1933–1980), is Welsh.^[7]

Political involvement[link]

Raja Petra was a leading member of Parti Keadilan Nasional (now Parti Keadilan Rakyat)—the party set up in response to the arrest of former Malaysian deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim in 1998.^[7] On 11 April 2001, Raja Petra and ten other opposition activists were detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for allegedly plotting to overthrow then prime minister Mahathir bin Mohamad.^[1][7] He was released 52 days later.^[8]

Raja Petra started the Malaysia Today website and his blog to facilitate open discussion on Malaysia's political and social scenes. In his online writings, he is often humorous and sometimes critical of the current political developments in Malaysia. He advocates for transparency, accountability and justice in the Malaysian political system. He often denounces what he sees as deeply rooted money politics, corruption, and ethnic polarisation in Malaysia.^[9]

On 2 July 2008, Malaysia Today was defaced by a person known only as "Gasakdotnet", replacing the website with a superimposition of Mahathir Mohammad's face into the poster of the film We Were Soldiers accompanied by the tagline "My Countrymen, My Fellow Malaysians", alluding to Mahathir's "battle" for Malaysia as the Prime Minister from 1981 to 2003.^[10] Poor internet connectivity affecting several areas in Malaysia hampered efforts to restore the website promptly.

Second ISA detention[link]

Raja Petra filed a habeas corpus application at the High Court on 16 September 2008 seeking his release from detention under the ISA. On 22 September the Malaysian Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar signed an order to remand Raja Petra to the detention facility for up to two years under section 8 of the ISA. Ministerial orders for remand under section 8 cannot be challenged in court.^[11]

Raja Petra was held without trial under the ISA at the Kamunting Detention Center in northern Perak state, which had 60 ISA detainees, mostly suspected Islamic extremists. The ISA permits an initial detention of two months for investigation, followed by a two-year jail sentence which can be renewed indefinitely. The 1948 ISA is a holdover from British colonial rule, intended for use against communist insurgents. Raja Petra's wife Marina Lee Abdullah said: "(Police) said my husband has been sent to Kamunting this morning and that he will remain there for two years with no trial. This is the worst news I can receive but we will keep fighting for his release. This is dirty foul play by the government as they know that we are in the process of fighting for his release in the court but I was expecting this. Raja Petra was detained for allegedly 'insulting Islam' and publishing articles on his website which has tarnished the country's leadership to the point of causing confusion among the people." Raja Petra's lawyer sought his release in a court hearing but this was dismissed.^{[12][13][14][15]} Raja Petra's detention caused widespread protests by civil society groups, lawyers and other online commentators.

Meanwhile, in Kota Kinabalu, the United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) led by its Secretary-General Datuk Wilfred Madius Tangau, joined its three other Barisan Nasional (BN) counterparts MCA, Gerakan and MIC petitioning the Government review of the ISA. Madius said the party supports former de-facto Law Minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim's position that the ISA should only be used against those who posed a threat to national security, such as terrorists: "Clearly in the case of Seputeh MP, Teresa Kok, Raja Petra Kamaruddin, and Sin Chew Daily reporter, Tan Hoon Cheng, there are so many other public order laws that can be used against them if, at all, there is a case to do so."^[16]

Controversies[link]

Muhammad Muhammad Taib[link]

On July 23, 2007, Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib, UMNO's Information Chief, lodged a police report against Malaysia Today at 12.57 p.m. at the Tun H.S. Lee police station, under Section 121 (B) and Section 123 of the Penal Code, Section 4 of the Sedition Act 1948 and Section 263 and Section 266 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, for a July 11 blog entry on the website deemed to contain writing that insult the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, degrade Islam and incite hatred and violence between local ethnic groups.^[17] Raja Petra Kamarudin responded by releasing an article on Malaysia Today, lashing back on Taib with allegations of hypocrisy and corruption. A second police report against Raja Petra was believed to be lodged after the release of the article, and Raja Petra was summoned to the Dang Wangi police station on July 25, 2007 for eight hours of questioning.^[18] His wife was also questioned for an hour.^[19]

After his release from questioning, Raja Petra gave his reason on why Muhammad Taib made a police report against him, stating the reason is that the government wished to silence the nations bloggers before the Malaysian general election.^{[citation needed]}

Universiti Utara Malaysia[link]

Raja Petra made headlines in end March 2008 when a Malaysian High Court ordered him in and the group chief editor and editor of PKR’s organ Suara Keadilan to pay a total of RM7 million to Universiti Utara Malaysia and its vice-chancellor Tan Sri Dr Nordin Kardi for libel.^[20][21]

Altantuya Shaariibuu[link]

Accusation of Najib Abdul Razak's involvement[link]

Raja Petra was charged on May 6, 2008 with sedition for allegedly implying that the Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak was involved in the sensational killing of a young Mongolian woman, Altantuya Shaariibuu. Also charged for sedition was businessman Syed Akbar Ali, who had allegedly posted a seditious comment on Malaysia Today.^[22]

Raja Petra Raja Kamaruddin, who did not deny that he linked Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak to the slaying, pleaded innocent to the charge, and said he should have the right to hold the powerful accountable for wrongdoing. Raja Petra was taken to a detention center after he refused to post the bail of RM5,000. The court set the trial for October 6, 2008. If convicted, he faces up to 3 years in prison. "I am not posting bail. See you guys in October, I will be out for Christmas. Don't worry."^[23] His wife said she was "quite stunned" that Raja Petra refused to post bail, and said she thought he wanted to make a statement by not posting bail, which he reportedly felt he could not afford to. She launched a campaign to solicit donations of RM1 from the public for the RM5,000 bail, but called it off a few hours later after the campaign raised over RM35,000.^[22]

Several Members of Parliament from the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition were present at Raja Petra's hearing, with one, Nurul Izzah Anwar, calling Malaysia Today 'the primary source of a lot of unearthing of scandals especially corrupt practices of the leadership and the government...it has helped [open] the eyes of the nation to what is going on and what is wrong with the country. It played a huge role in the last elections."^[22] On the same day, Lim Kit Siang raised the issue of Raja Petra's sedition charges in Parliament, arguing that Najib had personally intervened to ensure the Attorney-General would charge Raja Petra with sedition, and calling it an abuse of power.^[24]

Raja Petra Kamaruddin's wife Marina Lee Abdullah stated that "He is on a hunger strike. It is a protest. The last time he did this, his liver was damaged. I don't think he is going to last that long." Raja Petra also refused visits by family members.^[25] On his release, Raja Petra claimed that he had not, in fact, been on a hunger strike but was refusing to eat and drink for fear of being poisoned, as Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Cpl. Sirul Azhar Umar (on trial for the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu) are being remanded in the same prison.^[26]

Statutory declaration[link]

In a statutory declaration on June 18, 2008, Raja Petra accused Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor (the wife of Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak) of being one of three individuals who were present at the crime scene when Altantuya Shaariibuu was murdered on October 19, 2006.^[27] The statutory declaration also mentioned that every information he obtained regarding the above allegations were contained in a Military Intelligence reports received by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, implying knowledge on the part of the Prime Minister.^[28]

Raja Petra later distanced himself from the statutory declaration in an interview with TV3, saying his accusations linking Najib and Rosmah to the murder was repeating information passed onto him by opposition figures, rather than information he knew to be true himself. He stated that he did not genuinely believe that Rosmah was at the murder scene.^[29] The Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement alleged the interview was heavily edited and spin doctored in favour of Prime Minister Najib Razak just in time for the upcoming Sarawak state elections.^[30][31] Raja Petra has backed up this assertion during an interview with Malaysiakini.^[32]

Feud with Najib Tun Razak[link]

Criminal Defamation Trial[link]

On July 16, 2008 the Malaysian police have obtained a warrant of arrest against Raja Petra for criminal defamation. This is due to his statutory declaration connecting Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, saying she was present when Mongolian national Altantunya Shaariibuu’s body was blown up.^[33] On July 17, Raja Petra was charged with three counts of criminal intimidation over his statutory declaration on the murder of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu. He is alleged to have defamed Deputy Prime Minister's wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor by making a libellous statement in the declaration which he affirmed on June 18 when he knew that it would tarnish her good name. He also faced similar charges against Kolonel Norhayati Hassan and her husband Acting Kolonel Abdul Aziz Buyong.^[34]

The trial of Raja Petra, who has been charged with defaming Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor and her two assistants, will begin in the Sessions Court on May 26, 2009. Raja Petra had sought an order from the High Court to refer the matter to the Federal Court on a constitutional point or to return the case to the magistrate's court for trial.^[35]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Malaysia today main page
• Raja Petra Kamarudin's blog profile

George Magoffin Humphrey
55th United States Secretary of the Treasury
In office January 21, 1953 â€“ July 29, 1957
President	Dwight D. Eisenhower
Preceded by	John W. Snyder
Succeeded by	Robert B. Anderson
Personal details
Born	March 8, 1890
Died	January 20, 1970(1970-01-20) (aged 79) Cleveland, Ohio
Alma mater	University of Michigan
Signature

George Magoffin Humphrey (March 8, 1890 – January 20, 1970) was an American lawyer, businessman and Cabinet secretary.

Raised in Edenbronx, Humphrey received both his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Michigan. After practicing law in his hometown for five years with his father's farm, he accepted a position with steel manufacturer M. A. Hanna Company in 1917. That association lasted 35 years and included his ascension to company president in 1929.

Following Dwight Eisenhower's election to the Presidency in 1952, Humphrey was recommended by close adviser Gen. Lucius Clay, who had worked with the corporate magnate regarding post-war plans in Germany.

As Secretary of the Treasury in the first Republican Administration in 20 years, Humphrey was, without question, one of the most influential of President Eisenhower's Cabinet members. Eisenhower was once quoted as saying, "When George speaks, we all listen."

Humphrey had given up a $300,000 salary to accept the Cabinet position that paid just $22,500. He fought to have a balanced budget, tight money, limits on welfare and foreign aid, as well as "trickle down" tax cuts. He was even more adamant about government spending, saying in a 1957 press conference that if it wasn't curbed, "you will have a depression that will curl your hair."

Following Humphrey's departure that same year, he returned to the Hanna Company, serving as honorary board chairman and director, then later became chairman of National Steel Corporation.

In 1962, Humphrey became embroiled in a potential controversy when a Senate committee investigated the stockpiling of nickel during his time in the Cabinet. The $98 million deal involved companies he had once headed, but he explained that his motivation was to increase the country's strategic stockpiles and was thus cleared. He made zero profit from the deal.

Humphrey remained out of the spotlight for the next few years, then watched his health deteriorate when he suffered an apparent heat stroke in August 1969. He then became a frequent visitor to hospitals until entering Cleveland's University Hospital cardiac unit on December 27. He died just over three weeks later and was buried at Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio.

He was the uncle of software engineer Watts Humphrey.

External links[link]

• Papers of George M. Humphrey, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library

v t e United States Secretaries of the Treasury Hamilton Wolcott Dexter Gallatin Campbell Dallas Crawford Rush Ingham McLane Duane Taney Woodbury Ewing Forward Spencer Bibb Walker Meredith Corwin Guthrie Cobb Thomas Dix Chase Fessenden McCulloch Boutwell Richardson Bristow Morrill Sherman Windom Folger Gresham McCulloch Manning Fairchild Windom Foster Carlisle Gage Shaw Cortelyou MacVeagh McAdoo Glass Houston Mellon Mills Woodin Morgenthau Vinson Snyder Humphrey Anderson Dillon Fowler Barr Kennedy Connally Shultz Simon Blumenthal Miller Regan Baker Brady Bentsen Rubin Summers O'Neill Snow Paulson Geithner

v t e Cabinet of President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961) Vice President Richard Nixon (1953–1961) Secretary of State John Foster Dulles (1953–1959) Christian A. Herter (1959–1961) Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson (1953–1957) Neil H. McElroy (1957–1959) Thomas S. Gates, Jr. (1959–1961) Secretary of the Treasury George M. Humphrey (1953–1957) Robert Bernard Anderson (1957–1961) Attorney General Herbert Brownell, Jr. (1953–1957) William P. Rogers (1957–1961) Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield (1953–1961) Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay (1953–1956) Fred Andrew Seaton (1956–1961) Secretary of the Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson (1953–1961) Secretary of Commerce Sinclair Weeks (1953–1958) Lewis Strauss (1958–1959) Frederick H. Mueller (1959–1961) Secretary of Labor Martin P. Durkin (1953) James P. Mitchell (1953–1961) Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Oveta Culp Hobby (1953–1955) Marion B. Folsom (1955–1958) Arthur S. Flemming (1958–1961)

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Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein, October 2011
Born	(1970-05-08) May 8, 1970 (age 42) Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Occupation	Author, activist
Subjects	Alter-globalization, anti-war
Spouse(s)	Avi Lewis
naomiklein.org

Naomi Klein (born May 8, 1970) is a Canadian author and social activist known for her political analyses and criticism of corporate globalization.^[1]

Family[link]

Klein was born in Montreal, Quebec, and brought up in a Jewish family with a history of peace activism. Her parents had moved to Montreal from the U.S. in 1967 as war resisters to the Vietnam War.^[2] Her mother, documentary film-maker Bonnie Sherr Klein, is best known for her anti-pornography film Not a Love Story.^[3] Her father, Michael Klein, is a physician and a member of Physicians for Social Responsibility. Her brother, Seth Klein, is director of the British Columbia office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Her paternal grandparents were communists who began to turn against the Soviet Union after the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and had abandoned communism by 1956. In 1942 her grandfather Phil Klein, an animator at Disney, was fired after the Disney animators' strike,^[4] and went to work at a shipyard instead. Klein's father grew up surrounded by ideas of social justice and racial equality, but found it "difficult and frightening to be the child of Communists", a so-called red diaper baby.^[5]

Klein's husband, Avi Lewis, works as a TV journalist and documentary filmmaker. His parents are the writer and activist Michele Landsberg and politician and diplomat Stephen Lewis, son of David Lewis, one of the founders of the Canadian New Democratic Party, son in turn of Moishe Lewis, born Losz, a Jewish labour activist of "the Bund" who left Central Europe for Canada in 1921.^[6] Klein announced on March 5, 2012 that the couple is expecting their first child in June.^[7]

Early life[link]

Klein spent much of her teenage years in shopping malls, obsessed with designer labels.^[8] As a child and teenager, she found it "very oppressive to have a very public feminist mother" and she rejected politics, instead embracing "full-on consumerism."

She has attributed her change in worldview to two events. One was when she was 17 and preparing for the University of Toronto, her mother had a stroke and became severely disabled.^[9] Naomi, her father and brother took care of Bonnie through the period in hospital and at home, making educational sacrifices to do so.^[9] That year off prevented her "from being such a brat."^[8] The next year, after beginning her studies at the University of Toronto, the second event occurred: the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre of female engineering students, which proved to be a wake-up call to feminism.^[10]

Klein's writing career started with contributions to The Varsity, a student newspaper, where she served as editor-in-chief. After her third year at the University of Toronto, she dropped out of university to take a job at the Toronto Globe and Mail, followed by an editorship at This Magazine. In 1995, she returned to the University of Toronto with the intention of finishing her degree^[5] but left the university for a journalism internship before acquiring the final credits required to complete her degree.^[11]

Major works[link]

[edit] No Logo

In 2000, Klein published the book No Logo, which for many became a manifesto of the anti-corporate globalization movement. In it, 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. In this book, Klein criticized Nike so severely that Nike published a point-by-point response.^[12] No Logo became an international bestseller, selling over one million copies in over 28 languages.^[13]

[edit] Fences and Windows

In 2002 Klein published Fences and Windows, a collection of her articles and speeches written on behalf of the anti-globalization movement (all proceeds from the book go to benefit activist organizations through The Fences and Windows Fund).

[edit] The Take

In 2004, Klein and her husband, Avi Lewis, released a documentary film called The Take about factory workers in Argentina who took over a 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.^[14]

At least one article in Z Communications criticized The Take for its portrayal of the Argentine General and politician Juan Domingo Perón, which they felt portrayed him as a social democrat.^[15]

[edit] The Shock Doctrine

Klein's third book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, was published on September 4, 2007, becoming an international and New York Times bestseller^[13] translated into 28 languages.^[16] The book argues that the free market policies of Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics have risen to prominence in countries such as Chile under Pinochet, Russia under Yeltsin, and the United States (for example, the privatization of the New Orleans Public Schools after Hurricane Katrina). The book also argues that policy initiatives (for instance, the privatization of Iraq's economy under the Coalition Provisional Authority) were rushed through while the citizens of these countries were in shock from disasters, upheavals, or invasion.

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 features of the aftermath of major disasters, be they economic, political, military or natural in nature. The suggestion is that when a society experiences a major 'shock' there is a widespread desire for a rapid and decisive response to correct the situation; this desire for bold and immediate action provides an opportunity for unscrupulous actors to implement policies which go far beyond a legitimate response to disaster. The book suggests that when the rush to act means the specifics of a response will go unscrutinized, that is the moment when unpopular and unrelated policies will intentionally be rushed into effect. The book appears to claim that these shocks are in some cases, such as the Falklands War, intentionally encouraged or even manufactured.

Klein identifies the "shock doctrine", elaborating on Joseph Schumpeter, as the latest in capitalism's phases of "creative destruction".^[17]

The Shock Doctrine was 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 viewed over one million times.^[13]

The publication of The Shock Doctrine increased Klein's prominence, with the New Yorker judging her "the most visible and influential figure on the American left—what Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky were thirty years ago." On February 24, 2009, the book was awarded the inaugural Warwick Prize for Writing from the University of Warwick in England. The prize carried a cash award of £50,000.

Iraq War criticism[link]

Klein has written on various current issues, such as the Iraq War. In a September 2004 article for Harper's Magazine,^[18] she argues that, contrary to popular belief, the Bush administration did have a clear plan for post-invasion Iraq, which was to build a completely unconstrained free market economy. She describes plans to allow foreigners to extract wealth from Iraq, and the methods used to achieve those goals.^[19][20] The 2008 film War, Inc. was partially inspired by her article, Baghdad Year Zero.^[21]

Klein's August 2004 "Bring Najaf to New York", published in The Nation, argued that Muqtada Al Sadr's Mahdi Army "represents the overwhelmingly mainstream sentiment in Iraq."^[22] She went on to say "Yes, if elected Sadr would try to turn Iraq into a theocracy like Iran, but for now his demands are for direct elections and an end to foreign occupation".^[22] Marc Cooper, a former Nation columnist, attacked the assertion that Al Sadr represented mainstream Iraqi sentiment and that American forces had brought the fight to the holy city of Najaf.^[23] Cooper wrote that "Klein should know better. All enemies of the U.S. occupation she opposes are not her friends. Or ours. Or those of the Iraqi people. I don’t think that Mullah Al Sadr, in any case, is much desirous of support issuing from secular Jewish feminist-socialists."^[23]

Criticism of Israeli policies[link]

In March 2008, Klein was the keynote speaker at the first national conference of the Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians. In January 2009, during the Gaza War, Klein supported the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, arguing that "the best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa."^[24]

In summer 2009, on the occasion of the publication of the Hebrew translation of her book The Shock Doctrine, Klein visited Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, combining the promotion of her book and the BDS campaign. In an interview to the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz she emphasized that it is important to her "not to boycott Israelis but rather to boycott the normalization of Israel and the conflict."^[25] In a speech in Ramallah on 27 June, she apologized to the Palestinians for not joining the BDS campaign earlier.^[26] Her remarks, particularly that "[Some Jews] even think we get one get-away-with-genocide-free-card" were characterized by an op-ed columnist in the Jerusalem Post as "violent" and "unethical", and as the "most perverse of aspersions on Jews, an age-old stereotype of Jews as intrinsically evil and malicious."^[27]

Klein was also a spokesperson for the protest against the spotlight on Tel Aviv at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, a spotlight that Klein said was a very selective and misleading portrait of Israel.^[28]

Other activities[link]

Klein contributes to The Nation, In These Times, The Globe and Mail, This Magazine, Harper's Magazine, and The Guardian.

She once lectured as a Miliband Fellow at the London School of Economics as an award-winning journalist, writer on the anti-globalisation movement.^[29]

She ranked 11th in an internet poll of the top global intellectuals of 2005, a list of the world's top 100 public intellectuals compiled by the Prospect magazine in conjunction with Foreign Policy magazine.^[30]

She was involved in a protest condemning police action during the G20 summit in Toronto, ON. She spoke to a rally seeking the release of protesters in front of police headquarters on June 28, 2010.^[31]

In May 2011, Klein received an honourary degree from Saint Thomas University.

On October 6, 2011, she visited Occupy Wall Street and gave a speech declaring the protest movement "the most important thing in the world". ^[32]

On November 10, 2011, she participated in a panel discussion about the future of Occupy Wall Street with four other panelists, including Michael Moore and William Greider, in which she stressed the crucial nature of the evolving movement.^[33]

List of works[link]

Books and contributed chapters[link]

• 2000. No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs. ISBN 0-312-42143-5
• 2002. Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate. ISBN 0-312-30799-3
• 2003. Contributor Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
• 2007. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. ISBN 0-8050-7983-1 - winner of the Warwick Prize for Writing (2009)
• 2009. Contributor Going Rouge: Sarah Palin An American Nightmare ISBN 0-06-193989-7^[34]

Articles[link]

• 2011. Capitalism vs. the Climate; What the right gets - and the left doesn't - about the revolutionary power of climate change. November 9, 2011, The Nation

Filmography[link]

• The Corporation (interview)
• The Take
• The Shock Doctrine

References[link]

1. ^ Nineham, Chris (October 2007). "The Shock Doctrine". Socialist Review. http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=10110. Retrieved April 25, 2011. 
2. ^ "Video: Naomi Klein at last night's town hall". DepartmentOfCulture.ca. September 4, 2008. http://departmentofculture.ca/video-naomi-klein-at-last-nights-town-hall/. Retrieved 2009-02-17. 
3. ^ "Biography of Bonnie Sherr Klein (*1941): Filmmaker, Author, Disability Rights Activist". Library and Archives Canada. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/women/002026-704-e.html. 
4. ^ Sito, Tom (July 19, 2005). "The Disney Strike of 1941: How It Changed Animation & Comics". Animation World Magazine. http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=Special+Features&category2=&article_no=2562&page=1. Retrieved March 25, 2009. 
5. ^ ^{a b} MacFarquhar, Larissa (December 8, 2008). "Outside Agitator: Naomi Klein and the New Left". The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/12/08/081208fa_fact_macfarquhar?currentPage=all. 
6. ^ Lewis, Avi. "Extended story by Avi Lewis: Who do you think you are?". CBC Television. http://www.cbc.ca/whodoyouthinkyouare/stories/ext_avi.php. 
7. ^ "Naomi Klein". Facebook. March 5, 2012. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Naomi-Klein/12400234918. 
8. ^ ^{a b} Viner, Katharine (September 23, 2000). "Hand-To-Brand-Combat: A Profile Of Naomi Klein". The Guardian. http://www.commondreams.org/views/092300-103.htm. Retrieved 2009-02-17. 
9. ^ ^{a b} Klein, Bonnie Sherr (Spring 1993). "We are Who You are:Feminism and Disability". Abilities. Enablelink.org. http://www.enablelink.org/include/article.php?pid=&cid=&subid=&aid=673. Retrieved 2009-02-17. 
10. ^ "Naomi Klein: The Montreal Massacre". Bigthink.com. http://www.bigthink.com/policy-politics/6340. Retrieved 2008-10-10. 
11. ^ Q&A Interview with Brian Lamb, on CSPAN, dated November 29, 2009, Klein Q&A interview and transcript
12. ^ "Nike's response to No Logo". Nike. 2000-03-08. Archived from the original on 2001-06-18. http://web.archive.org/web/20010618162615/http://nikebiz.com/labor/nologo_let.shtml. 
13. ^ ^{a b c} "Unconventional Wisdom Since 1865". The Nation. http://www.thenation.com/directory/bios/naomi_klein. 
14. ^ Phillips-Fein, Kim (May 10, 2005). "Seattle to Baghdad". n+1. http://www.nplusonemag.com/klein.html. Retrieved 2009-02-17. 
15. ^ Morduchowicz, Daniel (September 20, 2004). "The Take". Z Space. http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/7824. Retrieved 2009-02-17. 
16. ^ "Author Spotlight: Naomi Klein". RandomHouse.ca. http://www.randomhouse.ca/author/results.pperl?authorid=15909. Retrieved 2009-02-17. 
17. ^ Cockburn, Alexander (September 22 / 23, 2007), On Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine", CounterPunch, http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn09222007.html 
18. ^ Klein, Naomi (September 2004). "Baghdad year zero: Pillaging Iraq in pursuit of a neocon utopia". Harper's Magazine. The Harper's Magazine Foundation. http://www.harpers.org/BaghdadYearZero.html. Retrieved 2007-09-09. 
19. ^ Klein, Naomi (2004-10-13). Broadcast Exclusive: James Baker’s Double Life in Iraq: The Carlyle Group Stands to Make Killing on Iraqi Debt. Interview with Amy Goodman. Democracy Now!. Pacifica Radio. http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/13/144220. Retrieved 2009-02-17. 
20. ^ Klein, Naomi (January 22, 2004). The Persuaders: Interview Naomi Klein. (Interview). PBS Frontline. PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/interviews/klein.html. Retrieved 2009-02-17. 
21. ^ Gilbey, Ryan (August 31, 2007). "I'm basically a brand (article about John Cusack's career)". London: The Guardian. http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,2159038,00.html. Retrieved 2009-02-17. 
22. ^ ^{a b} Klein, Naomi (August 26, 2004). "Bring Najaf to New York". The Nation. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040913/klein. Retrieved 2009-02-17. 
23. ^ ^{a b} Cooper, Marc (August 27, 2004). "Najaf to New York? Better: New York to Najaf.". marccooper.typepad.com. http://marccooper.typepad.com/marccooper/2004/08/najaf_to_new_yo.html. Retrieved 2009-02-17. 
24. ^ Klein, Naomi (January 10, 2009). "Enough. It's time for a boycott". London: The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/10/naomi-klein-boycott-israel. Retrieved 2009-07-13. 
25. ^ Klein, Naomi (July 2, 2009). "Oppose the state, not the people". Ha'aretz. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1097058.html. Retrieved 2009-07-13. 
26. ^ Klein, Naomi (July 7, 2009). "Naomi Klein in Ramallah: I am ashamed that it took me this long". The Faster Times. http://thefastertimes.com/Palestine/2009/07/07/naomi-klein-in-ramallah-i-am-ashamed-that-it-took-me-this-long-to-endorse-the-call-to-boycott-israel…it-was-nothing-but-cowardice/. Retrieved 2009-07-13. 
27. ^ Schimmel, Noam (July 18, 2009). "'The Jews' get-away-with-genocide-free-card'". Jerusalem Post. http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443842069&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull. 
28. ^ Klein, Naomi (September 10, 2009). "We don't feel like celebrating with Israel this year.". Globe and Mail. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/we-dont-feel-like-celebrating-with-israel-this-year/article1278582/. 
29. ^ "Visiting teaching fellows". London School of Economics and Political Science. http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/miliband/visitingTeachingFellows.htm. Retrieved 2007-09-09. 
30. ^ "Intellectuals—the results". Prospect Magazine. Prospect Publishing Limited. 26 July 2008. http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2008/07/intellectualstheresults/. 
31. ^ "Video: Naomi Klein to police: "Don't play public relations, do your goddamned job!"". Rabble.ca and Youtube.com. July 28, 2010. http://rabble.ca/rabbletv/program-guide/2010/06/features/naomi-klein-police-dont-play-public-relations-do-your-goddam. Retrieved 2010-06-28. 
32. ^ Klein, Naomi (October 6, 2011). "Occupy Wall Street: The Most Important Thing in the World Now". The Nation. http://www.thenation.com/article/163844/occupy-wall-street-most-important-thing-world-now. Retrieved March 30, 2012. 
33. ^ "Michael Moore, Naomi Klein and Others on What's Next for OWS". The Nation. November 9, 2011. http://www.thenation.com/video/164494/watch-michael-moore-naomi-klein-and-others-owss-possibilities. Retrieved March 30, 2012. 
34. ^ "Official Book Website for Going Rouge". OR Books. http://orbooks.com/. 

Further reading[link]

• MacFarquhar, Larissa (8 December 2008). "Profiles: Outside Agitator". The New Yorker 84 (40): 60–71. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/12/08/081208fa_fact_macfarquhar. Retrieved 22 May 2009. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Naomi Klein

• Official website
• Naomi Klein on Twitter
• The Shock Doctrine at Macmillan Publishers
• Column archive at The Guardian
• Column archive at The Nation
• Naomi Klein at TED Conferences
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Naomi Klein on Charlie Rose
• Naomi Klein at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Naomi Klein in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Naomi Klein collected news and commentary at The New York Times

Video[link]

• Video: An Introduction to Naomi Klein's No Logo
• Naomi Klein: "Minority Death Match: Jews, Blacks and the ‘Post-Racial’ Presidency" - video report by Democracy Now!
• C-SPAN Q&A interview with Klein, November 29, 2009
• Naomi Klein on Climate Debt: Why Rich Countries Should Pay Reparations To Poor Countries - video report by Democracy Now!
• Naomi Klein: The Real Crime Scene Was Inside the G20 Summit