Naomi Klein (born May 8, 1970) is a Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker known for her political analyses; support of ecofeminism, organized labour, and criticism of corporate globalization,[1] fascism[2] and capitalism.

The Take (2004), a documentary film about Argentine workers' self-managed factories, written by her and directed by her husband Avi Lewis, further increased her profile.

The Shock Doctrine (2007), a critical analysis of the history of neoliberal economics, solidified her standing as a prominent activist on the international stage and was adapted into a six-minute companion film by Alfonso and Jonás Cuarón, as well as a feature-length documentary by Michael Winterbottom.

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.

[18] The next year, after she had begun her studies at the University of Toronto, the second catalyst occurred: the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre of female engineering students, which proved to be a wake-up call to feminism.

[23] The Take (2004), a documentary film collaboration by Klein and Lewis, concerns factory workers in Argentina who took over a closed plant and resumed production, operating as a collective.

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, Poland, and Russia under Yeltsin.

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.

[27] 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.

[31] 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."

[33] The book puts forth the argument that the hegemony of neoliberal market fundamentalism is blocking any serious reforms to halt climate change and protect the environment.

Hurricanes Irma and María unmasked the colonialism we face in Puerto Rico, and the inequality it fosters, creating a fierce humanitarian crisis.

"[40] Specifically, Klein applies principles outlined in her book The Shock Doctrine to the describe the handling of Puerto Rico in the post-Maria context.

Klein's main critiques are focused on the direction the Puerto Rican government has taken in terms of its recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

Ricardo Rosselló, who prioritized foreign investment interests all the while Puerto Ricans were left to fend for themselves or leave to the mainland U.S.. She notes that less than one year after the hurricane, Roselló “told a business audience in New York that Maria had created a ‘blank canvas’” ultimately implying that Puerto Rico would cater to "disaster capitalists" that aimed to profit off of the hurricane's destruction.

[42] Klein relates her meeting with Greta Thunberg in the opening essay in which she discusses the entrance of young people into those speaking out for climate awareness and change.

Its why I wrote the book and decided to put it out now and why I'll be doing whatever I can to help push people toward supporting a candidate with the most ambitious Green New Deal platform—so that they win the primaries and then the general.

[46] The book received primarily positive reviews and debuted at number 8 on The New York Times hardcover nonfiction weekly best seller list.

In "Baghdad Year Zero" (Harper's Magazine, September 2004),[49] Klein argues that, contrary to popular belief, the George W. Bush administration did have a clear plan for post-invasion Iraq: to build a completely unconstrained free market economy.

[50][51] Her "Baghdad Year Zero" was one of the inspirations for the 2008 film War, Inc.[52] Klein's "Bring Najaf to New York" (The Nation, August 2004) argued that Muqtada Al Sadr's Mahdi Army "represents the overwhelmingly mainstream sentiment in Iraq" and that, if he were elected, "Sadr would try to turn Iraq into a theocracy like Iran," although his immediate demands were for "direct elections and an end to foreign occupation".

[66][67] In October 2023, in the context of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, she wrote: For Zionist believers (I'm not one of them), Jew hatred is the central rationale for why Israel must exist as a nuclear-armed fortress.

[68]At a “Seder in the Streets" event April 23, 2024, held near Senator Chuck Schumer's residence, Klein spoke about the contemporary meaning of Passover and its relation to the war.

"[74] She served on the board of directors of the non-profit group 350.org from April 7, 2011,[75] through the fiscal year ending September 2018,[76] and took part in their "Do the Math" tour in 2013, encouraging a divestment movement.

[77] In an interview by Graeme Greene in New Internationalist, Klein rejected criticism that This Changes Everything politicized the climate issue and that the issue should be apolitical, asserting that such criticism reflected "how blind so many within the mainstream climate discussion are to the fact that they themselves are fully immersed within the confines of neoliberalism; ... Its a fantasy that you could fundamentally shift the building blocks of your economy without engaging with politics.

[79] She gave a speech at Occupy Wall Street where she described the world as "upside down", where we act as if "there is no end to what is actually finite—fossil fuels and the atmospheric space to absorb their emissions," and as if there are "limits to what is actually bountiful—the financial resources to build the kind of society we need.

[89] She goes on to state "Sisi's Egypt is making a big show of solar panels and biodegradable straws ... but in reality, the regime imprisons activists and bans research.

[93] Her appointment as the inaugural Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair in Media, Culture and Feminist Studies at Rutgers University–New Brunswick began in October 2018 and ran for 3 years.

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

[103][104] In November 2019, along with other public figures, Klein signed a letter supporting Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn describing him as "a beacon of hope in the struggle against emergent far-right nationalism, xenophobia and racism in much of the democratic world" and endorsed him in the 2019 UK general election.