Standing room only as Naomi Klein draws big crowds to Helsinki University

[Joanne98]

She’ll be here in a minute.
The 250-seater Metsätalo auditorium is already packed to the aisles, and there are more people milling around in the foyer looking a bit frustrated.
The crowds have turned out to hear Canadian globalisation activist and critic Naomi Klein, in Helsinki to promote the Finnish-language edition of her newest book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. The book has already been translated into more than 20 languages.

Since Thursday is one of the days reserved for university entrance examinations, the University of Helsinki’s Political Science Department has not been able to book a venue any larger than this one.
A vain attempt was made earlier by Klein’s host, Professor of World Politics Teivo Teivainen, to rig up a TV screen in the courtyard in order that the overspill throng could follow Klein’s lecture.
Klein shows up only a couple of minutes behind schedule, and enters to a barrage of camera flashguns.

She immediately wins over her audience, and in a half-hour presentation goes through the basic tenets of her book: how economist Milton Friedman and his followers around the world have pushed through their neoliberal agenda when the public in the respective countries have been traumatised by one kind of shock or another, be it Act of God, war, coup, or economic crisis.
Klein charges that the economic shock therapy of free market neoliberalism has also been bolstered by violence, human rights violations, and even torture.
You can practically hear a pin drop.

Just about the only dissenting voice is that of Professor of International Relations Heikki Patomäki.
Patomäki is himself known - like Teivainen - to be critical of globalisation and is regarded among activists as a significant academic ally.
He nonetheless considers Klein’s analysis to be an oversimplified and mechanical explanation of neoliberalism, cutting corners in the name of popularising an otherwise intrinsically worthwhile cause.

There are questions from the floor for the guest speaker, in the answers to which Klein broadens her range of subjects, touching on corporate social responsibility (she has her doubts about its sincerity), the emissions trade (too market-oriented a solution to the climate issue), and ecological debt.
The audience rewards the visitor with rousing applause, and as people file out there is a buzz around the stands by the door selling copies of the new book.

Prior to Ms. Klein’s arrival, Tuhokapitalismin nousua had sold around 3,500 copies in Finland - not a bad figure for a volume of some 700 pages costing more than EUR 40.00.
All the same, it is still a long way short of the 25,000 copies of No Logo (2000, in Finnish in 2001) that changed hands.
One interesting development in the book trade of late is that whilst books critical of globalisation and capitalism have traditionally been the province of the small, alternative publishing houses, over the current decade the big guns have begun to show an interest.
Klein's new book is an example, but it is not limited to the best-sellers: for instance Heikki Patomäki's Uusliberalismi Suomessa ("Neoliberalism in Finland. A Short History and Future Alternatives", 2007) was published, just like Klein's book, by the country's largest publisher, WSOY.

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Standing+room+only+as+Naomi+Klein+draws+big+crowds+to+Helsinki+University/1135236954853

[gateley]

1. She is so deserving of the appreciation -- thanks for posting!! nt

[Joanne98]

2. You're welcome...

[fed-up]

3. k/r nt