BOOK REVIEW: Klein, Naomi. Fences and Windows. New York: Picadora, 2002.

Walter Wink states, “The Powers are good. The Powers are fallen. The Powers must be redeemed.” If you doubt the corruption of the powers and their need of redemption, Fences and Windows will change your mind. Naomi Klein, an award-winning journalist and internationally known columnist, rose to the forefront of the globalization debate with her book No Logo. Following No Logo, Fences and Windows takes you further into the rollercoaster ride of the current state of the globalization issue affecting our world.

Through this collection of columns, essays, and speeches about globalization, Klein exposes the fences and windows in our world. Only through pushing up against and stretching the barriers, that is, the fences, that the government has placed on public resources can we begin “opening up windows, breathing deeply, [and] tasting freedom” (XXVII). Despite the mess our governments have created through erecting fences, Klein shows that change is possible through a bottom-up transformation.

Klein has two focuses: the corruption of the powers through putting up fences and the hope of change from grassroots activist groups. To illustrate the corruption of the powers, Klein notes that our current globalization plan has had negative effects around the world. These effects include: “mass migration of people, widening wealth disparities, [and] weakening political power” (194). Furthermore, Klein writes, “Globalization was suppose to be about global openness and integration…[but] our societies are steadily becoming more closed, more guarded, requiring ever more security and military might just to maintain status quo” (81). This state of affairs must change.

Klein focuses on grassroots activist groups for signs of change. These activists are often labeled as violent anarchists who are anti-globalization, anti-progress, and anti-democracy. Klein begs to differ. These activists are a group of people ranging from university students to steelworkers who could be labeled anti-corporate because they “[oppose] the logic that what’s good for business—less regulation, more mobility, more access—will trickle down into good news for everybody else” (4). They do not want to rid of globalization; rather, they want a new globalization that focuses on having a “global ethical approach to the environment, labor relations, and monetary policy” (80).

In a world run by power hungry, money driven governments, corporate power, and privatization of goods, these activist groups argue that “decentralizing power and building community-based decision-making…is essential to countering the might of multinational corporations” (16). The activists empower the people “to give birth to a unified movement for holistic social, economic, and political change” (14). This movement involves taking a holistic approach to security (118), decommodifying our relationships (127), binding the global and local initiatives (244), and making room for everyone’s voice, “showing that it is possible to challenge imperialism while embracing plurality, progress, and deep democracy” (245).

Klein’s Fences and Windows is difficult to follow because of the multifarious articles and essays. You have to search for the connection between articles in order to find the bigger picture in Klein’s writing. If this connection is made, Fences and Windows is an awakening for many people because apathy and sloth are no longer options. Although Christ’s commands are never mentioned, his tactic of agitating the people resonates throughout Klein’s stories, and her bottom-up approach echoes that of Claiborne and Linthicum. Now is the time for all of us to cry out to the powers, “Ya basta! Enough is enough” (215) because history is ours to make.