Naomi Klein on Obama and the Role of Social Movements in Presidential Elections

Last month, author Naomi Klein spoke at the National Conference on Media Reform. The conference–held every 18 months–brings together a wide variety of activists involved in independent media and media reform organizing. However, despite Naomi Klein’s fame, her speech was not posted on the website of the conference because it “encroached on electoral space.” However, the real problem seems to be that Naomi Klein spoke about the need for progressive social movements to remain skeptical of Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama.

In an inspirational speech that recounts some of the history of the progressive movements that came out of the stock market crash of 1929, Klein argues that social movements must maintain pressure on all presidential candidates. Her speech describes the loss of Hillary Clinton–a candidate who supported the war–as a victory for the antiwar movement. However, she sees challenges for that movement with regard to Barack Obama:

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