According to our Instagram poll asking what topic everyone was most interested in reading about next, capitalism stole the show. As it tends to.

New to #BecauseWe'veRead? This is how we work!



Back from our first break month (where our chapters worked on some amazing projects, from a prison book drive in Boston in solidarity with the national prison strike to a sold-out panel and spoken word performances in London!) and we're ready to dive right back into a major, fundamental, shocking read: none other than The Shock Doctrine by the brilliant Naomi Klein! Hailed as "the most important book on economics in the 21st century" and one of the "very few books that really help us understand the present", The Shock Doctrine explores some of the major moments from recent history, from the 1973 US coup in Chile that brought Pinochet to power to the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union to the 2003 invasion and military occupation of Iraq, to illustrate how the intentional creation of major crises ("shock therapy") is crafted and manipulated to push neo-liberal economic policies that now dominate the world. I.e. why capitalism sucks and how it came to rule.

This book is especially important and especially important now, as it A) helps us re-frame and re-understand the world as it is today and continues to be shaped with Trump and Trump-like politicians becoming ever-powerful, and B) brings back to life several key instrumental moments in recent history that we have started to conveniently wash away, forget about, and sanitize (*cough* John McCain is and always will be a war criminal and no amount of candy his war criminal colleague Bush passes to Michelle Obama will change that *cough*). Still yet, the US military occupation of Iraq is very much still ongoing and New Orleans has still not yet recovered from Katrina -- episodes which, through Klein's lens in The Shock Doctrine, we can learn so much about the role of intentional, global neo-liberal policies in shaping the world, and through it, re-understand recent history and contemporary global issues.


SEPTEMBER 2018 BOOK OF THE MONTH:
NAOMI KLEIN, THE SHOCK DOCTRINE (2007)



BOOK

The Shock Doctrine (2007), Naomi Klein - Full PDF available here
(It's a bit longer than our usual reads, but read as much as you can and we'll discuss at the end of the month!) 

Translated to various international languages for purchase, here

(As always, please email us at editor@joojooazad.com if you are not financially (or politically) able to purchase a book and cannot read the PDF linked above, and we can mail you a free copy while supplies last!) 


ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

+ Additional resources, primary documents, and related articles on The Shock Doctrine on the book's website
+ "Neoliberalism – the ideology at the root of all our problems", essay by George Monbiot in the Guardian
+ "How to Resist Trump's Shock Doctrine", a video providing an overview of a 5-step plan of resistance by Naomi Klein on the Intercept 
+ The Battle for Paradise (2018), Naomi Klein
+ Naomi Klein's writing (in English & Portuguese) for the Intercept
+ "How shocking events can spark positive change", Naomi Klein's Ted Talk
+ "The Economic Hitman", a 3 minute youtube clip on the relationships between corporations, global economic policies, and the military industrial complex
+ Naomi Klein on capitalism and the climate, Ideas at the House podcast

* please note that the Winterbottom documentary The Shock Doctrine has been disowned by Naomi Klein and therefore would not be a sufficient additional resource or alternative to the book* 

SOCIAL MEDIA 

+ Instagram, @BecauseWeveRead
+ Twitter, @BecauseWeveRead
Subscribe to our email updates!
(We're giving away copies of The Shock Doctrine on Instagram, so be sure to follow us for a chance to win! Also, we love our reader posts! Use the hashtag #BecauseWeveRead to join the conversation on social media, and we might just repost you!)


CHAPTERS / DISCUSSION GROUPS

Our beautiful, fabulous #BecauseWeveRead official chapter leads are listed below, along with their email addresses and social media to get in touch! They will be releasing the date for their meetup and additional information as the month progresses, so be sure to follow them on social media, email them letting them know you're interested in joining, and/or keep this page bookmarked as we continue to update as information arises! 



NORTH AMERICA

Ann Arbor/Detroit, Michigan: Samantha Rahmani / email

Boston, Massachusetts: Reza Mirsajadi & Joubin Khazaie / email

Brooklyn, NYC: Sana Altaf / email

Cincinnati, Ohio: Sara Zandvakili  / email

Chicago, Illinois: Samantha Rose / email

Houston, Texas: Laila Khalili / email

Los Angeles, California: Alexis Wong & Ashley May / email

Minneapolis, Minnesota: Binta Kanteh / email

Montreal, Canada: Mona Ghassemi / email,  twitter

San Francisco Bay/Oakland, California: Allison Chan / emailinstagram

Seattle, Washington: Anisa Jackson / emailinstagramtwitter
Seattle Facebook Group

Toronto, Canada: Yeldah Yousfi / email intsagramtwitter

Ottawa, Canada: Zaynab / email

San Diego, California: Noor / email

Washington D.C., USA: Hana Manadath & Jada Olsen / email


AFRICA

Cairo, Egypt: Hana Ehab Hassanein & Shahd Sherief / email

Cape Town, South Africa: Surekha Bhugeloo / email

Lagos, Nigeria: Hulaimah Kolawole / emailinstagram

Nairobi, Kenya: Suhayl Omar & Powell Arimi / email

Mauritius, Mauritius: Soufia Bham / email


ASIA

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: Anisa Alkunshalie / email

Bombay, India: Smriti Sant & Anadita Bhalerao / email

Delhi, India: Yusra Hasan / email

Istanbul, Turkey: Zineb Sadok & Hiba Abdennabi  / emailinstagram

Jakarta, Indonesia: Annissa Rosyidah & Nana Rosyidah & Intan Khasanah / email

Lahore, Pakistan: Madiha Tallat / emailinstagram

Tehran, Iran: Maryam Rashidi / email

Singapore, Singapore: Muneerah Razak / email


EUROPE

Leeds, England: Halima Nawaz / email

London, England: Alliyah Riaz & Maryam Abdullah / email

Newcastle, England: Amy Cass / email


OCEANIA

Auckland, New Zealand: Zainab Baba / email

Sydney, Australia: Miriam Mubayyid / email





LIVE, MONTHLY DISCUSSION


DATE: Sunday, September 30th
TIME: 10:00 AM CST
PLATFORM: Youtube Live, embedded below (or follow this link)
DISCUSSANT: NAOMI KLEIN

NAOMI KLEIN is an award-winning journalist, syndicated columnist and author of the international bestsellers (including This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs The Climate, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, and No Logo), and most recently became the inaugural Gloria Steinem Chair for Media, Culture and Feminist Studies at Rutgers University. In November 2016 she was awarded Australia’s prestigious Sydney Peace Prize, for, according to the prize jury, “exposing the structural causes and responsibility for the climate crisis, for inspiring us to stand up locally, nationally and internationally to demand a new agenda for sharing the planet that respects human rights and equality, and for reminding us of the power of authentic democracy to achieve transformative change and justice.” Klein is a member of the board of directors for climate-action group 350.org. In 2015, she was invited to speak at the Vatican to help launch Pope Francis’s historic encyclical on ecology, Laudato si’. In 2017, Klein became Senior Correspondent for The Intercept. She is also a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute and contributor to the Nation Magazine. Recent articles have also appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, The Guardian, the London Review of Books and Le Monde. She has multiple honourary degrees and in 2014 received the International Studies Association’s IPE Outstanding Activist-Scholar award. 



Happy reading (and viewing)!
Can't wait to read all of your thoughts as you're reading -- be sure to tag us & hashtag #BecauseWeveRead to join the club & conversation!