According to Naomi Klein, author of the celebrated books ‘No Logo’ and ‘The Shock Doctrine’, the anti-corporate movement which once had teeth and energy has now not only deflated but sharply turned into a world of hyper-consumption.
The current generation is highly ‘pro-logo’ – more likely to buy a wristband and ticket to Live Earth than hit the streets in protest. Klein calls this ‘the Bono-ization of protest’ – a phenomenon particularly prevalent in the UK, “it was the stadium rock model of protest – celebrities and spectators waving their bracelets. It’s less dangerous and less powerful.
This new style of anti-poverty campaigning where celebrities talk directly to governments and business leaders on behalf of a continent like Africa, according to Klein, is another form of ‘noblesse oblige’ where the rich and the good club together in order to ‘give something back’ and appease their own consciences whilst looking good to everyone else.
She believes that when celebrities such as Bono and Geldof get together in talks with world leaders at international forums they are legitimizing structures in place and the inequalities that arise from these structures. ‘The story of globalization is the story of inequality. What’s been lost in the Bonoization is ability to change these power structures. There are still the winners and the losers, people who are locked in to the power structures and those who are locked out.’
An example of this collaboration between corporate and so-called activists such as Bono is the U2 frontman’s Red initiative. He announced a new branded product range at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last year called Product Red. American Express, Converse, Armani and Gap were initial partners, joined later by Apple and Motorola. The corporations sell Red branded products, with a percentage of profits going to Bono-approved causes. In this Pro-Logo world there is an irony of consuming to end poverty. Perhaps an even bigger irony: through initiatives like the Red card, consumer culture and branding is buying a stake in anti-globalization and alleviating poverty movement.
Klein says, “what they’ve tapped into is a market niche. There’s nothing that’s inherently wrong with these initiatives except when they make radical claims that it’s going to end poverty. There’s a long history of radical consumption – what’s pretty unbelievable about this (the Red Label) is that they say it’s revolutionary and it’s going to replace other forms of politics.”
Instead Klein advocates a far more confrontational and engaged form of activism. “We have had mass social movements that are messy – and that leads to some kind of negotiation and some kind of representation. What I see from the Bono camp is that they dismiss street protest en masse as gripers whereas they (Bono and chums) are being constructive because they are engaging with power (however) if you look at the history of the labour movement it’s people outside trying to enforce change.”
by Matthew Simms