Madrid. The writer and journalist Naomi Klein is the author of one of the most sought after books with anti-globalisation movement activists. 'No Logo' is a detailed document, together with testimonies and frightening data illustrates the consequences of the practices of the multinationals in rich countries but most of all in the poorest.

Klein, who was born in Toronto Canada, explained during a press conference in the Social Transatlantic Forum (Foro Social Transatlántico), that when she hears the words "free trade" two images spring to her mind: the "militarised" maquiladoras from the north of Mexico and the detention centres for migrants she has visited in Australia.

"This new era of the capitalist globalization - she stated-, in which after the Berlin wall fell we were told there was going to be a universal integration with more justice, welfare and no barriers. It is exactly the opposite: today we are surrounded by innumerable barricades, many of them can not be easily recognized, just like the unstoppable policy of privatization, this separates people from the natural and basic resources required for their subsistence".

"The other big barrier of capitalist globalization is the social exclusion that condemns society, in some cases whole countries, to labour exploitation. These policies not only affect the social order of whole countries but also the integrity of some continents, as is happening in Africa", said the journalist, who appreciates the anti-globalisation movement because it attempts to demonstrate to people the more unpleasant elements of the world.

She added: "Instead of living in a global village, what we have is a global fortress that creates hermetic walls against migrants, that weaves free trade zones that are highly militarized, and a clear example of this is the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) or the Puebla -Panama Plan. This is the future that the governments are offering us: a globalized militarisation that condemns to misery more than three-quarters of the planet.

"Despite the fact of these virtual walls, there is a new movement of resistance that attempts to make visible the reality that affects the whole world. That was begun first of all by the Zapatistas, who cover their faces to be seen", said the writer, who also considers that "the origin of the anti-global movement is not in Seattle, it is in January the 1st 1994", in Chiapas.

Regarding the figure of subcommandante Marcos, Klein says that " he only represents the last phase of the past 500 years of resistance by the indigenous communities, and symbolizes a new strategy of a fight not against a country or an army, but against an economic system, neo-liberalism, which is another kind of fundamentalism".

For Klein there's a recent fact that reflects very clearly what "revolutionary challenges" should be today: the day the Zapatistas entered the Congress of Deputies in March 2001. Klein added: " They were not wanting more power neither were they claiming more control, they were only asking for less power and more self determination to rule and control their way of living".

In her zeal to report the miserable conditions that neoliberal policies create, Klein undertook an investigation of the maquiladoras based in the north of Mexico, where she proved that in the name of productivity workers are under a regime of military-style discipline.

"Each time I hear the words "free trade" I think of two things: the maquiladoras I can visit in Mexico, controlled with an almost militaristic vigilance the intention being to make them more productive. And the detention centres that I have witnessed in the Australian desert, where they hold the refugees that they detain from ships that attempt to reach the coasts, full of people from Iraq, Afghanistan and many other countries. This is the globalization of walls that we have to change".