Medea Benjamin
Early life
Benjamin grew up in Long Island, a self-described “nice Jewish girl.” During her freshman year at Tufts University, she renamed herself after the Greek mythological character Medea. She received a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University and a second master’s degree in economics from The New School.
Benjamin worked for 10 years as an economist and nutritionist in Latin America and Africa for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization, the Swedish International Development Agency, and the Institute for Food and Development Policy. Benjamin spent four years in Cuba, and has authored three books on the country.
Organizations
In 1988 With her husband, Kevin Danaher and colleague Kirsten Moller, Benjamin co-founded the San Francisco-based NGO Global Exchange, which advocates “fair trade” alternatives to corporate globalization. She is a co-founder of the feminist anti-war group Code Pink: Women for Peace, which advocates an end to the Iraq War, the prevention of future wars, and social justice. Benjamin has also been involved with the anti-war organization United for Peace and Justice.
Politics
In 2000, Benjamin ran for the United States Senate on the Green Party ticket from California, basing her campaign on such issues as a living wage, education, and universal healthcare; she garnered 326,828 votes for 3 percent of the vote . In 2001 Benjamin ran under the Green Party banner for the office of Municipal Utility District San Francisco/Brisbane, Ward 4. She finished second among the five candidates receiving 20,763 votes for 28.2% of the vote . Since then she has remained active in the Green Party and has also supported efforts by the Progressive Democrats of America. . She is a member of the Liberty Tree Board of Advisers.
Protest actions
Medea Benjamin speaks at a rally during the 2007 State of the Union Address in Washington, D.C.
In 2002, Benjamin interrupted the testimony of Donald Rumsfeld in a Congressional committee room. She and another woman chanted “Inspections, not war” and were removed quickly by security officials.
On August 23, 2002, Benjamin interrupted President George W. Bush’s speech in Stockton, California by shouting from the Memorial Civic Auditorium balcony and revealing a white shirt with “No war on Iraq” written in red. Bush paused and the attendees chanted “USA” while she was removed by security.
At the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, Benjamin was removed from the convention floor and thrown out of the Fleet Center by police after unfurling a banner which read “End the Occupation! Bring the Troops Home Now!” She subsequently stood with other activists in the “free speech zone” set up at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, dressed as the Statue of Liberty with duct tape over her mouth to express her disapproval at the suppression of protests at the convention.
At the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, Benjamin was removed from the convention floor and escorted from Madison Square Garden by police after unfurling a banner which read “Pro-Life: Stop the killing in Iraq” during a speech by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In 2005, Benjamin and other members of Code Pink managed to obtain VIP access to Bush’s second inauguration. During Bush’s speech, they unfurled banners that read “No War” and “Bush Mandate: Bring the Troops Home” before being arrested.
On May 27, 2005, Benjamin and three others interrupted a speech by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall that was hosted by the San Francisco Commonwealth Club. The four recreated an image of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, in which a hooded prisoner stood with his arms outstretched attached to electric wires. Rice initially continued her speech on American foreign policy under Bush, but paused when the protesters shouted “Stop the torture. Stop the killing. U.S. out of Iraq,” as police led them out of the auditorium.
On July 26, 2006, Benjamin interrupted Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during his speech to a joint session of the United States Congress by repeatedly shouting from the balcony “Iraqis want the troops to leave. Bring them home now.”
On January 29, 2007, Benjamin led a second banner-unfurling protest in the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington DC. This was a repetition of an action that took place on September 22, 2006. The Code Pink shoe display was set up in the center of the building’s atrium, and Code Pink members ran all around the balconies unfurling banners that protested the war and called for impeachment of the Bush administration. Benjamin then led the group in chants of “Stop funding the war” and “Troops out now”. No arrests were made. The group peacefully dispersed as police began low-key crowd control procedures in preparation for a mass arrest. Police closed public access to the building down for a short period of time afterward.
On December 4, 2007 she was arrested at gunpoint by plainclothes police in Lahore, Pakistan, detained by the ISI for eight hours, and deported after protesting the house arrest of lawyers (including Aitzaz Ahsan) in Lahore, Pakistan.
In 2009 Benjamin began work as a leading member of the steering committee for the Gaza Freedom March.
Controversy
Benjamin has been criticized from both the left and the right.
Support for Cuba and Venezuela
Benjamin has drawn conservative criticism for her support of Hugo Chavez and her attacks on the U.S. embargo of Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Conservative writer David Horowitz’s FrontPageMag has attacked her as “a long-time Castro acolyte,” and written:
Many of the causes that Ms. Benjamin espouses are Communist in nature. The Washington “peace” rally at which she spoke last month, for instance, was organized by the Workers World Party, a Communist organization… In years past, she staunchly opposed US military aid to those fighting against Communist forces in Central America… She favors the creation of a government-sponsored universal health care system funded by taxpayer dollars. She exhorts the US government to lift its trade embargo against Cuba a nation she notably lauds as a place where people have managed to “thrive despite the odds” against them.
Benjamin has said that the charge in sections of the U.S. media that Hugo Chavez had cracked down on free speech and civil rights in Venezuela was a “myth.” In an interview with Tucker Carlson on MSNBC, Benjamin was asked, “Do you want to revise that given the news that Hugo Chavez has closed the last nationally broadcast opposition television station for criticizing him?” Benjamin replied that it was not true and that what happened was that Chavez simply did not renew the license because the station “participated in a coup against a democratically elected government, his [Chavez’s] government.” Benjamin also said “Peru recently did not renew a license. Uruguay didn renew a license. Why do you hold Venezuela to a different standard?” Carlson responded that a 360 page Venezuelan government published book accused RCTV, the last independent television station closed by Chavez, as showing lack of respect for authorities and institutions. Carlson asked Benjamin, “I would think, as a self described liberal, you would stand up for the right of people to, quote, challenge authorities and institutions. And yet, you are apologizing for the squelching of minority views. Why could that be?” Benjamin replied that, “They [RCTV] falsified information. They got people out on the street. They falsified footage that showed pro Chavez supporters killing people, which did not happen. They refuse to cover any of the pro Chavez demonstrations.”
WTO protest violence
Benjamin is unpopular among some in the anti-globalization movement due to remarks during 1999’s anti-WTO demonstrations in Seattle which seemed to suggest that “anarchists” who engaged in property destruction should have been arrested by the police. Benjamin herself says that this is not the correct interpretation:
“There has been some controversy about a quote from me that… implied that I was calling for the arrest of those people who destroyed property in downtown Seattle during the WTO protest. I want to make it clear that the quote was distorted, taken out of context, and not reflective my true feelings. I did not call for the arrest of anyone… Do I approve of the tactics that this particular group of self-described anarchists used in Seattle Nov. 30? Definitely not.”
To protest Benjamin’s criticism of these tactics at the Seattle demonstrations, as well as other stated allegations, an anarchist member of the Bakers without Borders collective threw a pie at her at the 2007 US Social Forum in Atlanta.
Anybody But Bush
Benjamin has been criticized by some Greens for her support for “Anybody But Bush” in 2004. Explaining why she supported this movement, she said in regard to her support for Ralph Nader in the 2000 presidential election:
…maybe it’s time for the people who voted for Bush in 2000, the people who didn’t vote at all in 2000, and yes, people like myself who voted for Ralph Nader in 2000, to admit our mistakes. I’ll say mine — I had no idea that George Bush would be such a disastrous president. Had I known then what I know now, and had I lived in a swing state, I would have voted for Gore instead of Ralph Nader.”
Todd Chretien, a leading member of the International Socialist Organization, wrote, in “A Reply to Norman Soloman and Medea Benjamin” on CounterPunch:
Medea Benjamin… and many other liberal and progressive leaders tell us that a Kerry regime “would be less dangerous” than Bush. This may or may not be true… But, even IF Kerry is “less dangerous,” he will be MORE capable of wreaking havoc on Iraq, Palestine, Venezuela, abortion, gay rights, civil rights and unions IF we sacrifice our political movement to getting behind him…. Tragically, rather than building on the great start we made in 2000… many of the very same people who helped that effort are trying to wreck it this time around [by] condoning, if not actually leading, a campaign to vilify [ Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo ] as “Republican dupes”… any movement that ever aims to win, must learn to stand up for itself precisely when it is darkest.
Marla Ruzicka
Benjamin had a falling out with her former close friend, San Francisco Bay Area activist Marla Ruzicka, later killed in Iraq in a widely-publiced suicide bombing, over Ruzicka’s decision to work with the U.S. military to secure compensation for the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan. Benjamin has said:
“It was very painful for me because of the way she sort of rejected the things we stood for… I resented the way she worked with the military. Kevin always talks about getting to the root of the problem, and Marla chose to go with the Band-Aid… We never quite reconciled over it.”
Books by Medea Benjamin
Benedita Da Silva: An Afro-Brazilian Woman’s Story of Politics and Love (1997). With Benedita da Silva and Maisa Mendonca. Institute for Food and Development Policy. ISBN 0935028706
Bridging the Global Gap: A Handbook to Linking Citizens of the First and Third Worlds (1989). With Andrea Freedman. Global Exchange Seven Locks Press. ISBN 0932020739
Cuba: Talking About Revolution: Conversations with Juan Antonio Blanco (1996). With Juan Antonio Blanco. Inner Ocean Publishing. ISBN 1875284974
Don’t Be Afraid, Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks From The Heart: The Story of Elvia Alvarado (1989). Harper Perennial. ISBN 006097205X
Greening of the Revolution: Cuba’s Experiment with Organic Agriculture (1995). With Peter Rossett. Ocean Press. ISBN 187528480X
How to Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism (2005). As editor, with Jodie Evans. Inner Ocean Publishing. ISBN 1930722494
I, senator: How, together, we transformed the state of California and the United States (2000). Green Press.
No Free Lunch: Food and Revolution in Cuba Today (1989). With Joseph Collins and Michael Scott. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0935028528
The Peace Corps and More: 175 Ways to Work, Study and Travel at Home & Abroad (1997). With Miya Rodolfo-Sioson. Global Exchange Seven Locks Press. ISBN 0929765044
See also
Global Exchange
Code Pink
United for Peace and Justice
Progressive Democrats of America
References
^ Garofoli, Joe. “S.F. Woman’s Relentless March for Peace.” San Francisco Chronicle. October 26, 2002
^ \Sosfps3ElectionsUserskhill
^ Medea Benjamin, Peter Coyote, John Eder, Daniel Ellsberg et al. (July 23, 2004). “An Open Letter to Progressives: Vote Kerry and Cobb”. CommonDreams. http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0723-09.htm.
^ “Medea Benjamin to Speak at Summit 2005”. Progressive Democrats of America. http://www.progressivevote.org/articles/events/summit-2005-benjamin.php. Retrieved September 1 2006.
^ “VIDEO: Maliki Speech Interrupted By War Protester”. Think Progress Blog. July 26, 2006. http://thinkprogress.org/2006/07/26/maliki-protest/.
^ “Update: US peace activists released”. Common Dreams.org. December 4, 2007. http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/1204-08.htm.
^ “Pakistani police arrest activists”. Khabrein.info. December 5, 2007. http://www.khabrein.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9683&Itemid=88.
^ [http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/news/gaza-protest-planned-cast-lead-anniversary Gaza protest planned on Cast Lead anniversary 05-12-2009, Andrew Bossone, Al-Masry Al-Youm.
^ Ben Johnson (July 28, 2003). “America’s Fifth Column Goes to Iraq”. FrontPage Magazine. http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=9079.
^ John Perazzo (November 15, 2002). “The Anti-American: Medea Benjamin”. FrontPage Magazine. http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=4631.
^ a b c “‘Tucker’ for May 29”. MSNBC. 2007-05-30. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18941438. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
^ Medea Benjamin. “Window-Smashing Hurt Our Cause”. Zmag. http://www.zmag.org/benjamin.htm. Retrieved September 1 2006.
^ IndyBay.Org, Medea Benjamin Gets Pied at US Social Forum (July 1, 2007)
^ Medea Benjamin (October 11, 2004). “Bush Can’t Admit Mistakes, But We Can”. CommonDreams. http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1011-29.htm.
^ Todd Chretien (July 26, 2004). “Believing in a Green Resistance: A Reply to Norman Solomon & Medea Benjamin”. Counterpunch. http://www.counterpunch.org/chretien07262004.html.
^ Traci Hukill (September 2005). “House Divided, House United: Five Bay Area activists talk about kids, work, and the tricky business of parenting while saving the world”. Common Ground. http://commongroundmag.com/2005/cg3209/activeparents3209.html.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Medea Benjamin
Global Exchange biographical page
Code Pink biographical page
Common Ground profile
Bio from 2000 CA Senate campaign
I, Senator, book from 2000 CA Senate campaign and Bay Guardian coverage at archive.org
Categories: American anti-war activists | American democracy activists | American human rights activists | Anti-corporate activists | Anti-globalization activists | Nonviolence advocates | Activists from the San Francisco Bay Area | Community organizers | Green Party (United States) politicians | Living people | 1952 births | American anti-Iraq War activists | American anti-nuclear power activists | American environmentalists | Consumer rights activists | American activistsHidden categories: Pages containing cite templates with deprecated parameters | Articles with hCards
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