Medea Benjamin (4/4)

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Ms. Benjamin tells Paul Jay that when it comes to integrating foreign policy issues in broad united fronts, Democratic Party allied unions try to block it

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Transcript

PAUL JAY: Welcome back to The Real News Network.

This is Reality Asserts Itself with Medea Benjamin, who joins us again in the studio.

JAY: So, one more time, Medea is cofounder of Code Pink, cofounder with Jodie Evans in

2002.

And she's the author of the book Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control.

Thanks for joining us.

MEDEA BENJAMIN: Thank you.

JAY: So in the last segment, we left off talking about the state of the American antiwar movement.

And you were talking about, you know, the way Obama and the Democratic Party sucked

a lot of the air out of the antiwar movement.

But is there also a problem, especially internally, with the movement?

I mean, with the financial and economic crisis of 2008, one would have thought maybe that

would have been an upsurge of resistance against such massive unemployment, you know, millions

of people losing their houses, and so on.

Everybody knows how bad it got and for many people still is.

In some of the urban centers in many, many cities across the country, including where

we are, in Baltimore, it's always been bad.

Chronic poverty here is terrible.

Is there a problem with the movement that it gets segmented?

So, like, you have--you know, you've done a lot of work on drones, and you have other

people talking about minimum wage.

But to really shift public opinion, does this not have to be somehow a more kind of integrated

vision, and then mostly deal with these issues at a way that ordinary people really get?

'Cause for most of the people we talk to in Baltimore, drones, foreign policy, like, it's

an abstraction.

BENJAMIN: Sure.

Yes, it's a huge problem that we're in our own silos.

As Code Pink, we try to be in solidarity with lots of different movements.

And so you'll see last night we were out at one of the protests around the Keystone Pipeline.

And we'll go--we're doing next week one that is trying to protect the bees.

And then we'll be doing the NSA stop spying.

And then we'll be at a minimum wage--increase the minimum wage rallies and union kinds of

things.

So we are all over the map in the sense that we see it as an integrated whole, and we like

to be supportive of lots of different movements.

But our movement is too separated.

And when it comes to trying to integrate the foreign policy issues, it's very, very difficult.

For example, the unions, I mean, there are so many unions that have union locals that

are involved in creating weapons, and so they won't take an antiwar position.

JAY: And you have union leadership so in bed with the Democratic Party leadership, you're

not allowed to critique foreign policy if it's a Democratic Party president.

BENJAMIN: Right.

So then there's these beautiful coalitions that are brought together, bringing all kinds

of different issues together to say, let's all work to increase the minimum wage, and

they barely want to invite the peace people into the room, because they don't want to

include that in the platform.

Now, we worked hard to get it in, and we have managed.

And I would say we have a good relationship with lots of different campaigns that are

going on.

But in general you're right.

And how do we address it?

Well, take the drones, for example.

We understand that partially because of the media not covering the issue of drone warfare

and giving us lots of examples of these poor families who've been affected by it in places

like Pakistan and Yemen, that there's very little knowledge and sympathy in the United

States.

That's why we bring the issue in about are you concerned about our airspace being opened

up to drones in 2015; and what is this going to mean for communities that are already oversurveilled,

infiltrated by police agents; who is going to be targeted; and reach out to those communities.

And we've had tremendous success in that, Paul.

So when I go out--and I've been to over 200 cities in the last year talking about drones--I

bring sample resolutions that you can pass in your own community, say, you don't want

your police department to have access to drones unless there is a court order, there are regulations

in place about how these can be used, our privacy is being protected.

And we've been tremendously successful in getting these passed on the statewide level.

There are over 40 states that are in the process of passing or have passed regulations to limit

the use.

And so we've reached out to libertarians, to ACLU, to legal groups, to Muslim communities,

to black community, and find tremendous response for that.

JAY: But is there a problem with focusing, in the drone discussion, too much on the drones?

BENJAMIN: Sure.

JAY: And what I mean by that is this, is that, you know, Islamic extremists, al-Qaeda type

forces, I mean, one has to believe that there are many of them that would like to blow things

up in the United States and hit American targets.

I mean, I don't have any reason to see why that isn't true.

One understands, if one studies this even a little bit, this is almost entirely the

consequence of U.S. foreign policy to begin with, I mean, from inviting bin Laden to come

to Afghanistan, to support for the Saudi Royal family that's up to their eyeballs in this

stuff, to creating the conditions through one-sided support for Israel.

And, you know, the whole of American oil politics is all about get the oil and screw the Arab

peoples.

Given all that, you then give rise to people that come with, to my mind, rather sociopathic

responses, and even very self-destructive policies in terms of the interests of the

Arab peoples.

But they really do want to do some damage.

So once you get to that point in the argument, a lot of people say--and I think, you know,

people have very mixed feelings about this, that it's better to use drones over there

than to have something blow up over here.

And so this isn't so much a defense of drones.

If you don't add to the argument you want to stop people from coming over here and blowing

you up, get the hell out of the Middle East.

Doesn't that get a little lost in just the focus on drones?

BENJAMIN: Well, no, because what we're doing is saying why this focus on drones that is

the centerpiece of a counterterrorism policy, along with the commando raids and along with

the cyberwars, is to say that it doesn't work.

And it's not only ineffective in getting rid of extremism; it's causing more.

And so what are the alternatives?

And then we have to talk about the alternatives.

So when we go around talking about this, one, we're bringing it up in the civil liberties

context, so that Americans care about it here at home, and two, we're bringing it up in

the context of how are we going to move ourselves away from perpetual war and away from a war

economy.

So, yes, these all have to be put in context.

And we try to do that--maybe not always successfully, but we do try to do it.

And I think we've been amazingly successful in convincing a lot more Americans that drones

are ineffective way of countering terrorism, because you see a precipitous drop in the

polls from 2012 being over 80 percent of Americans supporting the use of drones to kill terrorist

suspects overseas to about 60 percent now.

That's a big drop, given that this is a policy the administration and the right are in favor

of.

And we've also been successful in forcing Obama to talk about this policy, a policy

that was secret before, and in forcing some changes in the policy, so that right now there

is supposedly a moratorium on the use of drones in Pakistan.

And there's been a decline in the number of drone strikes from a high in 2010 of 128 strikes

in one year to only 26 strikes last year.

So we've affected the policy.

JAY: And what do you think is the alternative?

Let's talk about Pakistan a little bit.

You know, in the areas where al-Qaeda and the Pakistan Taliban have strongholds, this

is mostly where they're hitting with the drones--of course, not only.

What is the alternative?

BENJAMIN: The alternative is what's happening right now, is for peace talks to happen.

The Taliban are part of the society.

They have to be reincorporated into society.

And how do terrorist groups end?

They most of the time--in fact, there was a study done by the RAND Corporation that

showed that 40 percent of 268, quote, terrorist groups that they looked at over the last 60

years ended by better policing.

You capture people and you give them trials.

Another 40 percent were through peace talks, negotiations, incorporating people into society.

And only 7 percent was through military action.

We've been doing the military action for over 12 years now, so now we have to try something

different.

JAY: Well, it seems to me President Obama actually proposed a pretty good solution,

except he never did it.

These things--it's amazing how these things get said and then completely forgotten in

terms of the mass media and the discourse.

And Bush did the same thing.

After 9/11, he said what we need in Afghanistan is something like a Marshall Plan for the

reconstruction of Afghanistan.

Of course, it never happened.

American troops chased the Taliban around the hills, and they left development up to

Norway and Canada and Germany, and it spent very little time--.

BENJAMIN: Well, it spent a lot of--it misspent a lot of U.S. tax dollars in what was supposed

to be nation-building, but most of the time didn't build anything.

JAY: But it was mostly war-making.

Yeah.

But then he said the same thing about Pakistan.

His Pakistan policy was going to be a civilian upsurge in Pakistan as well.

And the way to deal with the situation was to fight poverty in these areas of Pakistan.

And then, after saying all this, he never did it, and no one's ever asked him, hey,

what happened to your policy.

BENJAMIN: Well, look at Yemen, which is, after Pakistan, the second place where the drones

are being used so much.

There were maybe 200 groups that identify with extremist organizations when Obama started

the drones in 2009.

Now there's over 1,000.

And what's the biggest problem in Yemen is poverty.

And the U.S. has been focusing again on a failed strategy, one that we see failed in

Pakistan, and now trying to implement that same thing in Yemen with the drone strikes.

And with every single drone strikes, there are more and more people who join the ranks

of extremist groups to try to seek revenge.

JAY: Let's get back to the antiwar movement, 'cause there's kind of two issues.

One, we talked a bit about how the Democratic Party, both through the unions and others,

as long as there's a Democratic Party in power, in the White House, it takes the legs out

of the antiwar movement, especially in united front building.

I remember there was something that the unions held, some rally.

I think--was it--Al Sharpton or someone hosted it.

And they wouldn't allow anyone come to speak that was going to critique foreign policy.

BENJAMIN: Right.

JAY: You could talk about inequality in mild ways.

But there's another issue, and this partly has to do with linking these movements together,

is that not entirely, but to a large extent, you have such a racial divide in the American

left and American movement.

You know, you have white groups, and then you have black organizations, and, you know,

you have a little bit of in-between.

And you can see when some of the unions rallies, you see some of the more ordinary people come

out and you see a fairly diverse--but at the leadership levels, mostly white.

To really have a people's movement in this country, that needs to be faced up to, doesn't

it?

BENJAMIN: Well, sure.

I think the antiwar movement, when it was at the height of the movement under Bush,

we got a lot of people in the black community to come out.

And many of the leaders, the people who were the faces of the movement, were leaders in

the black movement who told us--and I think it's true--that the black community is the

most antiwar community as a segment of the community in the United States.

Now, that might have changed somewhat under Obama, because they support him as an individual,

but the black community tends to be a very antiwar community, even though there are a

lot of people from the black community in the U.S. military.

And I think that there's a need to connect the issues of violence in our communities,

whether it's violence overseas and violence here at home, which brings a lot of support

from the black communities in there.

And then there's the bigger question, which is linking the amounts of money we spend on

the military and what that does to rob our communities from resources we need to rebuild.

And we have met many times, when Ben Jealous was the head of the NAACP, and he sees this

totally.

He says he was a conscientious objector from the time he was five years old.

And he totally gets how the money going into the military is sucking money out of black

communities, is keeping wages low, is part of the reason why we're in this economic crisis.

And that is something that we, as the antiwar community, have been trying to focus on.

JAY: King linked the two brilliantly.

BENJAMIN: Brilliantly.

Totally he linked it.

And our problem is: how do you link that in reality?

I mean, we can go and talk to people, and they understand that you can't have a war

economy and have the guns and butter at the same time.

But when it comes to actually making changes, then we get stuck.

I think we get more stuck on the how do we get cuts to the military budget, because you

see in the Congress that we have even Democrats don't want to touch the military budget, and

all of them want to continue to give increases to veterans' benefits.

And then the military, the weapons industry is so brilliant in making weapons in every

single congressional district in this country that even the Democrats will then say, well,

don't cut these tanks that the military doesn't even need anymore, because those are jobs

in my community.

JAY: So what do you see over the next two years or so?

BENJAMIN: Well, I see that we have momentum on our side because of where the American

people are.

And some people call it war weariness, which I think is true, but I also think there's

a war wiseness, where American people have learned that even if they want to help the

Syrian people, for example, that U.S. military intervention is just going to make matters

worse, because look at the record in Afghanistan, look at the record in Iraq.

And that is something that is a positive development, in Americans not being very anxious to get

involved in another war.

And I think we have to build on that.

And part of building on that is to say that one of the reasons it allows us to get into

these wars is because we have this strong military-industrial complex that does eat

up so much of the pie, and then move towards how are we going to shrink that piece of the

pie.

JAY: And how do you avoid or how do you deal with--let's say it's a Hillary running in

'16.

You're going to have, oh, women who want the first female president.

You could--I don't know who the Republican's going to be, but let's assume it's going to

be someone who's going to surround themselves with John Bolton types and more of the neocon

war hawks.

So, you know, while Hillary is her own kind of war hawk, they seem to be more extremist

than she would be.

You could wind up having somewhat a same replay.

How do you deal with that?

BENJAMIN: You know, I think we build up a movement that is not connected to the Democratic

Party.

There are libertarians right now who we work with on the issue of Iran and that joined

us in trying to stop the war on Syria.

They are now looking at their positions around Iran, and many of them are with us in saying

it's--we have to continue to hold back the forces of war there.

I think that if we can build a movement that's not tied at the hip to the Democratic Party,

we will find allies in different sectors, and we will be able to peel off some of the

Democrats who were afraid to speak up under Obama.

So I feel the momentum is on our side.

I think that this empire cannot continue to devour itself and still be able to supply

people's needs at home.

And those contradictions are becoming more and more apparent.

I think we're going to be able to insert the antiwar message more into movements, like

movements for decent wages and a full employment in the United States, because the military

is one of the worst industries--.

JAY: And, for that matter, climate change, for that matter.

BENJAMIN: And climate change.

You look at the military, it's the worst way to create jobs.

And I think it is going to be finding ways to make alliances across these different sectors,

to have movements that are not Democratic Party-based movements, and that also have

global alliances, because these are global issues.

We had a big global movement that was building before 9/11 that also disintegrated.

And I think that movement is building itself back up.

I know on the antiwar front we are recreating a lot of the connections that we had before.

I'm on my way to Gaza with 100 women representing women from about 12 different countries, and

we are purposely building up an international global women's movement.

So I think there's lots of positive things that we can build on in the coming years.

JAY: Great.

Well, thanks for joining us.

BENJAMIN: Thank you.

JAY: And thank you for joining us on The Real News and Reality Asserts Itself.

And we'll be back soon.

The Movement is in Silos - Medea Benjamin on Reality Asserts Itself (4/4)

Transcript

Medea Benjamin (3/4)

The Real News Network

1.08M subscribers

9,192 views  Feb 18, 2014

Ms. Benjamin talks with Paul Jay about the founding of Code Pink and the need for a movement independent of the Democratic Party

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Transcript

PAUL JAY: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Baltimore. This is Reality

Asserts Itself.

DONALD RUMSFELD: Is it the responsibility of free people to do something, to take steps

to deal with such a threat before such an attack occurs?

MEDEA BENJAMIN: Yes, Mr. Rumsfeld. I think we need weapons inspections, not war. Why

[incompr.] the inspections? Is this really about oil? How many civilians will be killed?

Mr. Secretary, would you suspend for a minute and--.

BENJAMIN: How many servicemen will be killed? Isn't this really about oil? Why is it [incompr.]

UNIDENTIFIED: If we could ask the staff to see to it that our guests are escorted--.

BENJAMIN: We want inspections, not war. Inspections. Not war. Inspections. Not war.

JAY: So that was Medea Benjamin after the founding of Code Pink, having one or two things

to say to Donald Rumsfeld.

Now joining us in the studio again is Medea Benjamin.

Thanks for joining us again.

BENJAMIN: Good to be here.

JAY: So Medea is cofounder of Code Pink with Jodie Evans, and she's the author of the book

Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control.

So talk a bit about what inspired and the early days of Code Pink.

BENJAMIN: It was after 9/11, and as the whole country was in mourning, so was I. I grew

up in New York, have a lot of family there. But I saw, as the days went by, what direction

this was going in, and that was going to be more killing of more people, more innocent

people dying.

And at the time, when it was being talked about, invading Afghanistan, I reached out

to the Afghan community. I was living in San Francisco, and there was a big Afghan community

in Hayward there. And we organized a beautiful event with about 1,000 people coming together

to say no to violence. And then Bush went ahead and invaded Afghanistan.

I went to Afghanistan a week after the invasion, saw that the story that was being told to

the Americans was not true, that we were killing a lot of innocent people in our invasion,

and came back to the U.S., tried to go to Washington and hold a press conference and

say, why in the world, when we're mourning the lives of innocent people, are we killing

more innocent people? And nobody wanted to listen to it.

JAY: Now, I made a film in Afghanistan in the spring of 2002, and while there was certainly

significant resentment about the kind of civilian deaths--and a lot of the American bombing

seemed to be--there was a certain point where the Northern Alliance was kind of sitting

north of Kabul, and the Americans hadn't quite decided whether they're going to let them

come in or not, and they're just bombing anything so that it could look like they were still

bombing.

But on the other hand, I found most people I talked to were so furious at the Taliban,

so didn't want to live under that regime, that they were more, I should say, accepting

of the American overthrow of the Taliban. I think, you know, they thought something

positive would come out of all this, other than years of war. But at the time, I don't

think it can be underestimated how much people wanted the Taliban gone.

BENJAMIN: Well, yes.

On the other hand, I think that what was concerning to me was people who were a part of the collateral

damage who weren't being acknowledged anymore. And if we allowed that to keep happening,

it would keep happening. And so what we did is brought people from--who had direct family

members killed on 9/11, brought them to Afghanistan, took them back to meet with their counterparts,

which--there were many, unfortunately.

And they would say, yes, we hated the Taliban, but what did I have to do with that? And why

was my family hurt? And why won't the U.S. government apologize for what they did to

my family? And now how am I going to feed my kids? And my husdand's gone.

And so we did a campaign to get compensation for innocent victims. And it was--actually

ended up, after a couple of years, being a successful campaign. The first pot of money

was a $40 million fund in the name of one of the women that we worked with, Marla Ruzicka,

to compensate innocent family victims.

JAY: And this was all under the roof of Code Pink.

BENJAMIN: This was before--it started before Code Pink, when we had a group of women that

gathered--actually, it was a gathering around women concerned about the environment was

when we had already invaded Afghanistan and there was talk about invading Iraq. And at

that point we were saying, how can we allow the U.S. to go in and invade another country,

this one that really had nothing to do with 9/11? We've got to do something about it.

And that's when some of us were playing around with this color-coded alert system of George

Bush. Remember? He had the yellow, orange, red. And we said that that was a very insidious

thing, actually, because it was making people feel living in fear and that it was justifying

more military intervention. And so we came up with this idea of Code Pink, almost kind

of a lark. And we thought maybe we'd go to Washington, D.C., do some action, and then

go back to our other work, 'cause we were all very involved in other things. But it

didn't work out that way.

JAY: Now, Code Pink has become one of the most known organizations on the left, as I

said in one of the earlier segments, you know, one of the favorite targets on the list of

evildoers of Glenn Beck. You're usually on the list there. But there's so much we can

talk about in terms of the history of Code Pink and this whole era, and I don't think

we're going to get into all of it now.

So I want to kind of focus on one thing, which is, in the leadup to the Iraq War, there was

a massive upsurge in opposition to the war, and tens of thousands of people hit the streets

all across the United States, you know, in the end, millions of people around the world.

But what happened to that movement? You know. Some people suggest, although I don't think

it's directly timed, but there's a suggestion that there's a--you know, you can get the

antiwar movement going in the United States when it's against the Republicans, but once

the Democrats are in power, you know, it takes the steam out of it. It wasn't so true under

Vietnam, but other issues, such as the draft and such. But in short, what happened to that

upsurge?

BENJAMIN: Well, you said it. It's a one-word answer. Obama. And it wasn't Obama getting

in; it was the leadup, it was the campaigning for Obama, when people were so desperate for

an alternative to Bush that they said, I'm going to throw myself into this, I'm going

to take off of work, students taking off of semesters, I'm going to put my life into getting

this guy elected who said he was against the war in Iraq. And we put all our hopes and

dreams into Obama, thinking that because he was against the war in Iraq and because he

said Afghanistan was a good war--he didn't really mean that; you know, he was just saying

that to get elected. But he was a smart guy, and he understood that war was not the answer,

and he was going to get us out.

And so the steam was just taken out of the whole movement. And it was amazing to see,

because you said tens of thousands. I mean, there were eight times, during the Bush administration,

that we got over 100,000 people. And we had a huge movement. You just look at one group,

like Code Pink: we came out of nowhere, and suddenly we had over 300,000 people on our

mailing list, and we had over 300 groups around the country and, really, around the world.

We weren't even trying to set up chapters, and they were just springing up on university

campuses, small towns, big towns, everywhere. (08:34) When Obama started to gain steam as

a candidate, those started fizzling out. And when he won the election, we had half the

numbers of people we had before on our mailing list. And most of the groups started to disintegrate.

So that was indicative of what was happening to the whole peace movement.

JAY: And had you drunk any of the Kool-Aid yourself?

BENJAMIN: I drank the Kool-Aid myself, in the sense that I voted for Obama the first

time around and I'm usually a Green Party voter, always voting for something other than

the Democrats and Republicans. I drank the Kool-Aid in that I was very, very anxious

to vote for somebody who was going to win and have somebody who was going to be an alternative

to those eight horrible years of Bush.

And I was--we immediately did up a list of Obama's promises. That went from, you know,

getting out of the war in Iraq to closing down Guantanamo and other things. And we started

out right away: Obama, keep your promise.

And I physically moved from San Francisco, where I'd been living for 26 years, to Washington,

D.C., to say, now is the time to be there to make sure Obama fulfills his promises like

closing Guantanamo, getting out of Iraq.

And so I was full of hope, I would say. Yeah.

JAY: Now, if you actually read the speeches--and we covered this on The Real News. I mean,

I have to say, we didn't ever drink the Kool-Aid, 'cause we actually used to read his speeches.

In fact, the best thing to do with Obama is don't listen to him, 'cause he sells the speeches,

usually, so well. But if you actually read them, you would come to a different conclusion.

And the interviews he did about the Iraq War, it was always, this is just stupid, I'm not

a pacifist, the Iraq War is a stupid war. But he certainly was--in fact, what was stupid

about it is, he said, it weakened America's ability to project power around the globe.

But he certainly believed in projecting power around the globe.

BENJAMIN: Well, you're smarter, perhaps, and perhaps it's because--.

JAY: Maybe 'cause I'm Canadian.

BENJAMIN: Well, and maybe it's 'cause you're not an activist, because we were just so desperate.

You know, we saw firsthand so much of the devastation of the Bush years. The choice

was between Hillary and Obama in terms of who was going to win from the Democratic side,

and we knew Hillary was a hawk. In fact, we had a campaign bird dogging Hillary everywhere

she went. And so our only real option for somebody who was going to win was Obama, and

we projected our hopes and dreams on him like so many others did.

And I remember--you know, you selectively listen, and I selectively listened to a lot

of his campaign rhetoric, and also to the debates. And I remember one debate when he

said that the role of a good leader is to talk to our adversaries and I will talk to

our adversaries. And he got huge applause for that. And so I thought, alright, here's

a guy who really understands that talking, dialog, negotiations are much better than

war.

JAY: And I have to say the one thing I had hope for in '08 with Obama--and I didn't have

a lot of high expectations, and I wasn't disillusioned, 'cause I didn't have much illusions--but I

thought he'd be rational on Iran when it was clear McCain wouldn't be. And then, after

that, it was clear Romney wouldn't be. And, actually, so far it looks like--I mean, from

the point of view of the same thing, he wants to project American power, and he knows Iran,

you know, is stupid, even from the point of view of empire building. But I don't think

you would get that from the Republican side. They seem much more willing to want to go

for that kind of a fight. So I actually give him that. I think there is a rationality there.

BENJAMIN: Well, that, you know, jumps us fast-forward into today, and I'm not sure if that's where

you want to go, but--.

JAY: [crosstalk] We can jump around. It's okay.

BENJAMIN: Yeah? Okay. But I'm amazed at the fact that after 12 years of war, Obama would

be so stupid as to do the thing with Syria and say, oh, here's my red line, and actually

even contemplate U.S. physical military involvement in Syria. And that was one of my most exciting

moments as an antiwar activist in recent years was to see this spontaneous uprising from

left, right, Republicans, Democrats, libertarians, you name it, saying no way.

And I think that you could say, yeah, Obama wants to have a rational approach to Iran,

but I also think it's the mood of the country right now, and that it's forcing Obama to

untether himself so much from AIPAC, the lobbyists that were gunning for war in Syria and Iran,

and to take a more rational approach. I think it's a reflection of where we are as a nation.

And I think there are a number of Republicans--and some of them are Tea Party Republicans--who

really do not want to see the U.S. involved in another war.

JAY: I think that's true. But if you go back to the Iraq War, there are a lot of people

against the Iraq War, and it happens anyway. I think it had--.

BENJAMIN: But that wasn't under Obama. That was under Bush.

JAY: No, but I'm saying--yeah, but it's not just about public pressure. What I'm saying

is--.

BENJAMIN: But I think that Obama is more sensitive to public pressure than Bush was.

JAY: Yeah.

BENJAMIN: And it's his own party.

JAY: Yeah. My but is is he was saying--. I think this is hilarious, me defending Obama,

'cause if you watch The Real News, we spend most of our time rather critical. But in the

debates in '08, or, you know, leading into '08, he was saying things like, if you didn't

want Iran to become such a dominant power in the region, you shouldn't have overthrown

Saddam Hussein. You know, he was giving rational arguments back then.

But I guess what I'm really getting at here--and this ties together with the antiwar movement

question: it's not about him. He represents a section of the American elite. He represents

probably the predominant opinion of the American professional foreign policy establishment.

He represents the more professional Pentagon establishment. And all of them, you know,

when they look at their grand chessboard, a war with Iran's not in American interest.

And the same people were actually opposed to the war in Iraq on the whole. But Bush

wouldn't listen to them.

But what I'm getting at is that, when you drink the Kool-Aid, somehow you have to say

to yourself that it's not a class that's in power, it's not a section of the American

elite that's in power. It's, like, this guy, Obama. And if you start thinking that, then

you can project things into this guy as an individual. But he never could have gotten

where he was if he didn't represent a whole section of the American elite. And that section

of the American elite seems awfully good at taking the legs out of--whether it's the antiwar

movement or whether it was the upsurge in Wisconsin, of kind of turning the movement

to become an appendage of the Democratic Party.

BENJAMIN: Well, exactly right. And that's--you know, when I made the decision to come to

Washington, it wasn't because I thought Obama was just going to follow this nice antiwar

path. I knew he was going to be confronted with this tremendous military-industrial complex

that was going to push him on the militaristic path, and that we had to keep the momentum

up.

And we turned around as Code Pink and said, you know, where are our forces? Well, our

forces had dwindled away, as we said. And even then, looking at Congress at the people

that we had worked so much with under the Bush years, the Progressive Caucus, it was

hard to get them to speak out, to say anything.

And that's been tremendous frustration over these years is to see that the people who

we were allied with and working closely with under the Bush years had suddenly--either

they were part of the Democratic establishment and they were going to go with their guy,

or they were willing to let down their guard and waited now for years for Obama to do the

right thing.

So I don't want to--I mean, when I say drank the Kool-Aid, I drank the Kool-Aid excited

that things were going to change under Obama. But I was assuming that we were going to still

have a movement, which we didn't have.

JAY: One of the first things Obama did is not charge Bush and Cheney. I mean, there

was a lot of talk about charging them on torture issues. But I always thought, if you're going

to charge them, it should have been on war crimes of launching an illegal war, of which

hundreds of thousands of people died.

BENJAMIN: Totally. And to this day, we at Code Pink are one of the few who follow these

guys around, whether it's on a book tour or they're in a speaking engagement. We try and

go whenever we can and bust into the room and saying, arrest that guy for war crimes,

because we don't forget.

JAY: And clearly President Obama--and for those of you that are going to write in the

comments section, oh, there's Paul defending Obama on Iran, I only say this from the point

of view of clearly it's to strengthen the empire. He doesn't want to get embroiled in

Iran, but he has no problem. We're going to talk more about drones and such later. He's--clearly

has no problem launching wars in the defense of that empire.

BENJAMIN: Yeah, and killing a lot of innocent people.

JAY: So you were in touch with large numbers of people at the height of the movement and

when Code Pink had lots of forces. What do they say? How can they, by this point, not

get that Obama's essentially continuing Bush-Cheney policies?

BENJAMIN: Well, in the first years of Obama, people got very angry at us and say, how could

you be criticizing Obama? How could you be protesting what Obama's doing? And so we lost

a lot of people from that end of things. It's funny, 'cause some of the people from the

right who hated us so much under the Bush years were saying, well, at least we have

to give them credit that there's equal-opportunity protesters. But we were small, 'cause we had

lost so many people.

And then, over the years, we've started to grow again, because people have seen that

Obama is just continuing so many of the policies of the Bush administration.

And sure there are people who--lots of people who will continue to defend Obama's foreign

policy and try to make it as very differentiated from the Bush years, but we don't do that.

And we would love to have the numbers that we had under the Bush administration. We don't

have that.

So we've tried to compensate through doing different things, like going into press conferences

and speaking out when you know the national media's already there.

But we certainly and unfortunately can't get tens of thousands of people out anymore. We're

lucky if we can get 1,000 people out.

JAY: Part of it is the complexity of the situation, is that, you know, as much as one can critique

Obama and his administration and his section of the elite--and I keep saying it that way

'cause I don't want it to be about this one guy, 'cause it clearly isn't. That being said,

the other section of the elite, the far right of the elite, are thoroughly sociopathic--not

to say anyone that can, you know, send drones doesn't have a good dose of sociopathy themselves,

but the other--you know, it's very likely, I would think, that if it had been a President

Romney, for example, we might have been more directly heading towards war with Iran. And

that's still not, quote-unquote, off the table with the Obama administration. Not to have

illusions about them, but right now we don't seem to be headed there. You know, McCain,

his war, he wanted to have a new Cold War with Russia. Who knows what the hell he would

have started in terms of provocations against Russia? So it's complicated, because it's

not that there's no difference between these two sections.

BENJAMIN: Right. And I think it's very interesting to see Kerry and how he has been acting as

secretary of state. I was recently in Geneva when the talks around Syria started. And on

the one hand, it's kind of schizophrenic, 'cause you see him with the foreign minister

of Russia and shaking hands and trying to show to the media that we're good friends.

And they actually are working together for the Syria talks. On the other hand, it's that

American arrogance that's, you know, we will not contemplate any future of Syria that includes

Saddam Hussein [sic]. Well is that up to you, John Kerry? Or is that up to the Syrian people?

And the U.S. continuing to be funding the rebels while they are organizing these peace

talks. So it's--.

JAY: And the Russians doing the same thing on the other side.

BENJAMIN: And the Russians doing the same thing.

JAY: And the other thing about this whole thing is the absolute--what's the word?--marginalization,

ignoring the refugee crisis in Syria, which is on an apocalyptic levels, and both in terms

of the media and the politicians. It's like, oh, just, oh, yes, there are some refugees.

BENJAMIN: A couple of million refugees. That's right.

And the other thing ignoring is civil society, ignoring--. We were there to push women being

at the table, women who had not taken up arms on either side, but who had huge constituencies

'cause they were working with refugees, they were working with displaced people, they were

risking their lives to try to get humanitarian aid to people. And we could not get any kind

of formal representation for women at these talks. So you have peace talks where the guys

with the guns are sitting around a table and barely even talking to each other. They're

only talking through the UN envoy, and the peacemakers are not at the table. And it was

very profound to be there with many of these Syrian women who had been trying for months

to get their voices heard and ignored at all levels from the U.S., the Russian side, and

the UN side.

JAY: Okay. We're going to do one more segment. We're going to talk a little bit more about

the American antiwar movement and its ups and downs.

Please join us with Medea Benjamin on Reality Asserts Itself on The Real News.

Obama Sucked the Steam Out of the Anti-War Movement - Medea Benjamin on Reality Asserts Itself (3/4)

Medea Benjamin (2/4)

In this video

Timeline

Chapters

Transcript

Intro

PAUL JAY: Welcome back to The Real News Network.

I'm Paul Jay in Baltimore.

And welcome to Reality Asserts Itself.

JOHN BRENNAN: More broadly, al-Qaeda's killing of innocents, mostly Muslim men, women, and

children, has badly tarnished its image and appeal in the eyes of Muslims around the world.

MEDEA BENJAMIN: Excuse me.

Will you speak out about [crosstalk] innocents by the United States?

What about the hundreds of innocent people we are killing with our drone strikes in Pakistan

and in Yemen and Somalia?

I speak out on behalf of those innocent victims.

They deserve an apology from you, Mr. Brennan.

How many people are you willing to sacrifice?

Why are you lying to the American people and not saying how many innocents have been killed?

I speak out--

UNIDENTIFIED: Thank you, ma'am, for expressing your views.

There will be time for questions and answers after the presentation.

BENJAMIN: --on behalf of Tariq Aziz, a 15-year-old in Pakistan, who was killed because he wanted

to document the drone strikes.

I speak out on behalf of Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, 16-year-old born in Denver, killed in Yemen

just because his father was someone we don't like.

I speak out on behalf of the Constitution, on behalf of the rule of law.

I love the rule of law.

I love my country.

You are making us less safe by killing so many innocent people around the world.

Shame on you!

So that, once again, was Medea Benjamin, one of the better-known antiwar activists in the

country, who joins us again now in the studio.

Thanks for joining us again.

MEDEA BENJAMIN: Good to be here.

JAY: One more time, Medea was cofounder of the women's-led grassroots activist group

Code Pink, which was founded in 2002.

And she's the author of many books.

Her most recent is Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control.

And if you want to know more about Medea, watch part one, which you really should watch

anyway, and/or look down below the video player, because the whole biography's there.

So we're going to pick up where we were, 'cause we're kind of working our way through your

story.

And as we do, we'll pick up kind of political issues along the way to talk about.

You went back to school.

You get your undergraduate degree in public health.

You do a master's in public health.

You go to Africa for a little bit.

You come back, and in another year get a master's in economics.

So over the course of three years, you do an undergraduate and two master's, and then

you head back to Africa.

BENJAMIN: Yes.

And one of my first jobs was working in poor, very poor areas in Mozambique.

And at that time, you might recall, 'cause you're about the same age as me,--

JAY: I'm a little older than you.

BENJAMIN: --was when the milk companies, the milk formula companies, like Nestlé, would

go into these little villages.

Well, I was working in one of these little villages, and I saw--I didn't know this was

happening all over the country and the world--people who come in dressed in white coats like they

were doctors and nurses and say to these poor women, stop breastfeeding your babies and

give them this formula.

And, of course, the women then would run out of money to buy more formula and they would

have no more breast milk.

They would mix the powdered milk with dirty water.

Their kids would get sick.

And I would literally have the kids dying in my arms.

And I just couldn't believe that this was happening and started to go to the stores

where they were selling the milk and telling the women not to buy it, trying to convince

the store owners not to carry it.

And the more I got involved, the more I realized how tangled and complicated this was, and

that this was a corporate strategy of big multinationals.

And I ended up going to an international conference on nutrition that was sponsored by Nestlé

and doing my first international solo protest to get up there and say, Nestlé kills babies.

I didn't realize, though, it was in Brazil under a dictatorship and that I would be whisked

away into a secret prison.

So that was my first experience at this level.

JAY: For how long were you in prison?

BENJAMIN: Well, I wasn't there for long, thank goodness, because I had friends in the U.S.

Embassy who saw what happened, saw me being taken away, and found me and had me deported

from the country instead.

JAY: So how did--the Nestlé's boycott, which becomes a big global campaign, are you in

Nestle boycott

on kicking this off?

BENJAMIN: Well, not at all.

Little did I realize when I got deported back to the U.S. that there was a campaign in full

swing.

And I got to meet the people in UNICEF who were part of this campaign.

And I look back now and say, if only we had internet, I could have figured it all out

from early on that there was a campaign I could have plugged into.

Here I was, alone, a person in a small village in Africa, thinking that I had to take on

this company.

So I was part of the tail end of the campaign, because the companies had already started

to agree to come to the table.

But I saw how powerful this type of campaign was, because it was the first time major multinationals

were forced to come up with a code of conduct and to allow monitoring in their inner workings

of their companies.

And that was a very powerful lesson for me.

JAY: I mean, it has a resonance with me, 'cause I grew up in a house where my mother helped

organize the Nestlé boycott in Canada.

So this was all part of my culture.

So you stuck your neck out, you stood up, and you have your first one-person protest--the

beginning of many.

Then what?

BENJAMIN: Well, then my next work was in Central America.

And I was sent out again to work with poor women in poor villages.

JAY: And you're working with who?

BENJAMIN: At that point I was working with a international organization.

I was working with the Swedish government.

And I was sent out to Guatemala.

And little did I know, working in Guatemala, that these women who I was supposed to help

teach them how to feed their children better were people who had their own lands that had

been taken away from them by U.S. companies.

And here again I'm faced with multinationals, like United Fruit Company, that had stole

the land of indigenous people, that had made them into poor people, and it seemed very

odd that I would be teaching them how to feed themselves when the issue is how do they get

back the land that had been stolen from them.

JAY: Now, do you get that while you're there?

BENJAMIN: I get that while I'm there.

Yeah.

Systemic Question

JAY: 'Cause a lot of aid workers don't, or they don't want to go there, because their

job is to stay within very narrow confines and within the limits of the NGO work, 'cause

if you start asking that kind of question, you're asking a systemic question.

BENJAMIN: I asked the systemic question.

I started hooking up with people who were trying to form unions in the banana companies,

people who were fighting the companies, and I got kicked out of that area.

So that was, I guess, number two deportation.

JAY: Not prison this time, though.

BENJAMIN: Not prison that time.

And I was actually just sent away from that area.

I got a job, believe it or not, with USAID to do a report on how U.S. food was being

used in Guatemala.

And as I did the research, I realized it was being used in a U.S. counterinsurgency program

and wrote that up, and then was no longer hired by AID.

JAY: What year are we in?

BENJAMIN: So this is now in the early--about 1978.

So I had a hard time keeping a job.

Every time I would go in an area that was a very poor area, I would find these systemic

problems and want to deal with them.

Visiting Cuba

JAY: Yeah.

You spent some time in Cuba.

Does that come in around this time?

And if so, how do you get there?

BENJAMIN: That came in in 1979.

I had gone back to work in Africa.

And I was so frustrated by what I was seeing about when people would rise up, like in Mozambique,

to get their independence, overthrow colonialism, there would be U.S.-funded groups and South

African groups that would come in to try to quash any type of real revolution.

And I met Cubans along the way.

And what I really loved about the Cubans is, one, they were great party people, and I do

like to party.

They were great dancers.

They love music.

They were fun to be around.

But they were also great workers and they had an incredible sense of compassion.

I mean, I wanted to be a Peace Corps person, but I didn't want to do it for the U.S. government.

And there I saw these Cubans as internationalists.

They would come in as doctors and nurses, and they would really get to love and be part

of the local community.

And they would care about the local people, work hard, and party hard.

And I thought, wow, what a cool people these are.

And I also, because so much of my work was always with poor kids, I said, there must

be someplace that doesn't have kids who are malnourished.

And they said, go to Cuba.

And I said, oh, come on, you know, there's malnourished kids in Cuba.

They said, we do not have malnourished kids in Cuba.

Go find out for yourself.

And I decided to go and find out for myself.

JAY: And what did you find out for yourself?

What she found

BENJAMIN: Well, the only malnourished child I found in my entire four years in Cuba was

my own child, who was born to myself--quite skinny, and her father is very skinny--and

they kept telling me she's too thin, she's too thin, and wanted to force-feed her.

I said, no, that's just her constitution.

There were no hungry kids in Cuba, because there was a ration system, and the ration

system meant that every person in Cuba had enough to feed themselves.

So I saw some really positive things in Cuba, like the ration system, like a health care

system that gave health care to everyone.

It was during the years when the Soviet Union was economically strong and was giving a lot

of money to Cuba, so things were pretty good in Cuba in those days.

But I must say it didn't last a long time for me to be very content living in Cuba,

because I saw the other side as well.

I saw the side that you couldn't form independent organizations, you couldn't speak out very

forcefully.

You could speak out--everybody complains in Cuba about everything.

But when you start really trying to do something about it, you get in trouble.

So I got in trouble in Cuba.

And I actually got put in jail and deported from Cuba.

JAY: Everywhere you go.

Getting deported from Cuba

BENJAMIN: Everywhere.

I just don't know what it is, Paul.

JAY: What did you do in Cuba that got you thrown out?

BENJAMIN: Well, I was working.

There weren't a lot of places for me to work in Cuba.

One of the only things I could do is work as a translator.

And so I worked at the newspaper.

And there was only one newspaper.

It was the Communist Party newspaper.

And it was a terrible newspaper.

It was a rag.

I mean, it had no interesting analysis.

It was all about what Fidel Castro did every day.

And I was translating Fidel Castro's speeches.

I must say, he's brilliant.

And the fact that anybody could talk for five hours without a note and put facts and figures

and all kinds of things, I mean, I was just amazed by this guy's brain.

But it was very flowery language in Spanish, and when you translate into English, I would

tend to cut out the stuff that didn't make a lot of sense in English.

And so they would come to me and say, well, this speech was, you know, five pages in the

Spanish version but is only three pages in English.

What did you do?

And I said, well, I cut out the parts that didn't really sound very good in English.

Well, you know, what are you doing editing Fidel Castro's speeches?

That was the first thing that got me in trouble.

Then it just escalated.

You know, I would question things.

Why are we doing things this way?

Why don't we have more interesting stories?

Why don't we have other points of views in the newspaper?

So I got kicked out of the newspaper.

And in Cuba, if you lose your job, you lose your housing.

And then, one thing after another, I just ended up writing freelance.

And the Cuban government got a hold of some of the pieces that I wrote and said that I

was counterrevolutionary because I wrote that the farmers' markets that they had created--.

They were selling things at very high prices.

Fidel Castro didn't like it, so he closed down all the markets.

And I said that that was the wrong way to deal with it.

And my critique was considered counterrevolutionary.

And in the end I was put on a military escort to a plane and sent out of the country.

Impressions of Cuba

JAY: And just it's not the main thing we're talking about, so maybe on another occasion

we'll kind of dig more into your Cuban experience, but overall, then, what were you left with

as an impression of Cuba?

BENJAMIN: I was left with a very love/hate kind of relationship with Cuba.

I love the people, always.

I love that the government cared about the people.

I mean, I was holding babies in my arms who were dying in places from Latin America to

Africa.

To be in a relatively poor country like Cuba where every child had enough to eat, where

every child had an education and they had health care was extraordinary.

But I felt that even though the blockade was used always as an excuse of why we can't have

more free speech, I felt that there should have been more of an open, democratic society

in Cuba, and that while Fidel Castro was an incredible leader of having made the revolution,

that I believe in renewal of leadership constantly, and that that wasn't happening in Cuba.

So I think the--I appreciate the good things, and I feel that people do need the right to

free expression.

Those are not just sort of extra things that are not important.

Those are actually critical, I think, to society's well-being.

JAY: So now you've been turfed out of three places, you've been to jail in two of the

Working in the US

three, and you're on the way back, what, to the United States?

BENJAMIN: Yes.

I got a job with a place called the Institute for Food and Development Policy, also known

as Food First, because I was asked to come and help on a book, writing a book about Cuba,

Cuba's food system.

It ended up being a wonderful book.

I had never written very much before, and it was a great experience.

I wrote it with the cofounder of Food First, called Joe Collins, and we wrote a book called

No Free Lunch: Food and Revolution in Cuba Today.

And from there I started doing a lot more writing, and worked at Food First for about

seven years.

JAY: This is a quick note.

Have you ever tried to go back to Cuba?

BENJAMIN: I was not allowed back in Cuba for a long time.

And then I was asked to come back in by a publication called NACLA that wanted to do

a piece on Cuba.

And I said, I can't go in.

And they said, our board member is Cuba's lawyer in the United States, and he can get

you in.

He did get me in.

I wrote what I consider a very fair piece on Cuba, the good and the bad.

And after that I was allowed to go in.

In fact, I started organizing big delegations to go to Cuba, openly defying the embargo,

and one time met with Fidel Castro on one of those trips.

He would like to meet with those groups.

And he took me aside and he said, I know what happened to you, and the Revolution commits

many mistakes, and the way you were treated was one of those mistakes.

I think I'm one of the few people that ever got an apology from Fidel Castro.

Global Exchange

JAY: That's very good.

So then comes Global Exchange?

BENJAMIN: When I worked at Food First, I really enjoyed the writing, but as I would get into

the issues, I'd want to do something, not just say, okay, now let's write another book.

And I wrote a book about Honduras, and I found that the U.S. was getting involved creating

death squads in Honduras, and shouldn't we be doing something about it, and the founders

said, no, no, that's not our job; we're really an educational organization.

And so I decided I wanted to create an organization that did more activism.

And that's how we created Global Exchange.

Reality Tourists

JAY: This is in San Francisco.

BENJAMIN: In San Francisco.

Yeah.

JAY: And its mission was?

BENJAMIN: It's mission was to educate people about U.S. policy around the world and what

we could do to make that policy more aligned with our values.

JAY: And a lot of that had to do with taking delegations to places.

BENJAMIN: That's right.

We realize that people needed to get out of their U.S.-only perspective and see the rest

of the world.

So we created what we called "reality tours" and took people to see things from the perspective

of peasants and union organizers and go into the coffee plantations and see what conditions

were like.

Because you drink this coffee every day, you should know who's growing it and how they're

being paid or not being paid.

And we would take people to get other perspectives on U.S. policies.

So we started traveling all over the Caribbean, Latin America, started taking groups to Asia,

to Africa.

And that was a big part of Global Exchange.

The other part of it was that we brought the Fair Trade label that had been developed in

Europe, that hadn't come to the United States, to the U.S.

So the labels that you'd see on coffee and tea and chocolate, we helped get that started

in the U.S.

The Nike Campaign

JAY: And campaigns about garment workers and shoe manufacturers in different places--which

one stands out in your mind?

BENJAMIN: Well, the most fun that we had was the Nike campaign.

That was really great, because it was, I think, when Nike had really reached the point where

people started paying things like $150 for a pair of shoes because of the brand name.

And so I went to Indonesia.

Actually, I went to Indonesia because it was part of our work around U.S. policy, and it

was during the days of Suharto, where U.S. was supporting a dictatorship.

Learning about Nike was a totally separate thing.

It just happened that during that trip the union people said, do you know what your companies

are doing, and took us to meet with workers who were making these shoes.

That's how we came back and said, we've got to do something about that.

And we brought workers from Indonesia to the U.S.

And it was some of the most spectacular work that we've done, because we would take them

to Nike headquarters and try to get a meeting with the CEO.

And they would treat us like we were a bunch of tourists.

Here we were, like, all five-foot-tall women, trying to literally walk up into their campus

to get a meeting.

Or we'd take them to the Nike--where they sell the shoes, and try to bring the worker

in with press to try on a pair of shoes.

And Nike would go crazy.

You know, the worker can't go in and try on shoes!

And she would say that it would take her three months to ever be able to afford a pair of

sneakers, and in making hundreds of them every day, she'd never had a chance to actually

try on a pair.

And we got that onto national television, a worker, for the first time in their life,

putting on a pair of sneakers.

And it really had a huge impact.

Impact of the Nike Campaign

JAY: Did it change anything about the way Nike did business?

BENJAMIN: Yes.

So we forced Nike to start opening up its factories to outside monitors.

We forced them to change the way workers were treated.

I would say we got rid of the worst of the abuses.

The physical conditions of the workers' quarters were better.

There was now--started to pay them overtime.

They started to--we forced them to stop using some of the toxic chemicals, like the glues

that were being used.

So I think we had a tremendous impact.

They still tend to want to use low-paid workers in places that don't have the right to organize,

but at least some of those worst abuses have been made better.

JAY: Okay.

So we're going to continue our series of interviews with Medea Benjamin, and we'll pick up on

the story of the establishment of Code Pink, which is I guess what Medea's mostly known

for these days.

Please join us again on The Real News and Reality Asserts Itself.

Medea Benjamin (1/4)

===

Transcript

[Music]

Welcome to the Real News Network I'm

Paul JM Baltimore welcome to a new

episode of reality asserts itself we we

went he he he went on

to we went

on can you tell the Muslim people their

lives are as precious as our lives can

you take the drones out of the hands of

the CIA can you stop the signature

strikes that are killing people on the

basis of suspicious

activities apologize to the thousands of

Muslims that you have killed will you

compensate the innocent family victims

that will make us safer here at home I

love my country I love the rule of the

Dr are making us l and keep

people the voice of that

woman uh is worth paying attention

to obvious

obviously uh obviously I do not agree

with much of what she

said and obviously she wasn't listening

to me in much of what I said well the

young lady President Obama referred to

is now in our studio and now joining us

is Media Benjamin thanks for joining us

media thank you media Benjamin is

perhaps one of the nation's most

prominent anti-war activists she

co-founded the wom women's L Grassroots

activist group code pink in 2002 she's

also was co-founder and former

co-director of global exchange and

international human rights organization

in which media emerged as a key figure

in the anti- sweat shop campaigns to

change the Garment and shoe industry she

worked for 10 years in econom as an

economist and nutritionist in Latin

America and Africa for the United

Nations food and agricultural

organization the World Health

Organization and the Swedish

International Development agency and

she's written many books including drone

Warfare killing by remote control thanks

very much for joining us nice to be here

Paul and I I should add you're also a

favorite Target of of Glenn Beck but

we'll get to that later later in the

interviews um so as most of you know who

watch reality asserts itself uh we start

with a personal backstory of Our Guest a

little bit about why they think what

they think

so tell us a little bit about growing up

the household you grew up in politically

what what kind of household was it would

would your parents have be surprised

that you grew up to be this prominent

anti-war activist what what did they

expect of you well first I just got a

comment on the young lady from Obama

because when I go back tell my story I

was born in 1952 so that makes me over

60 uh and I grew up in a very um sort of

normal Suburban Long Island household

Jewish parents they weren't very

political when I look back I couldn't

even say if they were democrat or

republican I think it didn't really

matter very much they voted but they

weren't involved in politics and what

they wanted for me was that I marry a

Jewish doctor I think that was the

extent of it and had kids and um

and then uh my life changed because the

world was changing around okay well

before you move on um you're born you

know at the height of the Cold War and

and McCarthyism House of unamerican

Activities Committee and and the

narrative one grows up with in those

days is is one of America is it going to

save the world from the horrible evil uh

and the beacon on the hill uh and and

the whole idea of being a denter is is

is not just Mar marginalized it's it's

it's on the edge of being

criminalized that's the the general

culture of the time of the 50s uh your

parents kind of go wittingly unwittingly

are go along with that you're raised in

that you go to school put your hand on

your and say I pledge allegiance to the

flag you jump under the tables when

there's the the the drill that the the

Soviets are going to come to bomb us um

sure that was definitely the atmosphere

I grew up in I don't think it affect Ed

my life all that much because my family

wasn't political I mean they were more

concerned about when uh 5:00 came it was

happy hour and uh they were quite um

into partying and uh pretty um much into

their business world and friends and uh

the going to Temple was just something

we did on the weekend more for

socializing so I would say that until I

went into middle scho School uh politics

didn't enter into my life very much but

you internalized the general

narrative I'd never really internalized

the general narrative because I was a

rebel from the time I was born um my

mother says the first thing I learned

how to say was I'll do it myself uh I

was always questioning always

questioning so I I never really accepted

that narrative either I always wondered

you know why was it that we were being

taught to be afraid of somebody of of a

country that was uh thousands of miles

away and um I didn't really buy into the

narrative from early on well as you

start to become more mature and more

conscious you know you start becoming 11

12 13 and it's not very long before the

Vietnam war

starts yeah and it didn't affect me

until I got into high school because

that's when my peers were starting to be

drafted and especially my sister's peers

cuz she was 2 years older than I was and

so it was really uh I mean I I I heard

about it I saw it on the news but when

it really starts affecting you is when

you know people who are getting shipped

off to Vietnam and that's when it really

started striking me of wait you know why

are these friends of mine being uh told

that they should go fight an enemy

that's thousands of miles away that we

really know nothing about so and School

you organize an anti-war group so what

gets into you what I mean by that is a

lot of people knew people that were

being shipped overseas and had these

things happen to them but they don't

start to organize you do well what

really hit me was my sister's boyfriend

who was sent off to Vietnam and he was

in the football team a really nice

All-American kind of guy and 6 months

later he sent her the ear of a Viet Kong

as a souvenir you know with a to wear it

around her neck and that really struck

me that was one of those pivotal moments

when I said Uh something's really crazy

if you think somebody else's body part a

dead person's body part is something you

should proudly wear uh this ain't right

how'd your sister react to it my sister

uh showed it to me and then stuck it in

her draw and never took it out again and

uh in the end did not continue her

relationship with this guy who turned

out to you know be totally changed by by

this experience and in the meantime

there were also racial issues in my

school um it had been a white Community

where black families started moving in

and uh it didn't go down well in the

school with black and white kids uh in

those days we didn't have guns thank

goodness but we had knives and people

were really you know knifing each other

in the halls of the school on a racial

basis on a racial basis and so my school

had Riot police in the Halls

and um between seeing people stab each

other around race issues and the Vietnam

issues I just started realizing

something was very very wrong started

researching learning talking to people

and began organizing and you're now what

15 I'm now about 15 yeah to start with

the race issues and how did you react

this must have been a shock for you this

starts happening you hadn't had you

encountered anything like this before

and and and what sparked

it well what sparked the fights or what

sparked my own uh the fights well it was

a very redneck community and um it was a

pretty a poor community and when uh

black families started moving in there

was the whole issue about what's this

going to do to property prices and the

the the parents of a lot of my friends

in school saying you know this is not

good for our community and I think they

got got it from their parents the the

redneck kids and um immediately started

taking out their aggression against the

black kids many of whom had just moved

into the community or or started to be

bust into the community so it was um

racial tensions flaring and uh and in

the country the Civil Rights Movement

Rising how aware are you of that well I

became aware of it once I started seeing

the the the fights going on in my school

I started getting more involved in it

and realizing that this was part of

something that was happening all over

the country and that I wanted to be on

the side of uh uh that I thought was the

side of justice and so I was siding with

the the new uh black girls in my class

and learning from them what it was like

coming into a white school and were you

targeted or marginalized by some of the

white racist

kids um yeah yeah um but um I I found

and created a group that tried to bridge

that gap which was what it was uh

unitarians Jews some of the an actual

formal group called what a group that we

created um it was a it we started among

the the the women the the girls and

started actually through the gym class

where there had been a lot of the fights

erupting so um what made you think to do

that I mean had you seen some models of

organizing somewhere well actually I I

got beat up by one of the girls in the

gym class and um it wasn't a fun

experience and it was one of the black

girls and uh I went to get some help to

try to from the counselor to try to deal

with it and realized that this was part

of a much larger thing and that it

wasn't about me um it was about a part

of a a bigger movement that was

happening and I then wanted to sit down

with that girl and and talk it through

uh which we did and out of that came

this

group so then from there comes the

anti-war organizing yeah the anti-war

organizing I realized that uh we need to

educate people in the schools because

there were a lot of pro uh Vietnam kids

in the school and that we needed to

create a visible presence Pro Vietnam

War Pro Vietnam War also kids in with

parents in the military yeah parents in

the military and these kids had Brothers

in the

military so um we created a group that

would learned peace songs and uh started

singing outside of school and organizing

walkouts from school uh we even went so

far as to realize that this was

happening in a national level how do you

have a voice at the national level and

started working on the campaign of a uh

a very strong anti-war candidate his

name was Al Lowenstein and got involved

in his campaign talk about the walk out

I mean how much support was growing for

you in the school for the organizing

well first we were about four of us and

um it was growing and people were

learning as we went along and we did a

number of walkouts and we started

coordinating them with other schools in

the area uh and as we organized we got a

lot more support and a lot of antagonism

so I did learn at an early age that when

you stick your neck out uh you're going

to get uh a lot of negative attention

and you were okay with that and I was

okay with it and it made me stronger and

I became uhe of my um uh student

newspaper and the student yearbook and

uh became involved in trying to uh shape

how the students what they were reading

uh what was coming out from our school

and um I learned that uh I could be

persuasive persuasive in talking to

people and that uh organizing was an

important part of educating so in terms

of your formative years and pivotal

moments in terms of your outlook what's

what's the next big event for you I went

off to college and it was

the60s when so much was happening to

question the entire World it wasn't just

questioning Vietnam it was questioning

capitalism it was questioning the way we

live together it was questioning how we

learned uh it was questioning our

relationships with anybody over 30 and

um I dropped out of school after the

first semester I went to tus University

but um it uh it didn't seem right to me

uh I joined the students for Democratic

Society SDS uh I um started doing um

organizing in school and uh I felt like

uh tough's University was part of the

problem because they had a a Diplomatic

School called the Fletcher school and I

thought at that time I wanted to be a

diplomat so I went and sat in on the

classes and it was all about the Cold

War and it was war games and it was uh

teaching us how to conquer and uh uh

other people and I felt that the whole

school was caught up in that mindset and

I didn't want to be there so I dropped

out and decided that I wasn't going to

pay anybody to teach me I was going to

travel around the world and learn and uh

spent the next four years traveling and

how are your parents with all of this

well for a while they didn't know they

thought I was at a a semester

overseas uh and I tried to keep that

secret for a while until um I realized

that it was important to try to move

them along as well well and uh I must

say it took me many years my parents

thought I was going through a phase and

they kept waiting for that phase to be

over till the day they died I think

never married the uh the Jewish doctor

uh never had the more traditional life

that they had wanted now you were born

with a fairly traditional name Susan is

your name but you renamed yourself media

when and

why when I turned 18 and I was went off

to school at tough

I felt that uh 18 was a transition

period for people and that they should

uh then look back and see if their names

fit them and I looked back and I was

suie I was the little Susie and there

were always s Susans and uh uh I didn't

like my name I felt that it didn't

reflect um who I was and that I was

going to change my name so i' had been

reading Greek myths at the time and I

would try a different name every month

and tell everybody to call me okay now

I'm IO and now I'm uh uh whatever the

name of the month was and when it got to

Media I really liked the name I mean I

knew that there were there was the

version of media that she was a uh a

woman with magical powers who didn't use

them to the best ends let's say I

doesn't she have a her boy her boyfriend

husband betrays her so she kills her

kids yeah but you know that was one

version of another version said it was

because she had magical powers that was

blamed on her but then I started looking

at the name and the name actually means

a lot of things in different languages

and different cultures and I just

thought it was actually a pretty name so

I CH I kept that name and it's been your

name since been my name since so in

terms of traveling around the world

often uh changes the way someone looks

at the world especially when you start

breaking all the old habits you get away

from home I I personally found it can be

very transforming it kind of frees your

brain up to look at things again was

that like that for you well it made me

not only look at the world very

differently it made me look at my own

country very differently traveling in

Latin America I learned a history of US

intervention in Latin America that I

never knew before uh traveling

throughout Europe I found uh other

cultures and peoples and met uh

immigrants from Africa who told me about

us influence in in Africa uh and I was

just fascinated by the the kinds of ways

that people looked at the United States

and um so I traveled throughout Europe

for I went into Africa and along the way

you pick up like four or five languages

I studied uh languages just on the

street I ended up learning a lot of

languages I worked my way along with

everything from picking grapes to

teaching English and uh finally realized

that I wanted to work in Africa

with uh poor communities that were

trying to liberate themselves or had

just liberated themselves from

colonialism and that I needed a skill

that I couldn't just show up and say

okay you know I'm going to do physical

labor or teach English that I really

should learn something that I could give

back and that's when I decided to uh

quickly get an undergraduate degree and

then get a graduate degree in uh Public

Health Nutrition how quickly I did that

all very very quickly how

quickly I'd say I did the undergraduate

degree in about a year um and then I um

did the graduate degree in another year

I did a a degree at Colombia that would

normally take about three years I did it

in one year this is because you worked

hard it's because you're a smart cookie

it was because I decided that um that's

the only uh amount of time that I would

dedicate to it I would take all the

classes that I could take and just get

it done because I knew I wanted to go

back to Africa and I just felt uh once I

had a skill and a and a graduate degree

it would be easier for me to get the

kind of work are you already at this

point mostly a political being in the

sense that that's what's driving you in

making most of your life decisions I

think so I had a teacher when I was at

Columbia doing the Master's Degree who

uh to taught me to look at the food

situation from a very political point of

view and I told her you know you

radicalized me she said you're crazy you

came in here radical uh I think having

traveled around the world uh I really

looked at the us as uh a country that

was trying to impose its political and

economic will on a lot of other

countries around the world and uh always

coming from the point of view of the

underdog uh it didn't seem right to me

and I I guess at that point I was

already an activist okay we're going to

pick this up in part two of our

interview with media Benjamin on reality

asserts itself on the Real News Network

please join us for that

[Music]

===

Medea Benjamin - Wikipedia

Medea Benjamin - Wikipedia

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Medea Benjamin
Born	Susan Benjamin September 10, 1952 (age 72) Freeport, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Education	Tufts University Columbia University New School for Social Research
Occupation(s)	Political activist, author
Spouse	Kevin Danaher
Children	2

Medea Benjamin (born Susan Benjamin on September 10, 1952) is an American political activist who, along with Jodie Evans and others, co-founded Code Pink.^[1] She also co-founded, along with her husband Kevin Danaher, the fair trade advocacy group Global Exchange. Benjamin was the Green Party nominee in the 2000 United States Senate election in California, running under the name Medea Susan Benjamin.

Early life

[edit]

Medea Benjamin was born Susan Benjamin on September 10, 1952, daughter of Alvin and Rose Benjamin. She grew up in Freeport, New York, on Long Island, and is of Jewish descent. Her father, Alvin Benjamin (1920-2012), was a wealthy real estate developer, president of The Benjamin Companies.^[2][3][4]

During her first year at Tufts University, she renamed herself after the Greek mythological character Medea. Samuel Moyn wrote that Benjamin "liked how the name sounded, and she had heard a feminist interpretation of the Greek tragedy suggesting that Medea had never killed her children and was only blamed for it by patriarchal traditions".^[5]: 268

She also joined the Students for a Democratic Society. Later she dropped out of school and hitchhiked through Europe and Africa, teaching English classes to earn money. She later returned to the United States and received master's degrees in public health from Columbia University and in economics from The New School. Benjamin worked for ten years as an economist and nutritionist in Latin America and Africa for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization,^[6] the World Health Organization, the Swedish International Development Agency,^[7] and the Institute for Food and Development Policy.^{[citation needed]}

Career

[edit]

Organizations

[edit]

Benjamin speaking at a Code Pink rally in 2004.

In 1988, with her husband, Kevin Danaher, and Kirsten Moller, Benjamin co-founded the San Francisco-based Global Exchange, which advocates fair trade alternatives to what she describes as corporate globalization. In 2002, with Jodie Evans and others, she co-founded the feminist anti-war group Code Pink: Women for Peace, which advocated for an end to the Iraq War, the prevention of future wars, and social justice. Benjamin has been involved with the anti-war organization United for Peace and Justice.

She later created the Occupation Watch Center in Baghdad (IOWC) to monitor the United States military, and the war's effect on civilian populations. Through this center, she brought U.S. military family members to see the conditions under which enlisted personnel served, and to speak out against the war, in Congress and at the United Nations, in 2003.^[8]

She is a member of the Board of Directors of Liberty Tree.^[9]

Politics

[edit]

In 2000, Benjamin ran as a Green Party candidate challenging incumbent US Senator from California, Dianne Feinstein.^[10] She advocated a living wage, universal healthcare and delaying genetically engineered foods.^[11] During the campaign, Benjamin and her Republican rival Tom Campbell participated in joint events, including a joint press conference, touting their opposition to Feinstein (but also disagreeing with each other on many issues).^[12] Benjamin garnered 99,716 votes, 74%, in the Green Party primary,^[13] and 326,828 votes, 3.08% of the general election total ballots.^[14] Since then she has remained active in the Green Party and has also supported efforts by the Progressive Democrats of America.^[15][16]

In 2015, the Green Party created a shadow cabinet, naming Benjamin as the shadow Secretary of State.^[17]

Protest actions

[edit]

Benjamin speaks at a rally during the 2007 State of the Union Address in Washington, D.C.

From 2002 to 2009, Benjamin engaged in numerous protests involving members of the Bush administration (Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld; President George W. Bush; Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice); Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and others. Benjamin engaged in protest actions at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and the 2004 Republican National Convention.^[18] On December 4, 2007, she was arrested 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).^[19][20] In 2009, Benjamin joined the steering committee for the Gaza Freedom March.^[21] In February 2012, Benjamin was arrested and deported^[22] for illegal entry to Bahrain and her participation in an illegal protest.^[23]

During 2005–2010, she worked to oppose United States threats of a possible impending war with Iran, including lobbying Congress, taking peace delegations to Iran, and bringing Iranian youth to Congress.

Benjamin repeatedly interrupted a major speech by President Barack Obama regarding United States policy in the War on Terror at the National Defense University on May 23, 2013.^[24][25] After Benjamin was removed for her actions, President Obama then went off script. "The voice of that woman is worth paying attention to," he said. "Obviously I do not agree with much of what she said. And obviously she wasn't listening to me and much of what I said. But these are tough issues. And the suggestion that we can gloss over them is wrong." Benjamin responded by telling The Daily Beast, "If he had indeed made significant policy changes, I wasn't going to say anything. I would have preferred that option, but given that he didn't make those kind of changes I was looking for, I was glad to be given the opportunity to speak out."^[26]

On July 21, 2016, Benjamin heckled Donald Trump's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention with a sign that read "Build bridges not walls".^[27]

She joined other activists on the 2024 Gaza freedom flotilla.^[28]

Organization efforts

[edit]

Labor rights and corporate responsibility

[edit]

During the 1990s, Benjamin focused on countering what she believed was unfair trade as promoted by the World Trade Organization. She participated in an anti-sweatshop movement, initiating campaigns against Nike and clothing companies such as the GAP. In 1999, Benjamin helped expose the problem of indentured servitude among garment workers in the United States territory of Saipan (the Marianas Islands), which led to a billion-dollar lawsuit against 17 United States retailers.^{[29][better source needed]} In 1999, she produced the documentary Sweating for a T-Shirt about the sweatshop industry.^[30]

During the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle in December 1999, Benjamin's organization, Global Exchange, helped organize the 1999 Seattle WTO protests.^[31]

In 2000, she helped a campaign to pressure Starbucks to carry fair trade coffee in all their cafes. In October 2000, Starbucks introduced whole bean Fair Trade Certified coffee at more than 2,300 stores.^[32]

For 2001, Benjamin focused on California's energy crisis, assisting low-income ratepayers and small businesses. She headed a coalition of consumer, environmental, union and business leaders working for clean and affordable power under public control.^[33]

In September 2003, Benjamin was in Cancún, Mexico challenging the policies of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and in November, she was in Miami protesting the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) while trying to bring attention to global peace and economic justice movements.^[34]

After several fact-finding visits to China, Benjamin co-sponsored with the International Labor Rights Fund an initiative to improve the labor and environmental practices of United States multinationals in China. The ensuring Human Rights Principles for US Businesses in China have been endorsed by major companies such as Cisco, Intel, Reebok, Levi Strauss and Mattel.^[35]

Israel-Palestine

[edit]

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (April 2025)

In 2006, Benjamin organized humanitarian aid for war refugees in Lebanon and spoke out against Israeli bombing. In 2008 during the Gaza War and Israeli invasion of Gaza, she organized a daily protest at the hotel where President-elect Barack Obama was staying, and then visited Gaza to see the immediate effects of the bombing. She brought humanitarian aid and helped put together six other delegations to Gaza. She was one of the lead organizers of the Gaza Freedom March, where 1,350 people from dozens of countries came together in Cairo to try to march to Gaza. Benjamin criticized the United States government for passing legislation to send Israel $3 billion in aid, lobbied Congress and sailed on the U.S. Flotilla to Gaza in November 2011. Days after Israel launched its Pillar of Defense operation targeting sites in Gaza during November 2012, Benjamin led a delegation to deliver medical supplies to the Shifa hospital and the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza.^[36] She also helped to organize an annual gathering in Washington, D.C., with the objective of exposing the "negative influence" of the United States lobby group American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).^{[citation needed]}

In January 2018, it was announced that activists from 20 American groups, including Code Pink, were banned from entering Israel because of their support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.^[37] The Algemeiner reported in April 2014 that Benjamin's charitable foundation, which was worth $12 million, had shareholdings in Caterpillar, a company targeted by the BDS movement, as well as the oil company Chevron and the tobacco conglomerate Phillip Morris.^[38]

In November 2023, Benjamin conducted an ambush interview with US Senator Marco Rubio, and asked him if he would "call for a ceasefire in Gaza." Rubio responded "No I will not. On the contrary, … I want Israel to destroy every element of Hamas they can get their hands on."^[39]

Iraq

[edit]

After the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, she created the Occupation Watch Center in Baghdad^[34] to monitor the United States military and the war's effect on civilian populations. Through this center she brought Iraqi women to the United States to speak about the occupation, organized delegations of U.S. military family members to see the conditions of their children serving in Iraq, and documented United States abuses, including at Abu Ghraib prison before the scandal involving it broke in the United States media. She also organized medical aid delegations to Iraq to civilians harmed by the United States military.^{[citation needed]} She testified in Congress and the United Nations against the Iraq War.^[40]

In 2005, she was involved in the Hammering Halliburton campaign which was concerned with the abuses of United States military contractors such as Halliburton, the goal of which was to expose the awarding of corrupt no-bid contracts to corporations with close ties to the Bush administration. Along with this, Benjamin also exposed Blackwater Worldwide's illegal activities, including protests at the headquarters of the International Association of War Contractors. She was arrested outside the home of Blackwater's CEO.^[8]

In opposition to indefinite detention in Guantanamo, in 2007, Benjamin organized a delegation of prisoners' family members to Guantanamo Naval Base prison camp in Cuba, demanding its closing.^[41] In 2007 as well, she continued to protest weekly outside the Justice Department concerning water boarding and indefinite detention, and called for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.^{[citation needed]} She was arrested many times for protests in Congressional hearings.

On October 31, 2009, Benjamin led a group of Code Pink protestors at a protest aimed at military families queued up for a White House Halloween Party hosted by President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.^[42] The event raised controversy when a Reuters News photo showing the protesters (dressed as wounded soldiers), including one identified as Benjamin, were described as "taunting" the children.^[43]

Drones

[edit]

In 2009, Benjamin began her efforts to bring attention to the effects of drone warfare, participating in demonstrations at United States bases where drones are piloted and at headquarters of drone manufacturers. On April 28, 2012, in Washington, D.C., she was responsible for organizing the first International Drone Summit with lawyers, scientists, academics, and activists to kick off an international campaign to rein in the use of drones in the U.S. and abroad.^[44]

On April 30, 2012, Benjamin interrupted a speech on United States counterterrorism strategy given by John Brennan at the Woodrow Wilson Center, to ask about civilians casualties of US drone strikes in Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen.^[45]

In October 2012, she organized a 34-person delegation to Pakistan to protest U.S. drone warfare. While in Pakistan she allegedly met with drone victims, family members, lawyers, academics, women's groups, and Pakistani leaders, as well as the U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan.^[46] The delegation made international headlines when they joined a caravan to Waziristan organized by prominent political leader and former Pakistani cricket captain Imran Khan, a staunch opponent of American involvement in Pakistan. (See CNN video,^[47] The New York Times,^[48] The Washington Post,^[49] Al Jazeera,^[50] the BBC, and more than 100 major news outlets,^[51] September 28 – October 14, 2012). She also organized a public fast in Islamabad in sympathy with alleged drone victims.^[52]

In 2012, she authored Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control, published by OR Books,^[53] and toured the country speaking out against drone warfare.

Other campaigns

[edit]

As part of Code Pink's mission, Benjamin helped organize many International Women's Day Marches and Mother's Day Calls for Peace, the latter to bring back the original intent of Mother's Day as women mobilizing against war. These included bringing women from war torn countries such as Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan to the U.S. to speak about their experiences. Between 2003 and 2010, Benjamin helped organized anti-war mass mobilizations in Washington, D.C., New York City and San Francisco.^{[citation needed]}

Benjamin organized the campaign Bring Our War Dollars Home,^[54] which fought to divert money from the Pentagon into social programs at home.

WTO protest violence

[edit]

During the 1999 anti-globalization movement protests against the WTO in Seattle, a quote from Benjamin was published by the New York Times, which implied that she was calling for the arrest of those who destroyed property during the protests. Benjamin later clarified that, while she did not approve of the tactics of destroying property, she did not want the arrest of those responsible.^[55]

Anybody But Bush

[edit]

Benjamin has been criticized by some Greens for her support for "Anybody But Bush" in 2004. Explaining why she supported this movement, she said that "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."^[56]

Todd Chretien, a member of the International Socialist Organization, responded:

Medea Benjamin ... and many other liberal and progressive leaders tell us that a Kerry regime "would be less dangerous" than Bush ... 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 ... any movement that ever aims to win, must learn to stand up for itself precisely when it is darkest.^[57]

Views on United States involvement in the Middle East

[edit]

Benjamin writes in The Huffington Post that the U.S. needs to end military interventionism and that the "U.S. military should close all foreign military bases and use our soldiers to protect us here at home."^[58]

Benjamin also writes in The Huffington Post that the United States never had any "justification for invading Iraq", that there is no "justification for continuing the war in Afghanistan", and that in Pakistan, the United States "drone attacks are only fueling the violence and creating more Osama bin Ladens". Regarding the killing of bin Laden, she says: "Let us not sink into a false sense of triumphalism in the wake of Bin Laden's passing."^[59]

Arrest In Egypt

[edit]

On March 3, 2014, Benjamin was arrested in Egypt. She had flown there en route to participating in a women's conference in the Palestinian territory of Gaza. Upon her arrival at Cairo International Airport, Benjamin was detained by airport police and held overnight, during which time she said she was assaulted by police officers, resulting in a broken arm and a dislocated shoulder. She was later deported to Turkey. Questions arose regarding the role of the United States Embassy in her detention, as embassy spokesman Mofid Deak said that Benjamin left the country following assistance from the embassy, while Code Pink's Alli McCracken said the embassy did not help Benjamin.^[60][61]

Venezuela

[edit]

In 2006, Benjamin said that it was a myth that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez had limited freedom of speech and eroded civil rights in Venezuela. In May 2007, Benjamin appeared as a guest on talk-show host Tucker Carlson's show, which was then part of MSNBC's schedule. Carlson criticized Benjamin for her statement and asked her: "Do you want to revise that given the news that Hugo Chávez has closed the last nationally broadcast opposition television station for criticizing him?" Benjamin replied that Chávez had not renewed the license of RCTV 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't renew a license. Why do you hold Venezuela to a different standard?"^[62]

Carlson responded that a 360-page Venezuelan government-published book accused RCTV of 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 'challenge authorities and institutions.' And yet you are apologizing for the squelching of minority views. Why could that be?" Benjamin replied: "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."^[62]

In January 2019, in a Democracy Now! interview, Benjamin said she was against "US intervention in Venezuela", which had the potential to "create a civil war leading to tremendous violence".^[63]

In April and May 2019, Benjamin was part of an "Embassy Protection Collective" formed by groups that include CodePink, ANSWER Coalition, Poor People's Army, People's Power Assembly, Revolutionary Alliance and Popular Resistance, which occupied the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington. Benjamin said the group had the permission of the Maduro government to stay in the embassy.^[64][65][66]

Awards and accolades

[edit]

In 2010, Benjamin received the Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Prize from the Fellowship of Reconciliation.^[67] In 2012, she won the Marjorie Kellogg National Peacemaker Award and the Thomas Merton Center Peace Award. Also in 2012, she was awarded The US Peace Prize "in recognition of her creative leadership on the front lines of the antiwar movement".^[68] In 2014, she received the Gandhi Peace Award from Promoting Enduring Peace "to honor her for her unyielding advocacy for social justice of more than 30 years".^[69]

In 2003, the Los Angeles Times described her as "one of the high profile leaders" of the peace movement.^[70]

Controversies

[edit]

In 2014, Benjamin attended the second annual New Horizon conference in Tehran, which hosted several fascists and Holocaust deniers. The Anti-Defamation League criticized Benjamin for attending the conference. Benjamin responded saying she was "uncomfortable" with many of the attendees but learned a lot and had nothing to apologize for.^{[71][72][73][74]}

Peter Camejo claims that, at the 2004 Green Party of the United States national convention, a supermajority of members had voted for endorsing the Nader-Camejo ticket, but a conspiracy involving Benjamin caused a slight majority of delegates to instead endorse the Cobb-LaMarche ticket.^[75]

Personal life

[edit]

Benjamin has been married twice.^[76] Her second marriage is to activist Kevin Danaher.^[77] She has two daughters, Maya Danaher and Arlen Gomez, who respectively serve as treasurer and secretary of the Benjamin Fund, an organization for which she serves as president.^[4]

Benjamin lives in Washington, D.C., and in San Francisco.^[78][79]

Books

[edit]

• Benjamin, Medea; Freedman, Andrea (1989). Bridging the Global Gap: A Handbook to Linking Citizens of the First and Third Worlds. Global Exchange / Seven Locks Press. ISBN 0-932020-73-9.
• Benjamin, Medea; Collins, Joseph; Scott, Michael (1989). No Free Lunch: Food and Revolution in Cuba Today. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-935028-52-8.
• Benjamin, Medea (1989). Don't Be Afraid, Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks From The Heart: The Story of Elvia Alvarado. Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-06-097205-X.
• Benjamin, Medea; Rossett, Peter (1995). Greening of the Revolution: Cuba's Experiment with Organic Agriculture. Ocean Press. ISBN 1-875284-80-X.
• Benjamin, Medea; Antonio Blanco, Juan (1996). Cuba: Talking About Revolution: Conversations with Juan Antonio Blanco. Inner Ocean Publishing. ISBN 1-875284-97-4.
• Benjamin, Medea; da Silva, Benedita; Mendonca, Maisa (1997). Benedita Da Silva: An Afro-Brazilian Woman's Story of Politics and Love. Institute for Food and Development Policy. ISBN 0-935028-70-6.
• Benjamin, Medea; Rodolfo-Sioson, Miya (1997). The Peace Corps and More: 175 Ways to Work, Study and Travel at Home & Abroad. Global Exchange / Seven Locks Press. ISBN 0-929765-04-4.
• Benjamin, Medea (2000). I, Senator: How, together, we transformed the state of California and the United States. Green Press.
• Benjamin, Medea (2003). The Nuts Baked In: My Life as a Fruitcake. Non Compos Press. ISBN 978-0451163967.
• Benjamin, Medea; Evans, Jodie, eds. (2005). How to Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism. Inner Ocean Publishing. ISBN 1-930722-49-4.^[8]
• Benjamin, Medea (2012). Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control. OR Books. ISBN 978-1-935928-81-2.
• Benjamin, Medea (2016). Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S. – Saudi Connection. OR Books. ISBN 978-1-682190-46-3.
• Benjamin, Medea (2018). inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran. OR Books. ISBN 978-1-682191-40-8.
• Benjamin, Medea; Davies, Nicolas J. S. (2022). War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict. OR Books. ISBN 978-1-68219-371-6.
• Benjamin, Medea; Swanson, David (2024). NATO: What You Need to Know. OR Books. ISBN 978-1682195208.

See also

[edit]

• List of peace activists

Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Code Pink "About Us" page Archived February 12, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
2. ^ Garofoli, Joe (October 26, 2002). "S.F. Woman's Relentless March for Peace". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on June 18, 2013.
3. ^ "Our Founder". The Benjamin Companies.
4. ^ Jump up to:^a b "Benjamin Fund". InfluenceWatch.
5. ^ Moyn, Samuel (2021). Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War. Picador. ISBN 9781250858719.
6. ^ "Medea Benjamin". Codepink. Retrieved January 26, 2017.
7. ^ "People to People Blog". People to People Blog. Retrieved February 13, 2017.
8. ^ Jump up to:^a b c "US Peace Registry: Individuals". US Peace Memorial. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
9. ^ "Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution". InfluenceWatch. Archived from the original on March 14, 2024.
10. ^ Nieves, Evelyn (March 7, 2000). "The 2000 Campaign: The Greens; This Time, Nader Promises, It's a Serious Run for President". The New York Times. Retrieved March 16, 2020.
11. ^ Nolde, Haley (July 20, 2000). "Out of the Streets, Into the Senate?". Mother Jones. Retrieved March 16, 2020.
12. ^ Krikorian, Greg (August 20, 2000). "Political Rivals Join Forces in Race to Unseat Feinstein". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 16, 2020.
13. ^ Link to primary results Archived August 14, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, California Secretary of State.
14. ^ [1] Archived November 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
15. ^ Benjamin, Medea; Coyote, Peter; Eder, John; Ellsberg, Daniel; et al. (July 23, 2004). "An Open Letter to Progressives: Vote Kerry and Cobb". CommonDreams. Archived from the original on February 15, 2005.
16. ^ "Medea Benjamin to Speak at Summit 2005". Progressive Democrats of America. Archived from the original on January 14, 2006. Retrieved September 1, 2006.
17. ^ "Green Shadow Cabinet Members". Archived from the original on March 30, 2015. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
18. ^ "VIDEO: Maliki Speech Interrupted By War Protester". Think Progress Blog. July 26, 2006.
19. ^ "Update: US peace activists released". Common Dreams.org. December 4, 2007. Archived from the original on December 24, 2007.
20. ^ "Pakistani police arrest activists". Khabrein.info. December 5, 2007. Archived from the original on July 21, 2011.
21. ^ "Gaza protest planned on Cast Lead anniversary". Egypt Independent. December 5, 2009. Archived from the original on July 30, 2012.
22. ^ "Thugs attack police after funeral". Gulf Daily News. February 18, 2012.
23. ^ "Rioters on rampage". Gulf Daily News. February 18, 2012.
24. ^ "Medea Benjamin v. President Obama". Democracy Now!. May 24, 2013. Retrieved May 26, 2013.
25. ^ LoGiurato, Brett (May 23, 2013). "Here's The Protester Who Heckled Obama in the Middle of His Big Speech on Terrorism". Business Insider. Retrieved March 29, 2015.
26. ^ "Medea Benjamin, the Woman Who Heckled Obama, Is Not Sorry". The Daily Beast. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
27. ^ Gupta, Prachi (July 22, 2016). "Meet the 63-Year-Old Woman Who Crashed Donald Trump's Speech at the RNC". Cosmopolitan. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
28. ^ Benjamin, Medea. "Opinion | Will the Freedom Flotilla Sail to Gaza? | Common Dreams". www.commondreams.org. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
29. ^ Goodman, Amy; Benjamin, Medea (April 3, 2000). "Medea Benjamin Runs for U.S. Senate on Green Party Line". Democracy Now. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
30. ^ "Sweating for a t-shirt". The Sociology Video Project. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
31. ^ Bogardus, Keven (September 22, 2004). Venezuela Head Polishes Image With Oil Dollars: President Hugo Chavez takes his case to America's streets. Archived October 4, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Center for Public Integrity. Retrieved February 22, 2010.
32. ^ "Starbucks Campaign". Global Exchange. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
33. ^ "Medea Benjamin". WIMN's Voices. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
34. ^ Jump up to:^a b "Medea Benjamin". Global Exchange. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
35. ^ "Activist, Green Party Candidate to Speak at Middle East forum on Wednesday". Fresno State News. April 2002. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
36. ^ "Codepink: Support Gaza!". Codepink4peace.org. Archived from the original on January 24, 2013. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
37. ^ Benjamin, Meda (January 15, 2020). "I am American, Jewish and banned from Israel for my activism". The Guardian. London. Retrieved March 16, 2020.
38. ^ Levitt, Joshua (April 11, 2014). "Major BDS Donor Owned Shares of Caterpillar While Campaigning to Divest the Stock to Punish Israel". The Algemeiner. Retrieved March 16, 2020.
39. ^ Howe, Caleb (November 30, 2023). "'Make Sure You Post That!' Marco Rubio Gets Right In Activists' Faces When They Try To Ambush Him Into Calling For Ceasefire". Mediaite.
40. ^ Gerth, Jeff; Natta, Don Van Jr. (May 29, 2007). "Hillary Rodham Clinton - Elections - Democratic Party - Jeff Gerth - Don Van Natta Jr". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 26, 2017.
41. ^ Glantz, Aaron (January 9, 2007). "On Guantanamo Prison Camp's Fifth Birthday, New Pressure to Shut It Down". Common Dreams. Archived from the original on September 27, 2012. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
42. ^ "Code Pink Press Release, accessed 14 Nov 09". Archived from the original on October 19, 2014.
43. ^ Basler, Robert (November 2, 2009). "Taunting children?". Archived from the original on November 5, 2009.
44. ^ "Drones Watch". Archived from the original on December 17, 2014. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
45. ^ Benjamin, Medea (May 2, 2012). "'Shame on You': Why I interrupted Obama counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan". Archived from the original on July 13, 2012.
46. ^ "Codepink Peace Delegation to Pakistan". Codepink4peace.org. Archived from the original on February 9, 2013. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
47. ^ "CNN Coverage of Codepink Stop Drones Delegation in Pakistan". YouTube. October 8, 2012. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
48. ^ McDonald, Mark (October 7, 2012). "Western Peace Activists Protest in Pakistan Against Drone Strikes". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
49. ^ Leiby, Richard (October 7, 2012). "Imran Khan and Codepink blocked from tribal area". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
50. ^ "Medea Benjamin interviewed on Al Jazeera about Codepink Delegation in Pakistan". Drones Watch. October 8, 2012. Retrieved January 10, 2013.^{[permanent dead link]}
51. ^ "Pakistan Delegation News". Code Pink. Retrieved January 10, 2013.^{[permanent dead link]}
52. ^ "Codepink's Medea Benjamin Brings Voices of Pakistani Drone Victims to Obama's Inauguration". Democracy Now!. Retrieved January 26, 2017.
53. ^ "NEW Book: Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control". Code Pink. Archived from the original on January 8, 2013. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
54. ^ "Bring Our War $$ Home". Bringourwardollarshome.org. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
55. ^ Benjamin, Medea. "Window-Smashing Hurt Our Cause". ZMag. Archived from the original on August 7, 2007. Retrieved September 1, 2006.
56. ^ Benjamin, Medea (October 11, 2004). "Bush Can't Admit Mistakes, But We Can". CommonDreams. Archived from the original on July 18, 2005.
57. ^ Todd Chretien (July 26, 2004). "Believing in a Green Resistance: A Reply to Norman Solomon & Medea Benjamin". CounterPunch. Retrieved March 29, 2015.
58. ^ Benjamin, Medea (August 6, 2015). "10 Steps to Wean U.S. Foreign Policy Off Militarism". Huffingtonpost.com.
59. ^ Benjamin, Medea (July 2, 2011). "Osama Bin Laden Is Dead; Let the Peace Begin". Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
60. ^ "U.S. activist, Codepink co-founder Medea Benjamin held overnight in Egypt jail, claims abuse". CBS News. March 4, 2014. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
61. ^ Kirkpatrick, David D. (March 4, 2014). "U.S. Activist Says Egyptian Police Assaulted Her". The New York Times.
62. ^ Jump up to:^a b "'Tucker' for May 29". NBC News. May 30, 2007. Archived from the original on December 13, 2013. Retrieved January 31, 2008.
63. ^ "CodePink's Medea Benjamin Disrupts Pompeo Speech to Denounce U.S. Regime Change Agenda in Venezuela". Democracy Now. January 25, 2019. Retrieved November 14, 2019.
64. ^ "Police arrest activists squatting in Venezuelan Embassy". POLITICO. Associated Press. May 16, 2019. Retrieved February 6, 2025.
65. ^ Adrienne Winston, Eli Watkins (May 14, 2019). "CNN Politics". CNN. Retrieved February 6, 2025.
66. ^ Lang, Marissa J. (May 9, 2019). "Venezuelan Embassy goes dark as standoff intensifies on streets of Washington". Washington Post. Retrieved February 6, 2025.
67. ^ "Founders & Staff: Medea Benjamin". Code Pink. Archived from the original on February 9, 2013. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
68. ^ "Medea Benjamin Awarded 2012 Peace Prize". US Peace Memorial. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
69. ^ "Medea Benjamin to Receive the 2014 Gandhi Peace Award". peacenews.org. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
70. ^ "Devotion to Life of Political Activism in Family's Blood". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 21, 2016.
71. ^ "Iranian Hatefest Promotes Anti-Semitism, Draws Holocaust Deniers and U.S. Anti-Israel Activists". Anti-Defamation League. October 1, 2014. Retrieved March 14, 2024.
72. ^ Gitlin, Todd (October 14, 2014). "Why Would a Famous Peace Activist Fly to Iran With Sept. 11 Truthers and Other Crackpots?". Tablet Magazine. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
73. ^ Gray, Rosie (October 1, 2014). "Antiwar Activists, 9/11 Truthers Gather In Tehran For Anti-Zionist Conference". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
74. ^ Gray, Rosie (October 6, 2014). "U.S. Journalist Regrets Attending Conspiracy Conference In Tehran". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
75. ^ Camejo, Pedro (2010). North Star: A Memoir. Haymarket Books. p. 275.
76. ^ "Students Give Sweatshop Fight the College Try". Los Angeles Times. April 22, 1999. Retrieved December 31, 2020. "It was horrible," said Arlen Benjamin-Gomez
77. ^ "Devotion to Life of Political Activism in Family's Blood". Los Angeles Times. March 27, 2003. Retrieved December 21, 2020.
78. ^ Jay, Paul (February 17, 2014). "Obama Sucked the Steam Out of the Anti-War Movement - Medea Benjamin on Reality Asserts Itself". The Real News Network. Archived from the original on May 8, 2016. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
79. ^ Lacy, Akela (September 25, 2020). "Progressives Wrestle With How to Address Allegations of Mistreatment in San Francisco Race". The Intercept. Retrieved December 31, 2020.

External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Medea Benjamin.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Medea Benjamin.

• Code Pink biographical page
• Medea Benjamin at IMDb
• Appearances on C-SPAN