Elizabeth DiNovella (The Progressive): Interview with Medea Benjamin

From The Progressive
Issue of December 2004
Posted Online Thursday November 11

The Progressive Interview: Medea Benjamin
by Elizabeth DiNovella

Medea Benjamin ran as the Green Party candidate for Senator of California in 2000. But she urged voters in swing states to support Kerry. "I looked at the world and saw how important it was to send a message to the world that George Bush's policies do not represent us as a nation," she says. "And I thought that joining in the massive effort to defeat Bush was the only way we could send that message. I do believe it was the right thing to do. I just wish we'd done it more effectively."
Benjamin ranks as an accomplished organizer. She co-founded the anti-war group Code Pink. And before that, she co-founded Global Exchange, an organization committed to social and environmental justice. At Global Exchange, she monitors labor rights in sweatshops and launches high-profile campaigns against business giants like Nike and The Gap. In 1999, Benjamin's work helped to shed light on the horrendous working conditions endured by garment workers in the U.S. territory of Saipan, which led to a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against more than a dozen U.S. retailers.

Benjamin was also involved in organizing the Battle of Seattle against the World Trade Organization. "We have to get back the energy and momentum we had in Seattle in November 1999 and put a lot more attention now on the issue of not only stopping the free trade agreements but building the alternative economy that we want to see," she says . . . .

I spoke to her by phone on November 3, moments before John Kerry gave his concession speech. We also communicated by e-mail a few days later.

Read on.

There, I said it. :)