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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. Code Pink "About Us" page . Retrieved October 4, 2011. She also co-founded, along with her former 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.
During her first year at Tufts University, she renamed herself after the Greek mythology 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 ".
She also joined the Students for a Democratic Society. Later she dropped out of school and 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, the World Health Organization, the Swedish International Development Agency, and the Institute for Food and Development Policy.
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.
She is a member of the Board of Directors of Liberty Tree.
In 2015, the Green Party created a shadow cabinet, naming Benjamin as the shadow Secretary of State.
During 2005–2010, she worked to oppose United States threats of a possible impending war with Iran, including lobbying Congress, taking peace 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. 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."
On July 21, 2016, Benjamin Donald Trump's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention with a sign that read "Build bridges not walls".
She joined other activists on the 2024 Gaza freedom flotilla.
During the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle in December 1999, Benjamin's organization, Global Exchange, helped organize the 1999 Seattle WTO protests.Bogardus, Keven (September 22, 2004). Venezuela Head Polishes Image With Oil Dollars: President Hugo Chavez takes his case to America's streets. Center for Public Integrity. Retrieved February 22, 2010.
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.
For 2001, Benjamin focused on California's energy crisis, assisting low-income ratepayers and small businesses. She headed a coalition of consumer, Environmentalism, union and business leaders working for clean and affordable power under public control.
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.
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.
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. 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 Altria.
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."
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.
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. 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. 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. 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.
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.
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. 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, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and more than 100 major news outlets, September 28 – October 14, 2012). She also organized a public fast in Islamabad in sympathy with alleged drone victims.
In 2012, she authored Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control, published by OR Books, and toured the country speaking out against drone warfare.
Benjamin organized the campaign Bring Our War Dollars Home, which fought to divert money from the Pentagon into social programs at home.
Todd Chretien, a member of the International Socialist Organization, responded:
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."
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."
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".
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 Kevin Zeese, which occupied the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington. Benjamin said the group had the permission of the Maduro government to stay in the embassy.
In 2003, the Los Angeles Times described her as "one of the high profile leaders" of the peace movement.
Benjamin lives in Washington, D.C., and in San Francisco.
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