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Medea Benjamin

Medea Benjamin

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Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of the women-led peace group CODEPINK. She is also co-founder of the human rights group Global Exchange, the Peace in Ukraine Coalition, Unfreeze Afghanistan (which advocates for returning the $7 billion of Afghan funds frozen in U.S. banks), ACERE: The Alliance for Cuba Engagement and Respect, and the Nobel Peace Prize for Cuban Doctors Campaign.

Medea has been an advocate for social justice for 50 years. Described as "one of America's most committed -- and most effective -- fighters for human rights" by New York Newsday, and "one of the high profile leaders of the peace movement" by the Los Angeles Times, she was one of 1,000 exemplary women from 140 countries nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the millions of women who do the essential work of peace worldwide. 

She is the author of ten books, including Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control, Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection, and Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Her most recent book, coauthored with Nicolas J.S. Davies, is War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict.

Her articles appear regularly in outlets such as The Hill, Salon, CommonDreams and The Progressive. Her twitter handle is @medeabenjamin.

Longer Version 

Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of the women-led peace group CODEPINK and the co-founder of the human rights group Global Exchange. She has been an advocate for social justice for more than 50 years. Described as "one of America's most committed -- and most effective -- fighters for human rights" by New York Newsday, and "one of the high profile leaders of the peace movement" by the Los Angeles Times, she was one of 1,000 exemplary women from 140 countries nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the millions of women who do the essential work of peace worldwide.

She is a cofounder of Unfreeze Afghanistan, an organization created after the 2021 U.S. withdrawal to push the U.S. government to return $7 billion in Afghan funds being held in U.S. banks. In 2022 she traveled to Afghanistan with the Women’s Peace and Education Delegation. 

Medea is the author of ten books, including Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control, Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection, and Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Her most recent book, coauthored with Nicolas J.S. Davies, is War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict.

In 2020, Medea cofounded ACERE, the Alliance for Cuba Engagement and Respect and was a cofounder of the Nobel Peace Prize for Cuban Doctors Campaign. She has been raising funds for humanitarian aid, and promoting a campaign to push the U.S. government to normalize relations—including taking Cuba off the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

In 2000, she was a Green Party candidate for the California Senate. During the 1990s, she fought against unfair labor conditions in U.S. overseas sweatshops. She was widely credited as the woman who forced Nike to change its labor abuses and helped place the issue of sweatshops on the national agenda. Medea was a key player in the campaign that won a $20 million settlement from 27 US clothing retailers for the use of sweatshop labor in Saipan. She also pushed Starbucks and other companies to start carrying fair trade coffee.

Since the September 11, 2001 tragedy, Medea organized to stop U.S. interventions in the Middle East and Afghanistan. She was on the forefront of the anti-drone movement, publishing Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control in 2013 and organizing the first-ever International Drone Summit. She led delegations to Pakistan and Yemen to meet with drone strike victims and campaigned to force the government to compensate the families of innocent victims. Medea directly questioned President Obama about drones and the Guantanamo prison during his 2013 foreign policy address.

Medea’s work for justice in Israel/Palestine includes taking numerous delegations to Gaza, helping to organize the Gaza Freedom March in 2010, participating in the Freedom Flotillas and opposing the policies of the Israel lobby group AIPAC. In 2011 she was in Tahrir Square during the Egyptian uprising and in 2014 she was detained, beaten and deported by the Egyptian security forces. In 2012 she was part of a human rights delegation to Bahrain in support of democracy activists; she was tear-gassed, arrested and deported by the Bahraini government. In 2015 she traveled to North Korea with Women Cross the DMZ, an international delegation of women calling for peace in Korea.

Her groundbreaking work on the negative consequences of the US-Saudi alliance include the 2016 book Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection, support for Saudi political prisoners, and a campaign to hold the leader of Saudi Arabia accountable for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. On Iran, she traveled around the U.S. with her book Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran, led several delegations to Iran and participated in the campaign in favor of the Iran Nuclear Deal and normalizing relations with Iran. 

She has received numerous prizes, including: the Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace Prize, the US Peace Memorial Prize, the Gandhi Peace Award, and the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Award. She is a former economist and nutritionist with the United Nations and World Health Organization.

Her articles appear regularly in outlets such as The Hill, Salon, CommonDreams and The Progressive. Her twitter handle is @medeabenjamin.

If you'd like to book Medea Benjamin for an event, please contact [email protected].

Downloadable tools and resources for event organizers!

Sample Talk Titles

  • War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict

  • Call for Diplomacy in Ukraine, Not More War

  • Biden’s Foreign Policy and the War in Ukraine

  • Untangling the Web of War in Ukraine

  • How the U.S. started a war with Russia and got Ukraine to fight it

  • A case study in proxy war: the US sends weapons, Ukrainians fight and die

  • The War in Ukraine: What is the solution?