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 then 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. She finished in third place with 326,828 votes (3.1%).
Early life 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 and president of The Benjamin Companies.
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".
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, the World Health Organization, the Swedish International Development Agency, and the Institute for Food and Development Policy.
Career
Organizations
In 1988, with her then-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.
She is a member of the Board of Directors of Liberty Tree.
Politics In 2000, Benjamin ran as a Green Party candidate challenging incumbent US Senator from California, Dianne Feinstein. She advocated for a living wage, universal healthcare, and delaying genetically engineered foods. 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). Benjamin garnered 99,716 votes, 74%, in the Green Party primary,Link to primary results , California Secretary of State. and 326,828 votes, 3.08%, of the general election total ballots. Since then, she has remained active in the Green Party and has also supported efforts by the Progressive Democrats of America.
In 2015, the Green Party created a shadow cabinet, naming Benjamin as the shadow Secretary of State.
Protest actions
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. 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). In 2009, Benjamin joined the steering committee for the Gaza Freedom March. In February 2012, Benjamin was arrested and deported for illegal entry to Bahrain and her participation in an illegal protest.
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. 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 heckled Donald Trump's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention with a sign that read "Build bridges not walls".
In 2024, Benjamin joined other activists on the 2024 Gaza freedom flotilla.
She joined other activists through her CodePink group on the March 2025 Nuestra America ("Our America") flotilla to bring humanitarian aid to Cuba that was suffering increased economic crisis after the US capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and the subsequent cut off of oil shipments from Venezuela.
In early 2026, Benjamin and CodePink joined international activists to bring humanitarian aid to Cuba. Some weeks later, the Trump administration's Treasury Department subpoenaed Benjamin and fellow visitor, leftist streamer and political pundit Hasan Piker, about their trip.
Organization efforts Labor rights and corporate responsibility 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. In 1999, she produced the documentary Sweating for a T-Shirt about the sweatshop industry.
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, environmental, 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.
Israel-Palestine
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. 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).
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 Phillip Morris.
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."
Iraq After the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, she created the Occupation Watch Center in Baghdad 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. She testified in Congress and the United Nations against the Iraq War.
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 disrupting Congressional hearings.