Benjamin, Medea (1952–)

Medea Benjamin has emerged as one of the leading American activists and progressive political leaders, particularly in the areas of global economic justice and opposition to the war in Iraq. Raised on Long Island in New York in a middle-class Jewish family, she received a master's degree in public health from Columbia University and a master's degree in economics from the New School for Social Research. She spent the subsequent decade working 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.

In 1988, Benjamin became founding director of Global Exchange, a membership-based international human rights organization, with offices in San Francisco, dedicated to promoting global social, economic, and environmental justice. Through her work with Global Exchange, Benjamin helped build support in the United States for the pro-democracy movement to oust the U.S.-backed General Suharto in Indonesia and for the right of self-determination for Indonesian-occupied East Timor. She also supported the peace process between the Zapatista rebels and the Mexican government, fought to lift the embargoes against Cuba and Iraq, and was active in the movement to stop U.S. military aid to repressive regimes in Central America. She has served as an election observer and led fact-finding delegations to dozens of countries.

Benjamin became a major figure in the anti-sweatshop movement, spearheading campaigns against Nike, The GAP, and other U.S. apparel manufacturers. In 1999, Medea helped expose the problem of indentured servitude among garment workers in Saipan, part of the U.S. Commonwealth territory of the Northern Marianas Islands, which led to a billion-dollar lawsuit against 17 U.S. retailers.

After several fact-finding visits to China, Medea cosponsored with the International Labor Rights Fund an initiative to improve the labor and environmental practices of U.S. multinationals in China. The ensuing Human Rights Principles for U.S. Businesses in China have been endorsed by major companies such as Cisco, Intel, Reebok, Levi Strauss, and Mattel.

During the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle in December 1999, Benjamin played a major role in the nonviolent protests, helping to draw world attention to the need to place labor and environmental concerns over corporate profits. In September 2003, Medea was in Cancun, Mexico, challenging the policies of the World Trade Organization and, in November, she was in Miami protesting the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas and highlighting the coalescing of the global peace and economic justice movements.

Benjamin has also promoted fair trade alternatives to benefit to both producers and consumers, helping form a national network of retailers and wholesalers in support of fair trade. She was instrumental in pressuring coffee retailers such as Starbucks to start carrying fair trade coffee. In 2000, Benjamin became the Green Party nominee for the U.S. Senate in California, challenging incumbent Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein on such issues as raising the minimum wage, increased support for education, criminal justice reform, and universal healthcare. During the 2001 energy crisis in California, Benjamin led a broad coalition of consumer, environmental, union, and business leaders fighting market manipulation by the big energy companies and the rate hikes that cause hardship for low-income ratepayers and [Page 230]small businesses. The coalition also worked for clean and affordable power under public control.

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