Medea is a leading activist in the
peace movement and helped bring together the groups
forming the coalition United for Peace and Justice
(see www.unitedforpeace.org ).
She is also the co-founder of CODEPINK:
Women for Peace, a women's group that has been organizing
creative actions against the war and occupation of
Iraq. CODEPINK is pushing for a reorientation of budget
priorities in the US to focus on heath care, education
and housing, not war. Code Pink now has over 100 chapters
throughout the United States (see www.codepinkalert.org
).
Medea has traveled several times
to Iraq and helped establish the Occupation Watch
International Center in Baghdad. The center monitors
the military occupation forces and foreign corporations,
hosts international delegations, and keeps the international
community updated about the occupation forces' activities
through its website, http://www.occupationwatch.org
.
In early December 2003, Medea brought
a delegation of military families to Iraq. (see report).
At the start of 2005, Medea returned to the region,
again accompanying a delegation of US military families
whose loved ones had been killed in Iraq. This delegation
traveled to the Iraqi/Jordanian border to bring a
shipment of humanitarian aid for distribution to the
Iraqi people in Falluja and those most in need.
Ever since the tragic events of 9/11,
Medea has been organizing against a violent response.
In 2002, Medea accompanied four Americans who lost
loved ones in the September 11th terrorist attacks
on a trip to Afghanistan to meet people there who
lost relatives during the US bombing of Afghanistan.
Their extraordinary journey received such international
attention that the US Government was pressured to
discuss civilian casualties and to create a compensation
fund for Afghan victims.
Medea's previous work has focused
on improving the labor and environmental practices
of US multinational corporations, and the policies
of international institutions such as the World Trade
Organization, the International Monetary Fund and
the World Bank.
In September 2003, Medea was in Cancun,
Mexico challenging the policies of the World Trade
Organization (WTO) and in November in Miami protesting
the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA),
and highlighting the coalescing of the global peace
and economic justice movements.
For much of 2001, Medea focused on
California's energy crisis, fighting the market manipulation
by the big energy companies and rate hikes that cause
hardship for low-income ratepayers and small businesses.
She headed a powerful coalition of consumer, environmental,
union and business leaders working for clean and affordable
power under public control.
Medea was the Green Party candidate
for US Senate from California in 2000. Her run for
U.S. Senate succeeded in mobilizing thousands of Californians
around platform issues such as living wage, schools-not-prisons,
and universal healthcare.
During the World Trade Organization
meeting in Seattle in December 1999, Medea's organization,
Global Exchange, helped fix world attention on the
need to place labor and environmental concerns over
corporate profits.
While critical of unfair global trade
policies, Medea has promoted "fair trade"
alternatives that are beneficial to both producer
and consumer. She helped form a national network of
retailer and wholesalers in support of fair trade
and was instrumental in pressuring coffee retailers
such as Starbucks to start carrying fair trade coffee.
Medea is a key figure in the anti-sweatshop
movement, having spearheaded campaigns against the
giant sports shoe company Nike and clothing companies
such as the GAP. In 1999 Medea helped expose the problem
of indentured servitude among garment workers in the
US territory of Saipan (the Marianas Islands), which
led to a billion-dollar lawsuit against 17 US retailers.
After several fact-finding visits
to China, Medea co-sponsored with the International
Labor Rights Fund an initiative to improve the labor
and environmental practices of US 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 1999, San Francisco Magazine named
Medea to their "Power List" as one of the
"60 Players Who Rule the Bay Area." She
serves on the board or advisory council of numerous
organizations, including the United National Development
Program, the Interhemispheric Resource Center, the
National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness
and Green Empowerment.
Medea helped build US support for
the movement to oust General Suharto in Indonesia
and for the right of self-determination for the people
of East Timor. She 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 cutting US military aid to repressive regimes
in Central America. She has been an election observer
and led fact-finding delegations to dozens of countries.
In June of 2005, Medea was one of
1,000 women picked to be part of the project "1000
Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005." The project
has picked 1,000 exceptional women from around the
globe to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize collectively,
as a representation of the many anonymous women who
work for peace, justice, human rights, security and
education worldwide.
She is author of eight books, including
"Bridging the Global Gap, The Peace Corps and
More," and the award-winning book "Don't
Be Afraid, Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks from the
Heart." She helped produce various TV documentaries
such as the anti-sweatshop video Sweating for a T-Shirt.
This spring saw the release of Code Pink's new book,
Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence
and Terrorism, which she co-edited with Jodie Evans.
The book is a diverse collection of essays from the
peace movement's freshest, most dynamic voices, including
Barbara Ehrenreich, Eve Ensler, Arianna Huffington,
Alice Walker, Helen Thomas, Camilo Mejia and Jody
Williams. She is currently embarked on a hundred-city
book tour.
Medea received a Masters degree in
Public Health from Columbia University and a Masters
degree in Economics from the New School for Social
Research. She 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.
