Activist for peace will speak tonight

BANGOR – Medea Benjamin, founding director of Global Exchange and co-founder of Codepink: Women for Peace, will speak at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 11, in Wellman Commons at the old Bangor Theological Seminary, 300 Union St., as part of the Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine’s annual meeting. A short general assembly gathering will start at 6:30 p.m. The public is invited.

For more than 20 years, Benjamin has supported human rights and social justice struggles around the world. She is a leading activist in the peace movement and helped bring together the groups forming the coalition United for Peace and Justice. She is also the co-founder of Codepink: Women for Peace, a group that organizes action against the war and occupation of Iraq. The group, with 250 chapters, promotes a reorientation of budget priorities in the United States to focus on heath care, education and housing.

Benjamin has traveled several times to Iraq and helped establish the Occupation Watch International Center in Baghdad. The center monitors military occupation forces and foreign corporations, hosts international delegations and keeps the international community updated about occupation forces’ activities.

Ever since the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, Benjamin has been organizing against a violent response. In 2002, she accompanied four Americans who lost loved ones in the terrorist attacks on a trip to Afghanistan to meet people there who lost relatives during the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan.

Benjamin’s previous work has focused on improving the labor and environmental practices of U.S. multinational corporations, and the policies of international institutions such as the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

In June 2005, Benjamin was one of 1,000 women chosen to be part of the project, 1,000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005. 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 Codepink’s new book, “Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism,” co-edited with Jodie Evans.

Benjamin’s presentation “Stop the Next War Now!” is free, but donations are welcome.

For more information about her talk, call 942-9343.