Medea Benjamin.

• Author: DiNovella, Elizabeth
• Position: The Progressive Interview - Interview

Medea Benjamin ran as the Green Party candidate for Senator of California in 2000. But she urged voters in swing states to support Kerry. "I looked at the world and saw how important it was to send a message to the world that George Bush's policies do not represent us as a nation," she says. "And I thought that joining in the massive effort to defeat Bush was the only way we could send that message. I do believe it was the right thing to do. I just wish we'd done it more effectively."

Benjamin ranks as an accomplished organizer. She co-founded the anti-war group Code Pink. And before that, she co-founded Global Exchange, an organization committed to social and environmental justice. At Global Exchange, she monitors labor rights in sweatshops and launches high-profile campaigns against business giants like Nike and The Gap. In 1999, Benjamin's work helped to shed light on the horrendous working conditions endured by garment workers in the U.S. territory of Saipan, which led to a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against more than a dozen U.S. retailers.

Benjamin was also involved in organizing the Battle of Seattle against the World Trade Organization. "We have to get back the energy and momentum we had in Seattle in November 1999 and put a lot more attention now on the issue of not only stopping the free trade agreements but building the alternative economy that we want to see," she says.

She somehow has managed to write several books, including The Peace CoTs and More: 175 Ways to Work, Study, and Travel in the Third World and Bridging the Global Gap: A Handbook to Linking Citizens of the First and Third Worlds.

In 2002, Benjamin received international attention for a trip she took to Afghanistan with victims of 9/11. "Taking people who lost loved ones on September 11 to meet with people who lost loved ones due to the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan was an effort to show the world community that we are not callous, uncaring people," says Benjamin. "One of the only things that will make it more difficult for the U.S. to attack another country is if we show Americans that these people from 'evil' countries are not evil people--they're people just like us."

I spoke to her by phone on November 3, moments before John Kerry gave his concession speech. We also communicated by e-mail a few days later.

Q: How could Kerry have lost by three million votes when the left was so united behind him?

Medea Benjamin: Kerry lost because he never provided a clear message or an inspiring vision about the direction this country should take. And we have to admit that Bush's fearmongering and gay-bashing worked. Bush kept on message, while Kerry didn't. On Iraq, Kerry had a...