Medea Benjamin, medea@codepink.org, is available to speak on resisting US militarism and interventions.
She is a co-founder of the women-led peace group CODEPINK and of the human rights group Global Exchange. She has been an advocate for social justice for more than 40 years. Described as “one of America’s most committed—and most effective—fighters for human rights” by New York Newsday, and “one of the high profile leaders of the peace movement” by the Los Angeles Times, she was one of 1,000 exemplary women from 140 countries nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the millions of women who do the essential work of peace worldwide. She is the author of nine books, including Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control and Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection, and her articles appear regularly in outlets such as the Huffington Post, CommonDreams, Alternet, The Other Words, and TeleSUR. (See https://www.codepink.org/medea_benjamin)
Leslie Cagan, lesliecagan@igc.org, is available to speak on why working on climate change is important now; the power of public protest including mass mobilizations; challenges to organizing in a pandemic; setting organizing priorities as a new administration sets in.
Coordinator of The Peoples Climate Movement, NY; former national coordinator of United for Peace and Justice. “When Brooklyn for Peace named community organizer Leslie Cagan one of three Pathfinder for Peace award winners in late 2017, it was both in recognition of, and in gratitude for, Cagan’s more than 50 years of social justice activism. Whether pushing for action on climate change, peace, LGBTQ equality, feminism, reproductive choice, or fighting racism, Cagan’s voice, presence, and expertise have long been visible.” (See https://portside.org/2018-05-31/leslie-cagans-half-century-activism)
Michael Kazin, Michael.Kazin@Georgetown.edu, is available to speak about US peace movements–particularly those against World War I and the Vietnam War—and about social movements generally.
He is a Professor in the Department of History, Georgetown University. His most recent book is War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914–1918 (2017). Both that book and a previous one, American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation (2011), won numerous prizes. He is currently writing a history of the Democratic Party. Additionally, he is co-editor of Dissent, a leading magazine of the American left since 1954. (See https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014RfPKAA0/michael-kazin)
Andor Skotnes, skotna@sage.edu, is available to speak on race, class, and intersectionality in social struggle; the workers and freedom movements in recent U.S. history; sixties movements.
He is a Professor of History at Russell Sage College (retired). Skotnes sees himself primarily as a historian of social movements in their complexity and interrelationships. In his work he attempts to combine general structural analysis with a concern for lived human experience as revealed in personal testimony and oral history. His recent book is A New Deal for ALL? Race and Class Struggles in Depression-Era Baltimore. (See: https://www.sage.edu/profile/andor-skotnes-ph-d/)
Barbara Winslow, bwpurplewins@gmail.com, is available to speak on the historic struggle for the vote.
She is a Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College. She “is a historian of women’s activism as well as the founder and director emerita of the Shirley Chisholm Project. She is the author of Shirley Chisholm: Catalyst for Change (2013) and a coeditor of Clio in the Classroom: A Guide for Teaching U.S. Women’s History (2009). As she describes it, Winslow found her own political voice with the beginning of the women’s liberation movement in Seattle, a movement she was an integral part of.” (See: https://www.oah.org/lectures/lecturers/view/1640/barbara-winslow/; https://depts.washington.edu/antiwar/interview_winslow.shtml)