CODEPINK Turns 20!
We'll stop when the wars do!
This month, we’re celebrating something special and we want to share it with you! In fact, you are the ones who make this celebration possible.
We are celebrating because, for two decades, we have crashed the parties of the powerful, demanded peace and justice, and opposed US-led wars all over the world.
What started as a 4-month all-day vigil in front of the White House to protest the U.S.-led war on Iraq, is now a fully staffed international organization advocating for peace, sovereignty, and justice across the globe through multiple ongoing campaigns.
Since our inception, we have always faced pushback for opposing war, occupations, and sanctions while advocating for peace and diplomacy. This was certainly true for the Iraq war and remains true today as the organization campaigns for peace and negotiations in Ukraine. Never guided by paid political pundits, bought-off politicians, or the narrative-controlling mainstream media, CODEPINK’s north star has always been global peace for the betterment of humanity.
“If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the last 20 years it’s that the war machine and the greed that funds it is Teflon and owns those in power. This has never stopped us, the more they try to kick Peace into the corner the more creative ways we find to expose their violence, oppression and destruction,”
shares CODEPINK co-founder, Jodie Evans.
Our other co-founder, Medea Benjamin, is currently on a nationwide book tour for War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict, a book she co-authored with Nicolas J.S. Davies.
She was recently interviewed by The Greenfield Recorder while in Massachusetts for the first leg of the book tour. She explained how CODEPINK’s message and mission regarding the war in Ukraine is the same as it’s always been:
“We are heartbroken to see destruction and lives being lost, and seeing millions who had to flee,” Benjamin commented. “We want wars to end. Our purpose is to stop the militarization of our country and our planet.”
For this year’s milestone anniversary, we are not only taking time to reflect on our journey in becoming a leading voice in the anti-war movement but are also looking forward to the work that remains to be done and the next generation of peacemakers who are posed to carry our organization into the future.
That future includes CODEPINK’s 23-year-old national co-director Danaka Katovich!
For Danaka, the work for peace is especially important because her generation has grown up in a country that has always been engaged in “hybrid warfare all over the world.”
“From drone strikes to propping up apartheid and occupation of Palestine to econonic warfare in countries like Cuba and Venezuela — I’ve never known my country to put the priorities of the people first.”
In this same video you can see above, Danaka goes on to explain her work is more than just moving money home from the war economy to much-needed domestic policies like healthcare for all and free college.
“What CODEPINK is really working towards is a shift in priorities. It is about more than us here in the belly of the beast. It is about being in genuine solidarity with the international community who know a better future is inevitable if we organize for it.”
Thank you all so much for being part of our peacemaker community! Thank you for keeping yourselves curious, kind, and engaged!
“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”
CODEPINK team