Minneapolis, MN – Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) hosted CODEPINK Co-founder Medea Benjamin at three events in the Twin Cities the weekend of March 28-29 to discuss her recent trip to deliver aid to Cuba, Trump’s attacks on Iran and Venezuela, as well as the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Benjamin first spoke Friday afternoon at the weekly WAMM Free Palestine rally, held at the intersections of Summit and Snelling in Saint Paul. Speaking to the crowd, Benjamin said, “I see things changing; way too slowly, agonizingly slow, certainly for the Palestinian people, certainly for the people on the West Bank who are being attacked every day by violent settlers. Certainly for the people in Lebanon, one million of whom have just been displaced, over a thousand of them killed in this recent time, since a ‘ceasefire’. And we know that in the case of Gaza, over 600 people have been killed since a supposed ceasefire. So it’s agonizingly slow, but it is changing.”

Benjamin continued, “The issue is: do you want a foreign power coming in to bomb the heck out of you, destroy your culture, and tell you who should be governing your country? No, you don’t! And that’s what the U.S. is doing in Iran, and of course we see that’s what the U.S. has just done, and tried to do, in Venezuela, that’s what they want to do in Cuba.”

Later that evening Benjamin spoke in an intimate setting of WAMM members and community members about many topics, one of which being her trips to Cuba and experiences with the Cuban people.

Benjamin stated, “The most remarkable source of income for Cubans was medical missions,” Benjamin said. “It became the number one source of income at one point. Which is just remarkable to think about, how a poor country could create so many professionals and send them all over the world to help people. And I say this with great expertise, because my life was saved by Cuban doctors.” Benjamin went on to explain that Cuban doctors in a poor region in Guinea-Bissau saved her from a horrible case of malaria.

On March 28 about 100 people gathered for WAMM’s annual meeting, themed “Stop the Wars at Home and Abroad,” featuring Benjamin alongside Layna Crandell of the People’s Action Coalition Against Trump and the MN Anti-War Committee. Guests enjoyed a community meal before the talk began.

During the panel, Benjamin emphasized the ways unlimited funding for war harms us here at home. “In Minnesota, 69% of fourth graders do not read at a proficient level. Eighth grade, 72%,” she said. “And of course we know how defunded our healthcare system is, and everything else that’s good for people.” She ended by saying “It is a multipolar world. While sometimes we might feel lonely in our work here, the majority of people around the world want the same thing we do. They want to live in peace and cooperation around the world.”

The panel also featured Layna Crandell, a member of the People’s Action Coalition Against Trump (PACAT), who stated, “U.S. intervention has destabilized countries, supported coups to carry out regime change, and imposed deadly sanctions that strangle economies. This forces people to migrate for survival, only for them to be criminalized and targeted when they come here looking for better conditions. All the while, the aggression we see directed at our own communities relies on the same tools used to destabilize nations abroad. The brutality carried out on the periphery becomes normalized, making it easier to carry out similar repression here through the degradation of human rights, through policing, surveillance, and border control.”

After the event, many attended the No Kings protest in Saint Paul, featuring guests like Senator Bernie Sanders, Jane Fonda and Bruce Springsteen. Upwards of 200,000 people were said to be in attendance, making it the largest single protest in Minnesota history. Benjamin attended and talked with demonstrators at the event. The weekend was a large success, giving hundreds of Minnesotans opportunities to learn from Benjamin’s experiences fighting U.S. imperialism in the belly of the beast.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #WAMM #CodePink

Milwaukee, WI – At noon on Saturday, September 6, a flotilla of boats and kayaks set sail on the Milwaukee River to express solidarity with and demand safe passage for the Global Sumud Flotilla.

The Global Sumud Flotilla is an international effort to deliver aid to Gaza and break the Israeli blockade. It is made up of more than 50 vessels with over 15,000 participating activists from 44 countries. The Milwaukee flotilla consisted of four larger pontoon boats and a handful of smaller boats and kayaks, all decked out in Palestine flags, keffiyehs and signs.

The event, called by CODEPINK Milwaukee, was the second of its kind this year. It was planned in preparation for attacks on the Global Sumud Flotilla from Israel, as other aid efforts have seen in the past. Most recently, in July 2025, the Handala Freedom Flotilla was seized by Israel and its crew kidnapped, imprisoned, facing inhumane conditions and physical assault.

Concurrent to the flotilla on water, supporters of the Milwaukee flotilla gathered at Pere Marquette Park, a park situated along the Milwaukee River. They, too, brought signs and flags, awaiting the flotilla’s arrival.

At around 1 p.m., the flotilla crew reached Pere Marquette Park, where over 30 people cheered the flotilla’s arrival. As the boats reached the park, they circled around in the water, with Palestine flags flying in the wind. Both groups joined voices, chanting, “From Iran to Palestine, occupation is a crime!” “When people are occupied, resistance is justified!” and “Hey hey, ho ho, Netanyahu has got to go!”

Others on land and in the water, including passersby and people renting out boats on the Milwaukee River for the day, noticed the flotilla’s presence. Many took videos and observed the flotilla, which could be seen and heard down up and down the river in downtown Milwaukee.

CODEPINK Milwaukee member Chris Jeske provided insight into the importance of the event, saying, “We're going to need to apply all kinds of international pressure to let the activists and aid workers into Gaza.”

Jeske continued,” So, that's part of why we're doing this here, is to try and raise the profile locally of this important international effort.”

Sawsan Rizeq, organizer with Milwaukee 4 Palestine, echoed this sentiment. “How many people have tried already and been stopped? And now we have more countries involved and more boats, and so this is our ‘sumud’, or ‘steadfast’, to continue the fight.”

After exuberant chanting, the flotilla vessels headed back to their starting location. As the Global Sumud Flotilla makes its way to Palestine, Milwaukee residents will keep their eyes on the vessels and the response from Israel, ready to mobilize at a moment's notice.

Milwaukee says safe passage for the Global Sumud Flotilla, and free Palestine!

#MilwaukeeWI #WI #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #CodePink #M4P

Pewaukee, WI – On the afternoon of May 13, dozens of anti-war and pro-Palestine activists held a rally outside the Wisconsin Defense Industry Council (WDIC)’s inaugural conference at the Ingleside Hotel in Pewaukee, a suburb of Milwaukee. The rally spoke out against the WDIC’s stated mission, to increase the influence of defense manufacturing in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Defense Industry Council was founded in December 2023, mere months after the genocide ramped up in Palestine – and just in time to capitalize and profit off the mass deaths of the Palestinian people. This timing has not gone unnoticed in Wisconsin.

Sabine Wolter, a Milwaukee Anti-war Committee (MAC) member who emceed the rally, started off by stating the need for a protest against the WDIC. “Right behind those hotel doors, the Wisconsin Defense Industry Council is meeting. They are working right now to expand defense spending here in Wisconsin. They want more of our tax dollars funneled into the hands of rich defense contractors – tax dollars that could have been used for essential services, like housing, healthcare and education!” Wolter declared, adding, “We are here today to tell them not in our state!”

Concurrently with the rally, five activists staged a die-in in the conference space of the Ingleside Hotel. Initially, they were planning to disrupt an afternoon panel, but they were barred from entering the session. Instead, activists pivoted and staged the die-in in the conference room foyer, while one speaker, Carson Bunker with MAC, stood and spoke on the bloody ties of the WDIC, saying, “How dare you profit off of death and destruction? Shame on you!” and “Wisconsin residents don’t want this. We didn’t ask for this!”

An estimated ten police officers were already waiting inside the conference room foyer, prepared to make arrests to escalate the non-violent protest. The protesters were able to successfully cause a disruption to the inaugural WDIC conference for about seven minutes until two activists were arrested and taken into custody.

At the word of arrests, the protesters quickly mobilized to the Waukesha Police Department where the two were being held. With their solidarity as well as a public call-in campaign, the two protesters were ticketed and eventually released, to cheers from the crowd.

The rally was called by the Milwaukee Anti-war Committee (MAC), a local grassroots organization that has previously protested WDIC events and defense corporations in the area. They were joined by over a dozen other organizations, including CODEPINK Milwaukee, Green Bay Anti-war Committee, Peace Action Wisconsin, Black Alliance for Peace, and Freedom Road Socialist Organization – Wisconsin.

Throughout the rally, the spirited crowd chanted, “Money for jobs and education, not for war and occupation!” and “WDIC is guilty!” Protesters carried flags and wore keffiyehs in support of the Palestinian people, who have been suffering under an ongoing genocide by the state of Israel since October 2023.

The WDIC tries to paint itself as serving all of Wisconsin by creating jobs and bringing more money to the state. However, working-class Wisconsinites know that the only people benefiting from the WDIC are the war profiteers at the top. As they get richer, working-class people suffer. In Milwaukee, a lead crisis threatens the public school district, and hospitals are closing every year on top of an already poor access to healthcare.

Wisconsin says no to the WDIC!

#PewaukeeWI #WI #AntiWarMovement #MAC #CodePink

Plano, TX – Dozens of community members gathered north of Dallas on Sunday, February 2, for a protest against Chevron’s complicity in the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza. This protest marked the launching of a local campaign against the oil and gas company by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) – North Texas Chapter.

Speakers highlighted the Tamar and Leviathan gas fields off the coast of occupied Palestine, which are used to provide energy to Israeli military and prison facilities. They also called out the theft of indigenous land and resources around the world and Chevron’s central role in the global climate catastrophe.

During a speech, Sean Byrne of DSA North Texas called on participants to boycott Chevron gas, stating that Israel “is a laboratory for how the nations of the imperialist world will deal with the waves of human beings displaced by the very climate catastrophe that they themselves have sown, with corporations like Chevron being among the worst culprits of this capitalism-driven environmental and social crisis.” Byrne condemned comments by Chevron CEO Mike Wirth during a shareholder call the previous Friday, where he called for peace while simultaneously uplifting energy extraction projects that have helped enable the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza.

A member of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Dallas-Fort Worth, William Josef, called out the “energy apartheid” practices of the Israel Electric Corporation, which bans many Palestinians from accessing the electrical grid and charges higher prices for electrical services to Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank than to the illegal Israeli settlements nearby.

Speaking in solidarity with the local campaign launch, Jumana Saadeh of the Dallas-Fort Worth Anti-War Committee (DAWC) and Code Pink Dallas said, “Today, we say ‘no’ and stand against one of the many companies supporting and aiding in the oppression and genocide of the Palestinian people. Chevron has supplied and continues to supply energy and millions of dollars of tax revenue to a genocidal, apartheid racist state.”

During the protest, hundreds of cars passed by with many honking and waving in support. Simultaneously, many members of the organizations present, including the DFW Anti-War Committee, Jewish Voice for Peace, Code Pink, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation were assisting with a large protest in downtown Dallas against the Trump administration’s attacks against immigrants.

#PlanoTX #TX #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #Chevron #DSA #DFWAWC #JVP #CodePink

Portland, OR – On Saturday, January 25, about 200 people rallied at Terry Schrunk Plaza in Portland for a post-inauguration protest of Donald Trump. Many protesters held signs denouncing Trump and in defense of the people’s movements. After the rally, the protesters took the streets in a march through downtown.

Portland for Palestine organizer Kacey DeSantis welcomed the crowd, saying, “It is so good to see Portland standing against Trump and his reactionary, right-wing politics. As he repeals over 60 years of progressive legislation, we show up today to say that we will not go backwards. We must fight back against these attacks on our communities!”

Immediately after taking office, Trump greenlit action against immigrants, allowing raids to be conducted in churches, schools and hospitals. As a response, Mayor Keith Wilson reaffirmed Portland’s status as a sanctuary city and the importance of immigrants in our community. Despite this, local organizations and activists have become more vigilant due to the increased ICE presence across the country.

Omar Gil from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization spoke to the crowd, “these attacks were not possible without the inaction of the Democrats. Under Biden, border militarization and deportations continued. Trump is not an isolated evil; he is the inheritor of a system that operates like this by design. He is a representation of the fetter that capitalism has on the progression of society!”

Mutaz Al-Shawa spoke of his own experience as a Palestinian with family in Gaza, the utter defeat of Israel in accepting a ceasefire, and the inevitability of Palestinian liberation. Elaine Armstrong of CODEPINK Portland spoke of her personal experience growing up during the northern Ireland conflict, drawing parallels to the immense trauma that the children of Gaza have endured during the past 68 weeks of genocide.

When asked about Gaza, Donald Trump’s reactionary rhetoric is one of “cleaning out” Gaza, forcing neighboring countries to take in Palestinians, in an attempt to end the Palestinian national liberation struggle.

Sky Reimer, a member of Students for a Democratic Society at Portland State University, spoke on student’s rights and the importance of putting pressure on Portland State University administration. Portland State is currently under federal investigation for violation of Title VI, a section of federal civil rights law that protects students from discrimination based on race, color or national origin.

Reimer stated, “Islamophobic posters, hate speech, and harassment are allowed on campus. Meanwhile, PSU administration reprimands and expels students for protesting PSU’s ties to the genocide of Palestinians. They've put pro-Palestine organizations on probation, threatening them with dissolution. But the truth is clear, the administration is scared of us. They're scared because by fighting for positive change alongside each other, by joining organizations like SDS, we can make positive change, both on campus, and in the world!”

Trump has voiced support for the police crackdowns on the student encampments of 2024. He has vowed to increase repression on students, threatening foreign students with deportation if they dare to struggle against their administrations’ties to Israel and war profiteers.

Other speakers included a Starbucks Workers United member on worker’s rights and the necessity for class struggle unionism, and an organizer from the People’s March on women’s rights and healthcare.

During the march, protest chants like “No Trump, no KKK, no racist USA!” and “No ban, no wall, sanctuary for all!” echoed throughout the crowd. Cars drove past honking in support. Bystanders waved and raised fists in solidarity, some of them joined the march. People from a pro-immigrant demonstration also joined the march as it passed by Pioneer Courthouse Square.

The march ended with high energy and many people showed interest in how to get further involved. When asked about the event, Raea Dente replied, “What always has me coming back to events like these is community, uniting with others and passionately fighting for our collective future. It’s so empowering to see people show up and fight back together- this rally showed the heart and determination that Portland has.”

The organizers concluded the protest by urging attendees to organize and to continue building the mass movements necessary for the fight against Donald Trump and his right-wing reactionary agenda. The protest was organized by Portland for Palestine in coalition with SDS, FRSO and CODEPINK.

#PortlandOR #SDS #FRSO #CODEPINK #PortlandForPalestine #FreePalestine #SBWU #Trump #Inauguration #PSU