Kevin Danaher (activist)

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Kevin Danaher
Kevin Danaher 1.jpg
Born (1950-07-11) July 11, 1950 (age 74)
NationalityAmerican
Education Sonoma State University
University of California, Santa Cruz
Occupation(s) Political activist, author
Spouse Medea Benjamin
Children2
Website Global Exchange

Kevin Danaher (born July 11, 1950) is an American author and anti-globalization activist. With his wife Medea Benjamin and activist Kirsten Irgens-Moller, he co-founded Global Exchange, [1] a social justice and anti-globalization non-governmental organization based in San Francisco, California. He is the founder and executive co-producer of the Green Festivals and he is executive Director of the Global Citizen Center. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Contents

Early life and education

Kevin Danaher was born in New Jersey, on July 11, 1950. [2] [3]

Danaher is from an Irish Catholic family and is the youngest of three children. His father, who was a bus driver, had immigrated from Ireland. He had an interest in politics and had been a messenger for the Irish Republican Army (IRA). In a 2003 article for Sfgate by Tom Abate, Danaher said that the stories he heard from his father about the IRA made him what he is today.

He graduated from high school in 1968, at which time he was drafted to fight in the Vietnam War, but purposefully failed his physical in order to avoid being deployed. He then worked as a truck driver and bricklayer, as well as spending nights as a bass guitarist for a band (The Everlovin) that primarily played in strip clubs and topless bars. Eventually moving West, he met a woman in Los Gatos, California, where he settled.

Danaher attended De Anza College in Cupertino for a time, followed by attending Sonoma State University, where he graduated with an undergraduate degree in sociology. Following this, he obtained a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz, writing his thesis on the boycott movement against the apartheid regime of South Africa. [4]

Personal life

In 1985, Danaher married Medea Benjamin, who comes from Long Island, New York. [5] They have two daughters. [6]

Activism

In an interview with Miguel Bocanegra in February, 2000, Danaher said that his government's trying to send him to Vietnam caused him to question what his government was doing, namely the bombing of people who were no threat to the U.S.. In the early days, he wrote a dissertation on U.S. policy towards South Africa in what he saw as U.S. policy being supportive of the white minority against the black majority. [7]

He has been critical and vocal about the invasion of Iraq. [8] Along with Scott Ritter, Daniel Ellsberg, Jody Williams, Norman Mailer, Noam Chomsky, and Medea Benjamin, he appeared in the film Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire . [9]

Professional background

From 1979 to 1983, Danaher was with American University in Washington, DC, as an adjunct professor. [10] By 1982, he had earned a Ph.D. in sociology at UC Santa Cruz. [11] In 1984, having moved back to the Bay Area, he was working with Food First as a senior analyst. [12]

Bibliography

Filmography

Film
TitleRoleDirectorYearNotes #
Timber GAPHimselfJames Ficklin, Kay Rudin2000
Trading Freedom: The Secret Life of the FTAAHimself2002 David Suzuki appears as well
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire HimselfJeremy Earp, Sut Jhally 2004
Hannity & Colmes
Episode dated 25 January 2006
Himself2006 Kimberly Guilfoyle also appears
Project Censored the Movie HimselfDoug Hecker, Christopher Oscar2013 [14]

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