the closer to the truth, the stronger the resistance. hang tough!

And if this happened to Darth Cheney, he'd be calling
for a nuclear strike.

I'd prefer to see Madam Pielosi agree to humbly meet with y'all to discuss effecting Bushist IMPEACHMENT and US IMPEACEMENT.

It would figure that Coulter pressed charges and it would figure that Medea Benjamin would not. Don't let the bastards get you down… Eat a Peach and Impeach for Peace…

More interesting than the identity of your attackers would be the source of their information against you with whom they hung out.

Only time will tell, but this sounds more like cointel pro dirty tricks than honest dissent. By the mid 60's the FBI had so many infiltrators (none of whom were known to each other)in the Mississippi and Alabama Klan that they were a majority of its members.

Many of these infiltrators were there as agent provocateurs to spread false gossip and rumors to try and divide otherwise united protesters against each other.

Medea's work has always been about reaching out to ordinary folks and getting them together to talk about their concerns and what they might collectively do about it. By cultivating this people-to-people strategy she and her collaborators are rebuilding the communities that have been shattered by war, distracting media, and self-indulgent hedonism.

Medea--You go girl!

Most likely explanation? That would be undercover cops trying to disrupt the event - like the anonymous and violent "Black Blok" types who always get the most press coverage at anti-globalization protests. They probably aren't interested in rational discussion.

I mean, there have been many, many reports of undercover police infiltrating anti-war groups over the past six years. This is part and parcel of the illegal domestic spying operation initiated by Bush&Co.

Medea, when I saw you at a hotel lobby at the 2006 Social Forum (Venezuela) I wanted to throw a hug your way. But you were busy.

Folks, this is a great example of what WE should all be about: non-aggression, non-violence, and always trying to forgive and connect..."love does not ask, it only gives".

Peace is not about simply stopping a bunch of fighting. It's much, much more. It begins with each and every individual action. It builds, not from a bunch of people bashing another group or camp or ideology, but from love in the truest sense flourishing in the hearts of dedicated, altruistic people, joined for the purpose of serving the greater whole.

These pie-throwing vandals will suffer from their own introspective reflections and discomfort later on.

Ralph Nader did post an article a while back warning people to watch out for her. Something about her role in the Kerry campaign.

Carl Pope-- the Sierra Club supports recreational hunting. According to Paul Watson they serve every meat dish they can at their banquets so i doubt he cared about it being tofu.

I may not agree with Medea B on everything, but she is 100% dead on as far as this is concerned. Having worked as an organizer for many years, mostly from within anarchist/anti-corporate circles, I am sad to say that yes, The Movement is full of assholes. Furthermore, this is no longer an internal problem we can ignore...this is now serious enough to pose a real problem for the success of the Anti-War and Global Justice movements. In this case, the incredibly weak (practically non-existent) political justifications for the physical attack suggest it was motivated more by the kind of personal ego issues and petty jealousies that plague leftist activism today. We have become so insular, and unable to effect those with real power, that we attack whatever visible signs of 'authority' and 'leadership' that are within our reach, which apparently has come to mean any activist who is effective enough to have a public face, such as Medea Benjamin, Cindy Sheehan and others. But the real cost is huge, as we often demoralize and demean those who work hardest, who sacrifice the most, and yes, let's face it, we have so much to learn from.

The most obvious example is Cindy Sheehan. Say what you want about her, she had her faults, but hands down she was the most effective anti-war voice in the country - and she was finally crushed not by the war, not by her son's death, not by the neo-cons and right wing hate machine, but by the shitty treatment she received from other anti-war activists. We should be ashamed. And yes, we are ALL responsible - because we as a movement failed to protect the most effective voices we have from the immature assholes lurking among us. Let's face it, within the movement we treat each other very very poorly, and until we change that, we will continue to be self-sabotaging and underperform, despite the wind being at our backs.

Meanwhile, THANK YOU MEDEA! You rock. Keep up the amazing work, and don't let the bastards get you down!

I concur 999% with gggg. Far too many of us on the left (including me, at times) are reluctant to stand up to fellow leftists who do not practice what they preach in their own back yard, with friends, family, co-workers, acquaintances, fellow activists, etc. They often use the anti-war and peace movement and other worthy causes more as a vehicle to express their rage at their parents or others who hurt them, than truly grasping the spirit of the cause. These people feel powerless and insecure and look for anything (outside of themselves) to make them feel like they're more in control of their lives. Although we should remain steadfast in our activism against the powers-that-be on right, we should really spend less time attacking/name calling the easy targets on the right, and more time educating, reaching out (with love and patience) to those on the left, and those on the right that are "reachable". I've often told friends that there are some right-wingers (even Bush supporters) that I'd rather sit down to dinner with, than some of those unpleasant, angry, immature, "anti-war" types. But we still must sit down to dinner with them, try to reach out, and educate. It's so important, because they are used by the Hannity's and O'Reilly's to so conveniently misrepresent our cause.

I applaud Medea's conciliatory, intelligent, non-violent response above, as I do Cindy Sheehan's messages and perspectives since officially pulling out of the movement. Through their words and deeds, they are educating the left, helping our cause.

Medea--

Thanks for coming to Brooklyn College about 2 years ago. I wanted to hug you then, but I just sat and listened to what you had to say!

Don't let these assholes get you down! For every one of them there are 10,000 people like me who are inspired by you and your methods.
Peace,
Eric Smith

Now, there's an example of turning the other cheek that America's Christian fundies might wanna note.

They probably wanted to pie Hillary but she could not be found at the Social Forum. She could use a pie in the face to wake her up to how distant she is from the movements for social justice.

sue the self-righteous shmucks.

Medea, come back to the Conference on World Affairs in Boulder Colorado again next year and we will serve you a richly deserved dessert of your choice. No pie throwing, just kudos. Keep up the good work.

Medea-- you *ROCK*, as people have said eloquently above. don't let this get you too down, there are always internal divisions within all movements for social change -- *IF* that is actually where these people came from. many of us who have worked with you and watched you over the years KNOW the profound commitment you have to social justice. indeed, the BBB has lost its focus over time.. they are missing the sweet spot far too often now, for sure. Rock onwards, Medea, rock on. -MSSG

For those who were not there: it is important to be clear that the US Social Forum was not at all driven by 'left celebrities'. Medea Benjamin was not featured on any plenaries; indeed, given the way workshops were publicized in the official program (without information about who was speaking where), you'd almost have been lucky to have found one where she was presenting. It is to her credit that she participated (I wonder how many other famous leftists participated, given that they had to do so more or less as equals with the other 10,000 activists, rather than as important plenary speakers). Although I think the overweening pretensions of some of our 'leading lights' on the left should be subverted, this seems like an especially inappropriate choice of place, target, and tactics.

I agree with Poet. This smells of saboteur tricks. The charge that Medea is part of the "NGO industrial complex" sounds like nasty, satirical verbiage aimed at trivializing a well-worn leftist phrase, "military industrial complex." I would try to find out who these people really are and then expose them.

Yes, this is clearly someone working for some security agency who has burrowed into the progressive movement in order to cause division, like the supposed liberal bloggers who were attacking Cindy Sheehan.

With the CIA doing its fake contrition act recently, we can be sure that FBI-COINTELPRO style activities are well-funded, staffed & running full-time to keep progressives disorganized and ineffectual. When we start to become truly effective, they'll start shooting us again.

Methinks you protest too much.

There is a NGO Industrial Complex. It stops real change every time so there is a moral in this pie.

Rx: Armed bodyguards.

That there are ignorant fools in any organization or movement or what have you is a forgone conclusion. That these same jerks are anonymous means that they can hide in the darkness and hatch their fungus blighted plans without benefit of any light. A good means to prevent this kind of behavior is to hold them up to ridicule. Like the scum who shot Lennon in order to get famous, these worms are trying to get out of the swamp muck by climbing up someone who is strong enough to stand on her own. In the future, if something like this happens again, they need to be personally exposed for the slimeballs that they are.

What a distraction from the issue of inalienable human rights that is attacked daily at home and abroad. "Get on with it."

Agent provocateurs to divide and conquer?

Don't patronize us, Medea. Stop grandstanding and the pies will stop coming your way.

Well, if they were agent provocateurs, it's a pity. She deserved to get hit by a pie thrown by someone genuinely on the Left.

I have been on to Benjamin for a while now. She IS a self-appointed leader and self-promoter whose job is to corral mass movements into the Democratic party. A party that is more a graveyard than anything else. Yeah, we should support Obama or Hilary she'll say when the moment is ripe. Just like she, and the other half of this dynamic duo Leslie Cagan, did in 2004 when they both pied pipered folks into supporting John Kerry lotion. You know, goes on smooth, no smell or residue. Never know it was even applied as it disappears after a short while.

As a person of color, I remember Malcolm's warning, uttered over 40 years ago, about the two party duopoly and its hand maidens:

"One party stabs you in the back and the other slides the knife out just a little and says they done something."

Unfortunately for the Cagans and the Benjamins of this country, the opportunist, cowardly and morally bankrupt nature of the Democrats, which Cindy Sheehan, bless her, called out, can no longer be hid behind theatrics, hollow platitudes, histrionics and the protest politics of the liberal-Left milieu they represent. People all across the country are waking up to what Malcolm knew and expressed years ago.

Instead of Code Pink, they should wear red, as in Code Red: Trojan Horse in the midst of of my true grassroots movement!

Around 4 years ago I drove to Santa Barbara from Los Angeles with Medea and five friends from LA. It was during Arnold Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial campaign. Schwarzenegger was making a speaking appearance at a park overlooking the ocean in Santa Barbara. Our group went specifically to challenge Schwarzenegger on his hypocritical position on the environment.

There was a strong police presence at the event. The police asked us to remain on the perimeter while we shouted our "pro-green/anti-Hummer" chant. We congenially agreed.

At one point, while Medea was using our megaphone to shout out the message, "Hummers aren't green," a large man in his late twenties thrust himself at her and grabbed the megaphone from her hands. Medea was thrown back. It was a purposeful assault.

The Santa Barbara police responded immediately. One of the officers chased the man, wrestled him to the ground, cuffed and arrested him. The Santa Barbara police filed charges against him and set a court date for him to appear. Medea, myself and the others in our party were subpoenaed to testify against the attacker. I was ready to go!!

Believing it was newsworthy that one of Schwarzenegger's large male supporters attacked diminutive Medea, I wrote a press release to publicize the assault, arrest, and impending trial of the man. I sent it to Medea before it published believing she would want it published too. I was surprised when she suggested "I hold off."

I did.

When my subpoena arrived with the court date to testify against the attacker, I welcomed it gladly. I couldn't wait to see my friend's attacker receive his proper due. I immediately emailed and called Medea. I wanted to be certain she saw the subpoena and cleared her calendar to appear against him.

But Medea did NOT share my enthusiasm. Rather than taking her aggressor to task in a court of law, Medea suggested we not proceed with the trial. She didn't want to see the man prosecuted. She believed his arrest and public humiliation were enough to teach him the lesson he needed to learn.

But I persisted. I didn't agree. I wanted to see him tried. And then Medea said the words I will never forget:

"Linda, let's not waste the taxpayers money on an issue as frivolous as this. It would be better spent on something else."

Those words rang in my ears and I immediately understood. When Medea picks her fights, they are for the greater good. We never went to court.

To the pie throwers who attacked Medea at the U.S. Social Forum, you have made a grievous mistake. You haven't devalued Medea. You've devalued you. It's no wonder you hide your identity. Were I you, I'd be embarrassed too.

I absolutely agree with gggg's post. Medea has abeen a tireless activist who is willing to devote pretty much her entire life for social and political causes that we care about and for these morons ( ive seen some of these nitwits) did this because they could and not for any other reason. Next time i see these idiots they may have a fist in their face.

Why were all the people here applausing the pie throwers when they pie'd Ann Coulter? Aren't they hypocrites themselves?

And Medea's explaination is just a whole bunch of self service excuses, instead of really thinking into what they are saying, she just blew them off. And it was truly disingenuous for her to tell them to come meet her when the hierarchy-less structure of the forum means everybody is on the same level and open structured discussion with a specific person becomes highly unlikely.

Just like pseudolibs like the gangs at Kos thinks (not say) the DNC are not serving their supporter but will not abandon them. The lefts like Medea might actually say those things, but ultimately will not abandon their DNC family. It takes people with conviction to see compromisers as sellouts. Why isn't CommonDreams publishing a piece by the Bay Area Bakers?

We don't want to forget the movement is a bottoms up movement. Anyone that seizes power and defines the path for the masses, either through deception or strong-arming, will come under fire.

I agree that the Bakers should write something to defend their action - hopefully better written than the fliers they left on the scene.

As it stands now this doesn't seem like a justified pie-ing. There are some interesting opinions presented here on both sides (and some terribly dumb ones as well) but it's all speculation until we hear from the pie-ers; perhaps they have something to share.

We have to remember that the word "left" doesn't describe just one ideology, but a rainbow of fruit flavors. Some people value organizing - "playing the game" to effect change on the current system, some people are against all authority and have completely different values than the "players." We need to compromise to make lasting changes, but this doesn't mean erasing our differences, but rather respecting them and sometimes strongly disagreeing. This is why we must consider that the actions of the pie-throwers may be rational, and try to understand their motivation, rather than speculatin on the source of their alleged psychological disturbance.

Dispite all this, my heart goes out to Medea Benjamin - what an awful ordeal! Plus - her call for an honest discussion is absolutely the right solution.

Medea (that was my grandmother's name)

I'm sorry that you were pied. But I am glad that you were not bombed. While I think in it's context what happened to you was childish, I see usefulness in it's application. Like I said, you were pied, not bombed. I would love to see some people who suffer from hubris get pied. I would love to see the Palestinians throw pies instead of stones. Because sometimes words take too long in getting a desired result. Bill O'Reilly definitely needs to be pied. Maybe some prominent politicians need to be pied. But definitely Bill O'Reilly.

BlackStacey,

Wouldn't we wish the Iraqi insurgents plant pies under roads instead of IEDs? Don't we wish Ho Chi Min shot pies instead of bullets? Don't we wish the blacks were just throwing pies during the Watts and LA riots? Don't we wish the Native Americans were shooting pies instead of arrows? So what is you point? We want the Palestinian kids to give up their only source of resistance against invasion of the occupation forces so that they could be rolled over even easier?

The pseudolibs like the Kos and AAR 'RATs deserves to be pied more than any right wing clowns since these guys are the real gatekeepers of true discussions (since their agenda are determined at the top instead of from the bottom). Plus the whole gang of Democratic candidates should be pied (except for Kucinich and Gravel) because of their charlatan behavior.

Here's the Communique from Bakers without Borders on the pie-ing incident:

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/07/02/18432197.php

Reportedly, it was a banana cream pie.

Wangman,

My point is only this: In the proper context cream pie and other creative pranks could be used as a tool to bring attention to a cause without all of the murder and bloodshed. Non violent protest is one of mankind's most under used and under appreciated invention.
At the present moment all of our peaceful protests and demonstrations are ineffective because they lack the proper catalyst to create action or decision making by policy makers. How much action or disturbance can government sanction protest stimulate?

Of course Medea is "self-appointed", Did anyone else get off their butts to do what she's done? And yes, she's "self promoting" in the sense that she makes a spectacle of herself to draw attention to her message. If she hadn't stood up in Congress during the SOTU or in the convention hall at the RNC and been dragged off with cameras rolling (and right stylishly, too!), those events would have gone off without a peep from the leftier than leftists that are way too familiar to us all (can you say: circular firing squad?).
The comment from Linda Milazzo gives a perfect example of the bravery and grace of Medea Benjamin: "...let's not waste the taxpayers money on an issue as frivolous as this. It would be better spent on something else."
Hats off to Medea. 'Til you can do better, buckle it.

I wouldn't have thought it possible to look dignified with a pie in the face, but you pulled it off. :)

Ms. Benjamin,

I know of you only by way of articles on the Internet and elsewhere. While I support the causes you cite in "To Those Who Threw a Pie in My Face, Let's Swap Recipes," I must say your so-called recipe contains too much bile for my taste--especially this particularly generalized ingredient: "Perhaps these pie-throwers are wounded people who lack the essential ingredients of a fulfilling life-a supportive family and community that provides a healthy dosage of love."

Passive-aggressive insults such as the aforementioned example don't pack the punch of the fist or open hand that comes with a pie-ing. However, cynical sincerity such as you've demonstrated here might have precipitated your creaming.

Yep, its the same old crap from the Left and now Medea Benjamin is the latest victim: she gets pied not because she isn't on the Left but she apparently isn't left-wing enough.

This is just so typical of the Stalinist tendency of some of our so-called "open-minded" colleagues. If you deviate one whit from their left orthodoxy you become an enemy. Medea's point is well taken: these people don't have the balls to do the same to a Dick Cheney -- the Secret Service would probably shoot them on the spot -- but they have no problem taking on a female activist who is standing there with a group of other women. I guess that is an easy target for these big, bold, tough "revolutionaries".

Then I look at the list she provides of other targets: Ralph Nader, Carl Pope...Jean Luc Godard!?! You have got to be kidding me! These people have done more to raise awareness of what is going on in the world than any of these half-baked so-called radicals.

Nah, I don't think they are agent provocateurs. They are too stupid and self-absorbed for that. But if I am around when they try to pie somebody again, one of them is going to lose an eyeball.

I love reading responses here. How can someone organize a group of anarchists?

Warzoned, what a ridiculous response, if one is on the left, the not so left are considered on the right. Just because the media calls the democratic party the liberal party should we consider them on "our" side? Their policies would make the republicans more proud than anyone on the left of John Kerry. Should we be embracing the repubican party because some extreme conservative groups considers them sellouts to the liberals?

"…I appear on TV shows such as Hannity and Colmes or Bill O'Reilly, I…"

I don't know enough about American politics, personalities, and activists; and I am thousands of miles away from the scene. Had I not seen so many comments here in Medea's favor I would have thought she stands 180 degrees opposite to my line of thinking. Don't blame me. After all, 99% of those appearing on Hannity and Colmes or Bill O'Reilly shows are neo-convicts, ziocons, right wing fundamentalists, and plain nuts.

wangman, your position is absurd. First of all, if you look at Warzoned's post carefully you will see that people like Ralph Nader and Jean Luc Godard hardly qualify as Democrats and even if they were, what does it matter? Its about buildiing coalitions with people of similar interests. If people want to stop the war, provide health care for all; access to abortions/birth control; demand justice in every form; then that is a good place to start.

I do not expect everyone to agree with me on every single issue that comes down the pike, and to demand that is IMHO, highly immature and naive. It is just common sense to expect differences within a broad progressive coalition movement. I am not going to try to force people into some narrow ideological box. And just because they are currently closer to the middle of the road doesn't mean that change for them is impossible.

How do you ever expect to gain converts to the cause? Is a pie in the face supposed to change that? Do you honestly think that most people who are now involved in movements for radical political & social change were born into it? Do you think people become anarchists or socialists at the age of 10? Please! Most people changed their views because they saw things going terribly wrong in the world and then were able to find like-minded people who used the language of RESPECT when speaking with them. They didn't get a pie in the face because they were born into a middle-class conformist household; somebody cared enough to show them respect and listen to them.

Its all about changing minds, encouraging people to think differently about their situation and about the issues that matter. Slamming a pie in someone's face is violent. Strictly speaking, it is an assault and is only going to cause an equal and opposite reaction.

hey wangman ... they should have decapitated ann coulter not pied her ... thats my issue with it.

It ain't easy being a liberal activist. Never has been. But thanks Medea for trying. It's a thankless, ill-paying job and you'll never satisfy everyone, especially us liberals. We don't march in lockstep. It's our blessing and our curse. That said, the DLC owns the Dems and I won't vote for their candidates. I'll vote for Nader, Gravel, Kucinich or hopefully maybe Gore and a mixed ballot with a few progressive Dems and Independents, but mostly for Greens.

I'm not down with the pie throwing at Ms. Benjamin, but I wish she and Code Pink would please heed my, and I'm sure others, call to stage a boycott of military enlistment to bring the war machine and the administration to it's knees. We don't need total success, enlistments are already down; even a 50% success rate would devistate the Army and other services. It would deny Bush the additional bodies for more "surges" and would show how bankrupt our policies are to the rest of America and the World. Medea, I've asked you to do this in person. Please, please, please, while we still have some semblance of a democracy and a right to engage in protest, please do this!

Yes the movement has these types -- ultra-left sectarians who when they grow become, surprise! neo-cons, or lifestyle anarchists who themselves are living a commodified existence with their black uniforms and menacing demeanor.

Both are far more interested in expressions of correct line of self-righteousness and absurdist comedy than actual movement building.

And while there is much to disagree on, don't let the tyranny of small differences tear people apart.

Then again, I think they were going for a soft target, no?

The very fact that Medea has the privileged access to this website to publish her response to an audience thousands of times greater than those immediately present at the social forum in Atlanta speaks volumes to the issues at hand.

Medea made the decision to magnify her indignation at her "it felt very violent" attack in order to further advance her political position. Perhaps very few people would have heard about this if she hadn't chose to magnify the issue, and therein lies the root of the attack; namely, her privilege, her politics, and her middle class liberal analysis of the issues at hand (Medea "i can do no wrong, and i didn't say that" Benjamin)

I agree that the attack was somewhat silly and childish, but it has opened the door to challenging her politics, in addition to her choice to broadcast this self-serving response to the real issues at hand.

There has already been some very well articulated responses to medea's politics here:

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/07/01/18432047.php
(note "The Real Issues: by 123" in response to Global Exchange)

and here

http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/139705/index.php
(note "It was a pie, not a prison sentence: by Baker in response to the Lebanon issue)

I'll never forgive medea for her politics during Seattle, not to mention her self serving analysis of the events that took place. I don't care if she disagreed with the actions of the anarchists, but to publicly attack and disparage them, let alone side with the police, even sarcastically, clearly tells me she cannot be trusted, and that her politics and her analysis represents an inherent racist and classist perspective.

Further, when she says "wounded people who lack the essential ingredients of a fulfilling life-a supportive family and community that provides a healthy dosage of love," it is a window into this racist and classist world view that simply does not understand what it means to suffer the abuse of broken homes, poor communities, and the perspective that yes, some people are angry and come from places that medea doesn't understand.

I am sure she can understand intellectually what poverty and oppression looks like, but she doesn't know how it feels, clearly demonstrated by those words. She doesn't understand that people in positions of power like herself are targets when they are clueless to their own power and self-righteousness. Even if some of us didn't grow up in broken homes and poor, we have to be open to understanding deeply the affects of oppression and racism.

Trying to paint yourself as a clueless victim here is precisely why you were targeted. There is a lot of anger out there at self-appointed leaders like yourself that act as though they are always the victim and they can do no wrong.

If I had been in your shoes, I would have laughed it off and moved on. I wouldn't have published a self serving response to an audience thousands and thousands of times bigger than the 100 or so present at the moment.

I would suggest some humility and reflection at the deeper issues.

Some of the posts on here are interesting. What's been proven here is what many a liberal or progressive has been aware of for a long time, that a hardcore few try to bully the rest. And be jealous of the rest. And create an environment where all the but the most radical and extreme opinions dominate.
I got one things to say to those types, play nice or get the **** out of the sandbox.

massud,

Your assumption is that the hardcores gets their view published everyday in CNN, Kos, CD, not just in sites like Indymedia because they strong-armed their way through. The reality is that the people in power controls the contents of the debate. Just like the MSM squashed debates on the war before until it started going bad, pseudolibs like Kos limits debate on I/P issues and CD limit debates grass root bottoms up issues.

"I got one things to say to those types, play nice or get the **** out of the sandbox."

Isn't that's what all those people said to Code Pink when they unfurl banners during Bush's speeches as they are trying to kick them out?