Kevin Danaher (activist)

Kevin Danaher 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.

Kevin Danaher
NationalityUnited States
EducationSonoma State University
University of California, Santa Cruz
OccupationPolitical activist, author
Spouse(s)Medea Benjamin
Children2
WebsiteGlobal Exchange

Early life and education

Kevin Danaher was born in New Jersey, on March 7, 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. 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 and flunked his physical to avoid being drafted. In those days he was working as a truck driver and bricklayer. His night times were spent as a bass guitarist for a band that did the rounds playing strip joints and topless bars. Eventually drifting westward, he met a woman in Los Gatos and decided to stay there. California marked a change in the direction his life took. By the time he had finished with the classes he took at De Anza College in Cupertino, and then his doing his time at Sonoma State University, picking up an undergraduate degree in sociology, he had undertaken Ph.D. at University of California, Santa Cruz. He had also written a thesis on the boycott movement against the apartheid regime of South Africa.[4]

Personal life

He married in 1985 to wife 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
  • Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grassroots. With Shannon Biggs and Jason Dove Mark. (September 2007) PoliPoint Press. ISBN 978-0-9778253-6-3
  • Insurrection: The Citizen Challenge to Corporate Power. With Jason Dove Mark, foreword by Arianna Huffington. (2003) Routledge. ISBN 0-415-94677-8[13]
  • 10 reasons to abolish the IMF & World Bank. Foreword by Anuradha Mittal. (2001) Seven Stories. ISBN 1-58322-464-5
  • Globalize This! The Battle Against the World Trade Organization and Corporate Rule with Roger Burbach. (2000) Common Courage Press. ISBN 1-56751-196-1
  • Corporations Are Gonna Get Your Mama: Globalization and the Downsizing of the American Dream. (1997) Common Courage Press. ISBN 1-56751-112-0
  • Fifty Years is Enough: The Case Against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. (1994) South End Press. ISBN 0-89608-495-7

Filmography
Film
Title Role Director Year Notes #
Timber GAP Himself James Ficklin, Kay Rudin 2000
Trading Freedom: The Secret Life of the FTAA Himself 2002 David Suzuki appears as well
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire Himself Jeremy Earp, Sut Jhally 2004
Hannity & Colmes
Episode dated 25 January 2006		 Himself 2006 Kimberly Guilfoyle also appears
Project Censored the Movie Himself Doug Hecker, Christopher Oscar 2013 [14]

References
  1. Global Exchange Website Kevin Danaher
  2. Rotten Tomatoes Kevin Danaher
  3. Born Glory United States > Kevin Danaher
  4. Sfgate, Wednesday, November 5, 2003 - SPOTLIGHT / Kevin Danaher: Part activist and part businessman - Tom Abate
  5. "Devotion to Life of Political Activism in Family's Blood". Los Angeles Times. 2003-03-27. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  6. Los Angeles Times, March 27, 2003 Devotion to Life of Political Activism in Family's Blood - Rone Tempest
  7. University of Washington Interviewee: Kevin Danaher, Affiliation: Co-Founder of Global Exchange, Interviewer: Miguel Bocanegra
  8. ABC, Tuesday 15 June 2004 Activists for Freedom, Equity and Justice with Medea Benjamin & Kevin Danaher
  9. Vanier College Hijacking catastrophe (videorecording)
  10. Sfgate, Wednesday, November 5, 2003 - SPOTLIGHT / Kevin Danaher: Part activist and part businessman - Tom Abate
  11. A.W.E. Global, Inc. - Advisors, KEVIN DANAHER
  12. Sfgate, Wednesday, November 5, 2003 - SPOTLIGHT / Kevin Danaher: Part activist and part businessman - Tom Abate
  13. Salon, April 29, 2015 Weeds are the future of healthy eating - Jason Mark, Earth Island Journal
  14. Imdb Kevin Danaher, Filmography
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