Kevin Danaher is an American author and

anti-globalization The anti-globalization movement or counter-globalization movement, is a social movement critical of economic globalization. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalist m ...

activist. With his wife

Medea Benjamin Medea Benjamin (born Susan Benjamin; September 10, 1952) is an American political activist who was the co-founder of Code Pink with Jodie Evans and others.

and activist Kirsten Irgens-Moller, he co-founded

Global Exchange Global Exchange was founded in 1988 and is an advocacy group, human rights organization, and a 501(c)(3) organization, based in San Francisco, California, United States. The group defines its mission as, "to promote human rights and social, econo ...

, a social justice and anti-globalization

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

based in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. 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 The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California syste ...

Early life and education

Kevin Danaher was born in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, on July 11, 1950. 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 The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief tha ...

. In a 2003 article for ''

Sfgate The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The p ...

'' 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 The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, 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 Los Gatos (, ; ) is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population is 33,529 according to the 2020 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area just southwest of San Jose in the foothills of the ...

, where he settled. Danaher attended

De Anza College De Anza College is a public community college in Cupertino, California. It is part of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District, which also administers Foothill College in nearby Los Altos Hills, California. The college is named after the ...

Cupertino Cupertino ( ) is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The population was 57,8 ...

for a time, followed by attending

Sonoma State University Sonoma State University (SSU, Sonoma State, or Sonoma) is a public university in Rohnert Park in Sonoma County, California, US. It is one of the smallest members of the California State University (CSU) system. Sonoma State offers 92 Bachelor's d ...

, where he graduated with an undergraduate degree in sociology. Following this, he obtained a Ph.D. from the

, writing his thesis on the boycott movement against the apartheid regime of South Africa.

Personal life

He married in 1985 to wife Medea Benjamin, who comes from Long Island, New York. They have two daughters.

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. He has been critical and vocal about the invasion of Iraq. Along with

Scott Ritter William Scott Ritter Jr. (born July 15, 1961) is an American author and pundit and a former United States Marine Corps intelligence officer and United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) weapons inspector. He served as a junior military analyst d ...

Daniel Ellsberg Daniel Ellsberg (born April 7, 1931) is an American political activist, and former United States military analyst. While employed by the RAND Corporation, Ellsberg precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the ''Pent ...

Jody Williams Jody Williams (born October 9, 1950) is an American political activist known for her work in banning anti-personnel landmines, her defense of human rights (especially those of women), and her efforts to promote new understandings of security i ...

Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...

, and

Medea Benjamin Medea Benjamin (born Susan Benjamin; September 10, 1952) is an American political activist who was the co-founder of Code Pink with Jodie Evans and others.

, he appeared in the film '' Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire''.

Professional background

From 1979 to 1983, Danaher was with

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

in Washington, DC, as an

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, however the genera ...

. By 1982, he had earned a Ph.D. in sociology at UC Santa Cruz. In 1984, having moved back to the Bay Area, he was working with

Food First Food First, also known as the Institute for Food and Development Policy, is a nonprofit organization based in Oakland, California, USA. Founded in 1975 by Frances Moore Lappé and Joseph Collins, it describes itself as a "people's think tank an ...

as a senior analyst.

Bibliography

*''Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grassroots''. With Shannon Biggs and Jason Dove Mark. (September 2007) PoliPoint Press. *''Insurrection: The Citizen Challenge to Corporate Power''. With Jason Dove Mark, foreword by

Arianna Huffington Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington (née Ariadnē-Anna Stasinopoúlou, el, Αριάδνη-Άννα Στασινοπούλου ; born July 15, 1950) is a Greek-American author, syndicated columnist and businesswoman. She is a co-founder of ''Th ...

. (2003)

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...

. ''Salon'', April 29, 201
Weeds are the future of healthy eating - Jason Mark, Earth Island Journal
/ref> *''10 reasons to abolish the IMF & World Bank''. Foreword by Anuradha Mittal. (2001) Seven Stories. *''Globalize This! The Battle Against the World Trade Organization and Corporate Rule'' with Roger Burbach. (2000) Common Courage Press. *''Corporations Are Gonna Get Your Mama: Globalization and the Downsizing of the American Dream''. (1997) Common Courage Press. *''Fifty Years is Enough: The Case Against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund''. (1994)

South End Press South End Press was a non-profit book publisher run on a model of participatory economics. It was founded in 1977 by Michael Albert, Lydia Sargent, Juliet Schor, among others, in Boston's South End. It published books written by political activi ...

Filmography

References

External links

Interview with Kevin Danaher on Globalism and Its Discontents

www.youtube.com − 2008 Interview with Kevin Danaher
on ''Building the Green Economy'' (27 minutes)
Green Festivals Home Page

Global Citizen Center Home Page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Danaher, Kevin Activists from the San Francisco Bay Area American anti-globalization writers American male non-fiction writers Anti-globalization activists Living people 1950 births Sonoma State University alumni University of California, Santa Cruz alumni American male bass guitarists