Party for Peace in the Pink Light District

Judy Wicks, owner of the White Dog Cafe, hosted a Party for Peace in honor of CODEPINK and all of our female heroines on Friday night, June 17.  The party attracted over 107 guests and featured a night of dinner, dancing, and general merry-making.  

The White Dog staff created a "pink light district" by shutting down the street and stringing pink  light bulbs along the sides of giant white tents.  Inside the tents, partygoers decorated pink  peace flags and viewed an exhibit of posters about female heroines, including Stop the Next War Now contributing authors Barbara Lee, Shirin Ebadi, and Arundhati Roy.  

The block party began with a delicious meal of wild salmon, fuchsia-colored couscous, shrimp salad, and more pink goodies -- all organic, free-range, and locally grown. Several local performance artists shared songs and poetry.  Medea Benjamin spoke about the anti-war movement, the Downing Street Memo, and getting involved with CODEPINK.  


Cynthia and several other organizers of the local CODEPINK Philly group were present at the event and connected with many women interested in getting involved.  DJ Kim Walsh from No Macarena spun great beats, both old and new, and the crowd became wilder as the night wore on, donning pink wigs, forming congo lines, tangoing in pink attire, and having a lot of fun, the CODEPINK way! 

Biodemocracy Conference

The world's largest convention of biotech and pharmaceutical executives (BIO 2005) was held in Philadelphia this year, and hundreds of activists from all over the country flocked to Philly to resist their closed-door corporate agenda of bioweapons proliferation, genetically engineered agriculture, and health care for profit.  CODEPINK tabled at the Saturday festival in the park and Medea moderated a panel on bioweapons at the American Friends center on Sunday night.  For more information about the conference, please visit www.biodev.org. 

Activist Training Camp

CODEPINK held an Activist Training Camp at the Ethical Society on Sunday morning which was attended by 35 local and visiting activists interested in learning about organizing strategies and CODEPINK.  The day featured a media training facilitated by Adam Eitenger, and a direct action training led by Cathie Berry.  Medea and Rae facilitated a discussion on organizing 101 and Sam Joi coordinated a break out group about communicating with the "other" and seeking common ground.  Many participants left inspired to take action and strengthen the Philly CODEPINK group.  If you are interested in planning an activist training camp like this one, check out our activist training camp manual in the resource toolbox!

Protest at the BIO 2005 Banquet

Activists gathered outside the biotech conference opening gala celebration to protest the biotech industry. CODEPINK saw a ripe opportunity to make a fresh statement about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), and came prepared with giant tomato costumes, complete with fish shaped potholders, symbolizing the splicing of fish scale genes into consumer tomatoes to strengthen their skin and look.  Protesters staged an impromptu "die-in" by biting the GMO tomatoes as they danced around making villainous faces and cackling, and then passing out on the ground.  This action generated a lot of media attention.  The tomato costumes were used again in the large protest on Tuesday.