If Howard Dean is the increasingly the voice of Democrats in America today, activist Jodie Evans is the face of the Democrats' future. A radical activist and Democratic fund-raiser, she mirrors the Party's core on its three most important issues: hating President Bush, denouncing the war and engineering the L.A. Times' last-minute sexual harassment accusations against Arnold Schwarzenegger during the California recall election.
Evans rose to prominence via her role in Code Pink for Peace, a self-described “grassroots peace and social justice movement” formed just one year ago to organize public protests against America’s impending war in Iraq. Though its leaders benignly present themselves to the public as ordinary, concerned women who would simply rather “wage peace” than go to war, this group was in fact founded by four experienced activists and hardcore communists – Jodie Evans, Medea Benjamin, Diane Wilson, and a radical Wiccan activist calling herself Starhawk. Code Pink works closely with United For Peace and Justice, whose leader Leslie Cagan is a longtime devotee of Fidel Castro and the Socialist Party USA.
Jodie Evans also sits on the advisory board of the International Occupation Watch (IOW) center in Iraq, which Code Pink helped establish. The organizers of Occupation Watch -- Medea Benjamin and Leslie Cagan -- explicitly declared their purpose in setting up headquarters in Baghdad was thin U.S. forces by getting soldiers to declare themselves conscientious objectors.
Max Palevsky and his wife, Ellen
Evans’ ex-husband, Westside financier Max Palevsky, actually appointed Gray Davis to his first political job as the fundraiser for Tom Bradley’s 1973 Los Angeles mayoral campaign. Shortly thereafter, Evans and Davis worked closely together during the latter’s stint as chief of staff to then-governor Jerry Brown.
In the weeks preceding the recent California governor’s recall election, Evans was instrumental in convincing several women to come forward and tell the L.A. Times their allegations against Arnold Schwarzenegger. Moreover, she helped organize picketing sessions in front of Schwarzenegger’s campaign headquarters. Yet her purported concern for the protection of women is wholly subordinate to her partisan political affiliations. For instance, she had nothing to say about Gray Davis’ well-documented episodes of violent and obscene behavior toward female staffers. Nor, for that matter, did Evans impugn the ill-advised remarks of her friend Bob Mulholland, the California Democratic Party spokesman, who told ABC News that “Schwarzenegger is going to find out, that unlike a Hollywood movie set, the bullets coming at him in this campaign are going to be real bullets and he is going to have to respond to them.”
Jodie Evans & Arianna Huffington
Jodie Evans
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Jodie Evans
CODEPINK's "Stop the Next War Now" Book Tour
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This spring saw the release of CODEPINK's new book, "Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism", which Jodie co-edited with Medea Benjamin. The book is a diverse collection of essays from the peace movement's freshest, most dynamic voices, including Barbara Ehrenreich, Eve Ensler, Arianna Huffington, Alice Walker, Helen Thomas, Camilo Mejia and Jody Williams. Jodie is currently embarked on a "Stop the Next War Now" book tour.
Jodie co-created the first Dubrovnik Peace Conference in June 2000 and produced Shadow Conventions 2000, held in parallel to the Republican and Democratic national conventions. Every three years she co-produces the World Festival of Sacred Music, and in 1998 she produced the documentary Stripped and Teased: Tales of Las Vegas Women.
From 1973 to 1982, Jodie worked on the campaigns of California governor Jerry Brown and served as his director of administration. She also oversaw the Office of Appropriate Technology, ushering in breakthroughs in wind and solar energy. Between 1985 and 1990, she supported women candidates for federal office as a board member of the Women's Campaign Fund and Women's Political Committee. She ran Jerry Brown's campaign for president in 1991.
In the early 1990s Jodie opened the first environmental department store, Terra Verde, along with Tom Hayden and Cathryn Tiddens. Jodie serves on the boards of 12 non-profits including Rainforest Action Network, Dads and Daughters, Drug Policy Alliance, Bioneers, the Garden Project, Community Self- Determination Institute, 826 LA, and the Circle of Life Foundation.
A mother of three, Jodie is a harpist, gardener, and potter when not working to end war.