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Sparking a movement: Medea Benjamin fires up the crowd at a recent rally. Pilgrim's Progress Medea Benjamin will speak at 4th annual Progressive Festival By Greg Cahill Medea Benjamin will speak Sunday, Sept. 2, at the fourth annual Progressive Festival, at Walnut Park on the corner of Petaluma Boulevard South and D Street in Petaluma. Speakers at this year's festival will focus on community issues: the energy crisis, a living wage, health care, toxic spraying, and water, as well as perspectives on media reporting of international events. The event is billed as a Labor Day celebration of the people who do the work. About 50 social justice, environmental, and community organizations will have booths/tables with information. Andrea Lewis, KPFA-FM co-host of The Morning Show, will MC this year's event. Other speakers include Richard Becker, co-director of the International Action Center, founded by former Attorney General Ramsey Clark; Salvador Mendoza, head of the United Farm Workers in Sonoma County; Peter Phillips, director of Project Censored at Sonoma State University; Betty Woods, a representative of the California Nurses Association; Miguel "Gavilan"Molina, a Graton resident who is the programmer of KPFA's La Onda Bahita; Joel Beinin, professor of Middle East history at Stanford University; Petaluma City Councilmember Pam Torliatt, who will talk about Sonoma County's water problems and how to fix them without harming the Russian River; Bohemian contributing writer Shepherd Bliss of the No Spray Action Network; Martin Bennett of the North Bay Living-Wage Campaign; and folksingers U. Utah Phillips and Faith Petrick. The fourth annual Progressive Festival, running from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., is sponsored by the Petaluma Progressives and the Peace and Justice Center of Sonoma County. Admission is free. For more information, or if your organization would like to participate with a table at the event, call 707/763-8134. [ North Bay | Metroactive Central | Archives ]