PANEL: Rainforest Radicals and the History of Rainforest Action Network

This past week, we organized a panel discussion about how ordinary people can change international systems of corporate and social injustice.

Listen in:

For more than forty years, Rainforest Action Network (RAN) has excelled at using peaceful civil disobedience, local and international organizing, and strategic communications to change the destructive behavior of some of the world’s biggest banks and corporations. As a result, rainforest conservation became a fixture in American popular culture, the rights of Indigenous peoples emerged as a key area of negotiation in the management of ancestral homelands, and some of the largest companies on the planet now face accountability for their role in our climate and biodiversity crises.

Many of the strategies pioneered by Rainforest Action Network are used by social and environmental movements today. As we see new large-scale resistance from the massive No Kings mobilizations; the anti-data center movements; and fierce resistance to ICE in Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis, we know that communities and movements are fighting back. In 2026, the history of corporate campaigns and transnational organizing is more important than ever.

Panel included:

Panelist Bio– Prof. David Benac is an environmental and public historian of the post-WWII United States at Western Michigan University. His research investigates how people act on their perceptions of nature, the science of ecology, and the philosophy of eco-centrism. He is author of Rainforest Radicals: A History of Rainforest Action Network and Transnational Organizing.

Panelist Bio– Randy Hayes, described as an “environmental pit bull” by The Wall Street Journal, founded Rainforest Action Networklaunching major global campaigns to shift corporations and banks. He currently directs Foundation Earth, — Rethinking society from the ground up! with a focus on five societal systems and campaigns to shift to a better world.

Panelist Bio– Njambi Good is a seasoned non-profit leader with over 20 years of experience designing and implementing successful advocacy campaigns. She’s been Rainforest Action Network’s Deputy Executive Director since March 2023.

Panelist Bio-Pamela Wellner is the Chief Strategist at Amplify Eco. She has directed cutting-edge sustainability and human rights campaigns for organizations such as Rainforest Action Network, Plastics and Climate Project, Health Care Without Harm, ClimateWorks, Solar AquaGrid, Center for Sustainable Energy, Greenpeace, and Fauna and Flora International.

Moderator Bio– Prof. Robert Buzzanco is co-host of the Green and Red Podcast, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Houston, and author of Masters of War: Military Dissent and Politics in the Vietnam Era, Vietnam and the Transformation of American Life, and American Power, American People.