Dominique Desanti

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Overview

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Dominique Desanti (née Anne Persky) born Moscow, Russia August 31, 1914 (d. 2011). French Communist author and Resistance leader. Leader of French Movement of Peace, opposing German rearmament and atom bomb, 1948. Author of Bomb or Atomic Peace?, 1950; We Have Chosen Peace, about World Congress of Intellectuals in Defense of Peace, Warsaw, 1949. Rejected communism after Budapest uprising, 1956.

Quotations

“For me, the Congress had something magical. It was a revelation. My first contact with the democratic forces of the world. . . 500 intellectuals of 45 countries.” (We Have Chosen Peace, pp. 111-3; photo paperblog.fr)

Nannie Dryhurst

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Overview

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Nannie Dryhurst (née Hannah Robinson) born Dublin, Ireland June 17, 1856 (d. 1930). British ethical anarchist; anti-militarist, anti-imperialist. Founding secretary of Subject Peoples [or Races] International Committee, 1907. Visited Georgia, supporting its independence from Russia, 1906. Held anti-colonial conference, London, 1910. Supported Stop The War movement against Boer War; active in Freedom movement and Freedom magazine; promoted Irish independence.

Quotations

“[We demand consideration] for those obscure peoples, for whose welfare so few care, and upon whom for long centuries the most wrong have been inflicted by men claiming to belong to the higher races. . . probing the cancer of modern civilisation.” (Federico Ferretti, Anarchy and Geography, 2018; photo libcom.org)

Birgitta Dahl

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Overview

Birgitta Dahl born Råda, Sweden September 20, 1937. Swedish sustainable development expert: member of parliament 1968-2002, Speaker 1994-2002, Minister for Energy 1982-90; UN delegate; opposed Vietnam War.

Quotations

"What we saw and experienced was incomprehensible, horrific—the results of the environmental war, of the electronic war applied on a large scale for the first time." (memorial to Helge Henschen, Aug. 29, 2002; photo www.varldsinfektionsfonden.se)

Daniela Dahn

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Overview

Daniela Dahn born Berlin, Germany October 9, 1949. German journalist and peace writer.

Quotations

“Wars are not won by peoples, only by governments. A minority gains exactly what the majority has to pay for. This has always been the case. But why have people put up with it for thousands of years? The longer one ponders the less can be grasped. Thinking is a quite rational affair, waging war on the other hand a quite irrational one.” (speech on Aachen Peace Prize, 2002; photo kultur-des-friedens.de)

Jeanne d'Albret

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Overview

Jeanne d’Albret, Queen of Navarre, born St. Germain-en-Laye November 16, 1528 (d. 1572). Daughter of peacemaker Queen Marguerite of Navarre. Ruler of Protestant kingdom during Wars of Religion, 1555-72. Principal negotiator of the Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, which gave Protestants right to public office, 1570.

Quotations

“To the valiant of heart, nothing is impossible.” (motto adopted by her son Henry IV, in Martha Freer, The Reign of Henry IV, 1861)

“[G]rant peace, with tranquility, to this realm. . . consider. . . the torrents of blood which must flow, and the iniquities certain to be committed during this cruel war. . . ” (letter to Catherine de Medici, Nov. 1569, in Martha Freer, Life, 1855, pp. 301-3, cited by Nancy Roelker, Queen, 1968, p. 334; 1570 portrait Wikipedia)

Kata Dalstrom

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Overview

Kata Dalström born Emtöholm, Kalmar, Sweden December 18, 1858 (d. 1923). Swedish author; Christian Socialist; communist; opposed World War I; anti-war leader in peaceful separation of Norway, 1905; later Buddhist and Theosophist.

Quotations

"Let the union go. The bridge uniting the workers of our two countries will never break down." (May 1, 1905; photo wikicommons pd)

Clare Daly

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Overview

Clare Daly born Newbridge, Kildare, Ireland April 11, 1968. Irish politician. Socialist Member of Parliament, 2011. Arrested for scaling Shannon fence to inspect US planes for illegal arms, 2014. Charged President Obama as hypocrite for supplying arms to Syrian rebels.

Quotations

“[T]this man is a war criminal. . . This is the man who has facilitated a 200 percent increase in the use of drones, which have killed thousands of people including hundreds of children. . . there certainly isn’t much peace [in Syria].” (Huffington Post, June 21, 2013; photo Irish Mirror)

Marie-Therese Danielsson

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Overview

Marie-Thérèse Danielsson born Le Thillot, Vosges, France October 18, 1924 (d. 2003). Ethnologist; recipient of Right Livelihood Award for campaign against French nuclear tests in Polynesia, 1991; leader of WILPF Polynesia.

Quotations

"There has been a gradual increase in French Polynesia of radiation-induced diseases such as leukemia, thyroid cancers and brain tumours." (Right Livelihood acceptance speech, Dec. 9, 1991; photo Right Livelihood)

Valentine Dannevig

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Overview

Valentine Dannevig born Tønsberg, Norway June 17, 1872 (d. 1962). Norwegian educator and internationalist. Sole female member of League of Nations Permanent Mandates Commission, 1928-40. WILPF founding member, 1915; founding member of Norwegian WILPF.

Quotations

“[T]he granting of female suffrage should be regarded as a right devolving on women in civilised States. The granting of the right of voting to Jewish women would eventually have an effect upon and raise the standard of the Arab women.” (June 27, 1933, League Mandates Commission; photo muse.jhu.edu)

Margaretta D'Arcy

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Overview

Margaretta D’arcy born Finsbury, London, England June 14, 1934. Prominent Irish playwright and actress; peace activist. Member of Committee of 100, advocating civil disobedience against nuclear weapons, 1961. Arrested for human rights protest, Assam, India, 1969; jailed 3 weeks for Women’s Day protest against imperialism, 1978. Directed Yellow Gate Women, a film celebrating Greenham protests, where she was arrested. Jailed 3 weeks for Armagh H-Block protest, 1979; spent another 3 weeks in jail for Women Against Imperialism protest, Armagh, 1980. Arrested at Shannon Airport for peaceful die-in protesting US military presence, 2012.

Quotations

“I am a whistle blower. . . The people of the World have said No to WAR.” (organizedrage.com, Sept. 19, 2013; photo feministbook.blog)

Thora Daugaard

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Overview

Theodora “Thora” Daugaard born Store Arden, Denmark October 22, 1874 (d. 1951). Danish editor, feminist, pacifist founder WILPF 1915; resolution for WW I cease fire; active in resistance to Hitler, aiding Jewish refugees.

Quotations

“We want war no longer. We no longer want it explained that we women are protected by war. No, we are raped by war!” (April 28, 1915, to founding conference; Report, p. 81; photo Danish Peace Academy)

Josephine Davis

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Overview

Josephine Davis (née Kowin) born England July 29, 1929 (d. 2012). Canadian peace activist; environmentalist; first vice-president of anti-nuclear group Voice of Women, 1960.

Quotations

“Since we are opposed to the whole concept of nuclear war, and since we feel that the further spread of nuclear weapons increases the possibility of a nuclear war, we feel fully justified in taking this stand on this basis.” (to Premier Diefenbacker, in McMahon, Essence of Indecision, p. 81; photo obitsforlife.com)

Mabel Dearmer

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Overview

Mabel Dearmer (née Jessie White) born London, England March 22, 1872 (d. 1915). Pacifist novelist, playwright and children’s writer and illustrator. As a Christian pacifist, she felt a duty to aid the wounded and died a nurse on the Serbian front of World War I.

Quotations

“This war will not bring peace—no war will bring peace—only love and mercy and terrific virtues such as loving one’s enemy can bring a terrific thing like peace.” (Letters, pp. 158-9; photo tetotum.ca)

Lucie Dejardin

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Overview

Lucie Dejardin born Grivegnée, Liège, Belgium July 31, 1875 (d. 1945). Coal miner, activist, and politician. Founded Belgian Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; co-founded Women’s Socialist League. Arrested by German occupation; sentenced to life in prison, 1915; released in prisoner exchange, 1917. First woman in Chamber of Representatives, 1929.

Quotations

“[Belgian women are] in favor of a Society of Peoples which would establish free trade, and of some sort of United States of Europe which would agree to have recourse to the League of Nations to solve all differences that might arise between nations. . . Pacifist women should demand a reform of education, children being still too often brought up and educated in a militarist spirit which easily develops a spirit of hatred for other peoples. Let the women of the whole world by their spirit of good-will and solidarity exert pressure on the governments. . . Women have it in their power to secure the peace of the world and make it permanent.” (May 1, 1924, Washington DC, Fourth WILPF Congress; photo www.1914-1918.be)

Carla Del Ponte

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Overview

Carla Del Ponte born Lugano, Switzerland February 9, 1947. Swiss Attorney General, 1994-99. Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, 1999-2008. European Community investigator of Kosovo organ thefts, 2008; Swiss diplomat, 2008-11. UNHCR mission on Syrian war, 2011.

Quotations

“[T]here can be no lasting peace in a society unless the criminal justice system is allowed to take its course.” (CNN, June 9, 2001; 2006 photo Wikipedia)

Maria Deraismes

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Overview

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Maria Deraismes born Paris, France August 15, 1828 (d. 1894). Leading French feminist and pacifist; founded Human Right, first Masonic lodge practicing equality 1882; co-founded Society for Amelioration of Women's Condition 1870; co-convened first women's rights conference 1878; promoted arbitration.

Quotations

"Elimination of women from universal suffrage necessarily means the prolongation of the warlike spirit."

"Armed peace is no less ruinous and demoralizing than war." (July 1883 petition, in Karen Offen, European Feminisms, pp. 175, 449, 2000; photo parisrevolutionnaire)