Beatrice Fihn

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Overview

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Beatrice Fihn born Gothenburg, Sweden November 17, 1982. Swedish jurist. Director of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), 2014-present. WILPF Reaching Critical Will disarmament project, 2011.

Quotations

“For it is insanity to allow ourselves to be ruled by these weapons. . . Ours is the only reality that is possible. The alternative is unthinkable. . . The story of nuclear weapons will have an ending, and it is up to us what that ending will be. Will it be the end of nuclear weapons, or will it be the end of us?. . . To all nations: choose the end of nuclear weapons over the end of us!” (Nobel address, Dec. 10, 2017; photo celebmafia.com)

Mari Fitzduff

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Overview

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Mari Fitzduff born Northern Ireland March 15, 1947. American-Irish professor of social psychology. Founded Northern Ireland Conflict & Mediation Association, 1987. Peace trainer and Director Northern Ireland Community Relations Council, 1990-97; leading to peace settlement, 1998. Director, UN/INCORE United Nations Ulster University Conflict Resolution Program, 1997-2003. Founding Director, Conflict and Coexistence Program, Brandeis University, 2003. Worked in Palestine.

Quotations

“However bloody it gets, you must talk.” (Times Higher Education, July 5, 2005; photo hellerbrandeis.edu)

Ethel Froud

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Overview

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Ethel Elizabeth Froud born Maidstone, Kent, England April 11, 1880 (d. 1941). British trade unionist; feminist; militant suffragist. Founded and headed National Union of Women Teachers, 1917-40. Promoted education for peace.

Quotations

“Deeds, not words.”

“The dreams of those that labour are the only ones that ever come true.” (Ox. Dict. Biog.; photo Wikipedia)

Connie Frazer

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Overview

Connie Frazer born Coventry, England September 18, 1925 (d. 2002). Australian poet and peace activist; feminist; democratic socialist. Founded Women Against Nuclear Energy (WANE), 1980; Women for Survival, 1983. Began antiwar protest against Vietnam War, 1970. Co-founded Green Left Weekly.

Quotations

the flesh-tearing hooves
under which we fell; the fused halves
of the mounted-monster man-horse, ancient
oppressor raised tall above us. . .
When there were protests, always
they brought out the horses.

(“Police Greys”)

Margarethe Fass-Hardegger

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Overview

Margarethe Fass-Hardegger born Bern, Switzerland February 20, 1882 (d. 1963). Swiss union organizer. Militant feminist, anti-militarist, and suffragist. Co-founded Socialist League. Led first women’s strike. Arrested twice for advocating birth control; sentenced to one year in prison. Founded three anarchist communes. Advocated abolition of Swiss army.

Quotations

“I devoted myself to a single purpose: Together with like-minded comrades to build this new society—to show you how to live together, cooperating without a wage system, without suppression—just in freedom.” (Farewell speech to union, March 31, 1909; photo margarethe-hardegger.ch)

Klara Marie Fassbinder

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Overview

Klara Marie Fassbinder born Trier, Germany February 15, 1890 (d. 1974). German radical pacifist; author; educator. Fired by Nazis for opposing anti-Jewish policies; fired by postwar government for opposing rearmament. Proponent of German reunification; co-founded West German Women’s Peace Association, 1952. Opposed both World Wars, Cold War policies, nuclear stockpiling, and the Vietnam War.

Solange Fernex

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Overview

Solange Fernex born Strasbourg, France April 15, 1934 (d. 2006). French biologist; WILPF leader; Gandhian nonviolent protester; member of European Parliament, 1989-94. Tented outdoors five months against French nuclear plant, 1975; underwent 40-day "Fast for Life" for nuclear disarmament, Paris, 1983; co-founded Green Party, 1983; opposed sending NATO to Balkans.

Quotations

"NATO is not the solution, it is part of the problem." (Peacework, March 24, 1999; photo nuclear-free.com)

Olga Fierz

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Overview

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Olga Fierz born Baden, Aargau, Switzerland July 26, 1900 (d. 1990). Swiss teacher and humanitarian; active in Czech Fellowship of Reconciliation and War Resisters International; honored 1964 as Righteous Among The Nations for saving Jewish children in Prague and postwar rehabilitation; co-publisher of pacifist magazine Brotherhood, 1924-42.

Quotations

“The words ‘war’ and ‘peace’ do not have the meaning they once had in the lives of modern peoples. War has become a technical feature of a cruel, mass human slaughterhouse. . . The world of peace is understood to be state of a mere cease-fire of mistrust and hatred, a resting time in which exhaustion collects new forces and new cash for arms. Can we really talk about peace in our world? In a society where you do not ask about exploitation or deceit? Real peace is when Love will live in all hearts, and when everyone will feel like members of one family.” (Brotherhood 1928-9, V pp. 2-3, thesis of Hana Moracová, p. 28; photo righteous among the nations)

Ingrid Fiskaa

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Overview

Ingrid Fiskaa born Bryne, Norway April 16, 1977. Norwegian politician and peace activist. Socialist Left Deputy in Parliament, 1997-2005, 2009-13. Spokesperson for Peace Initiative Against Iraq War, 2002-03; led protest against troops in Iraq, 2005. Led Peace Initiative, 2005-06. State Secretary for Environment and International Development, 2009; chaired Peace Support Group in Nepal, 2011. Led protests against NATO presence in Afghanistan.

Quotations

“We believe Bush is responsible both for the illegal war in Iraq and for the many war crimes in the aftermath of war.” (Nettavisen, March 17, 2006; photo arkiv.attac.no)

Colette Flesch

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Overview

Colette Flesch born Dudelange, Luxembourg April 16, 1937. President of Council of Europe 1980; Foreign Minister of Luxembourg 1980-4; Director-General European Commission 1990-1999 during four important events: united Germany joined EU, Maastricht Treaty 1992, single market 1993, Austria, Finland and Sweden joined EU; European Community observer of Rwandan elections 2003.

Quotations

"For us it [the fall of the Berlin Wall] was the reunification of Europe. . . One felt that Europe was restored." (SR Online, Oct. 22, 2010; photo Wikipedia)

Nicole Fontaine

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Overview

Nicole Fontaine born Normandy, France January 16, 1942. First woman president of European Parliament, 1999-2001. Urged Parliament to endorse, "positive non-violent measures to be put in place once the military action in Afghanistan is over." (World Tibet Network News, Oct. 30, 2001)

Quotations

"The policy of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth will lead to total disaster." (May 19, 2000)

"History has also taught us that the use of force and the will to power are not the lasting, peaceful and constructive solutions which our peoples long for." (June 20, 2001; photo Wikipedia)

Henni Forchhammer

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Overview

Henriette “Henni” Forchhammer born Aalborg, Denmark March 8, 1863 (d. 1955). Danish linguist and internationalist; WILPF founding member. Co-founded Danish National Women’s Council, 1899; served as its president, 1913-31. First woman to address League of Nations, 1920; Danish delegate to League of Nations, 1923-37. Delegate to Hague conference at which women appealed for arbitration, 1907; delegate to Ford peace conference, Stockholm, 1916. Traveled to Syria to aid Armenian refugees; presented petition of 400,000 women for disarmament, 1932.

Quotations

“Gentlemen, I appeal to you to ask your Governments to introduce legislation which prevents traffic of women and children. This traffic is a blot on civilization and is often criticized by nations which we call uncivilized.” (Dec. 15, 1920 to League Assembly; photo Wikipedia)

Isabella Ford

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Overview

Isabella Ford born Headingley, Leeds, England May 23, 1855 (d. 1924). English social reformer; suffragist; Quaker; labor organizer. Lifelong pacifist who opposed World War I;  WILPF founding member.

Quotations

"Women have more to lose in the horrible business than some men have; for they often lose more than life itself when their men are killed; since they lose all that makes life worth living for, all that makes for happiness. . . [T]he destruction of the human race too is felt more bitterly and more deeply by those who through suffering and anguish have brought the human race into the world." (Leeds Weekly Citizen, March 12, 1915; photo spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk)

Patricia Ford

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Overview

Patricia Ford, Lady Fisher (née Smiles) born North Down, Northern Ireland April 5, 1921 (d. 1996); first Irish woman member of British parliament; founded Women Caring Trust to rescue children from civil violence 1972.

Quotations

"[T]o help children and their families living in Northern Ireland most adversely affected by violence and community tension. The Trust. . . believes passionately that the best hope for peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland is on the ground and in the communities. . . [and to] promote cross community activities and reconciliation among children and young people." (Statement of purpose of the Women Caring Trust)

Ursula Franklin

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Overview

Ursula Franklin born Munich, Germany September 16, 1921. Canadian scientist; physics professor and philosopher of science; Quaker pacifist; eighteen months in a Nazi work camp World War II; leader of antiwar CanadianVOW; opposed NATO and Vietnam War; promoted conscientious objection; Pearson Peace Medal.

Quotations

"Peace is not the absence of war—peace is the absence of fear." (The Ursula Franklin Reader: Pacifism as a Map, p. 32, 2006)

"The struggle for women's rights and the opposition to militarism in all its forms are two sides of the same coin." (The Ursula Franklin Reader: Pacifism as a Map, p. 102, 2006; photo Wikipedia)