Miriam Levering

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Overview

Miriam Levering (née Lindsey) born Pittsburgh, PA October 4, 1913 (d. 1991). Quaker pacifist. With her husband, headed lobby for Law of the Sea treaty, 1983; active in WILPF and World Federalists.

Quotations

“Of course, we have been involved in efforts to stop particular wars, like the Vietnam War. . . but we have also felt that a more fundamental blow to the war system would be struck by creation of alternative international institutions for peacemaking. And we felt the Law of the Sea Treaty was the best chance to make sane real progress we had had in many years.” (Chuck Fager, “A Friendly Letter”, Jan. 1982; photo amazon.com)

Denise Levertov

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Overview

Denise Levertov born Ilford, Essex, England October 24, 1923. Poet; anti-Vietnam War; compiled and edited antiwar poetry anthology Out of the War Shadow, 1967.

Quotations

showing forth
the human power
not to kill, to choose
not to kill. . . 
for the continuing act of
nonviolence, of passionate
reverence, active love.

(conclusion of "What it Could Be"; photo: arlindo-correia.com)

Rita Levi-Montalcini

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Overview

Rita Levi-Montalcini born Turin, Italy April 22, 1909 (d. 2012) Italian-American neurologist. Awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1986. Advocated education for peace in her autobiography In Praise of Imperfection, 1988.

Quotations

"[W]ithout peace, the human species ends. . . Peace is not absence of war. Peace is something that goes further, peace must be worked out and built. I said many times that war has been a monopoly of the male sex. Therefore, women have the most difficult task: to be builders of peace." (jakvydelat interview; photo nytimes.com)

Lucy Biddle Lewis

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Overview

Lucy Biddle Lewis born Sharon Hill, PA September 26, 1861 (d. 1941). Quaker pacifist co-founder of American Friends Service Committee 1917 to provide young Quakers and other conscientious objectors to war an opportunity to perform a service of love in wartime; co-founder and President of WILPF 1922-24.

Quotations

"From its inception in 1915, the Women's International League, made up of groups of women from the warring and neutral countries, all impressed with the wrongfulness and futility of war, has had a vision of a better world of understanding. This has been discussed in all our international congresses from Zurich in 1919 to The Hague in 1922, where we met to declare our firm conviction that only a new peace can save the world from the chaos into which it is rapidly sinking." (Advocate of Peace, p. 248, 1923; photo Swarthmore.edu)

Patricia Lewis

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Overview

Patricia Lewis born April 11, 1957. Irish-British nuclear physicist. Executive Director, Verification Technology Information Centre (VERTIC), London, 1987-97; head of UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDR), 1997-2008. Blix Commission on Proliferation, 2004-06; Center for Nonproliferation Studies Monterey Institute of International Studies, 2008-12.

Quotations

“[W]e can prevent man-made deaths in the 21st century. . . [willingness to use ] is the essence of nuclear deterrence; it no longer exists, if it ever did. We can say the same thing to war. Why can’t we look to abolish war?” (International Ecumenical Peace Convo, Kingston, 2013; photo chathamhouse.org)

Sabine Lichtenfels

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Overview

Sabine Lichtenfels (née Kleinhammes) born Münster, Germany December 27, 1954. Theologian and peace activist. Conducted social experiment in peace community building, Herrenberg, Baden, 1983-86. Co-founded nonviolent Tamera Peace Research Village, Alentejo, Portugal, 1995. Led 50 people on peace pilgrimage to Palestine, 2005, and to Colombia, 2010. Nobel Peace Prize nominee, 2005.

Quotations

“If we want to see a nonviolent Earth, we have to bring together the peace knowledge which is created and collected in many places on the globe for the construction of tangible peace models. The necessary globalization of peace can happen if young people worldwide can learn to build community, to resolve conflicts, and to offer nonviolent resistance successfully.” (The Global Campus// Creating Peace Knowledge for the Future; photo sabine-lichtenfels.com)

Sara Lidman

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Overview

Sara Lidman born Missenträsk, Sweden December 30, 1923 (d. 2004). Swedish novelist. Visited Hanoi in protest of Vietnam War. Early critic of apartheid; arrested in Johannesburg, Feb. 1961. Endorsed Russell War Crimes Tribunal, 1966. Opposed Iraq War and nuclear weapons.

Quotations

“There are villains in this world. But also wonderful people. If you meet one last of the kind, it will last a lifetime.” (Your Servant Hear, 1977; 1960 photo wikicommons)

Sally Lilienthal

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Overview

Sally Lilienthal (née Lowengart) born Portland, OR December 19, 1919 (d. 2006). American peace advocate and philanthropist; sculptor. Founded anti-nuclear grantmaking organization Ploughshares Fund, 1981. Vice-chairwoman of Amnesty International the year it won the Nobel Peace Prize, 1977. Major supporter of Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines, 1997.

Quotations

"The possibility of a nuclear war was the very worst problem in the world." (San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 16, 2006; photo Wikipedia)

Jutta Limbach

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Overview

Jutta Limbach born Berlin, Germany March 27, 1934. Democratic Socialist jurist and law professor. First female president of German Federal Court, 1994-2002; argued for rights of minorities.

Quotations

“To change the world in the spirit of human rights, we must dream more deeply and be more awake in our actions. The commitment to the inviolability of human dignity in our Basic Law is the normative idea that will challenge us to do so.” (speech at Canadian Embassy, Aug. 3, 2005; photo Wikipedia)

Susan Lindauer

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Overview

Susan Lindauer born January 11, 1962. Peace activist; journalist; opposed Iraq War. Arrested for alleged espionage, 2004.

Quotations

"There was a peace option on the table that had been developed over a two-year period before the war, a comprehensive peace framework. It included cooperation on anti-terrorism; it included the weapons inspections, of course." (Barrett interview, Jan. 8, 2011; photo http://bit.ly/HV7tEm)

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

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Overview

Anne Morrow Lindbergh born Englewood, NJ June 22, 1906 (d. 2001). Daughter of outstanding diplomat; wife of celebrated flyer; her anti-war book Wave of the Future (1940) regarded as pro-German.

Quotations

"There was nothing worse than 'the blind, stupid, terrible chaos of war.'" (The Flower and the Nettle: Diaries, p. xxvi, 1976; photo qcpages.qc.edu)

Anna Lindh

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Overview

Anna Lindh born Enskede, Sweden June 19, 1957 (assassinated 2003). Swedish Foreign Minister 1998-2003, pushed European unity; opposed Iraq War and Israeli policy toward Palestinians; peacemaker in Macedonian crisis 2001; she had been active opponent of Vietnam War, Apartheid and arms race.

Quotations

"Poverty does not make people terrorists, but terrorists can exploit the frustration it creates and use it as a breeding ground for violent ideas." (Helsinki, Dec. 4, 2002)

Anna Lindhagen

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Overview

Anna Lindhagen born Stockholm, Sweden April 7, 1870 (d. 1941). Swedish Social Democrat politician, social reformer, suffragist; founded Sweden's Women's Peace Society 1898; delegate to founding of WILPF; active in Save the Children working with refugees after World War I; pioneer in urban gardening.

Quotations

"We need more justice and beauty in the world, greater organization and justice in the workplace. Only that is worth striving for." (Carlson plaque Stockholm; photo Wikipedia)

Evelin Lindner

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Overview

Evelin Lindner born Hameln, Lower Saxony, Germany May 13, 1954. “Global citizen.” Norwegian psychologist and peace advocate; MD, PhD. Leader in humiliation studies; founded Better Global Understanding, 1993. Published Making Enemies: Humiliation and International Conflict, 2006.

Quotations

“The world is shrinking and more people are coming to realize that we're one family who must jointly take care of this planet.” (interview, SIETAR Japan Newsletter, Fall 2006, p. 26; photo Wikipedia)

Lucy R. Lippard

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Overview

Lucy R. Lippard born Bronx, NY April 14, 1933. Antiwar art historian; feminist. Opposed Vietnam and Central America wars.

Quotations

"We live under a virtual dictatorship masquerading as a democracy and the corporate war machine has become infinitely powerful and profitable." (essay on Iraq War, October, Winter 2008; photo dada.compart-bremen.de)

Elizabeth Lira

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Overview

Elizabeth Lira Kornfeld born Santiago, Chile April 5, 1944. Professor of Psychology; worked with victims of torture Chile, Salvador 1992-96, Guatemala 1999-2001; promoted postwar political reconciliation in Latin America.

Quotations

"[H]uman beings can live in peace, without wars and without misery. With a growing sense of personal dignity in all corners of the planet. The sense of one's own dignity and the recognition of the dignity of the other is the most important condition of peaceful coexistence in families and in society." (1325 Mujeres tejiendo Lira; photo faculdad dereehio)