Meridel Le Sueur

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Overview

Meridel Le Sueur (née Wharton) born Murray, IA February 22, 1900 (d. 1996). Socialist; feminist; author and poet; defender of poor and Native Americans. Opposed Vietnam War, particularly the Honeywell Project.

Quotations

“Survival is the form of resistance.” (Civil disobedience, 1983)

“I think that every person has a responsibility of creating the image of the choice between death and life. Do we have to have inventions that threaten the human being? Aren't we here on this earth, this great green earth to create a human society?” (Sitting Around the Volcano, Jan. 1984; 1980 photo Wikipedia)

Maire Leadbeater

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Overview

Maire Leadbeater (née Locke) born New Zealand October 19, 1945. Second-generation anti-nuclear and human rights activist, daughter of Elsie Locke. Spokesperson for New Zealand Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, which earned a nuclear-free zone and ban on nuclear-powered ships. Campaigned for human rights in Burma, East Timor, Philippines, Papua and Indonesia; published Peace, Power & Politics: How New Zealand Became Nuclear Free, 2013.

Quotations

''There is a place for everything in the peace movement, I think. For some, it is about activism, jumping in front of ships, going on marches, those sorts of things. . . there is also the role of peace researchers and lobbyists.'' (Otago Daily Times, November 22, 2013; photo Nelson Envir. Center)

Mary Elizabeth Lease

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Overview

Mary Elizabeth Lease (née Clyens) Ridgway, PA September 11, 1850 (d. 1933). Populist lawyer, orator, suffragist, pacifist; Vice President World Peace Congress 1893; opposed militarism.

Quotations

"If men can not get along without the shedding of blood and putting the knife to the throat of a brother, let them no longer set themselves up as guides and rulers, but confess their self-evident inefficiency and turn the management of affairs over to the mothers, who will temper their justice with love and enthrone mercy on the highways." (synopsis of 'Peace', in Mary Engle, The Congress of Women, p. 413, 1893; photo Kansas Hist. Society)

Ruth E. Lechte

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Overview

Ruth Elizabeth Lechte born Melbourne, Australia August 8, 1932 (d. 2012). Feminist; environmentalist; peace activist. Founding staff member of Fiji YWCA, 1962. Spearheaded opposition to nuclear testing in Mururoa, leading to nuclear-free Pacific, 1968. Assumed position of Pacific Area Secretary of the World YWCA, 1974; delegate to various international women’s conferences. Awarded Order of Fiji, 1995, and Order of Vanuatu, 2009.

Quotations

“[T]he continuous action of French nuclear testing on Mururoa Atoll was a major threat to Pacific states.” (June 7, 1995, UNESCO Environmental Education in the South Pacific)

Cécile Lecomte

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Overview

Cécile Lecomte born Épinal, Vosges, France December 8, 1981. French environmental advocate and anti-nuclear activist. Called “The Squirrel” for climbing trees and bridges to protest and “air-aerobatics against nuclear transport.”

Quotations

“Nuclear power is not a solution to climate change. Nuclear power is a criminal industry that causes many victims worldwide!” (L’équreuille: actions; photo linkedin.fr)

Ann Lee

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Overview

Ann Lee (née Stanley) born Manchester, England February 29, 1736 (d. 1784). Founding mother of pacifist and nonviolent Shaker movement. Arrested for persuading men not to fight in American Revolution, 1780; accused of treason, jailed 5 months.

Quotations

“You never can enter the kingdom of God with hard feelings against any one. For God is love; and if you love God, you will love one another.” (Frederick Evans, Ann Lee, 1859, p. 149; photo http://bit.ly/Iz3pM4)

Barbara Lee

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Overview

Barbara Lee born El Paso, TX July 16, 1946. Only member of Congress to vote against Iraq War; US Representative for Bay Area 1998 led aid to Caribbean, global fight on AIDS; won Sean MacBride Peace Prize 2002.

Quotations

"A rush to launch precipitous military counterattacks runs too great a risk that more innocent men, women, children will be killed. I could not vote for a resolution that I believe could lead to such an outcome." (San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 23, 2001)

Muna Lee

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Overview

Muna Lee born Raymond, MS January 29, 1895 (d. 1965). “Poet of the Americas.” Promoter of inter-american cultural ties; lyric poet, translator and mystery writer; international feminist; first woman to address Pan-American Congress 1928; co-founder the first international organization for women’s rights, Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) 1928.

Quotations

“We, the women of the Americas, ask for a treaty granting us equal rights before the law. We ask this not for one woman, not for one country, not for one race, but for the women of Pan America.” (1928 speech to PAU, Jonathan Cohen bio; photo Wikipedia)

Mildred Robbins Leet

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Overview

Mildred Robbins Leet (née Elowsky) born Brooklyn, NY August 9, 1922 (d. 2011). Co-founded UNIFEM 1976; co-founded Trickle-Up against poverty 1979; founded African Action on Aids 1998; promoted International Peace Academy; Theodore Kheel Award of Institute for Mediation and Conflict Resolution 1985.

Quotations

"Every human being, no matter how beaten down, dreams of a better life and will work like a champion for it if given the opportunity." (African Action on AIDS; photo Wikipedia)

Miriam Leiva

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Overview

Miriam Leiva born Villa Clara, Cuba August 11, 1947. Cuban dissident journalist; co-founded Ladies in White protesting political detentions 2003; fired from Foreign Ministry 1992; sought reconciliation of US and Cuba; blog Cuban Reconciliation.

Quotations

“[T]he political problems that divide the U.S. from Cuba will never be solved through diplomatic isolation but through negotiation and engagement.” (Cuba Central, May 30, 2014; photo cubanuestra1)

Clara Lemlich

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Overview

Clara Lemlich Shavelson born Gorodok, Ukraine March 26, 1896 (d. 1982). American labor leader, noted for Uprising of 20,000 shirtwaist workers 1909; suffragist; pacifist Communist; organized American League Against War and Fascism in 1930s; protested nuclear weapons; promoted UN Genocide Convention; opposed Vietnam War.

Quotations

On 1951 trip to Europe: "Peace was the most important issue to all those European workers. We heard that everywhere we went. If any of us had thought that there was a danger of war from the Soviet Union or anywhere in Europe, we were convinced now we had been wrong. We were convinced that our job was to go back and tell American workers that if they too would struggle for peace, there could be no war.” (Jewish Life, Nov. 1954, p. 11; photo activists with attitude)

Vera Lengsfeld

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Overview

Vera Lengsfeld born Sondershausen, Thuringia, Germany May 4, 1952. Civil rights activist; politician. As peacemaker, co-founded Pankow Peace Circle, a nonviolent resistance organization opposed to the East German regime, 1981. Expelled from Socialist Unity Party for protesting the housing of Soviet nuclear warheads in East Germany. Arrested and detained by the Stasi for carrying sign quoting East German constitution ("Every citizen has the right to express his opinion freely and openly"), 1988; deported for one year. 15-year member of Reichstag, 1990-2005. Awarded Aachen Peace Prize, 1990. Protested the Gulf War, 1991.

Katharine F. Lenroot

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Overview

Katharine F. Lenroot born Superior, WI March 8, 1891 (d. 1982). Internationalist; child welfare expert. Head of US Children's Bureau; adviser to League of Nations on white slave traffic; president of 8th Pan-American Children's Conference, 1942. Aided European children in WWII; co-founded UNICEF, 1946; planned International Youth Charter, 1946.

Quotations

“We cannot put aside until after the war our concern for children. . . Ours is the twofold task of assuring a future for our children and rearing children fit for a future which shall be built upon foundations of justice, security and mercy for all.” (May 2, 1942, 8th Pan-Am. Child Congress; photo Social Welfare History)

Shirley Lens

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Overview

Shirley Lens (née Ruben) born Chicago, IL January 4, 1921 (d. 2005). Labor leader, teacher and peace activist; leader of Women Strike for Peace 1961; member of women’s peace delegation to Jakarta conference with Vietnamese women 1965; opposed WWII, advocating economic boycott.

Quotations

“We’re here to alert the American people to the horrors of the arms race. In the long run, we will change the minds of the people.” (Mother’s Day for Peace, Lodi News-Sentinel, May 9, 1983)

Mary Dennis Lentsch

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Overview

Mary Dennis Lentsch (née Elizabeth Ann) born January 30, 1937. Catholic nun, science teacher; arrested many times for protest against School of Americas (SOA) and nuclear weapons; 6 months in prison for SOA protest; imprisoned 2 months for protest at Oak Ridge atomic bomb factory 2002; jailed 20 days for Oak Ridge protest 2007.

Quotations

“I must proclaim my belief that the School of the Americas is an institution addicted to death and violence. My nonviolent acts of conscience at the SOA have deep roots in the public witness of my religious vows, as they have in my Christian baptismal promise to renounce and resist evil By my nonviolent acts of conscience I withdraw obedience to a system that supports violence and injustice and act in obedience to the God of love, peace and justice while accepting responsibility for my act of conscience. In a spirit of truth I believe I must honor and trespass boundaries as love and justice demand.” (SOA Watch, 1998; photo Dubuque News)

Doris Lessing

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Overview

Doris Lessing (née Tayler) born Kermanshah, Persia October 22, 1919 (d. 2013). British novelist; awarded Nobel Literature Prize, 2007; banned from South Africa for anti-nuclear, anti-Apartheid stance; opposed World War I, in which her father lost a leg.

Quotations

"We are all of us made by war, twisted and warped by war, but we seem to forget it." (Under My Skin, p. 10; 1962 photo by Stuart Heydinger, britannica.blog)

Muriel Lester

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Overview

Muriel Lester born Leytonstone, Essex, England December 9, 1893 (d. 1968). "Mother of World Peace"; pacifist writer and lecturer; Socialist; settlement worker. Opposed World Wars I & II as early member of Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1914; friend of Gandhi; interned by British in Trinidad, repatriated to Holloway prison in England, 1941.

Quotations

"The job of the peacemaker is to stop war." (1951, Richard Deats; photo levellers.wordpress)

Ewa Letowska

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Overview

Ewa Łętowska born Warsaw, Poland March 22, 1940. Professor of Law and expert in human rights. First Polish Parliamentary Human Rights Ombudsperson, 1987-92; National Ombudsperson, 1999-2002. Named Woman of Europe, 1993. Served on International Commission of Jurists, 1991; Judge of Constitutional Tribunal, 2002.

Quotations

“[T]he rights of women and men are equal but not the same.” (May 6, 2010, Kozminski University; photo trybunal.gov.pl)