Leonie La Fontaine

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Overview

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Léonie La Fontaine born Brussels, Belgium October 2, 1857 (d. 1949). Belgian feminist; pacifist; WILPF founding member.

Quotations

"A lame peace would only cause new wars in a short time. I hope that the women of all the neutral countries see the dawn in each country a great demonstration in favor of Peace, and when Peace is signed all the women of the belligerent countries will join to create a formidable League which will not cease to work for universal Peace, and universal disarmament!" (April 26, 1915; http://bit.ly/wXsIZv)

“However, a day will come, and we do so strongly hope so, that women are called to stand besides men. On that day, and we are convinced of it, war will become impossible. On that day, militarism and imperialism will stop and we will be able to write in golden letters on the walls of our parliaments: ‘The United States of Europe.’” (Vrouwen in de Geschiedenis van Belgie—Google Arts & Culture, thanks to Sofia Sitvast; photo Wikicommons)

Gloria La Riva

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Overview

Gloria La Riva born Albuquerque, NM August 13, 1954. Peace and Freedom presidential candidate 2016, winning 60,990 votes; Peace and Freedom candidate for Calif. Governor 1994, 1998; strongly opposes US militarism and wars.

Quotations

“The wars waged by the U.S. in Korea, Vietnam, Central America, and the Middle East have all been wars of aggression. . . the Guantánamo prison and military base must be immediately shut down.”

“A socialist government would take the initiative to dismantle all nuclear weapons. Its foreign policy would be based on friendship, self-determination, and solidarity with other countries rather than the current one of threats and aggression against many countries. I call for the dismantling of the military-industrial complex, stop the sales of weapons around the world, end U.S. aid to Israel and support the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including the right of return.” (interview, Oct. 10, 2016, Independent Political Report; photo peaceandfreedom.org)

Hedwig Lachmann

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Overview

Hedwig Lachmann born Stolp, Pomerania, Germany August 29, 1863 (d. 1918). German Jewish poet; shared pacifist anarchist views of husband Gustav Landauer; opposed World War I.

Quotations

In tribute to nonviolent philosopher Tolstoy:
Like a prophet of the old covenant, altogether
Full of love in his grimness,
He raised a warning, as if from his mouth,
And yet, his voice is still healing.
Two [things] were powerful to him: the people and God.

(”Tolstoi”; photo ngyaw)

Margarethe Lachmund

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Overview

Margarethe Lachmund (née Grobbecker) born Woldegk, Mecklenburg September 17, 1896 (d. 1985). German Quaker who led north German aid to Jews; arrested in postwar East Germany; opposed postwar conscription and nuclear weapons.

Quotations

"I have had the deepest fellowship with people beyond all national boundaries." (Leonard Kenworthy, Some Quaker Pioneers, vol. II, p. 177, 1985; photo quaekernachrichten)

Joyce Ladner

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Overview

Joyce Ladner born Battles, MS October 12, 1943. Sociologist; acting President of Howard University; Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee organizer, 1960s; authority on Tanzanian women.

Quotations

"When we got into SNCC I would have been ready to fight some guy if he said, 'You can't do this because you're a woman,' I would have said, 'What the hell are you talking about?' A lot of the women in SNCC were very, very tough and independent-minded. . . We assumed we were equal." (Freedom's Daughters, p. 266; photo 1963 Vets of Civil Rights)

Winona LaDuke

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Overview

Winona LaDuke born Los Angeles, CA August 18, 1959. Native American (Anishinaabeg) Vice Presidential candidate for Green Party 1996, 2000; founded Indigenous Women's Network 1985; Reebok Human Rights Award 1998.

Quotations

"I will call for a demilitarization of American Foreign Policy, including closing down the School of the Americas, and to stop the major flow of American military aid to countries like Colombia. I would work to create self-sustaining peace and promote a dignified equity in Third World countries, including 100 percent debt relief. I will work for the establishment of a Peace and Reconciliation Commission modeled after South Africa's." (Indian Country, July 22, 2000; photo pcc.edu)

Marcela Lagarde

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Overview

Marcela Lagarde y de los Ríos born Mexico City, Mexico December 30, 1948. Marxist feminist and anthropology professor. Created concept of femicide, murder of women with government complicity. As Congresswoman, investigated femicide, 2004-06.

Quotations

“There is an undeclared war, called gender violence, of men over women, and the state has been key to the violence. . . We do not fight against violence, but work for PEACE.” (Evangilisers of the Apostles, Nov. 1, 2015)

“Feminism is a proposal of humanity.” (Shelly Grabe, Narrating a Psychology of Resistance, p. 128)

“The sum total of crimes against humanity consisting of criminal acts, kidnappings and disappearances affecting girls and women in a context of institutional collapse.” (report of Congress, in Eur. Parliament, Oct. 19, 2007; photo uv.es)

Selma Lagerlof

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Overview

Selma Lagerlöf born Mårbacka, Sweden November 20, 1858 (d. 1950). Swedish author; won Nobel Prize for Literature, 1909; opposed World War I; pacifist novel The Outcast published 1918; signed Anti-Conscription Manifesto, 1930; aided victims of Finnish War and Nazi refugees.

Quotations

"Learn to keep my fifth commandment, which is the commandment of love of neighbor and the key to all the others! Tell them that my millennium hanging in the east as a dawn! But how can it rise to heaven and tell the world, as long as I allowed Death to take his post in the big beast? For the great beast is war." (The Outcast, conclusion of Fifth Commandment; photo 1909 wiki pd)

Christine Lahti

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Overview

Christine Lahti born Birmingham, MI April 4, 1950. Actress and film producer. Spoke out against nuclear weapons, 1986; portrayed Vietnam War napalm protestor/fugitive in Running On Empty, 1988. Actively opposed Iraq War in Lysistrata Project, 2003; sent pink slip to White House, 2003; participated in Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day against war, 2009.

Quotations

"Cindy Sheehan is my hero. She is the hero of all Americans who make up the 62% of us who oppose this war." (Huffington Post, August 11, 2005; photo Wikipedia)

Harriet Burton Laidlaw

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Overview

Harriet Davenport Burton Laidlaw born Albany, NY December 16, 1873 (d. 1949). Suffragist; founded League of Nations Non-Partisan Association, 1922; Chair of Women's Pro-League Council, 1921; leader of American Association for the UN; promoter of Jeannette Rankin; great orator.

Quotations

"Only through mastery of the subject and devotion to a cause, added to human understanding, can ever make a speaker." (Brigance, Great Speakers; photo anon. Findagrave)

Catherine Lalumiere

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Overview

Catherine Lalumière born Rennes, France August 3, 1936. Secretary General Council of Europe 1989-94; Vice President European Movement International.

Quotations

"The State should be the principal custodian of human rights; its role is to respect and enforce those rights. But experience teaches us that it can be not only the protector, but also the gravedigger of human rights." (July 1993, UN Human Rights Conference, Vienna; photo Jean Monnet Foundation)

Myrna Lamb

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Overview

Myrna Lamb born Newark, NJ August 3, 1935. Feminist playwright led United Women's Contingent in massive protest of 500,000 against Vietnam War 1971.

Quotations

"[Women] have participated in and been key organizers of every antiwar march, just as we have been perhaps the most effective force in every movement for social change, in the history of the world. Most importantly, as long as this war continues, we cannot have the control over our lives which we need and are determined to have. As women, we constitute 53% of the population—we can be a powerful force in ending the war. Women in this country are challenging the right of the U.S. government to wage a war of slaughter and destruction in Indochina while it denies the needs of women at home." (April 24 flyer, Duke Univ. archives; photo doollee.com)

Amelia Lambrick

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Overview

Amelia Lambrick AKA Hypatia born North Melbourne, Victoria, Australia March 23, 1864 (d. 1956). Australian theosophist social reformer, and peace activist. WILPF leader. Lectured on nonviolent leaders Gandhi and Kagawa. Contributed to Peace for 1937 Australian Peace Congress, Melbourne, International Peace Campaign.

Quotations

“Peace stands for truth, justice, brotherhood, and these are the foundations of all true civilization.” (1937 Aust. Dict. Biography; photo people Australia)

Ellen Newbold LaMotte

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Overview

Ellen Newbold La Motte born Louisville, KY November 27, 1873 (d. 1961). Nurse; anti-opium crusader; anti-imperialist; experienced World War I as nurse in France.

Quotations

"We are witnessing a phase in the evolution of humanity, a phase called War—and the slow, onward progress stirs up the slime in the shallows, and this is the Backwash of War. It is very ugly. There are many little lives foaming up in the backwash. They are loosened by the sweeping current, and float to the surface, detached from their environment, and one glimpses them, weak, hideous, repellent. After the war, they will consolidate again into the condition called Peace. After this war, there will be many other wars, and in the intervals there will be peace. So it will alternate for many generations. By examining the things cast up in the backwash, we can gauge the progress of humanity. When clean little lives, when clean little souls boil up in the backwash, they will consolidate, after the final war, into a peace that shall endure. But not till then." (Backwash of War, 1916, intro.; photo c. 1902 by Mesny in Johns Hopkins Med Archives)

Monica Lanfranco

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Overview

Monica Lanfranco born Genoa, Italy March 13, 1959. Feminist author, journalist; nonviolence trainer; wrote Disarming Women about nonviolent women, 2003.

Quotations

“War between people, communities, nations, the world. It 'a certainty, today: from the fist to the holy war have not long to go.” (blog ilfatoquotidiano, Jan. 18, 2015)

“Obviously [nonviolence] is not easy: it takes great strength of will, cooperation, study, awareness, empathy, time, and patience. Certainly a weapon, whatever it is, it solves a disagreement quickly and offers its user an extraordinary power, that of life and death. . . we can, men and women together, build relationships and practices different from those used in the public domain.” (blog ilfatoquotidiano, Sept. 3, 2014; photo forlitoday)

Jessica Lange

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Overview

Jessica Lange born Cloquet, MN April 20, 1949. Actress who opposed Iraq War; UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador 2003, with mission to Congo to oppose violence to women.

Quotations

"I do not want my children to inherit the legacy of this war. . . We must remain hopeful that for our children and our children's children, that we are not a warring nation, but we will embrace and practice true compassion and honor the ideals of peace and freedom, and we will not give up. Peace!" (Democracy Now!, Sept. 26, 2005; photo UNICEF)