March 5

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1870 Rosa Luxemburg born Zamość, Poland (d. 1919). Anti-militarist; revolutionary. Early Marxist critic of Soviet bureaucracy; opposed World War I.

  • 1882 Dora Marsden born Marsden, England (d. 1960). British feminist; suffragist; philosopher. Abused in prison for suffrage protests, 1910-11; opposed World War I.

  • 1885 Tracy D. Mygatt born Brooklyn, NY (d. 1973). Poet and playwright; absolute pacifist. Organized Anti-Enlistment League, 1915; co-founded War Resisters League, 1923; delegate for Campaign for World Government, 1941-1973.

  • 1910 Yun-Sook Mo born Wonsan, North Korea (d. 1990). Preeminent Korean woman poet, influenced by Tolstoy and Sarojini Naidu. South Korean representative to UN General Assembly, 1948.

  • 1952 Alicia Barcena Ibarra born Mexico. Biologist and ecologist. Chief of Staff of UN Secretary General, 2006; UN Undersecretary for Management, 2007; first female head of Economic Commission for Latin America, 2008.

  • 1954 Jasmina Tešanović born Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Serbian author, feminist , filmmaker who opposed Balkan wars; Women in Black; antiwar feminist; The Invisible Book, 1992; Diary of a Political Idiot re NATO bombing.

  • 1955 Dee Margetts born Fremantle, Australia. Australian politician; anti-nuclear activist. Advocate for aboriginal rights. Coordinator for People for Nuclear Disarmament, 1988-91; Green Party Senator, 1993-99. Opposed US bases. Opposed Iraq and Afghan wars, partly because of civilian deaths.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1991 Greenham Victory: US withdrew last Cruise Missile from Greenham Common.

  • 1992 Marie-Pierre Bovy organized International Fast Against Nuclear Tests across 13 nations for the Stop Essais Campaign.

  • 2003 Catholic Workers Martha Scarborough, Catharine Morris, and Joyce Parkhurst arrested for Ash Wednesday blockade of street at Los Angeles Federal Building.

  • 2014 Code Pink leader Medea Benjamin detained and deported from Cairo after Egyptian police broke her arm en route to women's conference in Gaza.

  • 2015 14 women arrested at Maldives airport for appeal to release former president.

  • 2015 In Jerusalem, 3,000 Women Wage Peace protesters circled the Knesset, demanding peace, chanting, "It’s reality, not a dream, women make peace."