Lily Thapa – Engaging Peace

Poster at Rededication ceremony, Peace Abbey, July 29, 2018. Reprinted by permission.

by Kathie Malley-Morrison & Anthony J. Marsella

This fourth list of Living Peace and Justice Leaders continues our efforts to honor the life and work of Reverend Martin Luther-King, Jr.

These are increasingly dangerous times. Peace and social justice activists like those cited in our four lists help us find ways to resist rising fascism, racism, militarization, corruption, greed, disregard for life, and utter contempt for a universal moral code like the Golden Rule.

These leaders and mentors, and thousands of others like them, need followers but, even more than that, they need comrades–not comrades-in-arms but comrades advancing arm-in-arm to work for causes that benefit all of humanity and indeed life on earth. Learn more about these leaders. Support their causes. Do not bow down to tyranny. Resist.

Nyarwaya: Eddy Kalisa Nyarwaya Jr. Executive Secretary of the Rwanda Institute for Conflict Transformation and Peace Building; President of the Alternatives to Violence Program
Orlov: Dmitry Orlov, predicts cultural, financial, commercial, and political collapse in US and elsewhere.
Pauli: Richard Pauli, climate activist
Pepper: William F. Pepper, attorney, investigator of assassinations, represented MLK’s family in a wrongful death lawsuit
Pitt: William Rivers Pitt,Teacher, writer, political activist
Prasad: Surya Nath Prasad, writer, Transcend Media Services, supporter of universal peace education
Prysner: Michael Prysner: S. army veteran, political activist
Priest: Dana Priest,investigative reporter, Washington Post, Top Secret America book
Pulley: Aislinn Pulley, Chicago Black Lives Matter, African American leader
Quam: Lois Quam, activist for health care and the environment.
Reimer: Kevin Reimer, peace psychology professor
Richards: Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood
Richtman: Max Richtman, President/CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare
Schindler: Stefan Schindler, Peace scholar, poetry for peace activist
Seed: John Seed, Saving the Rain Forests
Stevenson: Bryan Stevenson, Slavery Museum
Stone: Oliver Stone, film maker
Sulik: Gayle Sulik, Breast Cancer Founder
Sundarajan: Louise Sundarajan, Indigenous Psychologies
Tatour: Dareen Tatour, Palestinian citizen of Israel charged with inciting violence with her poetry.
Thapa: Lily Thapa, Single Women for Human Rights in Nepal
Theoharis: Liz Theoharis Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
Todhunter: Colin Todhunter, writer, critic of international agribusinesses.
Toon: Brian Toon climate research
Torres-Rivera: Edil Torres Rivera, LatinoX Counseling for Social Justice activist
Townsend: David Townsend, J.D., Attorney, Mediator, Activist
Turbeville: Brandon Turbeville Writer for Activist Post, host of Truth on the Tracks, a weekly news roundup serving as a hub for activists, information, and solutions.
Tverberg: Gail Tverberg, Energy and Peak Oil Analyst
Vitchek: Andre Vitchek, revolutionary, internationalist, and globetrotter fighting Western imperialism
Vilkomerson: Rebecca Vilkomerson, Executive Director, Jewish Voice for Peace
Wagner: Richard Wagner, peace psychology pioneer.
Wallace: Timmon Milne Wallis, Director of Peaceworkers UK.
Ward: Eric K. Ward, long-time civil rights strategist
Wedler: Carey Wedler, Editor, Anti-Media
West: Doe West, Native American scholar, pastor, social justice activist, disability rights advocate.
White: James A. White Jr., Prisoner who started numerous educational programs for prisoners
Wolff: Richard D. Wolff, Author, Marxist economist
Yumbo: Elisvan Greffa Yumbo, Peruvian activist fighting for protection of Amazon waters from oil industry.
Young: Andrew Young civil rights activist, U.S. Representative, Pastor, diplomat, mayor, educator.
Zimoz: Sergey Zimov, climate change activist working to preserve life in the Artic

And remember to vote in November.

By Guest Authors Anita McKone and Robert J. Burrowes

Note from Kathie MM: Anita McKone and Robert J. Burrowes are life-long peace and justice advocates. They were featured in Kathie MM and Tony Marcella’s recent series, dedicated to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. , on peace activists. Today, Anita and Robert begin a guest series with inspiring stories of Nonviolence Charter members.

Ella Polyakova is the key figure at Soldiers’ Mothers of Saint-Petersburg in Russia. In Ella’s words: “When we were creating our organization, we understood that people knew little about their rights, enshrined in Russia’s Constitution, that the concept of ‘human dignity’ had almost disappeared, that no one had been working with the problems of common people, let alone those of conscripts. We clearly understood what a soldier in the Russian army was – a mere cog in the state machine, yet with an assault rifle. We felt how important hope, self-confidence and trust were for every person. At the beginning of our journey, we saw that people around us, as a rule, did not even know what it meant to feel free. It was obvious for us that the path towards freedom and the attainment of dignity was going through enlightenment. Therefore, our organization’s mission is to enlighten people around us. Social work is all about showing, explaining, and proving things to people, it is about convincing them. Having equipped ourselves with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Russia’s Constitution, we started to demolish this dispossession belt between citizens and their rights. It was necessary to make sure that people clearly understood that, having a good knowledge of rights, laws, and situations at hand, they would be able to take responsibility and protect themselves from abuse.”

Lily Thapa is the inspirational founder president, in 1994, of Women for Human Rights, a single women group (WHR) in Nepal. WHR is an NGO “dedicated to creating an active network of single women on a regional, national, and international level.” By working exclusively with and for them, WHR is dedicated to addressing the rights of single women and creating a just and equitable society where the lives of single women are strengthened and empowered. “Rejecting the label “widow”, WHR ‘issued a national declaration to use the term “single women” instead of “widow.” The word ‘widow’ (‘Bidhwa’ in Nepali) carries negativity and disdainful societal views, which leaves many single women feeling humiliated and distressed.” Working to empower women economically, politically, socially, and culturally in order to live dignified lives and enjoy the value of human rights, WHR works at the grassroots, district, regional, national, South Asian, and international levels. Lily has pointed out that there are “285 million single women in the world; among them 115 million fall below the poverty line and 38 million conflict-affected single women have no access to justice; these women are last.” Recently, Lily was awarded the South Asian ‘Dayawati Modi Stree Shakti Samman’, which is “presented annually to a woman who has dared to dream and has the capability to translate that dream into reality.”

Christophe Nyambatsi Mutaka is the key figure at the Groupe Martin Luther King, which promotes active nonviolence, human rights, and peace. The group is based in Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in central Africa, and focuses particularly on reducing sexual and other violence against women.