Helen Steven (19 October 1942 – 12 April 2016) was a Scottish

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

peace activist A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world p ...

and one of the founders of the Scottish Centre for Nonviolence. Her opposition to the nuclear submarine base in Scotland was recognised with the

Gandhi International Peace Award The Gandhi Foundation is a United Kingdom-based voluntary organisation which seeks to further the work of Mahatma Gandhi through a variety of educational events and activities. Aims and activities As part of its mission, the Gandhi Foundation ...

in 2004.

Life

Steven was educated at

Laurel Bank School Laurel may refer to: Plants * Lauraceae, the laurel family * Laurel (plant), including a list of trees and plants known as laurel People * Laurel (given name), people with the given name * Laurel (surname), people with the surname * Laurel (mu ...

and at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

, and worked for several years as a history teacher. She volunteered with the

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an Independent agency of the U.S. government, independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to communities in partner countries around the world. It was established in Marc ...

in Vietnam in the early 1970s, and traced her commitment to pacifism to her experiences in Vietnam. During the early 1970s she became Ellen Moxley's life partner. From 1979 to 1985, she was justice and peace worker for the

Iona Community The Iona Community, founded in 1938 by George MacLeod, is an ecumenical Christian community of people from different walks of life and different traditions within Christianity. It and its publishing house, Wild Goose Publications, are headquar ...

. With her partner Ellen Moxley, she founded Peace House in Braco,

Perthshire Perthshire (Scottish English, locally: ; ), officially the County of Perth, is a Shires of Scotland, historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore, Angus and Perth & Kinross, Strathmore ...

in 1985, providing training in peace, justice and nonviolent direct action. More than ten thousand people attended the course over a twelve-year period. During that time, Steven and Moxley chose to live below the tax threshold, so they would not have to contribute to funding the British nuclear arsenal. Steven later helped to establish the Scottish Centre for Nonviolence in 1999 in

Dunblane Dunblane (, ) is a town in the council area of Stirling in central Scotland, and inside the historic boundaries of the county of Perthshire. It is a commuter town, with many residents making use of good transport links to much of the Central Be ...

. The Centre closed in 2007, but during that time Steven was able to develop a non-violence module for a masters degree that was accredited by the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...

. In 1984, after being arrested for taking part in a nonviolent demonstration at the Faslane nuclear base, Steven said in her defence statement: "If I see that base at Faslane as morally wrong and against my deepest convictions – as wrong as the gas chambers of Auschwitz, as wrong as the deliberate starvation of children – then by keeping silent, I condone what goes on there". She refused to pay the fine and was imprisoned. In the 2000 book, ''No Alternative? Nonviolent Responses to Repressive Regimes,'' edited by

John Lampen John Lampen (born 1938) is a Quaker peace educator and writer. He is married to Diana Lampen. In 1987, he gave the Swarthmore Lecture, entitled ''Mending Hurts''. For twenty years, he worked with emotionally disturbed adolescent boys at Shotton H ...

, Steven argued that there was meaning in each and every act of resistance, no matter how small. One of the examples she highlighted was opposition to the

Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean military officer and politician who was the dictator of Military dictatorship of Chile, Chile from 1973 to 1990. From 1973 to 1981, he was the leader ...

regime in Chile, which finally fell after 20 years of solidarity concerts,

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

letters, speaking tours by Chilean refugees, and countless symbolic acts of protest. In 2002 she and Moxley retired to Raffin in

Assynt Assynt ( or ) is a sparsely populated area in the south-west of Sutherland, lying north of Ullapool on the west coast of Scotland. Assynt is known for its landscape and its remarkable mountains, which have led to the area, along with neighbour ...

in northern Scotland. They received the

in 2004 for their nonviolent campaigning against weapons of mass destruction. Steven delivered the annual

Swarthmore Lecture Swarthmore Lecture is one of a series of lectures, started in 1908, addressed to Britain Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). The preface to the very first lecture explains the purpose of the series. “This book is t ...

to British Quakers in 2005, on the topic ''No Extraordinary Power: Prayer, Stillness and Activism.'' Steven died in 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steven, Helen 1942 births 2016 deaths People educated at Laurel Bank School Alumni of the University of Glasgow Scottish pacifists Scottish women activists Scottish Quakers 20th-century Quakers British nonviolence advocates

Life

See also

References