Lee Starkey
Women in Black

Lee Starkey was in DC "to protest so that not another half million Iraqis will die" as a result of U.S. foreign policy. "Oil" is what this war is about, she said. "Women in Black stands in solidariity with women all around the world for peace," she said, noting that issues in addition to Iraq include the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "So many people are suffering around the world, while only a few benefit" from existing political-economic arrangements. When asked what, if anything, the U.S. should do concerning well-armed, authoritarian regimes such as Iraq and North Korea, Starkey said "Negotiate!"

Lee Starkey's first involvement with activism was the civil rights movement in 1963. In DC October 1969, Starkey participated in the moratorium protest against the Vietnam War which drew 500,000, and has been active on issues like nuclear weapons and gay/lesbian rights issues in Maine for years. Like many from the 1960s generation protesting in DC against the Iraq war, Lee Starkey reports that her son, an activist with the International Socialist Organization, was present as well.

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