SFSU Students for Peace Oppose War in Afghanistan With Public Performance

Amid increasing pro-war national sentiment on and off campus, a small group of San Francisco State University students demonstrated their opposition to the war in Afghanistan and the infringements on domestic and international civil liberties that have accompanied mobilization of the public to war.

Monday, Dec. 10 at 12:30 with a repeat performance at 12:45, the campus group Students for Peace enacted “Challenge the Illusion,” an interpretive street theater depiction of censorship and collusion on the part of government and industry combined with widespread indifference to war in Afghanistan by a public still numb from the shock of 9-11.

The scene on the Main Commons, a lawn between J. Paul Leonard Library and Cesar Chavez Student Center, was one of students passing time or walking between classes on brisk sunny day. As few as 40 onlookers witnessed either of the outdoor performances on a campus where Monday classes were in session and 20-foot U.S. flags hung from the top floors of buildings.

The performance opened to “The Star Spangled Banner” blaring from a stereo while blindfolded television viewers stared at a screen emblazoned with the flag. Opposite the TV viewers sat another blindfolded “victim of war,” while in between black-clad security forces led by a business-suited industry leader forcibly transplanted the viewers one by one to the victim’s side of the set. The climax of the piece consisted of an uprising by the victims against the security officers. The entire mass of performers lurched into the mock television set, which was broken into three pieces, each containing part of an anti-war, anti-complacency message.

After the second outdoor performance was finished, the players changed venue to Jack Adams Hall where tables were set up for an information fair in recognition of International Human Rights Day (commemorating the Dec. 10, 1948 adopting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the UN General Assembly; see http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html). Student representatives of such groups as the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International applauded the third performance.

Members of the group listed a handful of other campus organizations that have spoken out against the war since the second week of October. Among them were the Muslim Student Association, the Women’s Center, the International Club and the International Socialist Organization.

Still, SFP activists concede the overall effort on campus to articulate opposition to the war is lacking as it is in most sectors of American society. Writing for San Francisco-based Mother Jones Magazine on Oct. 17, Emily Huber and Jamie McCallum summarized the problems facing these and other activists when turning again to the larger picture of improving social welfare at home and abroad.

“Given the current national mood, there is clearly a possibility that any groups seen spearheading a push for peace could lose public support in general. Should that happen, some activists fear that the loss of goodwill may, in turn, encourage organized labor to distance itself further from those groups when the focus again turns to fighting globalization.”

Students for Peace organizers have worked on the performance project over the last eight weeks and hope to carry their expressive piece to larger audiences. The group sees its performance as a depiction of not only the war in Afghanistan, but the component of the war that exists in the U.S. Its concerns about war extend to U.S. sponsorship of military activities in Colombia, the destruction caused by trade sanctions on Iraq and support for U.S.-based multinational corporations exporting labor to nations whose governments are known for human rights violations.

Other SFSU Students for Peace efforts have included events tabling information that enables citizens to phone their legislators and express opposition to “Fast Track” trade legislation which allows the president to draft and sign trade agreements like the Free Trade Area of the Americas and other global neoliberal trade documents with only wholesale “yes vote” approval from Congress.

SFSU Students for Peace hopes to continue to present “Challenge the Illusion” in coming weeks.

For information or to assist with future Students for Peace activities, contact Carolyn Norr at 415/759-1905 or Marty Wood at 415/406-4379.

San Francisco State University Students for Peace
sfsusfp [at] sfsu.edu
http://www.sfsu.edu/~sfsusfp/

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