Ode To San Francisco State Strike

State Strike

Back in 1967
this radical girl
came to San Francisco State
from Community Organising

Link with SDS project
for housing, rent strike
and Baltimore students
also on campus

So joining SDS
at SF State
seemed so natural
with other projects

Spring’68 blossoms
worldwide struggles
from France to SF sit in
for ethnic admissions

September revives
zest for justice
Me now living
with my SDS guy

In telescoped time
we now return
somehow grandparents
Still partners in love

Back then Black Student’s Union
calls strike, sets demands
for department to study
hidden history, culture

Desire to define
their own destiny
In height of Black Power
BSU is leader

From the start
SDS backs strike
helps organise Committee
for White Strike Support

Now this may sound strange
but in emerging energy
for self determination
that was natural flow

Civil rights movement
exposed poverty, racism
clearly for all to see
desperate need for change

Police helped build strike
by beating BSU leaders
White students shocked
witnessing on campus
police treatment in ghettoes

More students joined strike
White Support Committee
As we picketed entrances
campus was polarised

Force field to do right
needed to make it happen
in our vision others students
part of solution or problem

SDS saw source of problem
propping up racism
as Capitalist ‘me first’
militarist system

At San Francisco State
more working class students
trained to keep system running
not to see bigger picture

In that larger view
white students being used
To help them see how
we formed department caucuses

In Department of Psychology
students critiqued skewed view
that mental illness is within
divorced from socioeconomic

When I gave MMPI test
to my SDS women friends
we came out actively antisocial
labelled ‘juvenile delinquents’

We saw role of psychology
fitting ‘deviants’ back into system
So drink beer, watch TV burnings
of Vietnamese kids as Viet Cong

In Nazi Germany
was sanity beating Jews
and madness protesting
or other way round

For me as a Jew
connection was clear
with KKK Black hangings
and Nazi exterminations

White Student demands
for change in their courses
brought understanding
support for Ethnic Studies

As weather turned cold
and professors struck
‘On Strike, Shut it down’
became a reality

Arrests at free speech platform
brought 450 down to jail
We women were processed
then put in large holding cell

Anyone seen as threat
like woman asking for milk
for girl with stomach ulcer
were put into solitary

From large holding cell
we began to hear screams
of scared young woman
picked off and confined

Alone in tiny cell
more frightening
than she could bear
she shouted to be free

When guards wouldn’t listen
we acted together
banging and chanting
‘Let her out’, ‘Let her out!’

Our call vibrated
throughout jail house
down to Bryant Street
supporter crowd below

In ‘69 Women’s Lib sprouts
with some men still laughing
saying women’s place prone
while others saw struggle link

Back in ’67 at SDS Conference
woman asking us to meet
brought uproarious laughter
still some of women gathered

Problem with no name
begins to have words
Why are we left in background
Mostly not taken seriously

When women like me spoke at rallies
some guys just saw body parts
their long legs or large breasts
excuse for eclipsing their words

But in this time of rising
from Civil Rights to Ethnic Studies
struggling against oppression
helped us see ours as women

Earlier at Anti-Slavery Convention
barred for being female delegates
Mott and Stanton were inspired
to organise for women’s rights

Strike women met when it ended
empowered by what we’d been through
Challenging old assumptions
exploring strengths, building movement

So the rebirth of feminism
was there in that holding cell
when, beyond fear, we chanted
‘Let her out. Let her out!’

Guards dragged over fire hose
put nozzle through bars
Sudden force of water
knocking us off our feet

Drenched, we regained balance
and guards did let woman out
Our solid action together
engine vibrating deeply

* * *

Forty year on lessons
power of energies united
Force beyond each one
belief in justice vision

Mass march together
Agit Prop Theatre
Running from police chase
hiding, swapping jackets

Scared facing jail unknown
but not wanting to disappoint self
be Germans just looking on at
packed cattle cars of human cargo

In that youth of belief
that we can change world
though seemingly impossible
shifts ripple through country

Now celebrate achievements
of College of Ethnic Studies
Women’s Movement growth
Peaceful prosperous Vietnam

Much writings of Strike, SDS
even England, Shoe Store School
Gordon DeMarco now passed on
Bob Biderman and I

I want to share lessons
of traps we fell into
perhaps could be useful
for generations now

Seeing in absolutes
that blinder limiting vision
to either all right or wrong
allows no way to come together

Sectarian in fighting
finally destroyed SDS
Though reborn in this time
of new student challenges

It was our condemning vision
part of problem or solution
No middle ground possible
Needing to prove we’re right

I used to work out of anger
feeling the force of its power
rush against social injustice
keeping me active in struggle

I just couldn’t trust myself
to work from kinder emotion
For my external anger
also turned in on myself

Internalised as Guilt
needing to prove I wasn’t bad
seeing badness all round
limiting love getting through

Over decades life taught me
that anger is not most effective
Healing my own inner pain
compassion naturally flowed out

Better way to hand leaflets
against Iraq War
Not pushing them at ‘others’
but handing each person peace

More people take leaflets
feel safer beyond judgement
to touch inner peace yearning
have common ground to speak

Listening, more important
than my talking to convince
in deeply hearing others
we find same core within

Then we see not separate
but interconnected
Poverty, racism hurts us all
in fairness we each benefit

Joy Magezis
joymagezis(at)yahoo.co.uk
October 2008
40th SF State Strike Commemoration