The Third World Liberation Strike that occurred at San Francisco State University marked its 40th anniversary this month. This was a very critical and significant strike because one of the major results was the creation of the only College of Ethnic Studies to exist in the United States. Back in 1968, students protested for education on ethnic studies as a result of the civil rights movement going on in San Francisco with the huge opposition of the Vietnam War. They led the longest college strike in the nation’s history but it was effective as an ethnic studies program was created to educate students about a variety of cultures.
I thought that marking the 40th anniversary of the Third World Liberation Strike with a bunch of events taking place over the course of four days was an effective way to inform others about remembering the strike. Not only was the celebration giving a reminder but it was also honoring those who endured pain to stand up for what they believed in to get ethnic studies classes that we have today. The anniversary celebration now comes at a time when Asian American studies classes are threatening to be cut. This semester there are 4 classes on Asian American culture with about 50 students enrolled in each class. However, due to the statewide budget cuts on education, Asian American studies classes like Asian American culture will be cut down to about 2 classes with about 100 students in each class. I feel like having so many students in one class to learn about Asian American culture is not an effective way for students to actually learn about Asian American culture. Students need to interact and work with others in these types of classes, and with an environment of about 100 students, making that happen is hard or even making that happen will not work at all. I am grateful for the efforts of the strikers because I am being educated about my culture, one of the important aspects that I will always have because my culture has roots from the past and present that make me who I am and how I perceive other cultures. If the strike did not occur, I would not know much about my culture as I do now and the only taste of cultural experience that I would get is through my family and friends. I would never fully understand culture, even though I have experienced it a countless number of times. The celebration is awesome and fun in the way that a mix of different Asian American groups are represented through performances, student panels, lectures, exhibits, and demonstrations-all interesting events that should not be missed.
Our ETHS 210 class did a Cultural Guerilla class Invasian of the entire campus with the theme of remembering 1968 Third World Liberation Strike. My group, Just So Sick Girls, teamed up with the Warriors to spread poetry throughout the entire campus by using quotes about the strike and writing them on boards. We each paired up and had our own campus building to invade. Gelline and I met up at 7 AM and we wrote on chalkboards and white boards in empty classrooms in the HSS building. I used the quote “We saw the police striking out in a sadly strange fury. Each time the baton fell on bone, the pain was felt by all of us” written by Kay Boyle in “Testament for my Students” and Gelline used quotes from the poem that she wrote about the strike. We were afraid that someone would catch us, but luckily nobody did. I thought that the experience was really fun because we were doing something creative to inform others about the strike and it was a good way to get others to think about the strike 40 years ago. It was not something boring to do for our midterm, like write an essay or read a book, but instead the experience was actually doing something big and influential and I liked that. For the rest of the groups in our class, I liked how they spread the message through their t-shirts, fashion show freeze frame, and giving their own thoughts about the strike. The entire class was letting others know about the big deal of the strike, and we were doing it in an effective and dramatic way. It took some courage and effort to spread the word but we all managed to do what we had to do. This 40th anniversary celebration of the 1968 Third World Liberation Strike will be one to remember because of the events going on, what occurred and resulted from the strike, and what our class did to contribute to its remembrance.
