Group stops eating for 48 hours to bring attention to starvation in Afghanistan

ERIC M. JUKELEVICS/Arizona Daily Wildcat

Undeclared freshman Silas Montgomery, left, discusses American foreign policy and past U.S. military actions with physics post-graduate George Torrieri, right, and Tucsonan Bryon Lichtenhan yesterday on the Mall. The Progressive Alliance held a 48-hour fast in protest of the war against Afghanistan in front of the Administration building.

Eleven activists from the Progressive Alliance protested the war on Afghanistan by beginning a two-day fast on the UA Mall yesterday.

The 11 fasters, who are protesting alongside other activists opposed to the war, said the 48-hour fast is meant to draw attention to innocent victims of the war in Afghanistan.

Rachel Wilson, a graduate student in psychology and spokeswoman for Students Against Sweatshops, said she hopes that her fasting will bring attention to the United Nations' estimated 7 1/2 million Afghan citizens who will die of starvation this winter.

This amount, Wilson explained, is 35 times the amount of people that died in the U.S. attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 combined.

Wilson was quick to point out that the United States' humanitarian efforts to drop food from planes to aid Afghan citizens is not the most effective way to help the people.

"It's a joke," she said. "The way to get food to these people is not to drop it from planes."

Wilson said she feels the appropriate way to distribute food would be through ground efforts, which have "become impossible because of the bombing raids."

She added that the United States has not shown compassion in their relief efforts to Afghans. She pointed out that the color of the food boxes was yellow - the same color as the cluster bombs used by U.S. military until they were changed to blue.

Kitty Ufford-Chase, who works with the American Friends Service Committee, said she is fasting with students because she personally supports student activists.

"I am here supporting students in their work for peace and to raise consciousness about what is happening to the people of Afghanistan," she said. "I've never fasted before. I don't know how long I'll last."

However, Ufford said she truly believes in the cause.

"The means we are taking (in the war) are setting us backwards from where we want to be," she said.

She said she draws on her Quaker background, which has a strong history of women reformers, for her inspiration.

"Using violence just continues the cycle," she said.

Davida Larson, a women's studies and creative writing sophomore, was also on hand for the protest. She is a member of the Tucson Radical Cheerleaders, a group that performs cheers in support of activist events.

While Larson isn't fasting herself, she is there to support those who are.

Larson and other members of the Radical Cheerleaders used cheers such as, "Bush says more war! We say 'What for?'" to garner attention on the Mall.

"I don't believe in the war," Larson says, "Why promote more death and destruction? All I hear in mainstream newspapers is that everyone is united. There are a great many people in the U.S. who have anti-war sentiments."

The Progressive Alliance is comprised of activists from various campus organizations, such as the Green Party, SAS and White Lie, an anti-racism group. Twelve other college campuses nationwide are participating in a national fast coordinated by students at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

The Progressive Alliance's fast on the Mall will take place until noon on Friday, culminating in an eating celebration, Wilson said.

In addition to passing out flyers and making peace posters, the activists will hold a teach-in today at noon, on the Mall in front of the Administration building. The teach-in will feature five guest lecturers from various campus departments who will speak on the current international situation.

The Progressive Alliance is also sending five delegates to the University of California, Berkeley this weekend for an anti-war conference of 100 schools from across the west coast. The students will participate in discussions on issues ranging from racism against Asian and Indian people to the affects of the Sept. 11 attacks on civil liberties.