The joy of Anti-war/anti-consumerist Carols

I thought i'd be the first to post. This is a report of what my chapter did over our christmas break.

As students it is hard for us to remain active during our school breaks. For this reason several members the UIC chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (sds) made a commitment to stay active during the winter break. Yet it was hard for us to come-up with ideas of how this could be done. Collectively we decided to do something on the Magnificent Mile during the height of the Christmas shopping season.
This was meant to hit an audience that does not get exposed too often to the anti-war message, though many are probably sympathetic. We wanted the action to be fun, liberating and provocative. One of our friends suggested caroling using Christmas songs that had their lyrics reworked to be anti-war and anti-consumerist. And we decided on December 15th as the day of action. We then began collecting lyrics, for this we are indebted to 8th Center for Justice and many contributors to progressive websites who made their antiwar carols available to us.
The night before the action we gathered at my apartment for mulled wine and singing practice. The night ended with an impromptu folk sing-a-long and we all bonded. We rode the train together the next afternoon to Water Tower Place. At the corner of the building we sang together for about an hour, moving occasionally to avoid security. We got smiles, nods and even a few hugs. Surprising to me, we didn’t get a single negative response.
We understand that singing antiwar carols by itself will not end the war. But at a time when student activism usually goes dormant, we did something that at least made out group more cohesive. Surrounded by rampant consumerism, we reached through the veil of alienation and touched a few people. In addition this winter break we are preparing for next semester (March 20th/RNC), holding a progressive film festival and working in Chicagosds to strengthen the student in the chicagoland area. We only wished that we could stay longer, but after an hour we were tired and since I didn’t bring gloves, my hands had gotten quite frosty. So if we, as antiwar activists, are racking our brains as to what to do this Holiday season, I would recommend doing antiwar caroling. It can be done in your neighborhood or suburb and can be a great way to spent time with friends and comrades. It will bring joy to our lives and the lives of those around us. The action went so well that UIC-sds is planning on doing it again tentatively on Monday (17th).

In solidarity,
Ryan Donnelly
UIC-sds