By SHAWN O'SULLIVAN

Daily News Staff

NEW YORK, Jun 7 '97 (Daily News) - Throughout its history, photography has played a role in documenting oppression, unrest and political upheaval.

So it comes as no surprise that when called on to rally for the cause of Tibet, some 80 photographers from around the world submitted pictures for an auction to benefit the U.S. Tibet Committee. The works, which will be auctioned on Tuesday evening, can be seen this weekend in the exhibit "Politics and Faith" at Gallery 678 on lower Broadway.

Why Tibet? As Chairwoman Bianca Jagger notes in the preface to the exhibit, the people of Tibet are subject to torture, imprisonment and death at a time when America has granted most-favored nation status to China. To remain neutral in the face of horrors is to condone them, she says.

Jagger herself has two chilling photographs of the massacres in Bosnia in the show.

Some of the photos take up the cause of Tibet specifically, as in Nancy Jo Johnson's brave shot of a Tibetan laborer reverently holding a photograph of the Dalai Lama, possession of which is a crime in Tibet. Or Steve Berman's amazing image of monks in Lhasa throwing rocks at a Chinese police station.

Here also are Sebastiao Salgado's famous gold mine workers in Brazil, a beautiful "stairway to heaven" by Joyce Ravid and some poignant moments:

Yunghi Kim's "Forgotten Woman" and a touching portrait of Winston Churchill by Larry Burrows.

Many of the images here resonate with the politics of daily life; the faith here is a faith in human action.

Gallery 678 is at 678 Broadway, 2d floor. Hours: Sat & Sun, 12-5. Admission: free.