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Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)



 
 
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was, historically, a student activist
Student activism

Student activism is work done by students to effect political, environmental, economic, or social change. It has often focused on making changes in schools, such as increasing student influence over curriculum or improving educational funding....
 movement in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left
New Left

The New Left were the left-wing movements in different countries in the 1960s and 1970s that, unlike the earlier leftist focus on labour movement activism, instead adopted a broader definition of political activism commonly called social activism....
. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969.

SDS was the organizational high point for student radicalism in the United States and has been an important influence on student organizing in the decades since its collapse.






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Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was, historically, a student activist
Student activism

Student activism is work done by students to effect political, environmental, economic, or social change. It has often focused on making changes in schools, such as increasing student influence over curriculum or improving educational funding....
 movement in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left
New Left

The New Left were the left-wing movements in different countries in the 1960s and 1970s that, unlike the earlier leftist focus on labour movement activism, instead adopted a broader definition of political activism commonly called social activism....
. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969.

SDS was the organizational high point for student radicalism in the United States and has been an important influence on student organizing in the decades since its collapse. Participatory democracy
Participatory democracy

Participatory democracy, sometimes called "direct democracy," is a process promoted by the New Left in the early 1960's and on through the 1980's, emphasizing the broad participation of constituents in the direction and operation of political systems....
, direct action
Direct action

Direct action is politically motivated activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political goals outside of normal social/political channels....
, radicalism, student power, shoestring budgets, and its organizational structure are all present in varying degrees in current national student activist groups. Though various organizations have been formed in subsequent years as proposed national networks for left-wing student organizing, none has approached the scale of SDS, and most have lasted a few years at best.

Origins

SDS developed from the Student League for Industrial Democracy (SLID), the youth branch of a socialist educational organization known as the League for Industrial Democracy
League for Industrial Democracy

The League for Industrial Democracy was founded in 1905 by a group of notable socialists including Jack London, Norman Thomas, Upton Sinclair, and James Phelps Stokes....
 (LID). LID descended from the Intercollegiate Socialist Society, started in 1905. Early in 1960, SLID decided to change its name into SDS. The phrase “industrial democracy” sounded too narrow and too labor oriented, making it more difficult to recruit students. Moreover, because the LID's leadership did not correspond to the expectations and the mood on the campuses, the SLID felt the need to dissociate itself from its parent organization. SDS held its first meeting in 1960 at Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County, Michigan. It is the state's seventh largest city with a population of 114,024 as of the 2000 United States Census, of which 36,892 are university or college students....
, where Alan Haber was elected president. Its political manifesto, known as the Port Huron Statement
Port Huron Statement

The Port Huron Statement is the manifesto of the American student activism movement Students for a Democratic Society , written primarily by Tom Hayden, then the Field Secretary of SDS, and completed on June 15, 1962 at an SDS convention in Port Huron, Michigan....
, was adopted at the organization's first convention in 1962, based on an earlier draft by staff member Tom Hayden
Tom Hayden

Thomas Emmet Hayden is an United States social and political activism and politician, most famous for his involvement in the anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s....
.

The Port Huron Statement
Port Huron Statement

The Port Huron Statement is the manifesto of the American student activism movement Students for a Democratic Society , written primarily by Tom Hayden, then the Field Secretary of SDS, and completed on June 15, 1962 at an SDS convention in Port Huron, Michigan....
 criticized the political system of the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 for failing to achieve international peace and critiqued Cold War
Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state of conflict, tension and competition that existed between a number of world powers, including the United States, the Soviet Union, People's Republic of China, France, United Kingdom and those countries' respective allies from the mid-1940s to the early 1990s....
 foreign policy
Foreign policy

A state's foreign policy, also called the international relations policy, is a set of goals outlining how the country will interact with other countries economically, politically, socially and militarily, and to a lesser extent, how the country will interact with non-state actors....
, the threat of nuclear war
Nuclear war

Nuclear warfare is battle in which nuclear weapons are used.Nuclear war may also refer to:*Nuclear War *Nuclear War *Nuclear War, an album by Sun Ra...
, and the arms race
Arms race

The term arms race, in its original usage, describes a competition between two or more parties for real or apparent military supremacy. Each party competes to produce larger numbers of weapons, greater armies, or superior military technology in a technological escalation....
. In domestic matters, it criticized racial discrimination, economic inequality, big businesses, trade union
Trade union

A trade union or labor union is an organization run by and for workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages, hours, and working conditions....
s and political parties
Political party

A political party is a political organization that seeks to attain and maintain politics power within government, usually by participating in electoral campaigns....
. In addition to its deep critique and analysis of the American system, the manifesto also suggested a series of reforms: it proclaimed a need to reshape into two genuine political parties to attain greater democracy, for stronger power for individuals through citizen's lobbies, for more substantial involvement by workers in business management, and for an enlarged public sector with increased government welfare
Welfare

Welfare may refer to:* Well being, quality of lifestyle** Animal welfare, the quality of life of animals, and concerns thereabout* Welfare, a film directed by Frederick Wiseman...
, including a "program against poverty
Poverty

Poverty is the shortage of common things such as food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, all of which determine our quality of life. It may also include the lack of access to opportunities such as education and employment which aid the escape from poverty and/or allow one to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens....
." The manifesto provided ideas of what and how to work for and to improve, and also advocated nonviolent
Nonviolence

Nonviolence is a philosophy and strategy for social change that rejects the use of physical violence. As such, nonviolence is an alternative to passive acceptance of oppression and armed struggle against it....
 civil disobedience
Civil disobedience

Civil disobedience is the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands and commands of a government, or of an occupying power , without resorting to physical violence....
 as the means by which student youth could bring forth a "participatory democracy
Participatory democracy

Participatory democracy, sometimes called "direct democracy," is a process promoted by the New Left in the early 1960's and on through the 1980's, emphasizing the broad participation of constituents in the direction and operation of political systems....
." Kirkpatrick Sale described the manifesto as "nothing less than an ideology, however raw and imperfect and however much would have resisted this word."

The manifesto also presented SDS's break with the left-wing policies of the postwar years. Firstly, it was written with the same overall vision all along the document and reflected their view that all problems in every area were linked to each other and their willingness not to lead single-issue struggles but a broad struggle on all fronts at the same time. Then, it expressed SDS's willingness to work with groups whatever may be their political inclination and announced their rejection of anti-communism
Anti-communism

Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Historically, the word communism has been used to refer to several types of communal social organization and their supporters, but, since the mid-19th century, the dominant school of communism in the world has been Marxism....
, a definitely new radical view contrasting with much of the American left which had always developed a policy of anti-communism. Without being Marxist or pro-communism, they denounced anti-communism as being a social problem and an obstruction to democracy. They also criticized the United States for their exaggerated paranoia and exclusive condemnation of the Soviet Union and blamed this for being a reason of failing to achieve disarmament and to assure peace.

The Port Huron
Port Huron Statement

The Port Huron Statement is the manifesto of the American student activism movement Students for a Democratic Society , written primarily by Tom Hayden, then the Field Secretary of SDS, and completed on June 15, 1962 at an SDS convention in Port Huron, Michigan....
 Convention opened with a symbol of this break with the policy of the past years: the delegate of the Communist Progressive Youth Organizing Committee asked for attending the conference as an observer. The people from YPSL objected while most of the SDSers insisted on letting him sit. He eventually sat. Later in the meeting, Michael Harrington
Michael Harrington

Edward Michael "Mike" Harrington was an United States democratic socialism, writer, political activist, professor of political science, and radio commentator....
, a LID member, got worked up over the manifesto because he found the stand they took toward the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
 and authoritarian regimes in general was insufficiently critical, and because, according to him, they deliberately wrote sections to have liberals fly off the handle. But surprisingly, a liberal, Roger Hagan defended SDS and its policy. After lively debates between the two, the draft finally remained more or less unchanged. Some two weeks later, a meeting between the LID and SDS was held where the LID expressed its discontent about the manifesto. As a result, Haber and Hayden, at this time respectively the National secretary and the new President of the organization, were summoned to a hearing on the 6 July 1962. There, Hayden clashed with Michael Harrington (as he later would with Irving Howe
Irving Howe

Irving Howe , was an American literary and social critic. He was born as Irving Horenstein in The Bronx, New York, as a son of immigrants who ran a small grocery store that went out of business during the Great Depression....
) over the perceived potential for totalitarianism among other things. Harrington denounced the seating of the PYOC member, SDS’s tolerance for communism and their lack of clarity in their condemnation of communist totalitarianism and authoritarianism, and he reproached SDS to provide a minor critique of the Soviet Union and to mostly blame the United States for the cold war. Hayden then asked him to read more carefully the manifesto and especially the values section. Hayden later wrote:

"While the draft Port Huron Statement included a strong denunciation of the Soviet Union, it wasn't enough for LID leaders like Michael Harrington. They wanted absolute clarity, for example, that the United States was blameless for the nuclear arms race...In truth, they seemed threatened by the independence of the new wave of student activism..."

The hearing ended up with the SDS members' leaving because both sides were too angry and disappointed to go on with the meeting.

Early years: 1962–1965

In the academic year 1962–1963, the President was Tom Hayden, the Vice President was Paul Booth and the National Secretary was Jim Monsonis. There were nine chapters with, at most, about 1000 members. The national office (NO) in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 consisted of a few desks, some broken chairs, a couple of file cabinets and a few typewriters. As a student group with a strong belief in decentralization and a distrust for most organization, the SDS did not have a strong central bureaucracy. The three stalwarts at the office, Don McKelvey, Steve Max, and the National Secretary, Jim Monsonis, worked long hours for little pay to service the local chapters, and to help establish new ones. Even during the Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis

File:EXCOMM meeting, , 29 October 1962.jpgFile:Jupiter IRBM.jpgThe Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba that occurred in the early 1960s during the Cold War....
 in October, little could be accomplished. Most activity was oriented toward civil rights
Civil rights

Civil and political rights are a class of rights ensuring things such as the protection of peoples' physical integrity; procedural fairness in law; protection from discrimination based on sexism, religious intolerance, Racism, Homophobia, etc; individual freedom of freedom of belief, freedom of speech, freedom of association, and freedom...
 issues and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee or SNCC was one of the principal organizations of the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s....
 (SNCC) played a key role in inspiring SDS.

By the end of the academic year, there were over 200 delegates at the annual convention at Pine Hill, New York
Pine Hill, New York

Pine Hill is a hamlet in Ulster County, New York, New York, United States. As of the 2000 census, the CDP had a total population of 308.Pine Hill is located in the western part of the Shandaken, New York....
, from 32 different colleges and universities. It was then decided to give more power to the chapters, who would then send delegates to the National Council (NC), which would meet quarterly to handle the on-going activities. Also, in the spirit of participatory democracy, a consensus was reached to elect new officers each year. Lee Webb of Boston University
Boston University

Boston University is a private nonsectarian university located in Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States. Although chartered by the Massachusetts Legislature in 1869, Boston University traces its roots to the establishment of the Newbury Biblical Institute in Newbury, Vermont in 1839....
 was chosen as National Secretary, and Todd Gitlin
Todd Gitlin

Todd Gitlin is an American sociology, political writer, novelist, and cultural commentator. He has written widely on the mass media, politics, intellectual life and the arts, for both popular and academia publications....
 of Harvard University
Harvard University

Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the Colonial Colleges institution of higher learning in the United States....
 was made president. Some continuity was preserved by retaining Paul Booth as Vice President. The search began for something to challenge the idealistic, budding activists.

It was at this time that the Black Power Movement was first gaining some momentum (although Stokely Carmichael
Stokely Carmichael

Stokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael , also known as Kwame Toure, was a Trinidad and Tobago-United States black activist active in the 1960s African-American Civil Rights Movement ....
 would make the movement more mainstream in 1966). The movement made it impolitic for white activists, such as those in SDS, to presume to lead protests for black civil rights. Instead, SDS would try to organize white unemployed youths through a newly established program they called the Economic Research and Action Project (ERAP). This "into the ghetto" move was a practical failure, but the fact that it existed at all drew many young idealists to SDS.

At the summer convention in 1964 there was a split between those who were campus-oriented, and the ERAP supporters. Most of the old guard were ERAP supporters, but the campus activists were growing. Paul Potter was elected president, and by the end of summer there were ten ERAP programs in place, with about 125 student volunteers. C. Clark Kissinger
C. Clark Kissinger

C. Clark Kissinger was the National Secretary of Students for a Democratic Society in 1964-65. He visited the People's Republic of China twice during the Cultural Revolution, and is a devoted Maoism....
 of Shimer College
Shimer College

Shimer College is a liberal arts college in Chicago, Illinois, best known for its intellectual atmosphere, small class sizes, and Great Books curriculum....
 in Illinois
Illinois

The State of Illinois is a U.S. state of the United States, the 21st to be admitted to the United States. Illinois is the most populous and demographically diverse Midwestern United States state and the fifth most populous state in the nation....
 was elected as National Secretary, and he put the NO on a much more business-like basis. He and his assistant, Helen Garvey mailed out the literature list, the newsletters and the news of chapter's activities to a growing membership list. Kissinger also worked to smooth the relationship with the LID.

A small faction of SDS that was interested in change through conventional electoral politics established a program called the Political Education Project (PEP). Its Director was Jim Williams of the University of Louisville, and Steve Max served as its Associate Director. This was never very large, and it was opposed by the mainstream SDSers, who were mostly opposed to such traditional, old-fashioned activity, and were looking for something new that "worked". The Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States and List of Vice Presidents of the United States Vice President of the United States ....
 landslide victory in November played its part, as well, and PEP soon withered away. A Peace Research and Education Project (PREP) headed by Paul Booth, Swarthmore, met a similar fate. Meanwhile, the local chapters got into all sorts of projects, from University reform, community-university relations, and now, in a small way, the issue of the draft
Conscription

Conscription is a general term for involuntary labor demanded by an established authority. It is most often used in the specific sense of government policies that require citizens to serve in the military....
 and Vietnam War
Vietnam War

The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina Wars, the Vietnam Conflict, or often in Vietnam the American War occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia from 1959 to April 30, 1975....
.

Then, on October 1, the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley is a public university research university located in Berkeley, California, California, United States. The oldest of the ten major campuses affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley offers some 300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines....
 exploded into the dramatic and prolonged agony that was the free speech movement
Free Speech Movement

The Free Speech Movement was a student protest which took place during the 1964?1965 academic year on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley under the informal leadership of students Mario Savio, Brian Turner, Bettina Apthecker, Steve Weissman, Art Goldberg, Jackie Goldberg, and others....
. Led by a charismatic Friends of SNCC
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee or SNCC was one of the principal organizations of the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s....
 student activist named Mario Savio
Mario Savio

Mario Savio was an United States political activism and a key member in the University of California, Berkeley Free Speech Movement. He is most famous for his passionate speeches, especially his "put your bodies upon the gears" address given at Sproul Hall, University of California, Berkeley on December 2, 1964....
, upwards of three thousand students surrounded a police car in which a student, arrested for setting up a card table in defiance of a ban by the University, was being taken away. The sit-down prevented the police car from moving for 32 hours. The demonstrations, meetings and strikes that resulted all but shut the university down. Hundreds of students were arrested, the pundits analyzed, and the establishment foundered with incomprehension. Future SDS members all over the country watched and learned.

From protest to resistance: 1965–1968

In February 1965, United States President Lyndon Johnson dramatically escalated the war in Vietnam by bombing North Vietnam in Operation Flaming Dart
Operation Flaming Dart

Operation Flaming Dart was a U.S. military operation, conducted in two parts, during the Vietnam War.United States President of the United States Lyndon B....
 and introducing ground troops directly involved in fighting the Viet Cong in the South. The draft became a very real factor in the lives of students in America. Campus chapters of SDS all over the country started to lead small, localized demonstrations against the war and the NO became the focal group that organized the March against the war in Washington on April 17. Endorsements came from nearly all of the other peace groups and leading personalities, there was significant increase in income and by the end of March there were 52 chapters. The media began to cover the organization and the New Left
New Left

The New Left were the left-wing movements in different countries in the 1960s and 1970s that, unlike the earlier leftist focus on labour movement activism, instead adopted a broader definition of political activism commonly called social activism....
. However, the call for the march and the openness of the organization in allowing other groups, even communist
Communism

Communism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarianism, classlessness, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general....
 front groups, or communists themselves, to join in caused great strains with the LID and some other old left organizations.

The first teach-in
Teach-In

Teach-In were a group who won the Eurovision Song Contest 1975, representing the Netherlands. Teach-In were Gettie Kaspers, Chris de Wolde, Ard Weenink, Koos Versteeg, John Gaasbeek and Ruud Nijhuis....
 against the war was held in the University of Michigan
University of Michigan

The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan is a public university research university located in the state of Michigan. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan, which also includes two regional campuses in University of Michigan-Flint and University of Michigan-Dearborn....
. Soon hundreds more, all over the country, were held. The demonstration in Washington, DC attracted about 25,000 anti-war protesters and SDS became the leading student group against the war on most U.S. campuses.

Representing its move into the heartland, the 1965 summer convention was held at Kewadin, a small camp in Northern Michigan
Northern Michigan

Northern Michigan?or more properly Northern Lower Michigan?is a region of the U.S. state of Michigan , popular as a tourist destination. It is home to several small- to medium-sized cities, extensive state and national forests, lakes and rivers, and a large portion of Great Lakes shoreline....
. Moreover, its National Office, which was previously located in Manhattan
Manhattan

Manhattan is one of the five borough of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.With a United States Census of 1,620,867 living in a land area of 22.96 square miles , Manhattan, coextensive with New York County, is the most population density county in the United States, w...
, was moved to Chicago
Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the Midwestern United States, as well as the List of United States cities by population city in the United States with more than 2.8 million residents....
 at about the same time. The rapid growth of the membership rate during the preceding year brought with it a new breed with a new style:

The convention elected an Akron, Ohio
Akron, Ohio

Akron is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Summit County, Ohio. In 2007, its population was estimated to be 207,934. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on the Cuyahoga River between Cleveland, Ohio to the north and Canton, Ohio to the south, approximately 60 miles west of the Pennsylvania border....
 student, Carl Oglesby
Carl Oglesby

Carl Oglesby is a writer, academic, and political activist. He was the President of Students for a Democratic Society during the term 1965-1966....
, President and Jeff Shero, Vice President. The convention voted to remove the anti-communist
Anti-communism

Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Historically, the word communism has been used to refer to several types of communal social organization and their supporters, but, since the mid-19th century, the dominant school of communism in the world has been Marxism....
 exclusion clauses from the SDS constitution, declined to provide for any national program, and increased the reliance on local initiatives at the chapters. As a result, the National Office's leadership fell into ineffectual chaos.

Nationally, the SDS continued to use the draft as an important issue for students, and over the rest of the academic year began to attack university complicity in it, as the universities had begun to supply student's class rankings, used to determine who was to be drafted. The University of Chicago's administration building was taken over in a three day sit-in in May. Rank protests and sit-ins spread to many other universities.

The summer convention of 1966 was moved even farther west, this time to Clear Lake
Clear Lake, Iowa

Clear Lake is a city in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, Iowa, United States. The population was 8,161 at the 2000 United States Census. The city is named for the Clear Lake on which it is located....
, Iowa
Iowa

The State of Iowa is a U.S. state in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland." It is bordered by Minnesota to the north, Wisconsin and Illinois to the east, Nebraska and South Dakota to the west, and Missouri to the south....
. The "prairie people" continued to increase their influence. Nick Egleson was chosen as President, and Carl Davidson
Carl Davidson

Former Maoist Carl Davidson, was Vice President and National Secretary of Students for a Democratic Society. He was one of the first American citizens to visit China after the Maoist takeover of that country, and played a role in opening relations....
 was elected Vice President. Greg Calvert, recently a History Instructor at Iowa State University, was chosen as National Secretary. It was at this convention that members of Progressive Labor Party (PL) began to make their presence known for the first time. PL was a Maoist
Maoism

Maoism, variably and officially known as Mao Zedong Thought , is a variant of Marxism derived from the teachings of the late People's Republic of China leader Mao Zedong , widely applied as the political and military guiding ideology in the Communist Party of China from Mao's ascendancy to its leadership until the inception of Deng Xi...
 group that had turned to SDS as fertile ground for recruiting new members. SDSers of that time were nearly all anti-communist, but they also refused to be drawn into actions that smacked of red-baiting
Red-baiting

Red-baiting is the act of accusing someone, or some group, of being communism, socialism or, in a broader sense, of being significantly more leftist at their core than they may appear at the outset....
, which they viewed as mostly irrelevant and old hat. PL soon began to organize a Worker Student Alliance
Worker Student Alliance

The Worker Student Alliance in the United States was the section of Students for a Democratic Society led by the Progressive Labor Party. The WSA argued that the best way to build a movement in the working class, like SDS wanted, was for students to become involved in workers' struggles both on and off the campuses....
.

The 1966 convention also marked an even greater turn towards organization around campus issues by local chapters, with the NO cast in a strictly supporting role. Campus issues ranged from bad food, powerless student "governments," various in loco parentis
In loco parentis

The term in loco parentis, Latin for "in the place of a parent" or "instead of a parent," refers to the legal responsibility of a person or organization to take on some of the functions and responsibilities of a parent....
 manifestations, on-campus recruiting for the military and, again, ranking for the draft. Campuses around the country were in a state of unprecedented ferment and activism. Despite the absence of a politically effective campus SDS chapter, Berkeley again became a center of particularly dramatic radical upheaval over the university's repressive anti-free-speech actions, and an effective student strike with very wide support occurred. Even Harvard endured an upheaval engendered by a visit there of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara
Robert McNamara

Robert Strange McNamara is an United States business executive and the 8th United States Secretary of Defense. McNamara served as Defense Secretary during the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1968....
.

The Winter and Spring of 1967 saw an escalation of the militancy of the protests at many campuses. SDSers and self-styled radicals were even elected into the student government at a few places. Demonstrations against Dow Chemical Company
Dow Chemical Company

The Dow Chemical Company is an United States multinational corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan. As of 2007, it is the second largest chemical manufacturer in the world by revenue and as of February 2009, the third-largest chemical company in the world by market capitalization ....
 and other campus recruiters were widespread, and ranking and the draft issues grew in scale. The FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the primary unit in the United States United States Department of Justice, serving as both a Law enforcement agency body and a domestic intelligence agency....
 (mainly through its secret COINTELPRO
COINTELPRO

COINTELPRO was a series of Covert operation and often illegal projects conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation aimed at investigating and disrupting Dissident within the United States....
) and other law enforcement agencies were often exposed as having spies and informers in the chapters. Harassment by the authorities was also on the rise. The NO became distinctly more effective in this period, and the three officers actually visited most of the chapters. As well, New Left Notes became a potent vehicle for promoting some coherence and solidarity among the chapters. The Anti-War movement really began to take hold among university students.

The 1967 convention took an egalitarian
Egalitarianism

Egalitarianism or Equalism is a political doctrine that holds that all people should be treated as equals and have the same political freedom, economic freedom, social justice, and civil rights rights....
 turn by eliminating the Presidential and Vice-Presidential offices and replacing them with a National Secretary (20 year old Mike Spiegel
Michael Spiegel

Michael "Mike" Spiegel was a member of Weatherman , also known as the Weather Underground Organization. He is now a lawyer in the state of New York....
), an Education Secretary (Texan Bob Pardun), and an Inter-organizational Secretary (former VP Carl Davidson). A clear direction for a national program was not set but they did manage to pass strong resolutions on the draft, resistance within the Army itself, and they made a call for immediate withdrawal from Vietnam. Furthermore, a women's liberation resolution on the issue of male chauvinism was passed by conference attendees, for the first time.

That Fall saw a great escalation of the anti-war actions of the New Left
New Left

The New Left were the left-wing movements in different countries in the 1960s and 1970s that, unlike the earlier leftist focus on labour movement activism, instead adopted a broader definition of political activism commonly called social activism....
. The school year started with a large demonstration against university complicity in the war in allowing Dow recruiters on campus at the University of Wisconsin in Madison on October 17. Peaceful at first, the demonstrations turned to a sit-in that was violently dispersed by the Madison police and riot squad, resulting in many injuries and arrests. A mass rally and a student strike then closed the university for several days. A coordinated series of demonstrations against the draft led by members of the Resistance, the War Resisters League
War Resisters League

The War Resisters League was formed in 1923 by men and women who had opposed World War I. It is a section of the London-based War Resisters' International....
, and SDS added fuel to the fire of resistance. After conventional civil rights tactics of peaceful pickets seemed to have failed, the Oakland, California Stop the Draft Week ended in mass hit and run skirmishes with the police. The huge (100,000 people) October 21 March on the Pentagon saw hundreds arrested and injured. Night-time raids on draft offices began to spread.

Climax and split: 1968–1969

In the spring of 1968, National SDS activists led an effort on the campuses called "Ten Days of Resistance" and local chapters cooperated with the Student Mobilization Committee in rallies, marches, sit-ins and teach-ins, which culminated in a one-day strike on April 26. About a million students stayed away from classes that day, the largest student strike
Student strike

A student strike occurs when students enrolled at a teaching institution such as a school, college or university refuse to go to class. This form of strike action is often used as a negotiating tactic in order to put pressure on the governing body of the university, particularly in countries where education is free, and the government cannot...
 in the history of the United States. It was largely ignored by the New York City-based national media, which were intensely focused on the student shutdown of Columbia University
Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York , is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights, Manhattan neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City....
 in New York, led by an inter-racial alliance of Columbia SDS chapter activists and Student Afro Society activists. As a result of the mass media publicity given to Columbia SDS activists such as Columbia SDS chairperson Mark Rudd
Mark Rudd

Mark William Rudd is a political organizer, mathematics instructor, and anti-war activist, most well known for his involvement with the Weatherman ....
 during the Columbia Student Revolt
Columbia University protests of 1968

The Columbia University protests of 1968 were among the many student demonstrations that occurred around the world in that year. The Columbia protests erupted over the Spring of that year after students discovered links between the university and the institutional apparatus supporting the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War, as well...
, the organization was put on the map politically and "SDS" became a household name in the United States for a few years. Membership in SDS chapters around the United States increased dramatically during the 1968-69 academic year.

SDS members from Austin
Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Travis County, Texas. Situated in Central Texas and part of the Southwestern United States, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 16th-largest in the United States....
, Texas
Texas

Texas is a U.S. state located in the South Central United States, nicknamed the Lone Star State. Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, spanning , and with a growing population of 24.3 million residents....
 participated in a mass demonstration in San Antonio, Texas in April 1969 at the "Kings River Parade". San Antonio SNCC members called the demonstration to protest the killing of Bobby Joe Phillips by San Antonio Police Officers.

In the summer of 1969, the ninth SDS national convention was held at the Chicago Coliseum
Chicago Coliseum

The Chicago Coliseum was a large building in Chicago, Illinois from the 1890s to 1982 that served as a sports arena, convention center, and exhibition hall over the course of its history....
 with some 2000 people attending. Many factions of the movement were actually present, and set up their literature tables all around the edges of the cavernous hall. The Young Socialist Alliance
Young Socialist Alliance

The Young Socialist Alliance was a Trotskyist youth group of the 1960s in the United States.Particularly instrumental in promoting the YSA's goals and objectives in North America were chapters located in the San Francisco Bay Area....
, Wobblies
Industrial Workers of the World

The Industrial Workers of the World is an international trade union currently headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. At its peak in 1923 the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers....
, Spartacists
International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist)

The International Communist League , popularly referred to as the Spartacist League and by its critics as "The Sparts", is a Trotskyist international organisation based primarily in the United States....
, Marxists
Marxism

Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism holds at its core a Marxist analysis of Critique of capitalism and a theory of social change....
 and Maoists
Maoism

Maoism, variably and officially known as Mao Zedong Thought , is a variant of Marxism derived from the teachings of the late People's Republic of China leader Mao Zedong , widely applied as the political and military guiding ideology in the Communist Party of China from Mao's ascendancy to its leadership until the inception of Deng Xi...
 of various sorts, all together with various law-enforcement spies and informers contributed to the air of impending expectations.

Each of the delegates were given the convention issue of New Left Notes, which contained a manifesto, "You don't need a Weatherman to know which way the wind blows." This manifesto had been first presented at the Spring, 1969, SDS National Council Meeting in Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Travis County, Texas. Situated in Central Texas and part of the Southwestern United States, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 16th-largest in the United States....
. The document had been written by an eleven-member committee that included Mark Rudd, Bernardine Dohrn
Bernardine Dohrn

Bernardine Rae Dohrn is an American former leader of the Anti-Vietnam War radical organization Weatherman . She is an Associate Professor of Law at Northwestern University School of Law and the Director of Northwestern's Northwestern University School of Law#Children and Family Justice Center....
 and John Jacobs
John Jacobs (student leader)

John Gregory Jacobs was an United States Student activism and anti-war activist in the 1960s and early 1970s. He was a leader in both Students for a Democratic Society and the Weatherman group, and an advocate of the use of violent force to overthrow the government of the United States....
, and represented the position of the Revolutionary Youth Movement
Revolutionary Youth Movement

The Revolutionary Youth Movement was the section of Students for a Democratic Society that opposed the Worker Student Alliance of the Progressive Labor Party....
 (RYM) wing of SDS, most of which subsequently turned into the Weather Underground Organization
Weatherman (organization)

Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization , was an United States radical left organization founded in 1969 by leaders and members who split from the Students for a Democratic Society ....
. The New Left Notes issue distributed at the convention was full of the language of the Old Left
Old Left

The Old Left is a term used to describe classic 1930s-era Western Leninisms, Trotskyisms and Stalinisms to differentiate them from the Marxisms of the New Left who emerged between the 1960s and the 1970s....
 of the thirties; and was thus impenetrable and irrelevant to the majority of SDSers.

The convention quickly fell into disarray as the RYM and allied groups moved to expel PL members and the WSA Worker Student Alliance
Worker Student Alliance

The Worker Student Alliance in the United States was the section of Students for a Democratic Society led by the Progressive Labor Party. The WSA argued that the best way to build a movement in the working class, like SDS wanted, was for students to become involved in workers' struggles both on and off the campuses....
 faction of SDS. The convention was about evenly divided between the Revolutionary Youth Movement forces and the PL and WSA forces.

When the Black Panther
Black panther

A black panther is a black color variant of one of several species of larger Felidae which are known by the term panther in various parts of the world, and belong to the feline genus panthera which contains lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars....
 representatives attacked PL but at the same time proved itself inclined towards sexism
Sexism

Sexism, a term coined in the late 20th century, refers to the belief or attitude that one gender or sex is inferior to or less valuable than the other....
 by advocating "pussy power," the entire convention fell into something approaching chaos, or, worse, farce.

The RYM and the National Office faction, led by Bernardine Dohrn
Bernardine Dohrn

Bernardine Rae Dohrn is an American former leader of the Anti-Vietnam War radical organization Weatherman . She is an Associate Professor of Law at Northwestern University School of Law and the Director of Northwestern's Northwestern University School of Law#Children and Family Justice Center....
, led a breakaway meeting from which PL and WSA members were barred. This group then voted by about 500 to 100 to expel PL from SDS, and then walked out of the conference hall with that 500. By the next day there were two SDS organizations, which RYM termed "SDS-RYM" and "SDS-WSA."

In the Fall of 1969 many of the SDS-RYM chapters also split up or disintegrated. The Weatherman faction evolved into a small underground organization that first took to street confrontations and then to a bombing campaign. SDS-RYM held no more national conventions. SDS-RYM was fully defunct by 1970, while SDS-WSA continued its activity.

SDS-WSA’s continued activity, 1969–1974 and beyond

SDS-WSA continued to function nationwide, with a focus on (a) fighting racism; and (b) supporting workers' struggles and strikes, including the 1969 General Electric strike and 1970 Postal Workers' strikes. The Worker-Student Alliance organized a support demonstration for the post office strikers, which worried the Nixon administration a lot. This is the entry from H.R. Haldeman’s diary:

Now calling itself simply SDS, SDS-WSA continued to publish the newspaper New Left Notes. It held a convention in Boston in 1971, at which a striking General Motors worker was a featured speaker.

In 1972 SDS-WSA demonstrated at the Democratic National Convention in Miami against Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern's retreating from his original stronger campaign positions against the Vietnam War. Several hundred SDS members staged a sit-in at the Doral Hotel as McGovern and his staff met upstairs with protesting members of Grassroots McGovern Volunteers and sympathizers angry over the same issues.

In Newark, New Jersey SDS-WSA demonstrated against Anthony Imperiale and his racist North Ward Citizens' Council which was opposing the construction of Kawaida Towers, a building complex sponsored by a community organization led by Black nationalist and poet Amiri Baraka (formerly Leroy Jones) (New York Times January 3, 1973, p. 84)

SDS joined with PLP and others to protest the writings of Arthur Jensen, William Shockley, and Richard Herrnstein, all of whom promoted the notion that black people were genetically inferior in intelligence to whites. In October 1973 SDS-WSA, PLP, and others organized a convention at the Loeb Student Center of New York University dedicated to opposing academic racism. SDS circulated a petition entitled "A Resolution Against Racism" that was published in the New York Times on October 28, 1973 (p.211). Out of this convention the Committee Against Racism (C.A.R.) was formed to continue the fight against racism. C.A.R. later changed its name to InCAR, or the International Committee Against Racism, when some chapters were formed in Canada.

In 1974 National SDS(-WSA) voted to dissolve as a separate organization and reform as chapters of InCAR. However, individual chapters of SDS continued in existence for some time. A chapter at Purdue University was active as late as 1976.

All references to contemporary activities of SDS in sources such as the New York Times after early 1970 are to SDS-WSA. For example, SDS confronted Indiana Senator Vance Hartke at an antiwar rally in New York City in 1971 (New York Times July 3, 1971, p. 3 and July 4, 1971, p. 3). SDS denounced liberal Democrats as having been the authors of the Vietnam War in the first place. SDS demonstrated against the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, FL in August 1972 (New York Times August 21, 1972, p.20; August 22, 1972, pp. 1,36; August 23, 1972, pp. 1, 28).

In contrast to SDS-RYM and the Weathermen, SDS-WSA strongly opposed bombing and terrorism. In 1971 SDS-WSA published a pamphlet titled Who Are The Bombers?. It warned readers against police agents sent into the anti-Vietnam War movement to foment violence to justify police attacks. It also sharply criticized the Weathermen, which had begun its campaign of bombings.

On June 26, 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court gave a unanimous opinion, in the case Healy v. James, stating that members of the SDS had been unconstitutionally deprived of their First Amendment right to freedom of assembly when a group was denied permission to form on the campus of Central Connecticut State College in New Britain
New Britain

New Britain is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from the island of New Guinea by the Dampier Strait , and from New Ireland by the St....
, Connecticut
Connecticut

Connecticut is a U.S. state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. The state borders New York to the west and south , Massachusetts to the north, and Rhode Island to the east....
.

A few early SDS leaders went on to careers as Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major party contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party . It is the oldest political party in continuous operation in the United States and it is one of the oldest parties in the world....
 politicians, including Tom Hayden
Tom Hayden

Thomas Emmet Hayden is an United States social and political activism and politician, most famous for his involvement in the anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s....
, who is still active in politics and writing. Hayden is a former member of the legislature of the state of California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
 and is well-known as the former husband of actress Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda is an United States actress, writer, political activism, former fashion model and Physical fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou and, with interruptions, has appeared in films ever since....
, a prolific author, and a former candidate for offices such as Governor of California, Mayor of Los Angeles, and United States Senator.

Further reading


Archives

  • Students for a Democratic Society (S.D.S.), Records, 1965-74. May 4 Collection -- Box 107. Kent State University
    Kent State University

    Kent State University is one of America's largest university systems, the third largest university in Ohio and the largest residential university in northeast Ohio....
     Libraries and Media Services. . .
  • Students for a Democratic Society Period : 1962-1970. Period : 1962-1970. Total Size : 0.5 m. . .


Articles

  • Alper, Mark. . Electronic Worker. Direct Action Tendency, Socialist Party USA
    Socialist Party USA

    The Socialist Party USA is one of the heirs to the Socialist Party of America of Eugene V. Debs and Norman Thomas. It is a democratic socialism, multi-tendency party, advocating a broad-based, social revolution from below....
    . Retrieved April 12, 2005.
  • Bookchin, Murray
    Murray Bookchin

    Murray Bookchin was an United States Libertarian socialism, political and social philosopher, speaker and writer. For much of his life he called himself an anarchist, although as early as 1995 he privately renounced his identification with the anarchist movement....
    . . Reprinted from New Left Notes. January 15 1969. Retrieved April 12 2005. "The essay originally was written in reply to an attack by Huey Newton on anarchist forms of organization."
  • Maines, Billy. . Orlando Weekly. November 23, 2006
  • in: Martin Klimke and Joachim Scharloth, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 325-331.
  • SDS-WSA pamphlet, 1972, attacking terrorism, including Weatherman terrorism.
  • Series of 12 articles originally published in Challenge-Desafio, biweekly newspaper of January - July 2007.


Books

  • Adelson, Alan. SDS. New York, Charles Scribener's Sons, 1972 ISBN 0-684-12393-2.
  • Frost, Heather. "An Interracial Movement of the Poor: Community Organizing and the New Left in the 1960s." New York: New York University press, 2001 ISBN 0814726976.
  • Heath, G. Louis, ed. Vandals in the Bomb Factory: The History and Literature of the Students for a Democratic Society. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1976 ISBN 0-810-80890-0.
  • Halstead, Fred. Out Now!: A Participant's Account of the Movement in the United States Against the Vietnam War Hardcover edition. Anchor Foundation; Reprint edition 1978 ISBN 0-913460-47-8.
  • Klatch, Rebecca E. A Generation Divided: The New Left, the New Right, and the 1960s. Berkeley : University of California Press, 1999 ISBN 0-520-21714-4.
  • Pardun, Robert. "Prairie Radical: A Journey Through the Sixties" Shire Press, 2001 ISBN : ISBN 0-918-82820-1.
  • Sale, Kirkpatrick SDS. New York: Random House, 1973 ISBN 0-394-47889-4.


SDS publications

  • Davidson, Carl. Toward a Student Syndicalist Movement or University Reform Revisited. Chicago: Students for a Democratic Society. ca. 1967. Mimeographed. 7 p.
  • Gilbert, David
    David Gilbert

    David Gilbert is an American radical leftist organizer and convicted felon, currently imprisoned at Clinton Correctional Facility.Gilbert was a founding member of Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society and member of The Weather Underground Organization....
     and David Loud. U. S. Imperialism. Chicago: Students for a Democratic Society, 1968. Wraps. 33 p.
  • Haber, Al and Dick Flacks. Peace, Power and the University: Prepared for Students for a Democratic Society and the Peace Research and Education Project.Ann Arbor: Peace Research and Education Project, 1963. Mimeographed. 12 p..
  • James, Mike. Getting Ready for the Firing Line: Join Community Union. Chicago: Students for a Democratic Society, March 1968. Stapled softcover. 8p. Photos by Nancy Hollander, Tom Malear of the Chicago Film Coop, Todd Gitlin & Les Jordan, SCEF. Reprinted from "The Activist," Spring 1967. Introduction for this pamphlet by Mike James.
  • Lemisch, Jessie. Towards a Democratic History. Ann Arbor & Chicago: Radical Education Project/Students for a Democratic Society, (1967). Radical Education Project Occasional Paper. 8 p.
  • Lynd, Staughton
    Staughton Lynd

    Staughton Lynd is an American conscientious objector, peace activist and civil rights activist, tax resister, historian, professor, author and lawyer....
    . The New Radicals and "Participatory Democracy". Chicago: Students for a Democratic Society, 1965. 10 p.
  • Oglesby, Carl
    Carl Oglesby

    Carl Oglesby is a writer, academic, and political activist. He was the President of Students for a Democratic Society during the term 1965-1966....
    . The Speech Given by Carl Oglesby, President, Students for a Democratic Society, at the Nov. 27, 1965 March on Washington to End the War in Vietnam. Chicago: Students for a Democratic Society, ca. 1965. 8 1/2 x 11 in. Mimeographed. 8 p.
  • Olinick, Michael. The Campus Press. Distributed by Students for a Democratic Society for the Liberal Study Group, National Student Association
    National Student Association

    The United States National Student Association, a confederation of United States college and university student governments, was founded in 1947 at a conference at the University of Wisconsin....
    , 1962. 13 p.
  • Oppenheimer, Martin. Alienation or Participation: The Sociology of Participatory Democracy. n.p.: Students of a Democratic Society (S.D.S.), 1966. 7 pages. 1st edition. Stapled booklet.
  • Students For A Democratic Society [S.D.S.]. Fight Racism! Boston: Students for a Democratic Society, n.d. [1969]. 28pp. 1st edition. Stapled softcover.
  • Students for a Democratic Society. New Left Notes. Chicago. [?] Vol. 1 # 1 1965 [?] - Vol. 4 # 31 October 2, 1969.
  • Students for a Democratic Society [Progressive Labor]. SDS New Left Notes, Vol. 5, No. 15, July 6, 1970 - [?]. Boston, 1970.


United States Government publications

  • U.S. House of Representatives. Investigation of Students for a Democratic Society, Part 2 (Kent State University): Hearings Before the Committee on Internal Security, House of Representatives; 91st Congress, 2nd Session, June 24 and 25, 1969. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969.
  • U.S. House of Representatives. Investigation of Students for a Democratic Society, Part 3-A (George Washington University); Hearings Before the Committee on Internal Security, House of Representatives; 91st Congress, 2nd Session, July 22, 1969. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969.
  • U.S. House of Representatives. Student Views Toward U.S. Policy in Southeast Asia; Hearings Before an Ad Hoc Committee of Members of the House of Representatives; 91st Congress, 2nd Session, July 22, 1969. Washington: U.S. Government Printng Office, 1969.
  • U.S. President. Commission on Campus Unrest. Report. This publication is often referred to as the Scranton Report, issued in 1970.


External links

  • SDS and Weather Underground Documents compiled by , a journal edited by several former and current SDS members
  • Includes Port Huron Statement, "SDS: The Last Hurrah" (an account of Chicago 1969 written by an undercover federal agent), and the Revolutionary Youth Movement
    Revolutionary Youth Movement

    The Revolutionary Youth Movement was the section of Students for a Democratic Society that opposed the Worker Student Alliance of the Progressive Labor Party....
     mission statement.
  • This collection contains leaflets and newspapers that were distributed on the University of Washington campus during the decades of the 1960s and 1970s. They reflect the social environment and political activities of the youth movement in Seattle during that period.