| Students for a Democratic Society | |
| Size: | 55px |
| Abbrevation: | SDS |
| Formation: | 2006 |
| Type: | Student activist organization |
| Purpose: | To promote the active participation of young people in the formation of a movement to build a society free from poverty, ignorance, war, exploitation, racism, and sexism. |
| Location: | United States of America |
| Membership: | unknown, in the thousands |
| Website: | http://www.studentsforademocraticsociety.org |
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) is a United States student organization. It takes its name and inspiration from the original SDS of the 1960s, the largest radical student organization in US history, but the modern SDS is a distinct youth and student-led organization with over 120 chapters world wide.[1] [2] [3] [4]
Beginning January 2006, a movement to revive Students for a Democratic Society took shape. Two high school students, Jessica Rapchik and Pat Korte, decided to reach out to former members of the "Sixties" SDS, to re-establish a student movement in the United States.[1] Korte did this by contacting Alan Haber.[4] They called for a new generation of SDS, to build a radical multi-issue organization grounded in the principle of participatory democracy. Several chapters at various colleges and high schools were subsequently formed. On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of 2006, these chapters banded together to issue a press release that stated their intentions to reform the national SDS organization.[5] In the press release, the SDS called for the organization's first national convention since 1969 to be held in the summer of 2006 and to have it preceded by a series of regional conferences occurring during the Memorial Day weekend. These regional conferences would also be the first of their kind since 1969, and on April 23 2006, SDS held a northeast regional conference at Brown University.
Within its first year and a half, the new SDS has grown to include hundreds of chapters and thousands of members. SDS has bulit an impressive list of ally organizations, with which it works on issues locally ranging from Worker's rights to Climate Change. The organization has developed a deep commitment to strategy, mentorship and peer training, which has focused a new generation of student radicals on the fundamentals of movement building.
The new SDS has organized and participated in numerous actions against the Iraq War and made clear its opposition to any possible military action against Iran by the US. The Pace University chapter of SDS protested against a speech by Bill Clinton held at the University's Pleasantville campus, prompting the university to hand over two students, Lauren Giaccone and Brian Kelly, to the United States Secret Service. After the threatened expulsion of the two protesters, Pace SDS began a campaign that helped pressure the President of Pace to resign.[6]
On March 19 2006, the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq by the US, SDS co-sponsored a march in New York City against the war. Seventeen people were arrested at the Times Square Recruitment Center, including several SDS members. On March 28 2006, the New School University SDS chapter joined other New York SDSers to support the French students fighting the First Employment Contract and released a statement of solidarity.
Beginning in March and continuing into April and May 2006, SDS chapters across the country participated in a series of actions supporting Immigrant Rights. SDS chapters, such as at Brandeis, Connecticut College, and Harvard coordinated with large coalitions of students to strike and walk out of their classes on May Day. The newly formed SDS held its first national convention from August 4 to August 7, 2006 at the University of Chicago.[7]
In early March 2007, SDS members and allies in Tacoma, Washington led a blockade of the Port of Tacoma, where the US military was loading Stryker vehicles onto ships to be transported to Iraq. After confrontations every night for a week, the police broke the human blockade through the use of rubber bullets and pepper spray.
On March 12, 2007, one week before the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq by the US, the New School chapter of SDS held a Campus Moratorium against the Iraq War. Students left classes and proceeded down 5th Avenue to the Chambers Street military recruitment center where they met with the Pace University chapter of SDS. The students entered the Recruitment Center, barricaded the door and held a nonviolent sit-in, effectively closing the recruitment center for about two hours. Twenty members of SDS were arrested and charged with criminal tresspassing, a misdemeanor.
On March 17, 2007, SDS groups from across the country met and participated in the March on the Pentagon, in which parts of the SDS contingent along with allies occupied a bridge near The Pentagon. Five demonstrators were arrested.
On March 20, 2007, 83 SDS chapters from around the country held coordinated actions against the Iraq war.[8] One such action in the Bay Area shut down the entrance to Chevron's World Headquarters.[9]
The Summer of 2007 was a critical turning point for SDS as a national organization. First, SDS fielded a large contingent at the first US Social Forum in Atlanta on June 27-July 1. SDS found itself part of a national movement to change the US; at the forum, SDS members gave workshops, demonstrated and formed bonds with members from across the country.
The 2nd SDS National Convention took place from July 27th-30th, 2007 at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. Approximately 200 members of SDS attended what was a constitutional convention. The primary focus of the convention was to democratically create a national structure and vision for the organization. These goals were achieved, though all decisions made at the convention will be sent back to the SDS chapters for a process of ratification which is currently under way.
The first National SDS Action Camps [10] took place from August 13-16 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The camp was hosted by the Lancaster chapter of SDS. It included anti-oppression/collective liberation trainings, and workshops about a variety of things - including media skills, meeting facilitation, and direct action. The camp was held in order to provide students with skills needed to become better organizers, and deepen the sophistication of their vision and strategy.
On September 15, 2007, SDS chapters from several colleges across the country (including Ohio, Indiana, Washington D.C., Harrisburg, PA and New York) gathered and marched in the ANSWER coalition march from the White House steps, to the Capitol building. The protest was estimated to include up 80,000 people. At least 150 were arrested, and there was at least one incident where police pepper sprayed protesters. [11]
In early November 2007, SDS members were again present at a similar blockade at the Port of Olympia, Washington. The blockade was broken only after 67 arrests, as well as use of pepper spray, rubber bullets, and other crowd control weapons. A similar confrontation had occurred in May 2006 at the Port of Olympia.
Members and Chapters around the US and Canada participated in a large series of semi-coordinated events and demonstrations between March 17 and March 21 to bring awareness to the 5th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. [12]
The 2008 National Convention was held in College Park, Maryland. Members at the meeting decided on a national structure: the National Work Committee and a national campaign: Student Power for Accessible Education.
In September, SDS chapters from around the country converged on St. Paul, Minnesota to participate in the 4 days of protests against the Republican National Convention.[13] [14] [15]
Members of Providence SDS took over a board meeting of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority RIPTA to protest proposed route cuts. The group also argues that the RIPTA board is detached from its riders and doesn’t represent them.[16]