By the summer of 1967, the SDS’s anti-war call had spread so wide among university students that the National Office could organize protests at campuses without a local chapter. The Students for a Democratic Society was a leftist student movement that came out of the early 60s in the midst of the New Left, and had chapters and wide participation throughout America in the 60s, most notably the anti-war and free speech movement. Holdings Disclosure. Corrections? As a result of the publicity garnered by Columbia SDS activists, such as chairperson Mark Rudd during the Columbia Student Revolt, the organization achieved significant political credibility. If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked. More importantly, besides critique and analysis of American society, the manifesto also posed a series of tangible reforms to strive for: 1) It proclaimed a need to create two genuine political parties to attain greater democracy. A last ditch attempt by the old guard to hold a “rethinking conference” and form some coherent new direction for the SDS failed. It also gave birth to the most radical and destructive of the antiwar organizations, the Weathermen. {27} As students for a democratic society, we are committed to stimulating this kind of social movement, this kind of vision and program in campus and community across the country. He served as president of SDS from 1962 to 1963. 4) Blocking recruiters representing both the military and civilian defense contractors from campus. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s, and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Domestically, it listed strong grievances against racial discrimination, economic inequality, big businesses, trade unions political parties, and the power elite. After conventional civil rights tactics of peaceful pickets and civil disobedience were met by the riot police, violence began to pick up. After leaving the legislature, he worked on protest campaigns against the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) fundamentally changed the United States’ political landscape throughout the 1960s. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tom-Hayden, United States History - Biography of Tom Hayden. From 1964 to 1968 he worked in Newark, New Jersey, with the Newark Community Union Project, a local community group that assisted impoverished inner-city residents. The Port Huron Statement denounced the political system of the United States for failing to achieve international peace and critiqued Cold War foreign policy and national security bureaucracy. Another prominent example came when SDS members from Austin, Texas participated in a mass demonstration in San Antonio, Texas in April 1969 at the “Kings River Parade.” The demonstration to protest the killing of Bobby Joe Phillips by San Antonio Police Officers attracted major media coverage. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Each child had a share in the work. The majority of the former members created two new activist organizations: The “SDS-RYM,” compromising most of the former National Office, and the “SDS-WSA,” made up of an alliance of Maoist-leaning local chapters. Widely considered one of the largest and most influential student activist groups in American history, the SDS championed a wide swath of left-wing causes ranging from global Cold War foreign policy to local labor laws. How did the 1968 Democratic Convention embody the social upheaval of the 1960s? Among them all though, the convention soon dissolved into an intense rivalry between the Revolutionary Youth Movement (RYM) wing, which later grew into the Weather Underground, and the Worker Student Alliance (WSA) faction. From its launch in 1960 it grew rapidly in the course of the tumultuous decade with over 300 campus chapters and 30,000 supporters recorded n… Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), American student organization that flourished in the mid-to-late 1960s and was known for its activism against the Vietnam War. This statement, criticizing the U.S. government's failure to pursue international peace or address domestic inequality, became the organiza The history of SDS as you've never seen it before. Last week the Nation magazine published an open letter, signed by 60 former leaders of the Students for a Democratic Society, which calls on Bernie Sanders supporters to vote for Joe Biden. The Weathermen held one final national convention in Flint, Michigan in December, 1969. Until early 1965, the SDS was deeply involved in advocated for the civil rights movement and these various socio-economic causes in the middle of the Cold War era. He promoted legislation to deal with equity in the public university system, environmental measures such as the banning of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) in drinking water and the drafting of the largest environmental restoration bond in California history, and the training of immigrant parents of public-school children. The new SDS president, Carl Oglesby, gave an incendiary speech that would define the movement for years to come, where he insisted that the United States government had abandoned democratic principles and adopted imperialism. Once it became clear that the WSA element held a majority of delegates, the convention fell into disarray. About a million students walked out of classes that day, which is still the largest student strike in US history. Students for a Democratic Society is an organization of students working together to better our country and the world! The Power Elite Bureaucracy Defined and Understood The Military-Industrial Complex Political Iron Triangle Inverted Totalitarianism. Which only enhanced the group’s reputation with many young students. The ensuing demonstrations, meetings and strikes spawned over the next few days temporarily shut the university down. In 1960 Hayden, along with other activists such as Michael Harrington and Robert Alan Haber, founded SDS, an offshoot of the League for Industrial Democracy and the Intercollegiate Socialist Society. Students for a Democratic Society -- Calls for change are all still heard today, echoing lessons learned from SDS’s organizing 50 years ago. In 1962, at a United Auto Workers' camp in Michigan, Students for a Democratic Society held its historic convention and prepared the famous Port Huron Statement, drafted by Tom Hayden. The San Francisco chapter, led by the Worker-Student Alliance and rival Joe Hill caucuses, played a significant role in the Third World Student Strike at San Francisco State College. While the early SDS movement stressed decentralization and distrusted bureaucracy, which severely limited the National Office’s effectiveness, the local student offices were incredibly passionate about the anti-war movement. With Fonda, Hayden founded the Campaign for Economic Democracy (CED), which helped to defeat the building of a nuclear power plant through a referendum, to pass Proposition 65 of 1986 to require labels on carcinogenic products, and to develop and pass Proposition 99 to fund public health and antitobacco initiatives. Whether respected or derided, SDS was soon a household name in the United States.Membership in SDS chapters around the United States increased dramatically and reached its highest point during the 1968-69 academic year. Chapters around the nation entered a new era of unprecedented dissent and activism, but Berkeley again became a focal point of protesting that drew the attention of the mass media. Initially peaceful, the demonstration devolved into a sit-in that was violently dispersed by local police, resulting in many injuries and arrests. For four days and nights, the members of an obscure student group, known as Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), talked passionately about such topics as civil rights, foreign policy, and the quality of American life. A subsequent and even larger rally, followed by a mass student strike, would close the university for several days. Some young Democrats tried to work within the system, trying to get anti-war candidate Sen. Eugene McCarthy (D-MN) nominated. Updates? …the Youth International Party (Yippies); Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. The Students for a Democratic Society Goals and the Vietnam War in the 1960's, 100 activists attending their first convention meeting at Port Huron, a major peace march in Washington DC on April 17th, infiltrating informants into SDS chapters, The SDS continued to expand their influence outside of the peace movement. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. It was at this convention, popularly known as the “Flint War Council,” that the SDS-RYM was formally disbanded. Even the conservative Harvard University endured major protests and sit-ins when US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara visited that year. The National Office also moved from Manhattan to Chicago at the same time. Movement for a Democratic Societyis a multi-issue activist organization affiliated with the newly revived Students for a Democratic Society(SDS). Tom Hayden, in full Thomas Emmet Hayden, (born December 11, 1939, Royal Oak, Michigan, U.S.—died October 23, 2016, Santa Monica, California), American activist and author. They organized hundreds of protests and demonstrations in these early years, but few drew in large crowds and even less media scrutiny. Foundation and Early Activism. Most dramatically, the convention also removed the anti-communist exclusion clauses from the SDS constitution. Hayden attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he served as editor of The Michigan Daily. Describe the conservative backlash during the social upheaval of the 1960s. Shortly thereafter, the SDS, working with the anti-war groups The Resistance and the War Resisters League, held a coordinated series of demonstrations nationwide against the draft, which attracted their largest and most enraged crowds yet. Why were the Students for a Democratic Society a significant group in the 1960s? Primarily over the university’s perceived repressive anti-free-speech actions. Many of its members are veterans of the New Left in the 60's and 70's. Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. SDS called for the creation of a “New Left,” that is, a new kind of liberalism. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). What activities. Hayden also entered electoral politics, beginning with a primary challenge against California’s U.S. Sen. John Tunney in 1976. But the group’s members are saying this is the university attempting to suppress their voices. Their attention was focused on the civil rights-oriented shutdown of Columbia University in New York, led by an inter-racial alliance of Columbia SDS chapter activists and Student Afro Society members. During the late spring of 1962, 60 students whom where part of the Students For a Democratic Society gathered together for four days and nights, in Michigan at a lakeside camp of Port Huron. In the fall of 1969, most of the SDS-RYM chapters split up further or simply disintegrated. The strike was largely ignored by most of the New York City-based national media. I am the owner of this website and its chief editor. The massive influx of new members and chapters, combined with ousting the previous “old guard” leadership, created a crisis which dogged SDS until its final breakup in 1969: a consensus was never reached how the organization should achieve its anti-war goals. …organization founded by American politician. With their vastly improved profile and resources, SDS membership swelled. It was written by SDS members, and completed on June 15, 1962, at a United Auto Workers retreat outside of Port Huron, Michigan, for the group's first national convention. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), American student organization that flourished in the mid-to-late 1960s and was known for its activism against the Vietnam War. The League for Industrial Democracy, SDS’s sponsoring organization, was disappointed with this change and the two organizations severed all ties by mutual agreement on October 4, 1965. Within moments, around three thousand students surrounded the police car before the activist could be taken away. But first and foremost among these local concerns were on-campus recruiting by the military and school rankings for the draft. The SDS was a student organization in the 1960s the comprised what we call the New Left. 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