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SDS, New and Improved

SDS reforms at University of Chicago convention.

By Adam Doster

Over the first weekend of August, more squirrels were scampering through the Quads at the University of Chicago than students or professors. But from Aug. 4 to 7, students adorned with political pins and T-shirts transformed the drab front hall of Cobb Hall into a scene reminiscent of a political rally. For the first time in 37 years, the newly… return to article

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    Why not YDS?  isn’t this new SDS pretty much offering the same thing?  why do we need yet another mildly-impactful, progressive youth organization, and especially one with such baggage as this?  i find it unimaginative.  why not breathe life into YDS?

    United States Posted by n.e.s.t.a. on Aug 25, 2006 at 9:50 AM

    Thanks for the thoughtful post Nesta - the reason is that SDS is a very diverse group.  YDS has some great people (Jason Schulman and Lucas Shapiro come to mind) but many of us in SDS and MDS are not from the Democratic Socialist tradition.  I myself am an
    anarcho-syndicalist (I am a wobbly from the NYC GMB).  We also have a number of anarchists, Greens, PDAs and others.  In short, we have a broader constituency.  That said we are grateful to YDS for getting us space at the University of Chicago! 
    Solidarity,
    Tom Good, SDS New York

    United States Posted by tmgood on Aug 25, 2006 at 10:56 AM

    thank you, tom.  just the answer i was looking for.  thanks for your work.

    peace.

    United States Posted by n.e.s.t.a. on Aug 25, 2006 at 12:24 PM

    Interesting news. I left the States for Europe two weeks after the first election of George Bush. Here in Spain almost everyone who is not a large business owner considers him or herself a “worker”. I´ m not a member of a union but my contract as an executive secretary for a large, multinational insurance firm was written according to a “convenio” established for workers in the insurance industry . white and blue collar.

    I´ve learned the difference between intellectual deconstructionism and what really was happening in 1968. When somebody is called a fascist here in Spain it´s because he really is a Fascist with credentials.

    When the Spanish public protested the war spontaneously, the transit workers declared a one-day slow-down to protest against the war, maintaining a few buses on critical routes as a public service. The employess at my bank decided that everything should really stop, at least for ten minutes, and they walked out, locked the door of a branch in the heart of the Barcelona business district and sat down in the middle of the busiest street to stop the limited bus service for ten minutes. Traffic waited ten minutes, drivers and passengers cheering the well-dressed protestors. Nobody was fired or even reprimanded. It was considered a patriotic act and was positively noted in a wide range of local and national newspapers.

    If the SDS does it right this time, the white collar employees and the small business people will see that democracy and solidarity are not phrases ato be thrown around at at a cocktail party only during “liberal” years , will stop begging for tax cuts and start holding the U.S. government responsibile for where their taxes go.

    Don´t let anybody fool you - national health systems work, and collective bargaining is useful even for a mid-level executive. But there is hard work behind social transformation: hard bargaining, the willingness to share benefits and services and giving up some personal benefits for the commonweal.

    These SDS students must dedicate themselves to studying labor law, environmental and international trade issues, health services and educational reform.

    My friends, colleagues and even some of those certified Fascists here, are a bit bewildered by the current U.S. zeitgeist. “What are they so afraid of?” they ask me time and again. So I pass the question along. There are so many transformations needed to guarantee democracy in the U.S. What are you afraid of?

    JL Barcelona

    Spain Posted by barcelona on Aug 25, 2006 at 3:11 PM

    Congratulations JL, you have the nail on the head. US citizens can scarcely imagine what it is like to live in countries that take social solidarity seriously, and who have actually suffered themselves (as opposed to creating suffering solely for others) at the hands of their own elites. Until the US as a whole, not just students, (who by definition, are a relatively privileged minority), are able to confront the truth about their society and the way their elites treat both US citizens and the rest of the world, there will never be any change, notwithstanding the good intentions of those resuccitating SDS.

    A key example is the falling incomes of the US working class (by which I mean the majority of those who must work for wages or salary). Where is the outrage? Where are the campaigns? Where is the sense that US citizens even want to hold their elites to account?  The state of organised labour in the US is absolutely pitiful, the worst in the OECD actually. But no-one seems to care, and the consequences are scarcely remarked upon. IMHO it is yet another reason why it is always bad to be a citiizen of empire, rather than of a nation state.

    Australia Posted by Jane Doe on Aug 27, 2006 at 5:11 PM

    I am thrilled to find that the old SDS is being revived. There can hardly be better news.  I’ve meet Tom Hayden twice and spoke with him. I think he’s done a lot for progressive politics in this country. SDS has the potential to be a great umbrella organization of progressive activism. My only question is where do I sign up?!

    United States Posted by cabdriverinchicago on Aug 27, 2006 at 10:50 PM

    Hey Cab Driver In Chicago!  Thanks much for your comment. Tom Hayden is back.  He is now a member of the Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS - the post grad wing of SDS) foundation advisory board.

    You can join us online, check out -
    http://www.newsds.org/join/sds_membership.cgi
    BTW, I had never been to Chicago before.  I loved it.

    Solidarity in Democratic Struggle,
    Tom Good
    SDS New York

    United States Posted by tmgood on Aug 28, 2006 at 11:40 AM
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