Students for a Democratic Society SDS

Linked with Michael Albert – USA.

There are two organisations with almost the same name:

1): The SDS 1960 organization: see on wikipedia:

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was, historically, a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the country’s New Left. 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, direct action, 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 … (full text on wikipedia/1960 organisation).
Their blog: the SDS organizer;

Links: New Left Archive; SDS Historical Documents and other links; Shut it down; The Vietnam War Era Ephemera Collection; Further reading.

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2): The SDS 2006 organization: their homepage:
Bulletin June/July 2008, 23 pages;
Contact Regional Organizers (240 Total);
Join SDS;

See also on wikipedia: SDS’ main page, and also the wiki’s 2006, The New SDS: Beginning January 2006, there is a movement to start a new SDS. A small group of old SDS members joined with a Connecticut high school student to call for a new SDS fighting for civil rights and against war. Several chapters at various colleges were later started. On Martin Luther King Day of 2006, these chapters called for the first national convention since 1969 to be held in the summer of 2006.


Lately SDS has been in actions against war. The Pace University chapter of SDS protested against a speech by Bill Clinton held at the campus, causing the university to hand over two students to the United States Secret Service. When the school was going to expel these two students, Pace SDS began a movement in March 2006 protesting the University’s actions.

On March 19 2006, SDS marched in New York City against the war in Iraq. Seventeen people were arrested at the Times Square Recruitment Center, including several SDS members. Beginning in March and continuing into April and May, SDS chapters across the country participated in the Immigrant Rights Movement. On April 29 2006 SDS was in the march for Peace, Justice and Democracy in Manhattan, NY. As of July 2006, there are 150 SDS chapters located around the country and over 1000 members.

The newly formed SDS held its first national convention from August 4 to August 7, 2006 at the University of Chicago … (full text for SDS 2006).

Who We Are, What We Are Building (wiki):

This document is the new SDS’s vision for the organization. It is a revised and combined version of the following vision proposals that were presented at the new SDS Constitutional Convention, held at Wayne State University in Detroit from the 27th – 30th of July.

As Students for a Democratic Society, we want to remake a movement – a young left where our struggles can build and sustain a society of justice-making, solidarity, equality, peace and freedom. This demands a broad-based, deep-rooted, and revolutionary transformation of our society. It demands that we build on movements that have come before, and alongside other people’s struggles and movements for liberation …

… 5. Principles of Unity:

  • 1. We want a participatory democratic society.
  • 2. We want the end to restrictions on free expression.
  • 3. We want the basic needs of all people be met.
  • 4. We want an immediate end to all forms of oppression and domination.
  • 5. We want an environmentally sustainable society.
  • 6. We want a proper education.
  • 7. We want a non-hierarchical society.
  • 8. We want transparency and involvement in community interactions with businesses and other institutions.
  • 9. We want the end to all wars of aggression, imperialism and the socio-economic and political structures that support and profit from them. (full long text).

Link: The Rebirth of Students for a Democratic Society SDS, by Alexander Knight, September 08, 2006.