The New SDS (from The Nation)

[marmar]

article | posted March 29, 2007 (April 16, 2007 issue)
The New SDS

Christopher Phelps

Twenty-year-old Will Klatt, wearing a green knit hat, baggy jeans and black jacket pulled over a hoodie, stands before a Civil War monument at the center of Ohio University's main campus in Athens. Although a February snow is falling steadily, more than a hundred students have turned out for this rally called by a new organization with a very familiar name: Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

"Many of us at Ohio University have taken classes on the principles of democracy, on justice, on ethics," says Klatt, "and with the presumption that we will use this knowledge, acquired in our classes, to become more informed citizens. Yet this knowledge we acquire is nothing if we do not put it into practice."

The students, including frat boys and jocks, clap and whistle. They are here in protest against new fees, elimination of four varsity sports programs and increased administrative bonus pay. Each decision, organizers say, reflects a lack of student power on campus--as do "free-speech zones" confining student protest to irrelevant corners of campus. "We are talking," says Klatt, "about the corporatization of our university."

Angry at the Iraq debacle, emboldened by the Bush-Cheney tailspin, a new student radicalism is emerging whose concerns include immigrants' rights, global warming and the uncertainties facing debt-ridden graduates. Such considerations distinguish the new SDS from its historical namesake, which took shape in a very different context of economic affluence and establishment liberalism.
...snip...

The matter of moment is the Iraq War. Whether or not they approve of the Capitol rush, SDSers are eager to push the envelope beyond large marches. There is "a general feeling that the tactics being used now are not enough," says John Cronan Jr., 23, a Pace student. At the University of Alabama, SDS recently staged a "die-in" to dramatize the war. Three Michigan chapters are investigating their universities' financial ties to the military industry. To mark the war's four-year anniversary in March, SDS initiated class walkouts, rallies and marches at more than sixty campuses and high schools. And, to borrow a '60s phrase, momentum now flows "from protest to resistance"--from merely speaking out against the war to the nonviolent obstruction of its operation. Twenty New York SDSers were arrested on March 12 after they shut down an Armed Forces Recruiting Center in Manhattan for two hours. Their chant: "Stop the war! Yes we can! SDS is back again!" ............

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070416/phelps

[Warpy]

1. Times change and so should the focus

and I sincerely hope they are less hamfisted than we were.

[ret5hd]

2. Youth and hamfisted-ness go hand in hand...

That's part of life...and at least these students decided to become fully participative members of our society. "Good on 'em!", I say. Hamfisted or not.

[Warpy]

3. Yeah, I know, but an old radical can hope, right?

Yes, this is the new generation of the politically engaged college folks, and it's been a long time coming. I guess they finally noticed the conservative scene of Young Republican Clubs and alcohol soaked frat parties wasn't the most interesting way to live through their college years.

Good on 'em, indeed!

[otherlander]

4. "New student radicalism"... I don't know.

Is it really so radical? It's not as if they're trying to overthrow the government or demanding an end to capitalism. All they seem to be working for is peace and justice. It's perfectly reasonable. See, I think that this article made a mistake that I also made once: it mistook something as radicalism, but no, really, what it is is passion. KEEP FIGHTING BACK! :applause: