SDS risisng again on college campuses
A new article by the Ann Arbor News about the rebuilding of SDS, with coverage of the newly formed chapter at the University of Michigan.
SDS rising again on college campuses
Monday, February 19, 2007Where are the students?
Where is the outrage?
Does anybody care?
As concern over the Iraq war grows to a scream among political leaders, most college students have been silent.
But there’s activity on the horizon. University of Michigan students have formed a chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society, following a wave of nationwide activity.
The group rekindles the SDS movement that defined activism during the Vietnam War.
The new movement began in January 2006, when a Connecticut high school student named Patrick Korte enlisted people, including Ann Arbor’s own Alan Haber, to put out a call to recreate SDS in response to the war.
Around 250 chapters have formed nationwide, including the one at U-M, which this month had its first meeting, of about 30 students. The Jan. 27 peace march in Washington, in which about 500 students marched under the SDS banner, helped spark the growth.
Matt Roney, a member of the U-M chapter, says that the war is a central issue, but the group will also focus on student rights and participatory democracy, such as treatment of temporary workers at U-M or its ties to the war.
“Our activism involving the war relates to students, where we can make the most change,’’ says Roney, a junior from Gaylord who’s studying linguistics. “We can yell ourselves hoarse on the Diag, and nothing will happen.’’
The SDS activity is a welcome change from the sense of helplessness that seems to grip too many college students, despite opposition to the war in Congress.
Vietnam, on the other hand, galvanized U-M and other campuses into protests. Observers agree that things were different then, when the draft helped radicalize otherwise oblivious students.
Nearly everyone knew someone whom the draft affected, recalls U-M economics professor Paul Courant, a member of SDS during his days as a Swarthmore student. Courant began teaching at U-M in 1973 and recently served as provost.
Haber was president of SDS when it was first founded by U-M students in the 1960s. He says that members then had a greater sense that the government was flexible and could work with student groups. “The current students have much less faith in elections,’’ he says.
The ’60s civil-rights movements and marches showed that people working together could change things, says Matthew Countryman, a U-M associate professor of history and American culture who specializes in U.S. social movements.
In addition, students then were struggling for their own rights on campus. They couldn’t vote, but they could get killed in Vietnam.
Haber notes how quickly the new SDS gained momentum, because of the Internet. He also sees broader participation from students in the Southeast and Western states such as Idaho, while students from privileged backgrounds hold back.
My own cynical question to SDS members: You’ll be part of the establishment before you know it, so why bother?
“The goal is to create change where we are,’’ Roney says. “And this is where we are.’’
Let the dialogue begin.
Geoff Larcom can be reached at glarcom@annarbornews.com or 734-994-6838.
Original post by Aaron and reposted by Radical Blogs
