Students for a Democratic Society: the early organization

Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS, brought campus groups into a wider effort to change American politics. Early members fought racial bias and the threat of nuclear war. They also asked how people could gain more control over their lives. The 1962 Port Huron Statement ^[1] made that question the basis of a national program. This account follows SDS through its 1963 call for a “new insurgency” based in local political work.^[1][2]

SDS grew from the Student League for Industrial Democracy, or SLID. SLID was the student branch of the League for Industrial Democracy. That older social democratic group gave its student branch an office, contacts and ties to labor. Younger members also wanted to change some of its political habits.^[3][4]

At Michigan, Alan Haber sought recruits among students working for civil rights. Robert J. S. Ross later recalled joining Ann Arbor pickets in spring 1960. They backed the Southern lunch-counter sit-ins. After an April conference on human rights in the North, Haber asked people to help rebuild the student group. Ross recalled long talks in which Haber made a case for democracy. It could give the group a shared purpose beyond older disputes on the left.^[5]

Ross joined the national executive committee at the June 1960 convention. In his account, building SDS meant routine work as well as debate. That summer, he helped prepare newsletters and stuff envelopes in New York. Such work kept members in touch and helped them reach new readers.^[5]

The Port Huron ^[1] convention met on June 11–15, 1962. Delegates revised a draft and adopted it as a statement of SDS's views. It called for participatory democracy: people should help make the decisions that shape their lives. That aim applied to work as well as government. The text sought allies in civil rights groups and labor. It urged support for Black voters and candidates and a challenge to conservative power in the Democratic Party.^[1]

Members did not agree on every part. Kim Moody later recalled wanting a stronger labor argument. He opposed the plan to change the Democratic Party from within. Yet he valued a group where people could work together despite such disputes. After Port Huron, he and other Baltimore activists used the statement to recruit. They helped persuade a local Student Peace Union chapter to join SDS.^[5]

SDS prepared America and the New Era ^[2] at its June 1963 convention. The text argued that lobbying alone could not give excluded people lasting power. Its “new insurgency” joined civil rights action, voter registration, local reform and research into community power. It called for poor people and workers outside unions to act on their own behalf.^[2][8]

The aims went beyond immediate reforms. Its authors wanted democratic planning and changes in who controlled the economy. Demands for jobs, housing and public services could lead to wider demands. But organizers still needed funds and a workable program. They also had to sustain local work when enthusiasm fell.^[2]

Local groups could link SDS to campaigns already under way. At Michigan, Ross and Sharon Jeffrey brought their SDS chapter into VOICE, a campus political party. They then helped VOICE join SDS. Ross recalled campaigns against racial bias in fraternities and sororities and campus rules about students' private lives. Student government gave them a place to challenge school policy and reach more students.^[5]

Haber's spring 1962 letter linked campus work to a broader plan. He wrote to people found through a survey on peace education. He asked them to develop courses, research and seminars. Local politics could help them explore a shift from an economy based on arms production. He invited them to the June convention to debate an SDS manifesto.^[4]

The letter names Haber as president and Tom Hayden as a field secretary. It calls SDS the League for Industrial Democracy's student department. Under the 1962 constitution, SDS would have a yearly convention, national officers and a council with chapter representatives. Students, teachers and others could join. They would pay a one-dollar entry fee and dues set by the council.^[4][6]

Money limited what the officers could do. In his 1973 history, Kirkpatrick Sale described the League's funds, office space and equipment for its student branch. He also reported late or unpaid salaries in 1962–1963. Postage and printing funds ran short. Sale linked those shortages to delays in sending out Port Huron and to dropped projects. He based his account on letters and financial records. Those records have not been checked against one another here.^[3]

The leaders changed as the group grew. Haber was president in spring 1962. Hayden served in 1962–1963. The 1963–1964 SDS brochure names Todd Gitlin as president and Paul Booth as vice-president. It says chapters chose their own local work. Elected members spoke for them in national decisions.^[4][5][7]