Astra Taylor: The '60s Are Gone, But One of Its Most Controversial Organizations Is Back

Since its fiery demise in 1969, there have been various attempts to revive Students for a Democratic Society. All such efforts failed ... until recently.

In April of 1965 a young man named Paul Potter took the stage at the first march on Washington against the war in Vietnam."What kind of system is it that justifies the U.S. or any other country seizing the destinies of the Vietnamese people and using them callously for its own purpose?" he asked the crowd, before enjoining them to"name that system, describe it, analyze it, understand it, and change it."

Potter was president of Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS, the group behind the demonstration. The largest and most influential activist youth organization of the 1960s, SDS united around the ideal of"participatory democracy" and encouraged radical analysis, emphasizing the connections between issues like poverty, racism and the Vietnam War. A media success, the march thrust SDS into the national spotlight. Over the next four years membership swelled to include upwards of 100,000 young people, but by 1970 the group had self-destructed.

Today Students for a Democratic Society occupies an almost mythical place in the history of the '60s, embodying both the promise and disappointment of Vietnam era youth activism. Since its fiery demise in 1969, there have been various attempts to revive SDS.v All such efforts failed, until recently....

[The article goes on to mention Al Haber, a veteran of the old SDS, Maurice Isserman, who opposes the new SDS, and Mark Rudd, who argues the mistake the old SDS made was to embrace violence.]