Re-Forming the New Students for a Democratic Society Conference - Aug 4-8, 2006, Chicago - ATTEND!

Today Students for a Democratic Society reached 1000 members (note: not paid members, people who self-identify as members)! They also have over 120 people registered for their conference. They've held several regional gatherings, have active chapters (how many is hard to say as many of the chapters are recent start-ups), and a very active email list (perhaps more active than any other student activist email list that I'm on).

They don't have any paid organizers, nor much of a budget. So their current progress is impressive!

I strongly encourage any student (or campus activist) interested in national networking to
attend this conference, particularly if you are interested in multi-issue progressive activism.

While setting expectations, one should understand that any attempt to start a national student network is by nature a risky endeavor. That said, this new SDS is one of the better risks I've seen in the past seven years. So it could be the best conference you ever attend (and help launch a very successful SDS) or it could bomb. Anyone who has attended several of these types of conferences will realize that conference dynamics are very very tricky, particularly when people who don't know each other so well are coming together for the first time and trying to form a national network.

Non-campus activists are also invited to this conference (aka Movement for a Democratic Society). If you aren't involved in any school you might still want to attend. I think it's most critical that campus activists (students, staff, and faculty) attend - so that the new SDS has a critical mass of support from somewhere. I think it's much harder for the new SDS to get that critical mass if it takes on organizing the entire non-campus part of the US (though that is still a worthy goal).

Hopefully the new SDS can choose a loose structure that provides enough organization to get things done (campaigns, regional conferences, outreach, produce materials), while allowing chapters a large degree of freedom to set their own goals (within general progressive goals). Hopefully this new organization will include liberals, progressives, greens, socialists, social-democrats, anarchists, and others on the left - united by action (not just protesting, but campaigns that achieve concrete goals) and less concerned about ideological purity. Hopefully it can focus enough to get stuff done, instead of getting distracted and trying to tackle all the issues at once. hopefully it can empower people of color, women, LGBTQ, and the working class.