[AGL] Re: SDS a cultural footnote?

[Jon Ford]

Mike sez:
<you realize you
<guys are American culture footnotes, you SDSers.

I would agree with Mike  that the Rag is a cultural footnote nationally , as 
it was  only one small underground college paper in the 60s. However, it was 
important in the growth of the Austin underground/anti wa/alt culture scene. 
The Underground press movement, I would say, is much more than a cultural 
footnote: there were similar papers to the Rag all over the country in the 
late 60s, and the concept and reality  of an independent college/alternative 
press still exists. As for the SDS, their place in history is assured, 
despite the mistakes they made. Following is part of the Wikipedia entry on 
SDS:


SDS formed the core of a movement in the 1960s known collectively as the New 
Left, or simply "The Movement." This was loosely associated with other 
prominent student activist organizations such as the Berkeley Free Speech 
Movement, a coalition of student groups at the University of California, 
Berkeley that was formed in response to a prohibition on political 
activities on the Berkeley campus.

SDS split up in 1969 amidst internal discord, with its more radical remnants 
continuing as the PLP/WSA, Weather Underground Organization, and the 
Revolutionary Union. A few former SDS leaders went on to successful 
political careers, including Tom Hayden, who later served in the Cal"ifornia 
State Assembly (1982-1992) and State Senate (1992-2000).

The SDS was the organizational high point for student radicalism in the 
United States, and thus has been an important influence on student 
organizing in the decades since its collapse. Participatory democracy, 
direct action, radicalism, student power, shoestring budgets, and its 
organizational structure are all present in varying degrees in current 
national student activist groups. Though various organizations have been 
formed in the years since, as proposed national networks for left-wing 
student organizing, none has ever approached the scale of SDS, and most have 
lasted a few years at best. Several attempts have been made at reviving the 
name, including a circa-2003 organization with a few chapters at colleges in 
the Midwest and Northeast.