"Dare to struggle, Dare to win," is the slogan of Students for a Democratic Society, and that message was reiterated several times during SDS's first regional New England conference, which was held Sunday in Salomon 001.
SDS is a grassroots organization of students currently protesting the Iraq war and business interests connected to the conflict. The group also advocates reducing poverty and supports immigration rights and the rights of students to organize. Brown students, along with Senior Lecturer in American Civilization Paul Buhle, helped organize the event.
SDS was born during the civil rights movement and reached its zenith in 1968 when it organized massive protests against the Vietnam War, according to a documentary available on the SDS Web site titled "Rebels with a Cause." At its 1968 peak, SDS had over 100,000 members and 400 chapters, making it the largest student organization in the nation. By 1970, SDS had disintegrated due to a difference of opinion between then-President Carl Oglesby and Bernardine Dohrn, leader of a faction within SDS.
The group was defunct until 2003, when SDS was reformed by students and some of the group's veterans, including Buhle. The group currently includes 91 chapters at universities across the country. SDS does not currently have a chapter at Brown, though one is being formed, Buhle said.
Sunday's meeting included an array of speakers who discussed issues including workers' rights in France, immigrants' rights in the United States, the right of students to organize in universities and what current SDS members can learn from the original SDS of the 1960s. Empowerment emerged as a theme during discussion of all these topics.
Oglesby spoke first, touching on SDS's history and the lessons he gleaned from his experience with the group. One of the hardest and most important things about a revolution, he said, is learning how to do things you don't know how to do.
"That's what we had to learn to do when we raised up against that demoniacal war in Vietnam," he said.
Ambre Ivol, a current student organizer from Paris' Sorbonne, claimed, "We're stronger than we think everywhere." Ivol spoke out against the French government, which "wants to drive conditions for workers back to the 19th century." Ivol discussed workers' rights in France and the role student groups played in organizing recent rallies in opposition to the First Employment Contract, the law proposed by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to allow employers to hire and fire workers under age 26 more easily than other workers in their first two years of employment.
"There's a lot of spontaneity" fueled by new members that goes into large protests like the ones in France, Ivol said. The impetus behind these protests comes from organization among students, she explained, adding, "Small steps add up to huge explosions."
Brian Kelly and Lauren Giaccone, two students from Pace University, spoke out against universities that repress political student groups such as SDS. Giaccone gave the example of Central Connecticut State University, which she said denied SDS a university chapter and banned the organization's use of university space for meetings.
"Today's radical students continue to face repression," she said, adding that the CCSU students have continued to hold meetings despite the bans and have since been interrogated by the Secret Service. Kelly said without free expression, education cannot exist.
He also said student organizers are repressed because "we have the power to stop their tuition hikes, to stop their surveillance techniques."
Yesenia Barragan '08 spoke on immigrants' rights in the workplace. She gave the example of two immigrant workers who work 10-hour days but are only paid for five, commenting that such situations are no longer just about immigration, but also constitute infringement on civil rights. Barragan invited the assembly to join her and the Industrial Workers of the World for the upcoming May Day protest for immigrants' rights. The protest, "The Great American Boycott," calls for immigrants and supporters to boycott work, school and shopping May 1. SDS passed a resolution endorsing the boycott yesterday.
Other speakers included Robert Meeropol, founder and CEO of the Rosenberg Fund for Children, which aids the children of persecuted political activists, according to the organization's Web site. Another speaker, former SDS leader Al Haber, opposed the collusion of politicians and "vampire-like" business leaders. He also emphasized the need to listen to the voices of all reformers and the importance of "taking all the ideas and making a harmony that is beautiful."
The event was well-attended by students from universities both within the United States and abroad. Buhle, who introduced the speakers, praised the assembled crowd as being "a conference of organizers."
Students were receptive to the messages at the conference.
"It was a really impressive line up of speakers," said William Lambek '09.
Another student, Elizabeth Sperber '06, said she thought the conference was "pretty awesome" and that it is "really important for all students to come together from pretty much all around the Northeast."
Cleve Higgins, a student from McGill University in Montreal, also said he thought the conference was valuable. Higgins said though no SDS chapters exist outside of the United States, the conference was still relevant because of the growing importance of international solidarity.
