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At Port Huron, Tom Hayden clashed with Irving Howe and Michael Harrington, over the perceived potential for totalitarianism. Hayden said, "While the draft Port Huron Statement included a strong denunciation of the Soviet Union, it wasn’t enough for LID leaders like Michael Harrington. They wanted absolute clarity, for example, that the United States was blameless for the nuclear arms race.... In truth, they seemed threatened by the independence of the new wave of student activism...."
At first, SDS focused on peaceful efforts to promote the civil rights movement and improve the conditions of the inner-city ghettos. However, it came to be known for the leading role that it played in student opposition to the Vietnam War. While SDS remained non-violent, it became increasingly militant, and certain splinter factions had a reputation for violent confrontation, including the Progressive Labor Party, the Weathermen (later known as the "Weather Underground Organization"), and the Revolutionary Union.
SDS formed the core of a counter-cultural movement in the 1960sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s Years: 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around known collectively as the New LeftThe British New Left or Old New Left As a result of Khrushchev's secret speech denouncing Stalin and the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956, the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) ruptured. Many left the party for Trotskyist groupings or for the Inde, or simply "The Movement". This was loosely associated with other prominent student activist organizations such as the Berkeley Free Speech MovementThe Free Speech Movement was a student protest which began on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley in 1964 under the informal leadership of Mario Savio, a philosophy, later physics, student. Unprecedented protests by students of the campus, a coalition of student groups at the University of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley (also known as Cal Berkeley UCB or UC Berkeley is a public, coeducational university situated in the foothills of Berkeley, California to the east of San Francisco Bay, overlooking the Golden Gate and its bridge. that was formed in response to a prohibition on political activities on the Berkeley campus. The membership of such organizations consisted mostly of liberal arts majors.
SDS broke up in 1969, with its more radical remnants forming the Progressive Labor Party, Weathermen, and the Revolutionary Union. Many former SDS leaders went on to successful political careers, including Tom Hayden who is still active in politics and writing. Hayden is a former member of the legislature of the state of California and is well known as the former husband of activist Jane Fonda.
There are many similarities between SDS and the current US student movement. 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.
Perhaps the largest difference between SDS and current student networks is the newly recognized importance of gender, race, sexual orientation, and class.
The two groups that came closest to following in SDS's footsteps were the Progressive Student Network (1980-1994), and the Movement for Democracy and Education - 180 (1998-2003). The Movement for Democracy and Education worked for Campus Democracy - an idea that came directly from SDS's goal of Student Power.
Most recently, in the period from 2003 to 2004, the old organization was restored with the help of older activists such as Alan Haber, along with newer activists from the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University. As a result, new chapters have begun springing up in Michigan, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York City. A chapter of SDS was also formed at Guilford High School in Guilford, Connecticut in 2003 by Sean Scanlon in an attempt to teach the student body about participatory democracy in a call to action in which teach-ins, protests, debates, and voter registration drives were held.
The new organization denounces violence and still upholds those same principles that guided their predecessors.