League For Industrial Democracy - Student Affiliates - Students For A Democratic Society

Students For A Democratic Society

On January 1, 1960 the group changed its name to the Students for a Democratic Society and began to take a more radical direction. At Port Huron in 1960, Tom Hayden clashed with Michael Harrington and Tom Kahn over the Port Huron Statement's

  • identification with students raised in some "degree of comfort" and its criticism of labor unions and working-class culture (which was viewed as upper middle-class elitism by LID officers Harrington and Kahn),
  • its espousal of participatory democracy and dislike of formal offices (which was seen as potentially undemocratic and lacking accountability),
  • its anti-anticommunism and its welcoming the participation of a few members (or former high-profile members) of the Communist Party USA (which seemed politically naive, given the conspiratorial organization and behavior of Marxist–Leninist groups, and an abnegation of the responsibility to oppose totalitarianism).

By 1965, SDS had separated from the LID, but it ended national activity in 1969, after it had been taken over by Maoist groups, some of which advocated and committed political terrorism.

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