The new Students for a Democratic Society is celebrating its third National Convention here in beautiful Washington, DC, the heart of Empire! Starting today and going until Sunday, progressive and radical students will be converging to swap skills, stories, meet up with long-lost comrades, and determine the direction of SDS as a whole. Key questions to be solved include national campaigns for local chapters to plug into, and figuring out a decentralized, democratic way to make national decisions. I unfortunately have work, so I'll be there starting Friday night.

Tired of issue-based factionalism among your college's progressive/left students? Your campus needs a chapter of Students for a Democratic Society! it's a national, non-sectarian left, multi-issue, student/youth-led organization - and the only one of its kind! Check out a sample of what SDSers have been doing this past year:

Google Video

Last Wednesday I was approached by a friend and fellow WSAC member about how to set up a new Web site for the project that she is working on. Since neither of us had any idea how long it would take for Technology Services to set up a folder on the school’s server, and the site needed to be up and running within a week, I just bought a domain name and set the site up on an independent server.

SDS members at the University of Alabama were arrested after performing street theatre about the Iraq War which doubled as advertising for an upcoming speaker from Iraq Veterans Against the War. From the AP:

Campus police detained the four from about 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
before taking them to jail and they were released after
posting bond around midnight, Stainer said.

The demonstration began when the four, dressed as soldiers,
entered the Ferguson Center Friday afternoon and began
yelling and cursing, The Crimson White reported Monday.

Free stores, also known as "really, really, free markets," are nothing new to the activist scene, but as of late numerous SDS chapters have taken up the banner and introduced the tradition to the campus. The idea is simple: everything at the free store is fair game - if you want it, take it. Folks are (of course) also encouraged to drop off things they don't want or need that others might. The goal is to create a space where people can experience and talk about the inequities of the current system, consumerism, and non-market modes of distribution. It's also environmentally-friendly, and a lot of fun.

Although the news media wouldn't let you know it, something remarkable happened at the end of last month in Detroit.