Providence SDS

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the core values of SDS?

SDS is motivated by the vision of participatory democracy, the radical belief that people should control the decisions that affect their own lives. We believe that people have the right to democratic control over all spheres of their life – political, economic, and social. Further, we feel that the form of passive, representative ‘democracy’ that currently exists in the United States is an inadequate form of democracy that neither engages nor empowers. In a participatory democracy people would be both engaged and empowered, and those who are most affected by a decision would have the most say. Additionally we feel that militarism, imperialism, and aggressive warfare, American or otherwise, are coercive to the democratic ethos and have no place within a democratic society or a democratic world. Finally we feel that true democracy cannot exist without a strong framework of anti-oppression and thus we seek to challenge, undermine, and eradicate oppression in all its forms, be it based on class, race, gender, sexual orientation or any other identity.

What is the new SDS and how did it get started?

The new SDS is a network of SDS chapters across the US and to a smaller extent across the world. It is a very loose network and places a very high value on the autonomy of chapters to take on the projects they are concerned with and feel are most pressing in their communities. Debate and work are currently underway that will hopefully lead to regional and national structures that allow work that is done at this level (maintenance of listservs and websites, helping new members form chapters and new chapters get going, strengthening communication, sharing resources, planning conferences, conventions, and training, etc) to be managed democratically and with accountability. The new SDS was started a little over a year ago by two high school students with the support of a few first generation SDS members and has since grown rapidly, with membership now in the thousands and chapters at hundreds of schools.

How is the new SDS different from the original SDS?

We are people of our generation, not the generation of the 1960s. Our SDS, the new SDS, is a product of different times and circumstances than the old. We have different challenges and different political and social experiences that inform our thinking. Still, we in some sense see ourselves as taking on the unfinished work of the old SDS; we, like they, strive to build a democratic society, both on and off our campuses. Our understanding of what exactly this means, and how we will get there are different from those of our predecessors, informed as they are by 40 years of history, but to some degree the values are the same.