Victorious Victors?: SDS and The Port Huron Statement

By Jason Colella Co-Owner and Sr. Political Editor of FPP

The Students for a Democratic Society’s (SDS) Manifesto, the Port Huron Statement, is celebrating its 50th anniversary; and consequently, the University of Michigan just wrapped a two day conference talking about the statement then and its implication for today. It helped define and frame an entire era, student movement, the New Left itself, and to some extent conservatives. The Statement was born out of SDS which was founded by Al Harbor in 1960 in Ann Arbor. By 1962, it was a major Student Org on campus and by 1962 it was headed up by the editor of the Michigan Daily – Tom Hayden. Hayden was a well-spoken radical with infinite passion for social justice and a sincere desire for societal change. Earlier that year the preeminent student civil rights origination Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) approached SDS to help write a manifesto for the movement still in its infancy and it was decided that Hayden should draft the document. The draft was then brought to an SDS convention in Port Huron, Michigan where it was edited section by section by groups. This very process showcased the overarching point of the statement itself – participatory democracy. Hayden then edited it into a final copy.

As time went on, the decade began to change and change quickly. A major war broke out in Vietnam and by the mid-1960s. 125,000 plus young American’s were fighting the “commies.” Hayden would make the case that the document was meant to be a living breathing document, but it didn’t change and SDS fell apart by 1976.

That brings us to today. There is the beginnings of a new radical progressive movement as showcased by Occupy, but unlike the sixties nothing has changed; and in fact, the world is clinging even closer to the pocket books of the super-rich. The Port Huron Statement in actuality has a fair amount of relevance today, but it is now an incomplete version of a radical democratic future. Hayden and the other members of SDS could never have imagined the importance technology and the exponential level it is growing, completing a long process of Globalization and changing the overarching social structure of the entire world. The liberals, progressive, radicals, and democrats need a manifesto of today; something that Occupy failed to provide us. The Port Huron Statement can be used to help write that manifesto but it is not being used. We need to take back this country and implement the long needed progressive policies that will make America truly the greatest country the world has ever seen. Go Unite. Go Think. Go Write.