#Students For a Democratic Society

[scooby-doobert]

"During the 1960s economic collapse of the United States, a roving vigilante group with revolutionary ideals became infamous for using their investigative skills to seek out corruption at its source… (zoinks!)"

from: u/marx_is_secret_santa on reddit

[princetonarchives]

Throwback Thursday: Of this 1968 demonstration on the campus of Princeton University, Lewis M. Lebetkin '68 later wrote that his "GOOD IS BETTER THAN EVIL" sign had been misunderstood: A contingent of pro-Vietnam War students and a group of suitably incensed antiwarriors had announced they would hold demonstrations at the same time and place. The evening before the expected clash, over dinner at Key and Seal Club, I and some other pseudoreactionary, mainstream radical satirists decided that what this campus really needed was a new party. ... we formed the Radical Middle Party, dedicated to upholding, more or less, the motto 'Moderation in almost all things.' We, too, would make signs, march, chant, and demonstrate.

The next day, I made my sign and headed for Nassau Hall. ... As I edged toward the speaker's platform on the steps of Nassau Hall, three radicals, a conservative, and a physics professor all asked me what my sign meant. Combining a poker face, a disdainful look, and a raised lef (or was it right?) eyebrow, I said to each with full solemnity, "I should think the meaning is self-evident." To my dismay, no one laughed. ...

a photographer from the New York Times snapped [a photo], with my sign as a backdrop. The picture ran in the Times the next day, then was picked up by the wire services and reprinted in Newsweek. 'Good is better than evil,' the founding principle of the Radical Middle Party, had made the big time!

[all-things-are-nothing-to-me]

It was the Weather Underground that kept blowing up the Haymarket police memorial. There's a cool podcast hosted by the son of two members. He's kind of annoying, but it's good for the history and stories.

[thenewdemocratus]

Passionate Patriots: 1968 DNC Nightmare in Chicago

. Source:FRS FreeState The Democratic Party cost themselves the presidential election of 1968 and a chance to win the White House for a third straight time and 8-10 presidential elections, going back to 1932 with FDR. To go along with another Democratic Congress because of how divided they were on the Vietnam War. A lot of that can be blamed on President Johnson’s handling of the Vietnam War, but…

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

"SHE POSSESSED A SPLENDOUR ALL HER OWN — LIKE A a QUEEN… A HIGH PRIESTESS, A MYTHOLOGICAL SILHOUETTE. SHE WAS A REVOLUTIONARY PIN-UP..."

PIC INFO: Spotlight on far Left militant activist Bernadine Dohrn, during her time as a leader of the Revolutionary Youth Movement (RYM), a radical wing of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), in the late 1960s, c. 1968/'69.

"[Dohrn] looked like a fashion model," Susan Stern reflected.  "Everything just so.  … She possessed a splendour all her own — like a queen … a high priestess, a mythological silhouette." She was the revolutionary pin-up — a woman who drove men crazy with constant reference to fucking. Within the organization, status was determined by access to her bed.  To have sex with her was to be anointed. "She used sex to explore and cement political alliances," Jim Mellen felt. "Sex was for her a form of ideological activity." It was also a tool of humiliation. Steve Tappis recalled one meeting at which she used her body to emasculate the men present:

"Bernardine would be arguing political points at the table with blouse open to the navel, sort of leering at J.J. It wasn’t a moral thing, just sort of disconcerting. I couldn’t concentrate on the arguments.  Finally, I said: "Bernardine! Would you please button your blouse! She just pulled out one of her breasts and, in that cold way of hers, said, "You like this tit?  Take it.""

-- MY MY CORONA (Wordpress blogspot), "You don’t need a rectal thermometer to know who the assholes are," published June 2020

Source: https://mymycorona.wordpress.com/2020/06/06/you-dont-need-a-rectal-thermometer-to-know-who-the-assholes-are.

[sneezest]

We are on day 2 of occupying the UWM campus until our demands are met!

The UWM encampment is still going strong. Today there will be a teach-in at 2:30PM, a press-conference at 3:30PM, speeches at 4:30PM, another teach-in at 7:00PM, and tatreez & henna at 9:00PM.

With hundreds of students and community members gathering in solidarity, we are filled with determination, love, and courage to keep pushing onward. Help us build this community! Bring your friends, family, and comrades! ♥️

Our demands are clear:

- UWM must disclose all financial records! - UWM must cease all business with any organization or corporation that profits from, or supports the occupation of Palestine! - UWM must cease all collaboration with educational institutions in occupied Palestine! - UWM must release a public statement condemning the ongoing genocide of Palestinians by the apartheid state of Israel - a regime responsible for the slaughter of over 34,000 civilians and the obliteration of every single university in Gaza!

We will stay put until the university meets our demands.

[soon-palestine]

[libraford]

I'm not bothered by the conversation so much as I am a growing approach to activism which makes it impossible to interact with other people. Which echoes a lot of that conversation I had with Ginger this week.

He refuses to have friends that are not faithful to Jesus. Like, he can have a productive conversation with a non-believer and nearly connect with them socially, but if he learns that they don't go to church or don't believe in christ, he finds it difficult to take them seriously because their words were not god-inspired.

Ginger was in a cult. I do not mean this colloquially- Xenos/Dwell is a prominent pseudo-christian cult in central Ohio that preys on college students in need of community. There are rules about who you can date, who you can hang with, they practice gay coversion therapy, and will tell you not to visit your family if they're not Christian.

There is a lot of focus on purity. Actions, thoughts, social groups- it's very controlling about what you can and cannot do.

So. When he goes out into the world with us sinners, it becomes difficult to interact with general society.

We were talking about Merve, one of our foremen, and I said: "the first time I was in a car with Merve, he introduced himself as a Democratic Catholic Pervert. And honestly- yeah that's a good summation."

Ginger didn't like that at all. "Well he's not a very good catholic with all that talk of pornography, he should be ashamed of himself- honestly shouldn't even call himself Christian."

Merve is very much a womanizer, but it's all talk. He's gross about it sometimes and it rubs me the wrong way, but in all fairness- he warned me. Outside of that, he's what I expected from a 60-something landscaper.

"Well, I think whether he's a good Christian or not is up to God, not us."

And he got a little pissy over that comment because I caught him judging.

He only hangs out with 'the faithful' at work, which consists of three guys who are religious in a similar way and it's caused a bit of a rift in the culture. It's gotten a little... preachy. It wasn't preachy before.

So I am making... parallels to this behavior and a particular strain of activism that's been affected by purity culture.

Nothing is ever good enough. If it touches racism, it's banned forever and you have to spread the word about how it's racist. Where doing things that are well-intended puts you in the spotlight for the underlying and actually bigoted reason you're doing a nice thing. And prevents you from doing the nice thing in the future.

Because yes you did a nice thing, but it wasn't enough- you could be doing more.

Yes you did a nice thing, but you did this nice thing instead of tackling this bigger issue.

Yes you did a nice thing, but it was through this program that you didn't know was funded somewhat unethically.

Yes you did a nice thing, but your motivation for doing it wasn't the goodness of your heart, it was motivated by guilt.

Yes you did a nice thing, but it took a horrible event to do it when you should have had the morals of goodness ingrained in you and you should have done this from the start.

Yes you did a nice thing, but you only did it when it started impacting your life and you should be thinking of others first.

Yes you did a nice thing but the nice thing doesn't align perfectly with my worldview.

The goalpost is forever moving backwards.

No one likes to be called 'racist.' It's a really easy weapon to use when something does something you don't like. If you look at anything closely enough, you will see it's racist roots. You could say the same for misogyny, homophobia. Our society is built on hatred and inequality. Untangling it and living a morally pure life free of ridicule is impossible.

Recognizing the roots of an action to be bigoted is the first step. The second step is knowing it when you see it. Step three is pointing it out.

But there are more steps.

Pointing it out, or calling it out, and chastising someone for ignoring or not knowing something actually isn't all that helpful. Because it leaves you to wonder- okay, now what? What can I do to remedy this situation?

Which is the next step- actionable items. Yes, I have done something wrong- I am sorry.

I am sorry. Now I will try to make it right.

I will try to make it right by donating, by volunteering time, by listening to the people who have been hurt and lifting their voices.

Part of healing from an oppressive Christian community is realizing that people are going to sin whether you like it or not. And barring harm to themselves and others, you're gonna have to let them.

If my tarot practice is derived from a 15th century racist, then it was derived for a 15th century racist. Refusing to participate in a past-time that helps me connect with my family doesn't make it not racist. It will still be racist. But I'm not sure who it's hurting in 2024 and I don't have a time machine and I'm not being given clear instructions for how to unracist it.

[gothhabiba]

St. Paul, MN – During the early morning hours of November 20, 50 pro-Palestine protesters gathered at the site of Lockheed Martin’s new microelectronics subsidiary, ForwardEdge ASIC, in Saint Paul. They unfurled long banners, one reading, “MN, divest from Lockheed,” and blocked the driveway entrances to the facility for almost eight hours.

Police arrived shortly after the activists occupied the space and made their presence throughout the day, but no arrests were made. Due to the protesters’ presence, no employees of ForwardEdge ASIC were able to enter the facility and go to work that morning. The parking lot remained empty save for a lone security guard’s vehicle.

Lockheed Martin is the world’s largest weapons company by revenue and one of the major suppliers to the Israel Defense Forces. Lockheed Martin supplies Israel with a wide variety of weapons, including fighter jets, attack helicopters, and missiles. Lockheed Martin technologies are also integrated into Israel's main weapon systems.

Activists participated in as part of the newly formed Free Palestine Coalition in the Twin Cities, which comprises groups such as the Anti-War Committee (AWC), American Muslims for Palestine – MN, Council on American-Islamic Relations – MN, Students for Justice in Palestine – UMN, Students for a Democratic Society – UMN, Women Against Military Madness (WAMM), Jews Against Genocide, Red Nation, and several others.

Protesters emphasized the role of the state of Minnesota in funding Lockheed as well as other companies that make possible Israel’s violence against Palestinians. “Minnesota granted Lockheed over $1 million to open the Saint Paul facility this year,” explained Wyatt Miller of the AWC. “Meanwhile, the State Board of Investments has invested over $53 million of public pension money it controls in Lockheed. Governor Tim Walz chairs that board, so we also want to send a message that Minnesotans don’t want to see our taxpayer dollars used to fund this massacre in any way.”

After protesters determined that a majority of the workday had been disrupted, they marched in unity towards the facility to plaster the building with the protest signs as a show of victory.

Sarah Martin, a longtime anti-war activist with WAMM who was prepared to be arrested Monday, stated, “Because of our presence, weapons components were not made at the facility today by a manufacturer largely responsible for the murder of Palestinian children.”

“Protesters across the world have been shutting down business as usual as long as this massacre of Gaza continues,” said Miller. “We are proud to do what we can to slow the operations of the U.S. military-industrial complex, which is the backbone of Israel’s oppression of Palestine.”

[scooby-doobert]

this is from the same universe as this:

Ronald Reagan and Scrappy Doo (1985, colorized)

[princetonarchives]

there is a strong correlation between the radical consciousness and the regalia of the New Left — beards, long hair and clothing in disarray. By adopting its regalia, the follower of the New Left subjects himself to social ostracism that reinforces his notion that the system is oppressive, which stimulates his appreciation of the urgency for radical social change. It is therefore not coincidental that so many social reformers exhibit the regalia of social deviants.

Robert Griss ‘67, Daily Princetonian, March 7, 1967

[jstor]

The humanities hold the key to understanding our past, navigating the present, and shaping a more equitable future. In his latest blog post, Eugene Tobin, Senior Advisor at Ithaka S+R, directs readers to the World Humanities Report, a groundbreaking international study commissioned by UNESCO. This report, and the United States focused report, explore the state of the humanities worldwide, including into their contributions to society, their challenges and their role in addressing critical issues like democratic resilience, cultural identity, and global interconnectedness.

Tobin reflects on how the report findings resonate within the U.S., where higher education faces pressures from privatization, affordability concerns, and shifting demographics. For librarians, faculty, and students alike, the reports are an essential resource to not only understand the value of the humanities but to advocate for their future.

If you’re passionate about the power of critical inquiry, the free exchange of ideas, and the role of the humanities in fostering societal growth, these are a must-read.

📚 ✨ Explore the blog and dive into the full reports.

[thenewdemocratus]

Mitch: Video: Chicago 1968: The Democratic Convention

. FreeState MD 1968 is when the Democratic Party changed and no longer became a Northeastern progressive party with a Southern coalition. Made up of people who basically make up the Religious-Right and Neoconservative wing of the Republican Party today. With Liberal Democrats spread out all over the country. By 1968 the Democratic Party was moving away from the South and becoming the party of the…

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

"I'M NOT COMMITTED TO NON-VIOLENCE IN ANY WAY."

PIC INFO: Spotlight on a film still of Bernadine Dohrn, former SDS member, later turned extreme Left militant in the Weatherman organization, from "The Weather Underground," the 2002 documentary film based on the rise and fall of the aforementioned American radical-political/revolutionary group.

Sources: www.goodreads.com/book/show/22571602-days-of-rage, IMDb, & Wikipedia.

[nanistar]

CTA for CPH 🇵🇸

hi folks, last night over 20 people were detained for peacefully protesting at California Polytechnic University Humboldt, and the students involved were immediately suspended. we are asking for repeat calls to demand their release + re-enrollment.

if you have the ability to call, please do so. There is a script below for your convenience but as of now, the people picking up the phone are hanging up the moment they recognize the script so if you can go off-script that would be preferred. There is also an email script that a friend has made that you can use if you cannot call, but make sure to change some words or add your own bits so that it doesn't get flagged for spam immediately.

The Student Democratic Society is taking donations for their bail funds, which have been set at an average of $10k.

Numbers: CPH University Police 707-826-5555 Tom Jackson, CPH President president@humboldt.edu 707-826-3311 Chrissy Holliday, VP ceh118@humboldt.edu 707-826-3361 Mitch Michell, Dean of Students mitch.mitchell@humboldt.edu 707-826-3504

Call Script "Hi my name is __ and I demand the immediate release of the arrested Humboldt student and faculty protesters for Palestine. They should not be charged, let along raided and attacked, for being on the right side of history. They include but are not only Fern McBride, Olivia Fox, Jared Cruz, Rouhollah Aghasaleh, Launa Wyrd, Allison Merten, Isaiah Morales, and Adelmi Ruiz."

email script https://pastebin.com/ZKtd8MhN

You can follow Humboldt for Palestine on insta for more updates https://www.instagram.com/humboldtforpalestine/ https://linktr.ee/humboldtforpalestine if you can't call, email, or donate, please reblog this post for attention. additionally, please don't forget about how you can help Palestine directly by donating to the PCRF 🇵🇸

[mariacallous]

It’s the most startling thing I’ve seen in this year’s presidential campaign – the astoundingly large gap between how young men and young women plan to vote this November. Among women under age 30, an overwhelming 67% plan to vote for Kamala Harris, while just 29% say they’ll back Donald Trump. But among young men, a majority – 53% – plan to vote for Trump, while 40% say they’ll support Harris, according to a New York Times/Sienna College poll. That’s an astonishing 51-percentage-point gender gap.

It’s easy to understand why so many young women favor Harris – she has an inspiring life story, champions reproductive freedom and would break the biggest glass ceiling of all by becoming the first female president. But I’m mystified why so many young men back Trump.

Many of them seem to like Trump’s machismo. They like that he talks tough. They see him as an icon of traditional manhood. But all this raises an unavoidable question: should Trump be looked to as an icon of manhood considering that he boasted of grabbing women’s genitals, was found liable for sexual assault and had an affair with an adult film star soon after his wife gave birth? That shouldn’t be anyone’s model of manhood.

Many young men seem to admire Trump’s king-of-the-jungle vibe: he roars, he bellows, he boasts that no one can ever beat him (unless they cheat). But when you cut through Trump’s tough talk and look at the record, it becomes clear that Trump did very little for young men in his four years as president.

Whoops, I should note that if you’re a young man making more than $1m a year, Trump did do a lot for you, thanks to his colossal tax cuts for the richest 1%. But for the more than 99% of young men who don’t make $1m a year, sorry, Trump didn’t do diddly for you, other than cut your taxes a wee bit, a tiny fraction of the tax cuts that he gave to the richest Americans.

I recognize that many young men feel uncomfortable about the Democratic party, partly because some Democrats unfortunately treat men as a problem – and sometimes as the problem. If the Democrats were smart, they’d see that young men – like every other group in society – have problems that they need help with, problems like affording a home, finding a good-paying job, obtaining health insurance, affording college and having enough money to raise a family.

Regardless of how you feel about Harris, the truth is that her policies will do far more for young men than Trump’s policies will. It’s not even close. She is serious about lifting up young men and young women, and she has plans to do so.

Unlike Trump, Harris will help with soaring rents and home prices. She has pledged to build 3m new homes to help drive down housing prices. In another big step to make housing more affordable, she plans to give a $25,000 subsidy to first-time home buyers. Unlike Trump, Harris is also attacking the problem of high grocery prices – she has promised to crack down on price-gouging at the supermarket.

For many young men, health coverage and high health costs are a problem. On those matters, Trump will only make things worse. He has repeatedly promised to repeal Obamacare. That would be a disaster for millions of young men and women because they would no longer be able to be on their parents’ health plan until age 26. What’s more, repealing Obamacare will push up healthcare prices.

Many young people complain about their mountains of student debt. Trump won’t help on that; he has condemned the idea of forgiving student loans. In contrast, Harris wants to expand Biden’s debt cancellation program, which is hugely popular with young Americans. What’s more, Trump backed huge cuts in student aid – a move that would make it harder for young people to afford college. Harris is eager to make college more affordable by increasing student grants. Not only that, she is looking to what Tim Walz, her running mate, has done as Minnesota’s governor. He has made Minnesota’s state universities and community colleges free for students from middle-class and lower-income families.

If you’re a young man frustrated by how little your job pays, you should know that Trump – doing a big favor for his corporate allies – did nothing to raise the $7.25-an-hour federal minimum wage. Harris strongly supports raising the minimum wage.

Trump has made two big promises to make your life more affordable. Without giving details, he says he will cut auto insurance prices nationwide in his first 100 days in office. He also says he will cut energy and electricity prices in half during his first year in office. If you believe those far-fetched promises, then you’ll probably believe me when I say I have a bridge to sell you.

If you’re a young father or if you hope to have a family someday, you should know that Harris’s policies will do far more for you than Trump’s. Recognizing how expensive it is to raise a family, Harris has called for creating a children’s tax credit of $3,000 per child per year and $6,000 for a newborn.

To improve work-family balance, Harris has long pushed to enact paid family and medical leave so that people can take much-needed paid time off to spend with their newborns or care for sick parents or children. (Most Republicans oppose a paid leave law because their corporate donors oppose it.) Trump doesn’t have similar pro-family policies – his main policy proposals are huge tax cuts for corporations and the ultra-rich and large tariffs on imports that will dangerously push up inflation.

Although many young Americans don’t realize it, Biden and Harris have worked hard to create good-paying jobs for those who don’t go to college. Biden and Harris fought to enact three important pieces of legislation – an infrastructure bill, a green energy bill and a computer chips bill – that will create about 1m construction jobs, factory jobs and other jobs across the US, many of them unionized jobs with strong benefits.

If you’re one of the many young people at Starbucks, REI, Apple or elsewhere who support unionizing as a way to increase your pay and improve your working conditions, you should know that Harris is a strong supporter of unions and enthusiastically backs legislation to make it easier to unionize. But billionaire Trump dislikes labor unions. When he was president, he and his appointees did dozens of things, large and small, to weaken unions and create roadblocks for workers seeking to unionize.

There’s no denying that Trump’s tough talk makes many young men feel good. But tough talk is cheap. It won’t help anyone pay the rent, afford college or raise a family. Harris doesn’t talk as tough as Trump, but her record and her policies make undeniably clear that she will do far more for America’s young men and women than Trump will.

I don't agree with every point he makes here, and I also don't think a lot of young men are voting based on rational and objective things like whose policies will benefit them most. But I still thought this was an interesting read.