Join SDS, and Win Change with Student Power!

Seize Student Power:

Join our network of 100+ chapters in the struggle for Student Power and Democracy!

Become a Member:

http://www.studentsforademocraticsociety.org/join/sds_membership.cgi

Seize the Spotlight:

Join our SDS Announcements List to plug in to national SDS actions, events, and opportunities!

http://groups.google.com/group/sdsannouncements

Seize the Stage:

SDS National Convention! July 24th-28th, Washington DC!

Sign up on facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=15142267434

Check out our wiki page to learn more :
http://newsds.org/wiki/index.php?title=2008_SDS_National_Convention

Seize the Schools:

SDS Action Camp! August 15th-17th, Asheville North Carolina!

Sign up on facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=20325463834

Check out our wiki page to learn more :

http://newsds.org/wiki/index.php?title=Action_Camp_2008

Support student-led

grassroots change!

SDS Members: Take our fundraising survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=h_2fEQ2rJdQKCXvkheH8IFhg_3d_3d
**************************************************************************

In two short years, SDS has become one of the largest and fastest growing student led organizations, with over 120 active and dynamite chapters around the country. Heroic thanks to all our student leaders who make it possible!

This summer, the National Convention and the Action Camps will again bring over 300 SDS student organizers together for training, movement building, and friendship. We need to work together and raise the money to provide stipends, food, housing, and support for our student organizers.

We are asking SDSer’s to make fundraising commitments to help our organization grow.

Everyone can get involved by making a chapter commitment, and a personal commitment to fundraise for SDS! The money we put into our convention and action camps (and other projects) directly empowers and trains grassroots organizers from around the nation. Here’s how to get involved in some of SDS’s most important work.

At the chapter level:

We are asking that each chapter commit to raising $100 this summer. (With over 120 chapters, that’s $12,000 dollars if everyone does their part!) You can do this by holding an easy benefit show or party, a community yard sale or bake sale, asking each member to commit $10, or any combination of things. These are also great opportunities to build and publicize your chapter with an action or a raffle!

We need you to RSVP to sdsfundraising@gmail.com and tell us that you’ll bring this up at your next chapter meeting! Please get in contact with us NOW if you’re going to relay this question to your chapter! Then we can follow up with you and see if your chapter can commit to fundraising for this summer!

This is how we build a strong, democratic organization, so we really appreciate your help. We need this work to grow and keep up with the new chapters that join every day!

As a member:

We are asking each of our members to raise $100 - $300 (or however much they can) from their parents, relatives, or friends if it is appropriate for your family’s financial situation. Please ask your family to support the work you care about. If you MIGHT be interested raising money from your family, please RSVP (right away!) to sdsfundraising@gmail.com!

We will send you a “how-to” packet and support you : (we know it’s not easy)! It will include a fancy letter and presentation with snazzy photographs of our incredible 2-year history, to demonstrate what a wonderful organization we are and to show your parents that the money will be well spent.

We figure, this isn’t about getting your parents to support SDS’s sweet progressive politics, it’s about showing their love and support for their children’s interests by joining and helping your movement. And there’s no reason to feel hesitant or embarrassed! This is how we build multi-generational commitment and wide community involvement in SDS. If you are financially able, please consider asking your parents to use their resources to help support you and this empowering organization.

If you might be interested in asking your parents for money, please RSVP to sdsfundraising@gmail.com. We will send you a full packet of information that will make your request super easy! Trust us, your folks will love it and be really proud of you.

To our great SDS organizers:

Those are the two ways that you can help us build this key part of SDS. Please take leadership by asking your chapter to raise $100+ at the next meeting, and by asking your family to support your interests with $100- $300.

Please RSVP to sdsfundraising@gmail.com *right now* so we can support you and make this work as easy as possible! Or email us with any questions!

Take our survey at:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=h_2fEQ2rJdQKCXvkheH8IFhg_3d_3d

To make a donation:

*To make a donation to SDS, you can go to the website *- http://newsds.org . Click on the *”Make a Donation”* button or you can make a donation by mail - please make checks out to “ACT” and make sure to write SDS in the memo lin.

Checks can be mailed to:

SDS 741 Morton St NW Washington, DC 20010

If you are an SDS member: To get involved with this awesome, productive, working group and help build a strong national organization, join us at: http://groups.google.com/group/sds-fundraising

<3 We will build and we will win<3 Donate today for real grassroots change!

The Visibility Project (see our group statement: http://newsds.org/wiki/index.php?title=Working_Group_Visibility_Project) is ecstatic to bring you 2 offerings to help make SDS work more visible and accessible:

1. The *NEW* SDS National Announcements Listserv = http://groups.google.com/group/sdsannouncements (send your announcements to: sdsannouncements@googlegroups.com)
2. The *NEW* SDS National Calendar = http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=4bpt7d1susgr1icar99egh0vj4%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/New_York (Press the little “+ Google Calendar” button on the bottom right of the screen to subscribe!)

The *NEW* SDS National Announcements Listserv
http://groups.google.com/group/sdsannouncements (sdsannouncements@googlegroups.com)

Students for a Democratic Society, as a national organization, needs a way of communicating important national announcements, for example about our National Convention that’s coming up this summer.

To make sure people who don’t want national announcements don’t have their inboxes filled with them, and that people who DO want to receive them as well as perhaps send them have a simple and accessible way to connect with national SDS, we’ve created a new National Announcements Listserv.

SIGN UP here:� http://groups.google.com/group/sdsannouncements

We want this list to be helpful for SDS Organizers and not barrage people with unnecessary email, so messages will generally go out in a “Weekly Digest” format, with relevant announcements compiled on a weekly basis, except for emergencies or pressing announcements that will be distributed individually.

As moderators of this new list, volunteers from the Visibility group will evaluate announcements we receive by referring to the following List Guidelines.

The National SDS Announcements listserve exists to serve SDS Chapters and Members and will be used strictly for:

• Weekly Digests of consolidated reportbacks and announcements from national working groups, caucuses, projects, regions, and chapters.
• Conference call announcements for all national working groups and national event planning.
• The National Convention and Action Camps.
• The SDS News Bulletin.
• One-Time Notices for Large regional events or projects that can support national involvement.
• Emergency Notices.

It will not be used for:

• Chapter Specific Announcements and Meetings.
• Repetitive Regional Announcements.
• Discussion or Responses.
• Political Theory, Position Papers, or other opinion documents.
• Announcements which do not directly aid/benefit SDS organizing.

Our first “SDS Announcement Digest” will be going out on Saturday May 24th, and digests will continue to go out on a weekly basis. Announcements for the Saturday digests should be submitted not later than the previous Wednesday by midnight to: sdsannouncements@googlegroups.com

Again, this is how national announcements will be communicated in the future, so if you’d like to receive future announcements about everything from the National Convention to issues of the News Bulletin, you need to SIGN UP!!!� http://groups.google.com/group/sdsannouncements

The *NEW* SDS National Calendar
http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=4bpt7d1susgr1icar99egh0vj4%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/New_York

The other tool we’re introducing is an integrated National Calendar, which will display national SDS events and conference calls, so you can keep track of what is happening and when.

This calendar is a google calendar that will be updated by volunteers from the Visibility Project.� We are also inviting Point People from the various national working groups to use this calendar as a way to publicize their conference calls and/or events.� Already the calendar is being used to display the many conference calls happening every week.� Take a look!

http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=4bpt7d1susgr1icar99egh0vj4%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/New_York

You can subscribe to the calendar by pressing the little “+ Google Calendar” button on the bottom right of the screen, so that if you have a gmail or google account, in the future you just have to click on “Calendar”, and you will see all the national SDS events appear right on your normal Google Calendar!

Sweet!

Both of these new tools are also publicized on the Visibility Project webpage: http://studentsforademocraticsociety.org/visibility/

If you’d like to get involved in the Visibility Project, please join our google group listserv here: http://groups.google.com/group/sdsvisibility

And if you have any questions, comments or concerns, please shoot them to Laurie Rojas, Chicago SDS - laurie.rojas@gmail.com

PRINT and DISTRIBUTE to your Chapter, Campus and Community!The SDS News Bulletin working group is proud to bring you our fourth issue, the best yet. From front cover to articles to action reports to poetry to art, we loaded this issue up for maximum Dangerousness, and once again you made it all possible by sending in your work, thoughts, ideas and love.

Now here’s the result:

Print Version
Online Reading Version

(You will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to view the PDF file, which is FREE software you can download Here)

Enjoy! and Distribute widely!

Send us your stuff to be published in Issue 5: sds.bulletin@gmail.com

Want to join the bulletin working group? Get involved by signing up for our email listserv: http://groups.google.com/group/sds-news-bulletin

-The SDS News Bulletin Working Group

For the past year UF SDS has been working on a campaign that would ensure UF’s 1.2 billion dollar endowment is not invested in war, environmental destruction, and human rights abuses. We took on this campaign because it looked like a practical and achievable goal that would help our movement in its fight for a more just, sustainable society. After a year of working on this issue and being consistently ignored, misrepresented, patronized, and denied, we felt it was time to bring the campaign to the next level. We considered a multitude of different options and finally decided that a hunger strike had the best potential to achieve our desired result.

On April 9th, 2008, members of UF SDS shared a “last supper” on the steps of Tigert Hall. At least 11 people have committed to some level of participation in this hunger strike, including some that will be consuming nothing but water until our Socially Responsible Investing proposal is accepted by the University of Florida. We need your help in letting the administration know that they can no longer ignore us and our proposal.

We are aware of the seriousness of the step we have taken, and can only reiterate the seriousness of the problem we are confronting - the systematic subjugation of people, cultures, and ecosystems before the almighty dollar. This system operates because it is profitable, and it is profitable because everyday people and institutional investors like UF have sacrificed their own values to cash in on the madness. Our proposal is an attempt to disconnect UF from this cycle and restore some sense of dignity and honor to higher education in the US.

Call school president Bernie Machen and let him know what you think about his refusal to put UF’s money where its mouth is. Ask him if he thinks it is okay if our university is profiting off of war, environmental destruction, and human rights abuses.

Phone: (352) 392-1311
Fax: (352) 392-9506
Email: President@ufl.edu
Office of the President, 226 Tigert Hall, PO Box 113150,
Gainesville, FL 32611

Other administrators you can talk to:

Student Body President: president@sg.ufl.edu

Office of Sustainability Director Dedee DeLongpre: dedee@ufl.edu, (352) 392-1336

Ask them to publicly declare their support for the hunger strikers and their SRI proposal.

Also, please sign our petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/srisds/petition.html

And, join the facebook group for updates: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14624337562

Can you organize a call in and letter writing day with your chapter? Every little bit helps. Thanks for your support!

In solidarity,
Gainesville Area SDS

Here is a sample call-in or letter/email script:

Hello, my name is ________ from __________ (school). I am (calling/writing) to urge you to support the socially responsible investment proposal submitted to you by Students for a Democratic Society. Currently, the SRI policy passed by the Board of Trustees provides no measure of accountability to the students or the public. If the University of Florida is to live up to its mission statement of working for the public good, it must realize that its investments should be held to the same standard. I implore you to meet the demands of the students who are on a hunger strike and ensure that the University of Florida will remain at the forefront of the fight for sustainability and responsibility. Thank you.

Beth Slutzky (Sarah Lawrence SDS) and Christa Hendrickson (Drew SDS) were interviewed on The Joy of Resistance: Multicultural Feminist Radio on WBAI (an independent radio station in NYC).  They discussed how combating sexism and promoting liberatory politics within SDS.  It aired April 3, 2008 @ 11am and you can listen to it online at: http://archive.wbai.org/

It will be up for 90 days.  It is listed as: Shared Timeslot Thursday - 11AM to Noon Thursday, April 3, 2008 11:00 am  - WmnCollectiv,LrgstMinority,JoyofResist

Students for a Democratic Society

http://www.newsds.org

http://www.newsds.org/march20/

Students for a Democratic Society is the largest and fastest growing student-led organization in the U.S. We win local campaigns to create real change.

PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release: Contact: Zachary Hershman

Tuesday March 18th, 2008 Phone: 201.264.2200

WAVE OF 90 STUDENT PROTESTS HIT SCHOOLS AROUND THE NATIONSTUDENTS RISK ARREST IN WEEK OF ACTION FOR THE ANNIVERSARY OF WAR IN IRAQ

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IN WASHINGTON ON MARCH 19th

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) led student protests in over 90 schools Monday morning, marking the first day of a week of anti-war action for the fifth anniversary of the War in Iraq. From high schools to Harvard, students left class and took to the streets to demand an immediate end to the war in Iraq and a reinvestment in America’s schools. Students for a Democratic Society is challenging local schools around the country to adopt a progressive agenda.

Tamara Tal, an organizer with University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill SDS, said they are working with more than 30 student organizations, as well as campus workers and faculty, in order to build a broad antiwar coalition. “We’re raising the stakes and bringing that message home to the university,” said Tal. “We want the university administration to cut their ties with military recruiters, war profiteers and Army research labs.”

“Just like last year, thousands of SDS youth are leading their communities in active opposition to the occupation of Iraq,” said Charla Schlueter, another SDS organizer from North Carolina. “Students and youth are fighting for a future that is largely theirs. Young people are on the ground in Iraq, they are facing education cuts at home, and will inherit the policy mistakes of the last generation.”

On March 19th, the anniversary of the War, SDS will be holding a titanic “Funk The War” dance party and dramatic civil disobedience in the nation’s capitol of Washington. Hundreds of DC SDS members, along with friends The Baltimore Algebra Project and United for Peace and Justice, will be occupying the streets and the offices of war profiteers with hundreds of students and a mobile sound system.

University of Delaware SDS will be re-creating the occupation of Iraq in a street theater demonstration called “Operation First Casualty”. Soldiers in camouflage will patrol the streets before detaining, arresting and interrogating members of the audience disguised as passer-by.

In Asheville North Carolina, SDS is poised to beat last year’s 500 student turnout with a mass student strike and teach-in on March 19th, as part of a weeklong series of events in coalition with 12 other student groups and Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Students for a Democratic Society was refounded two years ago to build progressive student power. SDS is the fastest growing student led organization in the nation, with over 100 chapters at schools and in communities. We win local campaigns for quality, affordable education, grassroots democracy, peace and justice.

###

Students for a Democratic Society
http://www.newsds.org/march20/

Attention Students for a Democratic Society! We have lift-off!

After mucho work by the Ratifications Committee, the ratification process was completed on March 1, 2008, with 85 SDS chapters submitting ballots. Only 5 of those ballots were incomplete and did not contain votes.

Here’s a summary of the results (For the full results, check out the SDS Wiki: http://newsds.org/wiki/index.php?title=Results_of_National_Ratification):

Note: A 2/3 majority (66.7%) was required for a proposal to pass Ratification. Abstentions do not count.

1. Who We Are, What We Are Building

99 FOR, 13 AGAINST, 22 ABSTAIN
88.4% SUPPORT (Abstentions do not cxount.)
PASSES
Complete results and comments on Proposal #1

2. Statement on Totalist Politics
105 FOR, 13 AGAINST, 16 ABSTAIN
89.0% SUPPORT (Abstentions do not count.)
PASSES
Complete results and comments on Proposal #2

3. Local Organizers Come First
99 FOR, 13 AGAINST, 22 ABSTAIN
88.4% SUPPORT (Abstentions do not count.)
PASSES
Complete results and comments on Proposal #3

4. Principles of Unity
83 FOR, 27 AGAINST, 24 ABSTAIN
75.5% SUPPORT (Abstentions do not count.)
PASSES
Complete results and comments on Proposal #4

5. Student Solidarity with Workers & Communities
101 FOR, 12 AGAINST, 21 ABSTAIN
89.4% SUPPORT (Abstentions do not count.)
PASSES
Complete results and comments on Proposal #5

6. Provisional National Structure
55 FOR, 56 AGAINST, 23 ABSTAIN
49.5% SUPPORT (Abstentions do not count.)
DOES NOT PASS
Complete results and comments on Proposal #6

7. The Member & The Chapter
85 FOR, 27 AGAINST, 22 ABSTAIN 75.9% SUPPORT (Abstentions do not count.)
PASSES
Complete results and comments on Proposal #7

8. Communications
56 FOR, 44 AGAINST, 34 ABSTAIN 56.0% SUPPORT (Abstentions do not count.)
DOES NOT PASS
Complete results and comments on Proposal #8

9. Creation of an Official SDS News Bulletin
116 FOR, 7 AGAINST, 11 ABSTAIN
94.3% SUPPORT (Abstentions do not count.)
PASSES
Complete results and comments on Proposal #9

The 2 proposals which did not pass will not be implemented. The other 7, as defined at the 2007 National Convention, are “binding, pending ratification” and are implemented immediately if they have not already been. Now comes the fun part!
To facilitate the implementation of these national decisions, several working groups were created through the ratification process, as follows:

2008 National Convention Planning Working Group: sds-national-convention-2008@googlegroups.com
To sign up, go to: http://groups.google.com/group/sds-national-convention-2008
Alliance Building Working Group: sds-alliance-outreach@googlegroups.com
To sign up, go to: http://groups.google.com/group/sds-alliance-outreach

Media Working Group: national-sds-media@googlegroups.com
To sign up, go to: http://groups.google.com/group/national-sds-media

National Structure Working Group: (to discuss and create a new proposal for national structure) sds-national-structure@googlegroups.com
To sign up, go to: http://groups.google.com/group/sds-national-structure

Another group will work on the document called ‘A Vision for the Future’ which came out of the 2007 National Convention. This is a living document, and should be discussed and debated, clarified and amplified, rewritten partially or entirely, and be revisited at the 2008 National Convention.
Vision for the Future Working Group: sds-vision-for-the-future@googlegroups.com
To sign up, go to: http://groups.google.com/group/sds-vision-for-the-future

4 additional working groups are equally crucial for implementation of these national decisions, and have already been hard at work:

Chapter Census Working Group: (to locate and contact all SDS chapters) sds-chapter-census@googlegroups.com
To sign up, go to: http://groups.google.com/group/sds-chapter-census

Fundraising Working Group: sds-fundraising@googlegroups.com
To sign up, go to: http://groups.google.com/group/sds-fundraising

SDS Welcoming Committee: SDSwelcome@googlegroups.com
To sign up, go to: http://groups.google.com/group/SDSwelcome

News Bulletin Working Group: sds-news-bulletin@googlegroups.com
To sign up, go to: http://groups.google.com/group/sds-news-bulletin

Phew! There’s so much to do! We’re gonna need a lot of people to get involved!!!

A note on “Officialdom“: the 85 chapters who submitted ballots have gained recognized status as official chapters of Students for a Democratic Society. This will entitle them to take part in future national decisions and send representatives to the National Convention, among other joys.

Chapters which did not respond to the Ratification process are currently not recognized. But have no fear! They can fix that by declaring their existence to the SDS Welcoming Committee and the Chapter Census by filling out these FUN FORM

SDS Chapter Application: http://www.studentsforademocraticsociety.org/join/sds_chapter.cgi

and

New Chapter Declaration Form: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=r2vfPWX7×9y4w_2fy9vUIHjw_3d_3d

ONE LAST THING!

The following SDSers deserve heaps and mounds of recognition and appreciation for months of effort to make Ratification happen:

Phil Chinn, Olympia SDS
Mike da Cruz, Brown SDS
Alex Grosskurth, Philly SDS
Mike Mangels, York College SDS
Sicily McRaven, Detroit SDS
Daniel Meltzer, DC SDS
Samantha Miller, DC SDS
Dave Shukla, UCLA SDS
DJ Sirois, UCF SDS

Ratification Committee, its mission accomplished, ready to fade into the night…

Questions, concerns, congratulations, etc. can be sent to Sam and Alex

PRINT and DISTRIBUTE to your CHAPTER, CAMPUS and COMMUNITY!

The SDS News Bulletin working group is proud to bring you our third issue, much improved over the first two issues in our humble opinion. We amped up the articles, poetry, art and layout from Issue 1 & 2, and you made it all possible by sending in your work, thoughts, ideas and love.

Here is the result:

Print Version
Online Reading Version

(You will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to view the PDF file, which is FREE software you can download Here)

Enjoy! and Distribute widely!

Send us your stuff to be published in Issue 4: sds.bulletin@gmail.com

Want to join the bulletin working group? Get involved by signing up for our email listserv: sds-news-bulletin@googlegroups.com

-The SDS News Bulletin Working Group

On Tuesday morning, February 12th, the widely-popular and progressive Gene R. Nichol, President of the College and William and Mary, tendered his resignation, following a decision by the Board of Visitors to not renew his contract (set to expire at the end of the academic year). President Nichol bravely denounced the Board of Visitors and their attempt to purchase his silence as to the true reasons for which he was fired: free speech and broad-minded change to a traditionally conservative institution. The Board of Visitors, the governing body of the College, is composed of the political appointees of the Governor of Virginia. The majority is otherwise not active members of the William & Mary community, and has in their decision-making process continuously silenced the voices of students, staff, faculty, and alumni, who are overwhelming in support of President Nichol and the substantive, progressive change he has made to this institution in three, short years.

In the wake of the shock of President Nichol’s sudden resignation, members of the Faculty of the College of Arts and Science issued a call for fellow faculty-members to join them in a “Strike”, refusing to hold regular classes on Wednesday (2/13) and Thursday (2/14), during a rally of over 500 students, staff, and faculty in support of the president. Following this announcement, members of the William & Mary Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) announced a student strike in solidarity with their professors. That night, over 1500 students expressed their grief for our community’s loss of a great man by congregating in front of the President’s House to intone to Gene Nichol the Alma Mater of our college. Students - stunned, grieved, incensed - are experiencing ‘the fierce urgency of now’.

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