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On December 3rd 2007, the Philadelphia chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) transformed the recruitment offices of 125 N. Broad St. into a functioning community center. Dozens of local students built an interactive art exhibit in front of the recruitment station, raising a banner over the recruitment office that read “Philadelphia People’s Community Center”. The students cheered “Replace this base with community space!” and passed out leaflets with career alternatives to military recruitment.
Recruitment, the students argue, drains valuable resources from the Philadelphia community. “Army recruitment offices are taking concerned Philadelphians away from Philadelphia,” said Alessandra Lobasso, member of Philly SDS. “The youth that actively want to make a difference are being lured away from their community by the false promises of military recruiters.” According to the New York Times, approximately one in five United States Army recruiters were under investigation in 2004 for threatening and coercing applicants. More pictures… Read the rest of this entry »
Philadelphia Students for a Democratic Society has just hosted the fourth Northeast Regional Convention at UPenn!
Over 150 SDSers from 40 chapters all over the northeast gathered together in Philadelphia to share victories and plan for the coming year.
We held workshops and learned new skills, we brainstormed new organizing opportunities, we started working together on joint actions and campaigns, we built student power at the root. Read the rest of this entry »
Calling all Northeast Students for a Democratic Society!!
Philly SDS invites you to the City of Love (for All Genders) to participate in the SDS Northeast Regional Convention, Friday Nov. 30th through Sunday December 2nd!
Are you ready to Build the Movement and Amplify the Resistance? Read the rest of this entry »
On November 16th, SDSers had a ‘cough-in’ and ‘die-in’ from the terrible fumes coming from Bank of America, as part of Rainforest Action Network’s ‘Nationwide Day of Action’ against new Coal-fired power plants and destructive mining practices such as Mountaintop Removal. more pics below…
Every day for the last week has seen nonviolent activists attempting to physically block a shipment of Stryker military vehicles, returning from Iraq, from unloading off the Port of Olympia, Washington to be refitted and sent back to the war. Police in riot gear have responded with violence and chemical weapons. Resistance to the war machine continues to grow.
Read the “Tear it Down” article by a Northwest SDSer below. And here’s video:
Port Militarization Resistance — Peppersprayed in Olympia
Port of Olympia Anti-Militarization Action Nov. 2007
Port of Olympia War Shipments Halted 11/9/07
Stop Wars — a day of struggle in Olympia
TEAR IT DOWN (while building sustainable alternatives)
Guy Dobyns
Northwest SDS Joins Port Militarization Resistance, Others in Halting Military
Shipments
Dozens of SDSers from Olympia, Tacoma, Bellingham, and Portland have all been present in the newest round of protesting military shipments through Olympia, Washington this week. Anti-war activists from across the region, ranging in age from toddlers to the grey-haired, have come out to protest–and to blockade with their bodies–the movement of Stryker vehicles through the Port of Olympia. The Strykers were from 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division Stryker Combat Team which resisters tried to prevent from leaving through the port in May 2006. Since then port actions have occurred in Tacoma and Aberdeen, WA against military shipments. Most likely, the returning materials will be shipped out again, even though the last tour of Iraq resulted in 48 deaths of American soldiers and an unknown number of Iraqi civilian deaths. Also, a high-ranking official in the US military leaked out that all the vehicles and weapons aboard the ship are contaminated with depleted uranium. The presence of the ship and the movement of Strykers act as a hyper-militarization of an already militarized town.
What has been amazing about the actions is the level of resistance displayed. Never before, in the port actions in Olympia, Tacoma and Aberdeen, have people displayed these levels of resistance, adapting quickly to changing situations and fighting back. There is something beautiful happening in Olympia. Liberals, radicals and everyone in between are working together. They are on the same page and because of this they are able to act in the manner they did. It is a true expression – no, a true act of solidarity. Read the rest of this entry »
[This is only one person’s perspective, and not meant to be an authoritative report. Other SDSers, especially womyn and trans folks are encouraged to step up and write about No War, No Warming. -ed.]
“War Pollutes Our Democracy; Sexism Militarizes Our Bodies”
26 members of SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) blocked traffic next to the House of Representatives Monday morning, October 22, as part of No War, No Warming, which drew hundreds to the Capitol. Traffic was stopped on Independence Ave. for over an hour. After the initial wave of 27 people was pulled off the street by cops, a second wave, which included minors, jumped into the street and linked arms, halting traffic once again. The goal of the protest was to dramatize that Congress has failed to stop the war and failed to address global warming, and to show that the two issues are deeply connected by Oil.
Nearby, polar bears rapped, giant Condaleeza and giant Bush danced, Iraq Veterans Against the War staged a Blackwater mission, Billionaires for Bush whined, a bike brigade did Critical Mass, and Oil Change International demonstrated for the “Separation of Oil and State.” 61 were arrested overall.
The most fun part was in prison, when we integrated the holding cell across gender (or perceived gender) lines. Starting on opposite sides of the room based on what gender the cops considered us, we sneakily inched together over the course of hours, until we ended up in a big circle and had a meeting! The power dynamic was flipped and the cops were stunned.
Everyone is out of jail, healthy and safe.
“No War! No Warming! Resistance! is Forming!”
some good coverage:
Democracy Now! video coverage (requires Realplayer)
Youtube video #1 (skip the weird 1:00 intro)
more pics: Read the rest of this entry »
The First Issue of the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) News Bulletin is HERE!
GET IT OUT to your CHAPTER, CAMPUS and COMMUNITY!
There are two versions – one, the electronic version, is meant to be read on a computer, and the pages appear in the order they are supposed to be read in. Please do not print this version out, it will waste a bunch of paper.
The other version is the print version, and is meant for that purpose. The pages are arranged in such a way that if printed on both sides of some sheets of paper and folded down the middle, you can read through the document like a book. But if you try to read it electronically it will look like the pages are out of order. The easiest way to print this is with a double-sided printer; if that is not available, just print half of the pages (odd or evens) and then feed the paper back in for the other set.
Enjoy, and Distribute widely! Distribute! Distribute! Distribute!
(and if you want to contribute to the next issue to make it even more fun, e-mail us at sds.bulletin@gmail.com!)
(and sign up for the listserv too – http://groups.google.com/group/sds-news-bulletin)
Declaration of Independence from Oil
July 4, 2007
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for the people to rid themselves of a government which has abandoned the sound principles upon which it was founded and that increasingly threatens their lives and liberties for the sake of the Oil Industry, a decent respect to the opinions of humankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are born with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it. That when a long train of abuses and lies, pursuing invariably the same Middle Eastern Oil, threatens to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these American Citizens, along with the rest of the Peoples of the World. The History of the Government of the United States since the Second World War, fully exposed under the current King George II, is a history of repeated Imperial Adventures, all having in direct object the establishment of an Empire of Oil, founded upon a domestic Tyranny over these States, and a Colonial relationship with all peoples living in petroleum-rich areas of the Earth. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid audience. Read the rest of this entry »
The End of Capitalism 
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