DSA Night School
January 30, 2024
The New Left is an umbrella term given to a political movement made up primarily of college students during the 1960s. Students for a Democratic Society was the main political organization of the New Left and is best known for leading opposition to the Vietnam War. At its height in 1969, SDS had a membership of around 100,000, roughly twice the size of DSA today as a proportion of the US population. The term “New Left” was adopted from a 1959 essay by the sociologist C. Wright Mills titled, “Letter to the New Left,” which differentiated the new social and political movements of the 1950s from the Stalinist, Trotskyist, and Socialist parties of the “old” Marxist left. Mills and the New Left put more emphasis on immediate participation in democratic struggles against racial discrimination, the Cold War arms race, and McCarthyite limits on employment and free speech than on trade union struggles and the future goal of socialism, although most new leftists did believe in the eventual need for socialist economic planning of some kind.
Although critical of the Old Left, the New Left actually originated as an offshoot of a debate within the Trotskyist movement in 1939/40 regarding the nature of Stalinism and the prospects for revolution in both the Soviet Union and the capitalist west. Trotsky’s side in this debate is Leon Trotsky: In Defense of Marxism (1939/1940). Trotsky granted in these writings that if WWII did not result in a working class revolution, then Marxists would have to rethink their entire theory of historical development. Dwight MacDonald, a former Trotskyist, began this rethinking with the establishment of “politics” magazine in 1944 and in a lengthy 1946 essay, The Root Is Man. C. Wright Mills published articles in “politics” and shared many of MacDonald’s views on the inadequacy of traditional Marxist theory. Mills’ association with MacDonald and the beginnings of a distinctive New Left perspective on the American political and social system is covered in Kevin Mattson, Intellectuals in Action.
For the history of the New Left in general and SDS specifically, Kirkpatrick Sale, SDS, James Miller, Democracy Is in the Streets, and Todd Gitlin, The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage, are basic. The Marxist phase of the New Left is covered in Max Elbaum, Revolution in the Air. Many source documents on SDS are available at https://www.sds-1960s.org/, and documents of the Marxist New Left are collected at https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/erol.htm.
My interpretation of New Left history is here, You Can’t Use Weatherman to Show Which Way the Wind Blew.
—Gil Schaeffer
Timeline
Vietnam War begins.
Sociologist C. Wright Mills coined the term the “New Left” in his essay titled Letter to the New Left, in which he distinguished the new post-WWII social and political movements from the Stalinist, Trotskyist, and Socialist parties of the “Old Left.”
SDS outlined its conception of “participatory democracy” in its manifesto, The Port Huron Statement.
Bernie Sanders arrested in Chicago.
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) organized the first mass protest against the Vietnam war.
Final SDS national convention was held.
Weatherman rally in Chicago (Days of Rage)
Rally at Fort Dix
National student strike against the invasion of Cambodia at the New Haven May Day Rally.
George Jackson was killed at San Quentin Prison.
Vietnam War ends.
Sources & Further Reading
Books
Miller, Jim. “Democracy is in the streets” : from Port Huron to the siege of Chicago. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987.
https://archive.org/details/democracyisinstr0000mill_j0l5/page/6/mode/2up
Sale, Kirkpatrick. SDS: The rise and development of the Students for a Democratic Society. Vintage Books, 1973. https://archive.org/details/sds_kirkpatrick_sale/page/n23/mode/2up
Gitlin, Todd. The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage. New York: Bantam Books, 1993. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/60551/the-sixties-by-todd-gitlin/
Elbaum, Max. Revolution in the air : sixties radicals turn to Lenin, Mao and Che. London, New York: Verso, 2002. https://archive.org/details/revolutioninairs0000elba
Harding, Neil. Lenin’s Political Thought: Theory and Practice in the Democratic and Socialist Revolutions. United Kingdom: Haymarket Books, 2009. https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/882-lenin-s-political-thought
The Political Ideas of Marx and Engels
Vol. 1: Hunt, Richard N. Marxism and totalitarian democracy, 1818-1850. London: Feffer and Simons, Inc., 1974. https://archive.org/details/marxismtotalitar0000hunt
Vol. 2: Hunt, Richard N. Classical Marxism, 1850-1895. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1984. https://archive.org/details/classicalmarxism0000hunt
Outline
By Topic
Bernie Sanders’ 1963 Arrest
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-bernie-sanders-1963-chicago-arrest-20160219-story.html
https://sandersinstitute.org/event/bernie-sanders-arrest-at-chicago-civil-rights-protest
Students for a Democratic Society
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Students_for_a_Democratic_Society
https://depts.washington.edu/moves/sds_map.shtml
https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/students-for-a-democratic-society/
https://wallstreetwindow.com/students-for-a-democratic-society-and-the-vietnam-war
The Port Huron Statement (1964)
http://www.progressivefox.com/misc_documents/PortHuronStatement.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Huron_Statement
March on Washington to End the War in Vietnam (April 17, 1965)
http://michiganintheworld.history.lsa.umich.edu/antivietnamwar/exhibits/show/exhibit/the_teach_ins/national_teach_in_1965
May Day Rally (May 1, 1970)
https://www.newhavenmuseum.org/museum-collections/online-exhibitions/may-day-1970/
Student Strike of 1970
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_strike_of_1970
Weatherman
Ono, Shin’ya. You Do Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows
https://www.sds-1960s.org/Ono-weatherman.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Days_of_Rage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Seven
The New Left
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/22/the-making-of-the-new-left
https://www.marxists.org/subject/humanism/mills-c-wright/letter-new-left.htm
Fort Dix
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Dix_38
https://www.nytimes.com/1969/10/14/archives/protest-at-fort-dix-is-called-a-success.html
GI Coffeehouses
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.I._coffeehouses
C. Wright Mills
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Wright_Mills
George Jackson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Jackson_(activist)
Participatory Democracy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participatory_democracy
Dangers of Sectarianism
Mark Rudd’s Lessons From SDS and the Weather Underground for Today’s Radicals
Half the Way with Mao Zedong (jacobin.com)
Bayard Rustin Showed the Promise and Pitfalls of Coalition Politics (jacobin.com)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_No._10
The U.S. is Not a Democracy
America Is Not a Democracy (January 29, 2024)
https://prospect.org/politics/2024-01-29-america-is-not-democracy/
Quoted in the Presentation
Hal Draper
https://www.marxists.org/archive/draper/index.htm
Steve Hamilton, On the History of the Revolutionary Union (Part One)
https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/periodicals/theoretical-review/19791302.htm
Lenin, The Drafting of 183 Students Into the Army
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1901/jan/drafting.htm
Engels, Friedrich. The Principles of Communism (1847)
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm
Marx & Engels. Manifesto of the Communist Party (February 1848)
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Manifesto.pdf?source=post_page—————————
Marx & Engels. Demands of the Communist Party in Germany (March 1848)
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/03/24.htm#:~:text=%2A%20%2A%20%2A%201%201.%20The%20whole%20of,the%20parliament%20of%20the%20German%20people.%20More%20items
Engels. A Critique of the Draft Social-Democratic Program of 1891
https://marxists.architexturez.net/archive/marx/works/1891/06/29.htm
Engels. Reply to the Honourable Giovanni Bovio (1892)
https://marxists.architexturez.net/archive/marx/works/1892/02/critica-sociale.htm
Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party Second Congress Programme of the Social-Democratic Workers’ Party, adopted at the Second Congress of the Party (1903)
https://www.marxists.org/history/international/social-democracy/rsdlp/1903/program.htm
The Socialist Party Platform of 1912
https://www.sageamericanhistory.net/progressive/docs/SocialistPlat1912.htm
By and About Gil Schaeffer
Publications
Princeton War Debate Taken to Ball Field; Pacifist Team Beats R.O.T.C. in Touch Football Game
https://www.nytimes.com/1967/11/18/archives/princeton-war-debate-taken-to-ball-field-pacifist-team-beats-rotc.html
You Can’t Use Weatherman To Show Which Way The Wind Blew: The Unfinished History Of the New Left; Participatory Democracy, Marxism, and the Goal of a Democratic Constitution https://democraticconstitutionparty.files.wordpress.com/2020/10/you-cant-use-weatherman-3.pdf
Taking Democracy Seriously – Socialist Forum
https://socialistforum.dsausa.org/issues/2023-dsa-national-convention-discussion/taking-democracy-seriously/
Newpol.org Author Tag: Gil Schaeffer
https://newpol.org/authors/schaeffer-gil/
KeyWiki – Gil Schaeffer
https://keywiki.org/Gil_Schaeffer
Podcasts
Cosmopod Interview – A Participant’s History (October 30, 2023)
https://cosmopod.libsyn.com/a-participants-history-of-the-students-for-a-democratic-society-with-gil-schaeffer
Cosmopod
https://cosmonautmag.com/2021/06/democracy-and-socialism-the-two-edges-of-marxisms-knife/
Slideshow Sources
Slide 1:
Photo: https://archive.org/details/SdsAnIntroduction/
Slide 2:
Photo: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-bernie-sanders-1963-chicago-arrest-20160219-story.html
Slide 3:
Left: https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums457-b03-f13-i007
Right: SDS Poster, “End the War in Vietnam March on Washington April 17, 1965”,” Resistance and Revolution: The Anti-Vietnam War Movement at the University of Michigan, 1965-1972, accessed January 24, 2024, http://michiganintheworld.history.lsa.umich.edu/antivietnamwar/items/show/155.
Slide 4:
Background: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:C._Wright_Mills.jpg
Inset right: https://newleftreview.org/issues/i5
Slides 5 & 6:
Photo & text: http://www.progressivefox.com/misc_documents/PortHuronStatement.pdf
Slide 7:
Left: https://archive.org/details/new-left-notes-sds-1969-06-25/
Center: https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-1/gsb-7-7-69.pdf
Right: https://archive.org/details/convention-report-sds-1969-07/
Slide 8:
Background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fort_Dix_Stockade_Entrance_Sign_1969.jpg
Left and right: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Free_the_Fort_Dix_38_Demo_12Oct1969.jpg
Center: https://biblio.ie/book/original-poster-free-ft-dix-38/d/1275756609
Slide 9:
Lyrics: https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/subterranean-homesick-blues/
Screenshot of music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGxjIBEZvx0&t=63s
Slide 10:
Left: https://biblio.ie/book/original-poster-free-ft-dix-38/d/1275756609
Right: https://www.abebooks.com/Bring-Home-SDS-Students-Democratic-Society/30671315739/bd
Slide 11:
Left: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Thousands_March_on_Fort_Dix_12Oct1969.jpg
Right: https://www.newspapers.com/article/abilene-reporter-news-details-on-fort-di/8542527/
Slide 12:
Photo: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/10/13/issue.html
Slide 13:
Left: https://leftwingbooks.net/en-us/products/sds-students-for-a-democratic-society
Right: https://www.amazon.com/SDS-development-Students-Democratic-Society/dp/0394478894
Slide 14:
Inset top right: http://collections.newhavenmuseum.org/MADetailImg.aspx?rID=PColl%2023/1-Box%201#002&img=0&db=biblio&dir=PHOTOCOLL
Inset bottom right: http://collections.newhavenmuseum.org/MADetailImg.aspx?rID=PColl%2023/1-Box%201#019&img=0&db=biblio&dir=PHOTOCOLL
Slide 15:
Left: https://archive.org/details/revolutioninairs0000elba/
Center: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-349-02661-6
Right: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/882-lenin-s-political-thought
Slide 16:
Background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:George_Jackson.png
Inset top center left: https://www.amazon.com/Soledad-Brother-Prison-Letters-Jackson/dp/1556522304
Inset top center right: https://www.amazon.com/Blood-My-Eye-George-Jackson/dp/0933121237
Inset bottom center: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1971/09/03/79151476.html?pageNumber=1
Inset right: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1971/09/20/79153306.html?pageNumber=1
Slide 17:
Photo: https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/photo/1895-1917/1910-1.htm
Slide 18:
Photo: https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/photo/1918/028.htm
Slide 19:
Photo: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/photo/engels/pages/56fe1.htm
Text: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm
Slide 20:
Photo: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/page.jpg
Text: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch02.htm
Slide 21:
Photo & text: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/03/24.htm
Slide 22:
Photo: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/photo/engels/pages/91fe2.htm
Text: https://marxists.architexturez.net/archive/marx/works/1891/06/29.htm
Slide 23:
Photo: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/photo/engels/pages/93fe1.htm
Text: https://marxists.architexturez.net/archive/marx/works/1892/02/critica-sociale.htm
Slide 24:
Text: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/social-democracy/rsdlp/1903/program.htm
Slide 25:
Photo: https://www.sageamericanhistory.net/progressive/docs/SocialistPlat1912.htm
Slide 26: Background: https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/constitution