By Michaelia Fosses

Historic activist group Students for a Democratic Society is back in the spotlight in a new incarnation, but with the same focus. 

SDS began in the mid-1960s and developed into a prominent student activist group before its dissolution and segmentation in 1969. 

In early 2006, a group of high school students teamed up with SDS veterans and reestablished the group.  A website called students across the country to action, and in just one year, the group has garnered more than 250 chapters in high schools and colleges across the country.

A national organization with many local chapters, SDS also has a non-student counterpart, the Movement for a Democratic Society.

Since the organization is regionally based, different chapters participate in different events, but all with a focus on participatory democracy.

Currently, the Chicago chapter of SDS is focusing on peace work, especially countering military recruiters on campuses through teach-ins, rallies, and advocacy work.

In Chicago, other anti-war organizations started affiliating with SDS. Students for Social Justice at the University of Illinois Chicago and the DePaul Students Against the War were among the groups that joined says Nick Kreitman, an organizer for the Chicago chapter of SDS/MDS.

According to Kreitman, the Chicago chapter is more an amalgam of other groups than an organization of new recruits. “Right now, we're still kind of nebulous.”

Though the group's newest incarnation is different than the old, the ideals are still the same.

“A lot of the philosophy of the old SDS revolved around participatory democracy,” said Kreitman.

Though Kreitman believes stopping military presence on campus is important, “We need to expand beyond being a single-issue organization.”

In Chicago, SDS has yet to expand beyond the anti-war movement, though they are looking at options for the future. Kreitman says SDS may join up with Rainforest Action Network or other environmental organizations as one way to move beyond the war.

The SDS of the 1960s was more male-dominated and more centralized, but Kreitman believes the group became too power hungry, and people took advantage of the structure until it collapsed.

The SDS/MDS in Chicago is trying to make the new SDS more gender friendly, and trying to empower the people who weren't involved in decision making before. 

The group is also working on developing a new strategy to recruit more students into the organization, as the movement is smaller in the Midwest than in the Northeast and the Northwest.

Many people aren't active now, in Chicago, says Kreitman, because of a “lack of a clear way of how they can influence events” in the world.

“A lot of it is that they don't see the cause and effect, and that's why I think we need SDS right now.”

The SDS/MDS in Chicago is planning a national conference to draft an organizational constitution. The Chicago chapter is also planning for a summer of heavy recruitment at various festivals, as well as a Chicago convention.  SDS can be found online at www.studentsforademocraticsociety.org