UND SDS - Walk Out Against the War!

UND SDS has been coordinated a while now to put together an event for March 20th, the week that the USA went to war with Iraq FIVE years ago. In coordination with the March 20th working group with SDS and after we endorsed the call this is what we have going on that day:

The University of North Dakota Chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) is urging students and faculty to Walk Out Against the War in Iraq (and possible War in Iran).

We are urging people to walk out of classes at 9:45 for a day of anti-war education and action at the Loading Dock in the Union. (Attendees free to come and go)

The Schedule is as follows:

10am - Prof. Brian Urlacher - Just War Theory

11am - Prof. Paul Sum - Problems with Democratization Under Occupation

12-1pm - Anti-War March and Free Food!

1pm - Prof. Richard Kahn - The War on Iraq: Educational Issues

2pm - Prof. Cliff Staples - The War for Oil in Iraq

3pm - Prof. Janet Moen - Where Have all the Flower Gone?

This event is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Also if anyone needs a ride or have any questions and/or concerns, please feel free to email us at sds.und@gmail.com

This is also a child-friendly event where there will be an age variant range of activities and help with childcare.

Facebook Event:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=10745768435

Our flier (which is converted into 8.5x11 poster, quarter size hand out sheets and table tents)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/ramonegirl/Heather/SDSmarch20.jpg

Thanks for the March 20th working group for part of the poster - we used an image that was posted on the website.

We also released a press release, an email to Professors and faculty to allow classes to attend and an email to other student organizations to help and endorse if they would like.

- Heather (UND SDS)

RNC Welcoming Committee comes to UND

Our facebook event:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=10452726413

RNC WC got in contact with UND SDS to do a presentation/workshop at UND while on the way to their travels to the West Coast. She brought it to the other members and everyone was way down with this. On February 22, Friday from 7 to 8:30 the RNC WC will be doing a presentation on UND campus in the Badlands Room at the Memorial Union in Grand Forks. They will have a powerpoint presentation, workshop and discussion for questions, thoughts, etc...

This will help us get ready for September! Yah!!

Here is an article in the Dakota Student Heather wrote in the Opinion Section:
http://www.dakotastudent.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticle&ustory_id=b1544358-82ab-4cb2-afb7-5de99be805c1

And the wonderous flier:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/ramonegirl/Misc/RNCPosterWEB.jpg

If you're in the area, please come!!

UND SDS Updates!

UND's Chapter of SDS recently became a recognized student chapter of UND, hooray! From that, we have recently printed out some posters and half-size that Heather, Aaron and Hunter put together in November and December. Here is a link to the poster, we were only able to print it off in black/white and 8.5 x 11 but they still look fabulous. We are in the process of hanging them all over campus and Grand Forks. We also have a petition (electronic and hard copy) to present to the Senators and Reps of ND to not bomb Iran.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/ramonegirl/Misc/SDSFlier.jpg

We also have some great things going on, beyond that. Bill Ayers is coming in April, so we are in the process of getting that set up - as well as, actions on March 20th. We are getting professors to speak and do workshops and perhaps an Iraq War Veteran. It is going to be awesome times coming up.

The RNC Welcoming Committee may be coming up as well to do a small workshop, get the word up and help organize rides and places to stay in Minneapolis and St Paul during the event.

We are also organizing fund raisers for the speakers that are coming. As well as checking out what types of clothing companies UND uses for the clothes and whether a federal mandate is attached to that and what not.

We have a few other things upcoming, however - these are things we are for sure working on now.

Solidarity!
- Heather
and UND SDS

Macalester SDS Reportback on Midwest Convention

REPORTBACK FROM SDS MIDWEST CONVENTION
Brendan Rogers and Nick Huelster
1/20/08

************************************************************************

The weekend of January 12-13 in Milwaukee a well spent mix of sharing our stories and learning from others experiences. The Midwest region showed that we were doing serious work on a variety of pressing local and national issues, more than meeting the challenge of the high bar set by the so-called face of SDS, the better publicized chapters on the coasts. The convention had a non-deliberative role, which meant that the work done was skill sharing, reports of chapter-level work, communication building, and caucusing.

Friday

On Friday afternoon we drove through Wisconsin and, after a few stops along the way, ended up in Milwaukee. We were put up by the amazing Jay and Molly of Milwaukee-SDS who are some of the nicest people we’ve ever met. We started sharing about our chapters right away together, losing track of time and showing up to an SDS party just as it ended. We went out to a busy, greasy pizza joint, then hit the hay in preparation of the next day’s events.

Saturday Morning

When we arrived at the University of Milwaukee, we did a quick round of introductions. Chapters attended included: Milwaukee, Chicago, Macalester, U of Minnesota, U of N. Dakota/Grand Forks, Grand Rapids MI, Madison, and Detroit.

After intros we had an extended conversation that roughly centered on the topic of movement building, which was to be one of the themes of the weekend. Our talk was facilitated by Bill Ayers of old SDS and Weather Underground fame, who barely introduced himself for who he has been, only mentioning his past a few times. (When Nick got him to sign a copy of his memoir, he told Bill that he was only halfway through it. Bill said, "Then you haven’t gotten to the good part!" and Nick laughed, nervously.) He brought great vision and energy in facilitating our discussion. This talk reinforced the fundamental idea of SDS as an organization of chapters in federation: while we all were there for the same purpose and in solidarity with one another, our problems varied wildly. Some chapters had a difficult time getting new members, others retaining members, others had experienced the problem of rapid growth without the infrastructure to accommodate their new size. What was apparent, however, was that even the smallest of groups have had successful campaigns.

Saturday Afternoon

After lunch, when some members went to a benefit for a local alderperson who has been imprisoned on dubious grounds, we began chapter reportbacks. (The notes from the convention, including what was shared during chapter reportbacks, are being put together and distributed by members of Milwaukee and Detroit SDS, and will be mailed out to attendees and the Midwest list within two weeks). Suffice it to say that this was one of the most inspiring parts of the convention. Others were impressed with our strike, especially the structure of the mass meeting and our street takeover, as well as our tradition of the effigy-burning. One of the best moments was when the mild-mannered Grand Rapids chapter told of their march to their congressperson’s house, where they taped a giant proclamation saying he would no longer support war funding to his door, asking for him to sign it, despite a tremendous police presence. Their actions received press, and forced the congressperson to come clean about his war record. Inspiring and hilarious are two words that were used to describe SDSers frequently this weekend.

After chapter reports, we held a short presentation on gender by Sicily of Detroit SDS. We discussed how gender is constructed, cultural stereotypes about gender, and in what ways we can build struggles around gender. Sicily also introduced us to another metaphor, which would come up over and over throughout the convention: her "knitting" analogy for anti-oppression work. Like knitters, who must practice their craft until the day they die or begin to lose it, people practicing anti-oppression work are involved in a constant process and are never free of oppressive tendencies.

Sunday Morning

Sunday morning was caucus/auxiliary time. The caucus/auxiliary pairs were women/men, people of color/white, working class/class privilege. These conversations people a space to discuss oppression broadly, raise consciousness about it within SDS, and take back tips to their home chapters. Macalester SDS's "vibe-check" go-around at the end of every meeting proved a popular suggestion. There was a bit of tension when a group of men from one chapter did not attend any of the caucuses. We believe the issues raised in the caucuses are challenges that all privileged and oppressed people in SDS need to confront. We must assume "good faith" in SDS, which means that people should assume that criticisms made by their comrades are done not to hurt them or anger them, but out of desire for a stronger organization. This is especially important in the context of anti-oppression work, when tensions can run high for both the oppressed and privileged groups. Out of these talks, a strong message we meditated on was the concept that "You know that you need the movement when the movement doesn’t need you." This means that you’re speaking when you need to speak, not dominating leadership roles but sharing them with all group members and doing invisible roles as well.

Sunday Afternoon

We ended the convention with a series of break-out groups to discuss topics that had been brought up over the course of the weekend as requiring the attention of Midwest chapters. These included: movement-building/chapter alliances/Midwest communication, March 20 protests, RNC protests, counter-recruitment, and building non-hierarchical leadership. The notes from these conversations will come out with the official notes from the convention. Of immediate importance, however, is the creation of an internal Midwest SDS blog at midwestsds.blogspot.com, in order to better share information, speakers, and materials created by chapters across the Midwest.

Before concluding, we reaffirmed our need for more Midwest communication, another Midwest convention in 2008, and, as a convention, signed the SDS M20 call. Closing thoughts were altogether positive, and it was hard to drive back home and leave behind all our newfound friends and comrades.

************************************************************************

Comments on SDS (Brendan)

While we at Macalester may get frustrated with our internal structure, it was received quite well by other chapters. This, like so many other things at convention, reminds me of Sicily from Detroit SDS's words about the "knitting" analogy: Where we have struggled, and continue to struggle, with issues of oppression in the past, it has made us stronger. Our formal rotating division of tasks would be impossible if we had not discussed and implemented changes about issues of (for instance) patriarchy in semesters past. Anti-oppression work is indeed a continual process, and because we have worked hard on some of those issues, we are able to come up with solutions for problems that other chapters have been unable to even begin dealing with. I couldn’t be more proud of how our chapter has worked on these issues.

I think that the continual growth of SDS is incredible, and the people I met at convention were incredible as well. Our decision-making processes, our work on sharing, and our actions have been inspiring. At the risk of sounding arrogant, I truly believe that we are one of the few activist groups who are modeling the kind of "participatory" society that we are seeking to create.

My one concern with opinions I heard voiced at the convention was the speed with which SDSers agreed to work to get politicians elected. Even as folks loudly declared their independence from the Democratic Party, they allowed themselves to be drawn into the discourse of state power as a goal of revolutionaries. Organizers stated that they wanted to force candidates to "come to us" as representatives of an authentic Left, and that we should only endorse them if they met all our criteria (anti-war, pro-universal healthcare, etc). To borrow the language of Hillary Clinton, SDSers sought to become the MLK to the Democrat's LBJ. This ignores a history of betrayal by politicians, from the U.S. to Russia and beyond, and an understanding of how the American Empire functions. If SDSers assert that power "comes from below," many are suspiciously quick to endorse the "power from above" of the politicians. A particularly astute comment came from one comrade about the "march to the right" of U.S. presidential elections, which begin with leftists supporting candidates like Nader or Kucinich and end with them supporting the likes of the incredibly pro-war John Kerry.

Comments on SDS (Nick)

I had no idea what to expect at the convention, it turned out to be a great coming together of ideas. We heard about what other chapters are doing, and it gave us perspective on where we can grow.

To know that last year, the group looked at how group dynamics played out in MPJC has been key to my understanding our challenge. I think that being self-critical is our greatest asset, because it’s the only way to keep ourselves on the right path. It’s something that we have to keep working on, but I could tell at the convention that we were well beyond other groups in being respectful of eachother.

Something I think we need to all be in agreement in is our structure. We had some issues last semester about proposals, and it came down to procedural structure. We need a structure that works, and that everyone is okay with. This isn’t the atmosphere we want new members to enter into, and I’m still confused about it myself. I’d like to help work this out.

I don’t know that all of our dreams are going to come true this semester. Every day, more and more are killed in what for me has been the greatest sign of an injust society and government: the war, and it’s easy to think that we can’t achieve anything. But, I’m not in agreement with you who say that we haven’t accomplished goals in the antiwar movement. What I think we have done is filled the void with our efforts, especially with the strike, but through all of our smaller efforts. The most important thing we’re doing is educating ourselves about the war, and I think that it is in speaking out our ideas that we have the most offer to the college. It’s time that we found new ways of igniting the prairie, because 2008 is going to be a key year for our movement.

I decided to come to Macalester because I thought that it would ‘challenge and transform me’, and even though in my first semester I’ve had a few classroom eureka moments, its been the nest of MPJC-SDS and all of you that has made it worth it for me to be here. I thank you all for what you are doing, I like you all a lot, and its been so fulfilling to know you both as friends and as activists.

The joy of Anti-war/anti-consumerist Carols

I thought i'd be the first to post. This is a report of what my chapter did over our christmas break.

As students it is hard for us to remain active during our school breaks. For this reason several members the UIC chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (sds) made a commitment to stay active during the winter break. Yet it was hard for us to come-up with ideas of how this could be done. Collectively we decided to do something on the Magnificent Mile during the height of the Christmas shopping season.
This was meant to hit an audience that does not get exposed too often to the anti-war message, though many are probably sympathetic. We wanted the action to be fun, liberating and provocative. One of our friends suggested caroling using Christmas songs that had their lyrics reworked to be anti-war and anti-consumerist. And we decided on December 15th as the day of action. We then began collecting lyrics, for this we are indebted to 8th Center for Justice and many contributors to progressive websites who made their antiwar carols available to us.
The night before the action we gathered at my apartment for mulled wine and singing practice. The night ended with an impromptu folk sing-a-long and we all bonded. We rode the train together the next afternoon to Water Tower Place. At the corner of the building we sang together for about an hour, moving occasionally to avoid security. We got smiles, nods and even a few hugs. Surprising to me, we didn’t get a single negative response.
We understand that singing antiwar carols by itself will not end the war. But at a time when student activism usually goes dormant, we did something that at least made out group more cohesive. Surrounded by rampant consumerism, we reached through the veil of alienation and touched a few people. In addition this winter break we are preparing for next semester (March 20th/RNC), holding a progressive film festival and working in Chicagosds to strengthen the student in the chicagoland area. We only wished that we could stay longer, but after an hour we were tired and since I didn’t bring gloves, my hands had gotten quite frosty. So if we, as antiwar activists, are racking our brains as to what to do this Holiday season, I would recommend doing antiwar caroling. It can be done in your neighborhood or suburb and can be a great way to spent time with friends and comrades. It will bring joy to our lives and the lives of those around us. The action went so well that UIC-sds is planning on doing it again tentatively on Monday (17th).

In solidarity,
Ryan Donnelly
UIC-sds