Brian Kelly is arrested (Photo: Thomas Good)
Click on the image to see more photos…

New York, NY – November 15, 2006 5 SDS New York members were arrested at Pace University on Wednesday, November 15. The SDSers were standing on the courtyard outside the Pace University downtown campus – demanding that President Caputo and Dean of Students O’Grady meet with them to discuss their grievances when they were summarily arrested by the NYPD, who acted on the instructions of the Pace Administrators. The students were demanding free expression on campus, recognition of the Pace SDS chapter and that Pace President David A. Caputo step down for his repeated violations of the civil rights of Pace students.

Following the arrests Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS) issued a statement of support for the Pace activists. The full statement follows. To sign the statement send an email to nyc@studentsforademocraticsociety.org

NOTE: there is also an online petition – http://www.petitiononline.com/pacesds/petition.html

Statement of Soldarity with Pace SDS

We the undersigned officers and members of Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS), denounce the actions of Pace University in regards to the planned arrest of several SDS first amendment activists on November 15, 2006 at the downtown campus. The targeting of these activists for their efforts to organize an SDS chapter at Pace is reprehensible. President David A. Caputo and the Pace administration have violated the civil rights of the student population and we join with SDS Pace in calling for David Caputo to step down now.

Continue Reading…

Members of SDS New York gathered at the New School for a citywide meeting on November 11, 2006.
(Photo: Thomas Good)

Plans for regional conferences of SDS over the Winter break and a founding (or refounding) convention of MDS in February are now taking firm shape. With the added political oxygen of the November elections, the continued rapid growth of new chapters and new members at large, we are sure to move forward swiftly. Meanwhile, a political flea bite: we seem to be in the middle of that classic Leftwing annoyance, a sectarian assault with lots of comic elements, many of them unintentional. Happily, we can share a laugh: an end is in sight.

To make a rather long story short, a takeover or coup aimed at the young has been foiled through rapid student response.{1} A division or conflict between activists and complainers will be familiar to SDS oldtimers, but the conflict has a way of taking on fresh forms with every opportunity. It may be that orchestrated outrage is as suited to the listserve as rapid organizing is suited to the web. In this case, the appeal to “destroy a village in order to save it” (US military terms of the Vietnam era for carpet bombing and napalm), that village being SDS, has actually strengthened the guerilla support among the civilians.

{1} Read the Student Statement on Radical Americas

Continue Reading…

Marchers form up at Washington Square South
(Photo: Thomas Good)

By Ad Hoc Coalition 4 Justice in the Middle East justiceME@gmail.com

New York, NY – November 13, 2006. On Saturday, November 11th, the Ad-Hoc Coalition for Justice in the Middle East and DRUM (Desis Rising Up & Moving) held a workshop in Manhattan highlighting the parallels between the wall on the US-Mexico border and the Apartheid Wall in Palestine. The workshop was immediately followed by a spirited march through Manhattan with protesters carrying a long black cloth “wall” as they snaked through the crowded New York City streets.

Dena Qaddumi of the Ad Hoc Coalition introduced the workshop by noting that the event was being carried out in conjunction with the International Week Against the Apartheid Wall called by Stop the Wall: Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign. She added, “It is wonderful that we can do this event in New York, focusing on the Apartheid Wall in Israel and the border wall between US and Mexico, connecting issues and bringing communities together to create movements that challenge racist policies. Similar events protesting Israel’s Apartheid Wall are happening all over the world this week.”

Continue Reading…

We the undersigned officers of Movement for a Democratic Society, Inc. (MDS), denounce those actions and policies of Pace University that abridge or annul the First Amendment of the US Constitution. If a matriculated student cannot express her/his views in a nonviolent manner that seeks, first and foremost, to educate – on the grounds of an institution of higher education – something is seriously amiss. If Free Expression is denied on the grounds of a college campus where is it protected? If Free Expression is abrogated in a time of war, when it is most needed, all of our lives are impoverished as a consequence.

We call upon President David Caputo to cease the attacks on free expression and privacy at his university; to cease detaining students and first amendment activists who are performing their civic duty on the grounds of his institution. We demand that Pace University stop the harrassment of Students for a Democratic Society, a student-led political organization.

We stand with the student activists who have been threatened with arrest for the crime of free expression; we stand with the students who have been threatened with “summary suspension” from university property and housing for the act of standing up for civil liberties. We salute their efforts to educate one another and the larger community of scholars.

We urge President Caputo to investigate this matter and provide the proper training for his staff to ensure that the rule of law prevails on his campus. The egregious violations of students’ civil rights must cease. It is incumbent upon President Caputo to ensure his staff is fully trained and fully supportive of those students who feel that responsibility is the unavoidable corollary of freedom – and who demostrate this by their service to the community in which they reside.

Signed,

Alan Haber, Co-President
Penelope Rosemont, Co-President
Jay Jurie, Vice-President
Bruce Rubenstein, Treasurer
Thomas Good, Secretary

Mark Rudd speaking at Drew University (Photo: Thomas Good)

The first thing that strikes you on meeting Mark Rudd is the boyish quality – Rudd, the firebrand who led the Columbia strike, is older, wiser and yet still fired up. As I introduced myself to my comrade from MDS I looked into the blue eyes and without thinking about it, superimposed Mark from 1968 onto Mark today – it was interesting how neatly the two images fit.

Continue Reading / View Photos…

Read The Speech (at Radical Americas)

Pittsburgh artist Ed Piskor has drawn an SDS comic – the first of a number of comic book format SDS histories according to radical historian Paul Buhle of MDS – and NLN has it first! The opening salvo is a brief (4 page) introduction to the new SDS. This comic may be freely distributed – with a mention of NLN and Ed. Enjoy!

Continue Reading…

unfortunately there are no photographs of this event as heavy security restrictions allowed little student freedoms into the room. 

Riding the tide of recent speakers like U.S. Representative Tom Feeney and U.S. Representative Ric Keller, the University of Central Florida’s Office of Global Perspectives last Thursday, October 26th, 2006 invited another speaker highlighting one racist worldview in a venue that traditionally offers no outlets for debate.  Ehud Barak, former Israeli Prime Minister during the second intifada and the most decorated soldier in Israel Defense Forces history, was the latest speaker.

After twenty minutes of a speech that can be called nothing other than offensive (when he spoke of a covert operation in Beirut where civilians were killed, Barak gleefully told the audience of the time he had to dress up like a women to get access to wherever it is that international assassins go), SDS members stood up, faced Barak, placed bandannas over their mouths, and walked out of the event to an applause of approval. Surprisingly, several members of the audience walked out with SDS and many people came up to SDS members to thank them for their brave show of courage. Continue Reading…