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VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: CHICAGO SDS REUNION

The event was advertised, although poorly. In a badly written flier that was haphazardly distributed around the Rogers Park neighborhood in Chicago, a "reunion" of SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) members was promoted. The flier listed the free event as being at "6525 N. Sheridan Road." But that's the corporate address for the entire campus of Loyola University's North Shore Campus in Rogers Park. The flier was written by Rogers Park saloon owner Katy Hogan, whose business partner Michael James was a panelist at the gathering.

I decided to look for old hippies. Surely, I thought, following them would lead me to the meeting. And sure enough, a group of four of them lead me straight to the meeting. (How did they know the exact address?)

The resulting video (below) is stunning, even with the boring segments. Just under 58 minutes long, it is worth watching every minute.

For those of you who may not know what SDS is: "Forming the core of the 1960s counter-cultural movement known collectively as the New Left, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a radical organization that aspired to overthrow America's democratic institutions, remake its government in a Marxist image, and help America's enemies defeat her sons on the battlefield in Vietnam. The group developed from the Student League for Industrial Democracy, the youth branch of the socialist League for Industrial Democracy." (Source) (More information and definitions at Answers.com.)

Indeed, SDS was at the front of the line of those spitting on veterans returning from Vietnam. I have personally been criticized for calling people like Michael James a communist or a socialist. In fact, James and his comrades call themselves communists. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and calls itself a duck, it's a duck.

Some think SDS is dead. It is not. It may be lame and old, but it is working hard to revive itself. Speakers in the video make it clear that they are targeting students - high school and college - for their dreams of glorious communist revolution.

The panel of four speakers revealed more about themselves than they realized. Feeling comfortable amongst people of similar philosophies, they showed a side of themselves that they don't generally reveal to strangers. Of particular interest to Rogers Park residents is the Michael James segment. James, in practice a capitalist pig who pays low wages to his non-union employees, loves to pose a Vanguard of the Revolution. But all of these senior citizen subversives talk as though they are oppressed, as if The Man still holds them down. And each is an egoist, talking more about themselves than about SDS, in spite of the flier's promise to "tell all" about it.

Related:
  • Students for a Democratic Society (S.D.S.), Records, 1965-74 Kent State University
  • Students for a Democratic Society (many links here) Discover the Networks
  • The New SDS The Nation