League for Industrial Democracy
The League for Industrial Democracy (or LID), from 1960-1965 known as the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), was founded in 1905 by a group of notable socialists including Harry W. Laidler, Jack London, Norman Thomas, Upton Sinclair, Florence Kelley, and J.G. Phelps Stokes. Its original name was the Intercollegiate Socialist Society, and its stated purpose was to "throw light on the world-wide movement of industrial democracy known as socialism."[1] Under its original name, the League focused its efforts on proselytize to college students about the labor movement, socialism, and industrial democracy.
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[edit] Student affiliates
In 1921, the organization assumed its new name and enlarged its scope to addressing society at large. Its campus presence waned until the Great Depression of the 1930s led to an increase in radical student activism. The collegiate section was reorganized into an autonomous Student League for Industrial Democracy in 1933. This merged with the Communist National Student League in 1935 to create the popular front American Student Union. LID activity on campus remained somewhat dormant until 1946, when the Student League for Industrial Democracy was reconstituted.
[edit] Students for a Democratic Society
On January 1, 1960 the group changed its name to the Students for a Democratic Society and began to take a more radical direction. At Port Huron in 1960, Tom Hayden clashed with Michael Harrington and Tom Kahn over the Port Huron Statement's
- identification with students raised in some "degree of comfort" and its criticism of labor unions and working-class culture (which was viewed as upper middle-class elitism by LID officers Harrington and Kahn),
- its espousal of participatory democracy and dislike of formal offices (which was seen as potentially undemocratic and lacking accountability),
- its anti-anticommunism and its welcoming the participation of a few members (or former high-profile members) of the Communist Party USA (which seemed politically naive, given the conspiratorial organization and behavior of Marxist–Leninist groups, and an abnegation of the responsibility to oppose totalitarianism).[2]
By 1965, SDS had separated from the LID, but it ended national activity in 1969, after it had been taken over by Maoist groups, some of which advocated and committed political terrorism.[3]
[edit] Footnotes
[edit] Further reading
- Bernard K. Johnpoll and Mark R. Yerburgh (eds.), The League for Industrial Democracy: A Documentary History. In three volumes. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980.
- Kirkpatrick Sale, SDS. New York: Random House, 1973.
[edit] External links
- League for Industrial Democracy
- Intercollegiate Socialist Society (1905 - 1921). Online documents at Early American Marxism site. Retrieved August 23, 2006.
- Thirty-five years of educational pioneering; L.I.D. celebrates past achievements and asks "Where do we go from here?"
- Forty years of education, the task ahead
- The L.I.D.: fifty years of democratic education, 1905-1955.
- The challenge of change and conflict in American society The proceedings of the 70th annual conference of the League for Industrial Democracy held in New York City on May 2 and 3, 1975.
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