“New” vs. “Left” In the SDS

The students for a Democratic Society held its annual convention June 9-15 at Michigan State University, and delegates witnessed some dramatic new developments without precedent in the history of the organization. “Old-timers” who held out so much hope for the SDS in the early sixties will soon discover, if they have not already done so, that very little is left of that unique spirit of innocent idealism which then characterized the group. SDS has come the full circle from other-worldliness to under-worldliness.

The convention proper was preceded by three days of workshops on such staples of “the movement” as “GI Organizing,” “Marcuse and (Norman 0.) Brown,” “White Racism,̶...