Students for a Democratic Society (U.S.)

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s, and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships and parliamentary procedure, the founders conceived of the organization as a broad exercise in "participatory democracy". From its launch in 1960 it grew rapidly in the course of the tumultuous decade with over 300 campus chapters and 30,000 supporters recorded nationwide by its last national convention in 1969. The organization splintered at that convention amidst rivalry between factions seeking to impose national leadership and direction, and disputing "revolutionary" positions on, among other issues, the Vietnam War and Black Power. SDS developed from the youth branch of a socialist educational organization known as the League for Industrial Democracy (LID). After the break-up of its rival and before dissolving in 1974 into the Committee Against Racism, the WSA continued on campuses as "the SDS". Functioning to recruit for PLP, it was a centralized, disciplined organization quite distinct from the original Port Huron movement.[75]

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) is a radical student group that descended from the Intercollegiate Socialist Society (ISS) which was founded in 1905. The ISS changed its name in 1921 to the League for Industrial Democracy (LID), a social-democratic educational and organizational group. Its student branch, the Student League for Industrial Democracy (SLID), merged with National Student League in 1935 to form American Student Union (ASU) but soon split over ASUs alleged communist affiliations. SLID revived in 1946 changing its name to Students for a Democratic Society in 1959. It was expelled from the LID in 1965 and gained national prominence in the late 1960s as SDS.