News and Politics | January 07, 2008 | 1 comment

SDS: One Generation Got Old, One Generation Got Soul

source: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/06/6209/

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Conniepae
America youth may be finding their voices. Sixteen students sat around a table in the Manhattan cafeteria of the New School discussing where commas should go. They were rewriting, for the third time, a mission statement for their chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, the activist group that had been dormant for nearly 40 years. They wanted the document to be collectively produced, but after more than three weeks of communal drafting, no one seemed particularly content with the results.One student thought the phrase ?we accept all persons? should be broadened to cover animals. Another worried that the word ?delineation? was alienating because ?it means drawing lines, and don?t we object to lines?? The only sentence everyone seemed to support wholeheartedly was the final one: ?Power to the People"
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1 comment // SDS: One Generation Got Old, One Generation Got Soul

  • PeterZenger
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      PeterZenger  

    • You can't make all the people happy all the time. Now I don't know much about the decision-making organization of such groups but in my daydreaming I came up with a three step framework for getting things done. STEP 1: A pro/con group discussion with the goal of rapid consensus, if no decision is reached move on to STEP 2: A vote by all members in attendance, if the results are too close to call move on to STEP 3: An executive decision by an elected organization official. Members shouldn't want to have to sink to that level so consensus should be expedited. I wonder where I stole this from. This may go against many members principles but tough shit; a timely and decisive resolution by a good natured dictator is better than endless quarreling any day. Like it or not the chain of command works, coming from the Army I have a low tolerance for internal bickering. The biggest downfall amongst groups fighting for justice around the world seems to be a lack of structure. I may be talking out my ass so tell me why I'm wrong.

    • 3 years ago
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