Vandals in the Bomb Factory: The History and Literature of the Students for a Democratic Society

499 Pages·1976·6.958 MB·English

by  G. Louis Heath

Vandals in the Bomb Factory:
The History and Literature of
the Students for a Democratic Society
edited by
G. LOUIS HEATH
The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
Metuchen, N.J. 1976
Other Scarecrow books by G. Louis Heath:
The Hot Campus: The Politics that Impede Change in the
Technoversity (1973)
The Black Panther Leaders Speak (1976)
Off the Pigs! The History and Literature of the Black Pan-
ther Party (1976)
Mutiny Does Not Happen Lightly: The Literature of the
American Resistance to the Vietnam War (1976)
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Heath, G Louis*
" 'Vandals in the bomb factory*
Bibliography s p•
Includes index.
1. Students for a Democratic Society.
2* Students— United States— Political activity*
I. Title.
LA229.H4 322*4*2 75-40266
ISBN 0-8108-0890-0
Copyright © 1976 by G. Louis Heath
Manufactured in the United States of America
For my summer students
at the University of British Columbia in 1973,
especially Dick Hamakawa,
Colin Hybridge and Ian Flemming

CONTENTS
I. A Note on the Editing vii
n. Chronology xiii
El. History of the Students for a Democratic Society 1
1. Origins and Antecedents: ISS to LID/SLID
to SDS 3
2. Working within the System: SDS and the New
Left, 1962-1965 16
3. Dikes Unplugged: From Dissent to Active
Resistance, 1965-1967 41
4. And How the Torrent Roared: SDS in the
Mainstream of Protest, 1967-1969 79
5. ffWalls Come Tumblin' Downn: Resistance
Becomes Revolution, 1969 141
6. Vandals in the Bomb Factory: End of the
Road to Anarchy, 1970 183
7. From Rags to Riches—Round Trip: Anatomy
of a Revolutionary Movement 201
IV: Literature of the Students for a Democratic
Society 209
1. SDS, An Introduction 210
2. The Port Huron Statement 216
3. This is to certify the membership of ... 219
4. DEAR McCarthy SUPPORTERS, An
Open Letter 220
5. Report on Humboldt Park National Guard
Armory 233
6. Report on Chicago Ave. Armory 235
7. CONVENTION NOTES, first issue, February
17, 1968 238
8. Suggestions for Legal Self-Defense in
Chicago 247
9. Your "Rights" under the Law 250
v
10. National Lawyers Guild, 5 Beekman Street,
New York, N.Y. 10038 254
11. Medical Help in Chicago 256
12. RADICAL EDUCATION PROJECT 258
13. Students for a Democratic Society 261
14. Let the Voice of the People Be Heard 265
15. PRESS RELEASE, July 31, 1969 267
16. SDS, National Office 270
17. ABOLISH ROTC 273
18. NOT WITH MY LIFE YOU DON’T! ! !
A GEORGETOWN HANDBOOK 283
19. Racist Strike-Breaker Plans to Speak
at GU 306
20. Why We Did It, Why It Had to Be Done 309
21. DARE TO STRUGGLE, DARE TO WIN 316
22. View from the Outside, April 14, 1969 320
23. International Police Train at Georgetown 328
24. Notes from Maggie’s Farm 333
25. THE WAR IS ON AT KENT STATE 346
26. The People’s Fight Is Our Fight 353
27. Columbus Blacks Rebel, Repression
Hits SDS 355
28. Subscribe to New Left Notes 360
29. Three American University Professors Had
the Audacity to React Positively to the
Students’ Voices 361
30. A Meaningful Alternative 362
31. Arbitrary Authority 364
32. Women Rise Up! 365
33. Bring the War Home! 367
34. Occupation Troops Out! 369
35. SDS Handwriting on the Wall 374
36. Did You Dig the Writing on the Wall? 381
37. ’’Summer’s Here and the Time Is Right
for Fighting in Streets, Boy” 383
38. SECRET LEAFLET SECRET LEAFLET
SECRET LEAFLET 385
39. Press Release, Chicago Area Students for
a Democratic Society 388
40. SDS National Constitution 391
V. Bibliography 399
VI. Index 477
vi
I. A NOTE ON THE EDITING
Vandals in the Bomb Factory: The History and Liter­
ature of the Students for a Democratic Society draws upon a
decade of research. The documents incorporated into the
book were selected from a set of almost 2,000 items col­
lected by the compiler on ninety-five campuses throughout
the United States. The items included were chosen as being
most representative of and informative about SDS thought and
activities through the sixties and into the early seventies.
The date and location of collection and the source of each
document are indicated. The history section draws heavily
upon government research reports and testimony before gov­
ernment committees, especially the House Committee on In­
ternal Security, referred to herein as HCIS. All sources of
materials edited and written into the history section are re­
corded in the footnotes.
The bibliography was begun at the University of Cali­
fornia at Berkeley in 1969 and finished at Illinois State Uni­
versity in 1974. It focuses in detail on materials about SDS
and related campus radical activity during the years of SDS1
prominence as a New Left group.
The full meaning of the title, Vandals in the Bomb
Factory, becomes apparent as one reads. "Vandals" refers
to SDS’ers and their penchant for confrontation and terrorism
directed toward the Establishment. ,fThe Bomb Factory” is,
of course, the Establishment, the American garrison state
that efficiently mass-produced violence in Vietnam and poverty
(another sort of violence) at home. Thus the image is one
of a gigantic war machine that a very small group of dissi­
dents attempts to disrupt but cannot.
G. L. H.
vii
n. CHRONOLOGY
1905. Upton Sinclair, Walter Lippmann, Clarence Darrow.
and Jack London found Intercollegiate Socialist Society (ISS),
precursor of SDS.
1917. Sixty ESS campus chapters become dormant during
World War I, rallying around the flag in response to Presi­
dent Wilson’s appeal to make the world "safe for democracy."
1921. ISS reorganized as League for Industrial Democracy.
1930s. During the Depression the League for Industrial
Democracy consigns its campus activity to the Student League
for Industrial Democracy (SLID). Numerous student and
youth movements emerge. The revolutionary National Student
League, founded January 1932, is most militant.
Summer, 1934. National Student League membership peaks
at 800.
December, 1935. NSL and SLID merge to form American
Student Union.
1936. American Student Union sponsors peace strike. Thou­
sands sign Oxford Pledge not to fight in wars. American
students favor non-involve ment and isolation as Adolf Hitler
emerges.
1939. American Student Union achieves membership of
12, 000.
June, 1941. ASU adopts pro-war position to involve U. S.
against Hitler to save communist Russia.
December, 1941. U. S. enters World War n.
World War H period. Little campus radicalism. American
Youth for Democracy organized in 1943 in support of the
viii
Alliance of the U. S. S. R. and the West.
1946. League for Industrial Democracy revives and reor­
ganizes its student subsidiary, SLID. SLID had lost much
of its identity in the 1935 merger with NSL.
1948. American Youth for Democracy helps to organize the
Youth Progressives, youth arm of the Progressive Party.
Vice President Henry Agard Wallace fails to become Presi­
dent and the Progressives all but disappear.
Early 1950s. The period on campus known as the "silent
fifties. " Students mostly concerned with careers and mar­
riage.
February, 1957. Labor Youth League, the communist youth
organization, dissolves. Revelations of Stalinist atrocities
collapse it.
Late 1950s. Young white college students join the black civil
rights movement. They support black sit-ins, marches, and
voter registration drives in the South.
1959. League for Industrial Democracy reorganizes its youth
arm, SLID, as SDS, the Students for a Democratic Society.
February 1, 1960. Four black college students conduct a
lunch-counter sit-in in Greensboro, North Carolina. This
sit-in catalyzes mass non-violent civil disobedience by other
black college students to desegregate lunch counters in the
South.
April, 1960. The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Commit­
tee (SNCC) is organized.
June 17-19, 1960. SDS convenes first convention in the Bar­
bizon-Plaza Hotel, New York.
Early 1960s. Events, especially in the South, raise the po­
litical consciousness of youth to a highly idealistic concern
for social justice. Montgomery bus boycott, murder of Em­
met Till, etc. expose the inequities and violence of the so­
ciety. Radical white activity in the South, largely through
SNCC, is brought to the college campuses of the North. The
techniques applied in the South are taken to the North. Shop-
ins and picketing are used against stores, and sit-ins and,
later, teach-ins against the universities. The focus of the
activity switches rapidly from civil rights to Vietnam in the
ix
summer and fall of 1965. Student political activity on campus
proliferates and intensifies.
1962. Tom Hayden writes "The Port Huron Statement, " a
manifesto of the New Left. SDS members travel south to
help SNCC in voter registration campaigns. SDS advocates
disarmament and disengagement and opposes nuclear testing
and civil defense preparations. SDS demonstrates against
apartheid in South Africa.
1963. SDS activity largely limited to off-campus walks (pre­
liminary to marches) and rallies supporting a foreign policy
of disarmament and withdrawal from Vietnam and the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). SDS uses conventional
methods such as educational programs, leafleting, and con­
ferences. SDS annual convention convenes at Camp Gulliver
near Pine Hill in upstate New York. Richard Flacks of the
University of Chicago prepares the main document entitled
"America and the New Era." The document becomes known
as the "Son of Port Huron Statement. " Economic Research
and Action Project (ERAP) begins.
1964. Political Education Project (PEP) initiated. ERAP
sponsors community organizing projects in Newark, Trenton,
Boston, Baltimore, Cleveland, Chicago, Chester (Pa. ), Phila­
delphia, Louisville, and Hazard (Ky. ). SDS cooperates with
the Appalachian Economic and Political Action Conference, and
the Committee for Miners in Kentucky and Tennessee. It
supports Citizens United for Adequate Welfare (CUFAW) in
Cleveland. Peace Research and Education Project (PREP)
launched. Newark Community Union Project begins. SDS
supports Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party at August
1964 Democratic National Convention. Hundreds of northern
college students travel south for civil rights activities. Civil
rights legislation passes on July 2. Vietnam War escalated
dramatically after the August 2-4 Gulf of Tonkin incident.
Free Speech Movement at Berkeley. SDS has 27 campus
chapters and 1, 200 members.
1965. Vietnam War escalates. SDS membership increases
to 125 campus chapters with 4,000 members. SDS sponsors
a series of nationwide demonstrations against Vietnam War.
SDS President Paul Potter demands American withdrawal
from Vietnam. SDS sponsors "March on Washington to End
the War in Vietnam" on April 17. SDS deletes Communist-
exclusion clause from its constitution. It sponsors mass
demonstration on August 6-9 called the Assembly of Unrepre­
sented People. The draft becomes the target of anti-war
x