The key phrase from the Port Huron Statement, participatory democracy, still resonates, as demonstrated by the global uprisings of 2011. -- from the Port Huron Statement Four key periods in American history have most influenced what America is like today: the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War II, and the 1960s. The existential threat of nuclear annihilation, and the everyday insults of racial segregation, combined to create an unacceptable situation for the new generation, also known as “baby boomers,” who, like Hayden himself, were born near or after the end of World War II. He died as a disgraced judge. Throwing off the intellectual shackles of Europe, and giving life to an authentic American revolutionary thoughts, was nothing short of Hayden’s ambitious goal for both the Port Huron Statement and the SDS as a movement. In fact it was the only thing I ever wanted to be badly enough. Again, the words from Port Huron ring true today: humanity “desperately needs revolutionary leadership,” and “America rests in national stalemate, its goals ambiguous and tradition-bound instead of informed and clear, its democratic system apathetic and manipulated….”. 2 Progress We Created Is Now at Stake / Paul Booth --ch. AlterNet . “We might deliberately ignore, or avoid, or fail to feel all other human problems, but not these,” he wrote. It is true that the conditions today are different, but the transcendent goals of the Statement still capture the imagination and the heart. Similarly, Hayden wrote, “The declaration “all men are created equal … rang hollow before the facts of Negro life in the South and the big cities of the North.” Rather than uneasily accept these contradictions, as their parents did, Hayden’s generation—keenly aware of being part of the “wealthiest and strongest country in the world—wanted to aim higher. “We oppose the depersonalization that reduces human beings to the status of things,” Hayden wrote. AlterNet’s journalists work tirelessly to counter the traditional corporate media narrative. believe, the core of the statement is still relevant for all those trying to create a world where each person has a voice in the decisions affecting his or her life. @2020 - AlterNet Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. A PDF file of a scan of the draft document is also available. For the entire 20th century, leading up to the 1960s, radical politics in America was chiefly derived from European formulations. The self-evident contradictions between the actions and goals of the U.S. government and the ideals of America’s principles. Today we who must endure the mutilations of our own benighted present should honor Hayden and his SDS colleagues not merely by remembering their words, but by insisting that we shall convert their intentions into positive actions. ''While most people haven't read it, it's still extremely relevant'' for its guiding principles, said David Graeber, an anthropologist and anarchist who has been active in the Occupy movement. We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit. Bulk books at wholesale prices. Anyone looking to warm up while they shop down Main Street may get their chance during the Port Huron Cocoa Crawl on Saturday. Excerpts from The Port Huron Statement of Students for a Democratic Society, 1962. While the SDS faltered and failed by the end of the 1960s, riven by differences of tactics and interpretations, the ideals of the Port Huron lived on for decades. Questions for Consideration ... men still tolerate meaningless work and idleness. Participatory democracy, the central idea of the Port Huron Statement, is today more relevant than ever before. No document better frames and explains the 1960s than the Port Huron Statement. The Port Huron Statement, a manifesto for a generation of activists, outlined the challenges facing the nation at the time, many of which are still will us or have returned. 2 Way We Were and the World Now: Reflections by Port Huron Veterans --ch. Tom Hayden, the driving force behind the manifesto, was a student at the University of Michigan and came from a working-class family. Today we who must endure the mutilations of our own benighted present should honor Hayden and his SDS colleagues not merely by remembering their words, but by insisting that we shall convert their intentions into positive actions. Opinion from Salon and Jim Hightower? The rest of the ’60s saw its rapid descent into violence and anti-American extremism, and its defeat as a political force. A mere three months after the release of the Port Huron statement, the U.S. nearly unleashed its nuclear arsenal after the Soviet Union placed nuclear weapons on the island of Cuba, only 90 miles from Miami. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. Tom Hayden Wrote the Port Huron Statement, Dead . Independent journalism is increasingly imperiled; ads alone can’t pay our bills. The Port Huron statement called a for a revolution in political consciousness, not merely an alteration in the people in power. Hayden saw an answer in the renewal of an old tradition of participatory democracy, sometimes known as “democracy with a small d.” The movement for renewal possessed, in Hayden’s view a sense of urgency, because of U.S. rivalry with the Soviet Union and the growing sense that nuclear war between these two “superpowers” might occur with little warning. “We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit.” So begins the legendary Port Huron Statement (PHS), the 75-page manifesto published June 15, 1962, that would come to define the historic student movement of the 1960s.“The search for truly democratic alternatives to the present, and a … Port Huron Statement Draft This is the text of the original draft of the 1962 Port Huron Statement, as distributed by Alan Haber to the attendees at the SDS Northeast Regional Conference, April 23, 2006.For the final, published Port Huron Statement, click here. The Port Huron Statement was written in Port Huron, Michigan, at an early meeting of Students for a Democratic Society. For the entire 20th century, leading up to the 1960s, radical politics in America was chiefly derived from European formulations. Once Hayden took center stage at the podium, he began discussing how the goals and issues addressed in the pages of the Port Huron Statement were still relevant within today’s society. Yesterday, I shared three videos that were shot over the weekend with Alan Haber, the founder of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).In those videos, Alan and I primarily discuss the past. Hayden sought to reinvent the very ground of political life, transforming what remote and hollow forms of representative democracy into direct citizen engagement. The Port Huron Statement is the manifesto of the American student activist movement Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), written primarily by Tom Hayden, then the Field Secretary of SDS, and completed on June 15, 1962 at an SDS convention at what is now a state park in Lakeport, Michigan, a community north of Port Huron. Tom Hayden was a political prodigy: a visionary in his youth, he foresaw the political contours of the emerging counterculture in the 1960s as if he had a crystal ball. Professor Jim Soto spoke about the Port Huron Statement, a political manifesto written in the summer of 1962 by the Students for a Democratic Society. The self-evident contradictions between the actions and goals of the U.S. government and the ideals of America’s principles. THE PORT HURON STATEMENT (1962) Students for a Democratic Society. He wrote, “As a social system we seek the establishment of a democracy of individual participation, governed by two central aims: that the individual share in those social decisions determining the quality and direction of his life; that society be organized to encourage independence ….”, Now more than 50 years since Hayden’s statement was created, many Americans, of all ages, share the same desire to openly revolt against the troubadours of expedience, and the masters of war, the architects of disenchantment. Lorin Duckman Today. “Men [and women] have unrealized potential for self-cultivation, self-direction, self-understanding, and creativity,” Hayden wrote. ''For a long while I thought the Port Huron Statement was a relic of a hopeful past,'' Mr. Hayden recalled last week. Much of the Port Huron Statement reads today as obvious, even as most of the desirable economic and social reforms it proposed are still unachieved. For all of us today perceive existential threats to the human race, and to the entire planet. Noted historian of the 1960s-era, Michael Kazin, wrote the following reflection for Dissent on the Port Huron Statement's 50th anniversary in 2010: War, poverty, racism, social justice and inequality were all addressed in the Statement. Analysis by The Conversation? Tucker Carlson says COVID vaccines are 'anti-white' as anti-vaxxers urge folks to refuse them, Fox News viewers lose it over 'sell out' Maria Bartiromo after show airs segment debunking election fraud claims, Former Trump official: President will face legal jeopardy for campaign cash that went to his businesses. Echoing the sensibilities of the existentialist philosophies Sartre and Camus, Hayden argued that the scale and scope of the problems generated at home and abroad by American power were impossible to ignore and demanded a radical response. The Port Huron statement called a for a revolution in political consciousness, not merely an alteration in the people in power. As a special thank you from all of us at Alternet, we're offering Alternet ad-free for 15% off - just $2 per week. And yet, Hayden stood for hope and so must we. Now I know why I am who I am...I read this back in the 60s, joined the SDS just before getting drafted, but didn't participate in the SDS as they turned violent shortly thereafter (Weathermen) and I wasn't for that. The Port Huron Statement: The Vision Call of the 1960s Revolution: Hayden, Tom: 9781560257417: Books - Amazon.ca The Port Huron Statement resonates to this day – for example, in the 17 September manifesto of Occupy Wall Street, which called for a "direct and transparent participatory democracy". The Port Huron statement, named after the city in Michigan where SDS leaders met in June 1962, presented a sharp break with political dissent in America. Left-wing Americans were deeply shaped by European socialism and Soviet (i.e., Russian) communism. When the Port Huron Statement was written, people were getting over the Cold War, still fearing it after how it left many Americans. … It gave the youth an ideological argument for the transformation that they wanted to see in American life and politics. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to AlterNet, or click here to become a subscriber. AlterNet counts on readers like you to support our coverage. Hayden and friends saw “disturbing paradoxes” between America’s stated aim of protecting the world from totalitarian domination by threatening anti-democratic forces with nuclear weapons that would also destroy the world. Why the numbers behind Mitch McConnell's re-election don't add up, Fox News airs point-by-point fact check of wild election fraud claims during 3 of network's most pro-Trump shows, Meet the Republican senator blocking stimulus checks for 382 million Americans, Trump's increased absences have associates worried about his declining mental state: report, Career military officials 'stunned's as Trump's Pentagon chief bans Biden transition team: report. It was written primarily by Tom Hayden, then the Field Secretary of SDS, with help from 58 other SDS members, and completed on June 15, 1962, at a United Auto Workers retreat in Port Huron, Michigan, for the group’s first national convention. Of the predicament facing his generation—subjugation of people of color, the threat of mass killing with impunity—reforms were not an adequate response. “Our work is guided by the sense that we may be the last generation in the experiment with living.” Hayden’s sense of urgency, on its own, would make the Port Huron statement a remarkable document for youth today. Their goal seemed to be to convince themselves that the Port Huron Statement still mattered. Busted? Echoing the sensibilities of the existentialist philosophies Sartre and Camus, Hayden argued that the scale and scope of the problems generated at home and abroad by American power were impossible to ignore and demanded a radical response. The fight isn't over. “It is this potential that we regard as crucial and to which we appeal, not to the human potentiality for violence, unreason, and submission to authority.”, Such ideals go beyond party, beyond the organization of government, beyond technique and technicians. Thomas Emmet Hayden (December 11, 1939 – October 23, 2016) was an American social and political activist, author, and politician.Hayden was best known for his major role as an anti-war and civil rights activist in the 1960s, authoring the Port Huron Statement and standing trial in the Chicago Seven case.. Even today, Hayden’s words can be read profitably by the activists engaged in the Occupy and Black Lives Matter movements. Port Huron Statement's themes, issues, and concerns in light of the relevant American history of the last forty years. INTRODUCTION: AGENDA FOR A GENERATION . The Port Huron statement, named after the city in Michigan where SDS leaders met in June 1962, presented a sharp break with political dissent in America. If my question is disturbing, outrageous and provocative, you will understand the role that idealists must play across the generations, and why the “For a long while I thought the Port Huron Statement was a relic of … Just as Hayden searched, as he wrote in the statement, “for truly democratic alternatives to the present, and a commitment to social experimentation with them,” we also search for alternatives to an American world order that seems, if not insane, than ineffective; if not immoral than unequal and deaf to the need for effective alternatives. He wrote, “As a social system we seek the establishment of a democracy of individual participation, governed by two central aims: that the individual share in those social decisions determining the quality and direction of his life; that society be organized to encourage independence ….”, Now more than 50 years since Hayden’s statement was created, many Americans, of all ages, share the same desire to openly revolt against the troubadours of expedience, and the masters of war, the architects of disenchantment. Values Making values explicit -- an initial task in establishing alternatives - x is an activity that has been devalued … Tom Hayden's Legend Started With the Prescient and Still Relevant Port Huron Statement Alternet.org. Port Huron Statement Introduction: Agenda for a Generation. And yet, Hayden stood for hope and so must we. “While most people haven’t read it, it’s still extremely relevant” for its guiding principles, said David Graeber, an anthropologist and anarchist who has been active in the Occupy movement. The American Communist Party, by 1962, was bereft of ideas and morally bankrupt because of its allegiance to Soviet policies. To accept anything less than America’s best, to Hayden, represented the road to ruin. Hayden and his colleagues forged a manifesto that still reverberates. On the eve of a presidential election, Hayden’s death serves as a reminder also of the limits of electoral politics. Reviewed in the United States on … A PDF file of a scan of the draft document is also available. Much of what was talked about in the Statement is still true today. Helpful. Much of the Port Huron Statement reads today as obvious, even as most of the desirable economic and social reforms it proposed are still unachieved. It remains, as we described it then, "a living document open to change with our times and experiences." Did you enjoy content from David Cay Johnston, Common Dreams, Raw Story and Robert Reich? We all are implicated in a monumental experiment that threatens to run amok, or perhaps already has. Tom Hayden was a political prodigy: a visionary in his youth, he foresaw the political contours of the emerging counterculture in the 1960s as if he had a crystal ball. To accept anything less than America’s best, to Hayden, represented the road to ruin. We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit. The Port Huron statement, named after the city in Michigan where SDS leaders met in June 1962, presented a sharp break with political dissent in America. Participatory democracy, the central idea of the Port Huron Statement, is today more relevant than ever before. The Port Huron Statement was a 1962 manifesto by the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), written primarily by student activist Tom Hayden, that proposed a new form of “participatory democracy” to rescue modern society from destructive militarism and cultural alienation. Much of this Statement is relevant in today's political situation. ''For a long while I thought the Port Huron Statement was a relic of a hopeful past,'' Mr. Hayden recalled last week. manifesto that still reverberates. SDS leader, Tom Hayden, was the driving force behind the manifesto. What should be done? The Port Huron Statement, which Mr. Miller reprints in full as an appendix (it covers 46 densely printed pages), retains much of its original energy. We talk about Ann Arbor in the 50’s, Haber’s initiation into revolutionary politics during the McCarthy era, the founding of SDS, and the drafting of their manifesto – The Port Huron Statement. As well the racism happening in the South. A mere three months after the release of the Port Huron statement, the U.S. nearly unleashed its nuclear arsenal after the Soviet Union placed nuclear weapons on the island of Cuba, only 90 miles from Miami. The Port Huron Statement: The Vision Call of the 1960s Revolution: Hayden, Tom: 9781560257417: Books - Amazon.ca Led by Tom Hayden, the 25,700 word statement outlined a new vision for America’s future, including disarmament, a revised Democratic Party, and … “For a long while I thought the Port Huron Statement was a relic of … While the SDS faltered and failed by the end of the 1960s, riven by differences of tactics and interpretations, the ideals of the Port Huron lived on for decades. In many ways, Hayden’s greatest achievement was one his earliest: by largely authoring the founding statement of a radically new student organization, the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Hayden gave political shape to a restless generation of young Americans eager to break with American practices of militarism and domination abroad and racism and repression at home. Instead, Hayden left it to himself, and the resulting account was woefully incomplete. “To understand history, you can’t leave it to the historians,” he said. The Port Huron Statement is the 1962 manifesto of the North American student activist movement Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). By G. Pascal Zachary for Alternet. The Port Huron Statement is a 1962 political manifesto of the American student activist movement Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Hayden and friends saw “disturbing paradoxes” between America’s stated aim of protecting the world from totalitarian domination by threatening anti-democratic forces with nuclear weapons that would also destroy the world. Source: Students for a Democratic Society, The Port Huron Statement (New York: The Student Department of the League for Industrial Democracy, 1964). Reflections on Port Huron. He stood up against injustice. Tom Hayden was a … Machine generated contents note: pt. Thank you. Few­er Amer­i­cans are in … He stood trial as a patriot. While two-thirds of mankind suffers under nourishment, our own upper classes revel amidst superfluous abundance. Tom Hayden's Legend Started With the Prescient and Still Relevant Port Huron Statement, Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to AlterNet. “Men [and women] have unrealized potential for self-cultivation, self-direction, self-understanding, and creativity,” Hayden wrote. We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit. and. 1 Port Huron: Alive and Relevant, but Add the Earth / Becky Adams --ch. In many ways, Hayden’s greatest achievement was one his earliest: by largely authoring the founding statement of a radically new student organization, the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Hayden gave political shape to a restless generation of young Americans eager to break with American practices of militarism and domination abroad and racism and repression at home. In the wake of Hayden’s death on Sunday, what’s most worth remembering is his opening statement, titled “Agenda for a Generation.” Just as Bob Dylan spoke for young Americas in the early ’60s, so did Hayden and his colleagues. Port Huron Past and Present : Water Works, U.S.S. “If anything, the brutalities of the 20th century teach that means and ends are intimately related, that vague appeals to “posterity” cannot justify the mutilations of the present.”, As in 1962, our moment doesn’t seem auspicious. Photography Thinks. To mark the 50th anniversary of Port Huron--and what we hope is the dawn of an enduring youth movement--In These Times asked 14 activists, ranging in age from 21 to 72, including three people who attended the Port Huron convention, to reflect on what that statement offers us today. The concept was being used by Michigan Professor Arnold Kaufman to distinguish engaged and direct democracy, on the one hand, from the episodic two-party voting system Americans call democracy, on the other. Led by Tom Hayden, the 25,700 word statement outlined a new vision for America’s future, including disarmament, a revised Democratic Party, and … Even today, Hayden’s words can be read profitably by the activists engaged in the Occupy and Black Lives Matter movements. By Tom Hayden, ISBN: 9781560257417, Paperback. The American Communist Party, by 1962, was bereft of ideas and morally bankrupt because of its allegiance to Soviet policies. … then let us make a small request. Nov 23, 2019 Miriam rated it really liked it. Professor Jim Soto spoke about the Port Huron Statement, a political manifesto written in the summer of 1962 by the Students for a Democratic Society. Throwing off the intellectual shackles of Europe, and giving life to an authentic American revolutionary thoughts, was nothing short of Hayden’s ambitious goal for both the Port Huron Statement and the SDS as a movement. ''While most people haven't read it, it's still extremely relevant'' for its guiding principles, said David Graeber, an anthropologist and anarchist who has been active in the Occupy movement. Free Shipping & Price Match Guarantee The assault on labor rights launched in Wisconsin and other Midwest states during 2011, the rise and fall of Occupy Wall Street as a movement against inequality, and the continuing Hayden touched on the point directly in his keynote remarks, when he suggested that the document remained historically relevant. ... others today. “We oppose the depersonalization that reduces human beings to the status of things,” Hayden wrote. For all of us today perceive existential threats to the human race, and to the entire planet. The assault on labor rights launched in Wisconsin and other Midwest states during 2011, the rise and fall of Occupy Wall Street as a movement against inequality, and the continuing What we once thought of as the grey Eisenhower fifties in fact had far higher marginal tax rate for the rich, a more vigorous union movement, less egregious maldistribution of wealth and a considerably larger middle class. Port Huron Statement effort rooted in the ancient, still unfulfilled conception of man attaining determining influence over his circumstances of life. We’re here seven days a week, 365 days a year. The Port Huron Statement is the 1962 Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Because of “the enclosing fact of the Cold War, symbolized by the presence of the Bomb,” young people knew, Hayden wrote, that “we … might die at any time.” The impending threat of mutually assured destruction through nuclear war, dramatically illustrated by the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962, gave credibility to Hayden’s impassioned words. “If anything, the brutalities of the 20th century teach that means and ends are intimately related, that vague appeals to "posterity" cannot justify the mutilations of the present.”, As in 1962, our moment doesn’t seem auspicious. Freedom and equality for each individual, government of, by, and for the people--these American values … “While most people haven’t read it, it’s still extremely relevant” for its guiding principles, said David Graeber, an anthropologist and anarchist who has been active in the Occupy movement. Survey: Should the U.S. government send out another round of stimulus checks? Support Truth. “It is this potential that we regard as crucial and to which we appeal, not to the human potentiality for violence, unreason, and submission to authority.”, Such ideals go beyond party, beyond the organization of government, beyond technique and technicians. It was written primarily by Tom Hayden, a University of Michigan student and then the Field Secretary of SDS, with help from 58 other SDS members, and completed on June 15, 1962, at a United Auto Workers retreat in Port Huron, Michigan, for the … The Port Huron Statement voiced the philosophy towards politics and social change that a whole generation of student activists in the New Left was adhering to at the time. I am 69. It was written by SDS members, and completed on June 15, 1962, at a United Auto Workers (UAW) retreat outside of Port Huron, Michigan (now part of Lakeport State Park), for the group's first national convention. It seems less dated now than it … Port Huron Statement reflects the ideas that are always more or less topical for different nations notwithstanding their prosperity and stability. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit. The Port Huron Statement’s simul­ta­ne­ous praise and cri­tique of America’s labor move­ment applies almost word-for-word to the country’s unions 50 years lat­er. Port Huron Statement Draft This is the text of the original draft of the 1962 Port Huron Statement, as distributed by Alan Haber to the attendees at the SDS Northeast Regional Conference, April 23, 2006.For the final, published Port Huron Statement, click here. The Students for a Democratic Society sought to The Port Huron Statement. To the Port Huron participants, it was … Of the predicament facing his generation—subjugation of people of color, the threat of mass killing with impunity—reforms were not an adequate response. Port Huron Statement's themes, issues, and concerns in light of the relevant American history of the last forty years. Again, the words from Port Huron ring true today: humanity “desperately needs revolutionary leadership,” and “America rests in national stalemate, its goals ambiguous and tradition-bound instead of informed and clear, its democratic system apathetic and manipulated….”. Tom Hayden died. Similarly, Hayden wrote, “The declaration "all men are created equal ... rang hollow before the facts of Negro life in the South and the big cities of the North.” Rather than uneasily accept these contradictions, as their parents did, Hayden’s generation—keenly aware of being part of the “wealthiest and strongest country in the world—wanted to aim higher. 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