From: Z Magazine Editor Michael Albert
July 2, 2008
Dear Friends,

In just two years, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) has become one of the largest student led organizations in the U.S., with over 120 active chapters in high schools and colleges all over the country. Last summer was a turning point, with the first SDS Action Camp and the second National Convention which involved hundreds of SDSers and strongly shaped the work that happened during this year. Having attended the conference, and the one the prior year as well, I can attest to the seriousness, industry, and creativity these young people bring to their labors. They have not only the passion and energy broader activism in the U.S. needs, they also bring insights and even wisdom - even at so young an age.

As summer arrives again, SDS is planning another Action Camp, their third National Convention, and actions at the RNC and DNC.  The National Convention and the Action Camps will again bring about 300 SDSer's together for training, movement building, and friendship. They need our help to provide food, mentors, and housing, and perhaps most importantly, assistance to make sure that SDSers from working class backgrounds or far-away regions are able to participate.

SDS has been winning campaigns and organizing successful actions all year - SDS chapters in the Northwest helped organize the Port Militarization Resistance to block US military shipments to Iraq in Olympia, Washington; Virginia Commonwealth University SDS won their campaign to get a sexual assault resource center on their campus; Harvard SDS won higher wages for their campus security guards through a dramatic hunger strike; and DC SDS organized the largest single action in the country on the 5th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq.

These are just a few of a vast array of indicators that SDS has grown tremendously this year.  But the hard work of organizing is what sustains SD and it has costs. For example, Lancaster SDS, a high school chapter, has built a presence in 6 area high schools and epitomizes the successful slow approach of community building and organizing.  Chapters around the country are organizing around issues including opposition to the war in Iraq, environmental justice and sustainability, gentrification in their communities, and building student power on campuses.  More, in the coming year, SDS is hoping to organize a national campaign around student debt relief, and continue working to build a strong, vibrant student movement.

SDS - meaning young people in motion - is precisely what has been missing from activism in the U.S. for a long time - yet now its back to stay, or it can be, that is, if it is sufficiently supported.

So please, I urge you to donate as generously as you can to support the exciting work of Students for a Democratic Society. They need the help - and we all need them.

note that all donations are tax deductible through SDS' fiscal sponsor, the Alliance for Community Trainers (ACT).  Also, you can make a donation online by going to http://www.newsds.org/, or you can send donations to:

SDS 741 Morton St NW Washington DC, 20010

please make your checks payable to ACT and write "SDS" in the memo line.

You can get more information by emailing sdsfundraising@gmail.com

I want to thank you in advance for supporting SDS - we all need what they have to give!

Michael Albert