Anarchism and Student Organizing

A brief analysis of student organizing by a local member of Students for a Democratic Society.

So I've been asking myself this question a lot lately: What is the role of an organization like SDS (or any other radical student organization, for that matter) in the movement towards a democratic society? I've come up with a few answers that I think may be of interest to those who may have been feeling a little cynical about student organizing or who can't see the relevance of it in terms of the overall struggle for radical change.

But before I move on, I should note a few things. One, I am unabashedly an anarchist. My ultimate aim is to abolish capitalism and the state, and all forms of oppression that support it, and which it supports. That being said, I believe a democratic society is one that is non-hierarchical, participatory, consensual, non-compulsory, and usually see the terms “democratic” and “anarchist” as synonymous. (For a good introduction to anarchist theory, check out Notes on Anarchism by Noam Chomsky.)

So, with that out of the way, I think that a radical student organization plays a few roles.

First, I see it as giving people a glimpse of what it may be like to live in a self-managed society. Through participatory, non-hierarchical modes of organizing, based on cooperation towards a common end (in this case, progressive change), students are, in some small way, able to see the way that decisions could be made in an anarchist society. They are able to experience not only making these decisions, but acting upon them based on the principles described above, thereby demonstrating how a non-compulsory society could operate.

This step I feel is incredibly important because, as Staughton Lynd notes in his most recent book Wobblies and Zapatistas, it seems very unlikely that “ordinary persons [will] bleed and die for a vision they have not experienced.” (pg. 98) This means that while the lofty ideas about a utopian anarchist society may be enough to compel some of us to act towards its realization, it is not safe to assume that they alone can galvanize a mass movement that can actually achieve it. As Rudolf Rocker put it, “movements only arise from the immediate necessities of social life, and are never the result of purely abstract ideas. But they acquire their irresistible force and their inner certainty of victory only when they are vitalized by a great idea.”

Yet not only are they able to see how a democratic society could operate, they are able to practice it. We are creating an environment within SDS where young people are being trained in the running of a democratic society, where students make decisions based on voluntary agreement, and act upon them. They become empowered as leaders, and slowly but surely begin to realize their potential in this respect. Take for example our local chapter of SDS. As tasks arise in weekly meetings - things like taking notes, making a flyer, sending an email – people will simply raise their hand and say “I can take on that task.” But there is no central authority, no one giving orders... people simply take on tasks at their own pace, at their own levels of comfort, and fulfill them according to their ability. While there are of course kinks in such a system, it is without a doubt the most effective and empowering organization I have ever participated in.

And if we managed to build SDS in its strength and capacity to such an extend that it could take over some major part of the educational system, it is not a stretch of the imagination to see such a popular organization, perhaps in conjunction with staff and faculty unions, at some point actually taking on the role of coordinating this particular area of social life. I realize at this point, this may seem a bit pie-in-the-sky, but it should be remembered that movements – and yes, revolutions – are not built overnight, but are made through collective struggles over whole decades, even centuries. Take for example the oft-cited experience of the Spanish Revolution, where industry and agriculture were collectivized in one of the greatest experiments in worker's self-management in history. This revolution was not simply some “spontaneous” event, but a climax that was built towards over the course of seventy years.

The Jerk,
Rochester SDS