Also, sorry to have confused - at the time of the writing of the Port Huron statement, SDS was taking a stand *against* what they saw as the unproductive anti-communism of the Old Left. Michael Harrington, who was there as a faculty adviser type to help the group flesh out their statement, was a member of the old guard, was defending anti-communism. But even that is too simple a gloss. Better to read the statement. Here's the first paragraph. There are several more:
:An unreasoning anti-communism has become a major social problem for
those who want to construct a more democratic America. McCarthyism and
other forms of exaggerated and conservative anti-communism seriously
weaken democratic institutions and spawn movements contrary to the
interests of basic freedoms and peace. In such an atmosphere even the
most intelligent of Americans fear to join political organizations,
sign petitions, speak out on serious issues. Militaristic policies are
easily "sold" to a public fearful of a democratic enemy. Political
debate is restricted, thought is standardized, action is inhibited by
the demands of "unity" and "oneness" in the face of the declared
danger. Even many liberals and socialists share static and repititious
participation in the anti-communist crusade and often discourage
tentative, inquiring discussion about "the Russian question" within
their ranks -- often by employing "stalinist", "stalinoid",
trotskyite" and other epithets in an oversimplifying way to discredit
opposition.
:
> I can give you my impression when I first heard SDS out here.
>
> Somebody I don't know who showed up in Sproul and gave a noon
> speech and came back a few times. They sounded exactly as your
> impression, juvenile or out of it, or something from somewhere else.
>
> I should have had an affinity for them, but didn't. Students for a
> Democratic
> Society sounded a little off. What student wasn't? We were sick of
> being
> talked to, rather than taught, tired of the cliche America in the
> history
> books,
> and definitely wanted out of the high school teacher mode which is
> profoundly
> undemocratic.
>
> The rather vague anti-commie stuff was like a perfume you couldn't
> quite
> identify, but it was there. And that alone was enough for me. These
> people
> had no idea what they were doing in Berkeley which had already
> undergone a
> huge fight against the state's McCarthyism, loyalty oaths, and other
> bullshit in FSM. I wasn't here for FSM, but it was still the story two
> years
> later to learn because there was a Sproul noon rally only because of
> FSM.
> Occasionally somebody from FSM would come to the mic since they were
> still
> in school and they were usually great to hear from. Institutional
> memory was
> still very
> much alive.
>
> Anyway, OWS reminds me a lot of those days. I couldn't really
> articulate my
> political mind, but I knew what I didn't want, which was more of the
> same,
> and certainly not a job in business, or a tour in some stupid war, or
> watching the cops beat up black people---which seemed to be their only
> public function.
>
> CG
>
> So here we are again.
>
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