[Marxism] Mark Rudd reflects

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Talk given to first national MDS meeting
at New School, NYC
Feb. 17, 2007
http://www.markrudd.com/Homepage/MDS%20Talk%20Feb.%2017,%202007.htm

Part I:  The Death of SDS

    I come before you this morning as one of the 
principle authors, almost forty years ago, of a 
totally failed strategy.  In the course of 
things, my little faction seized control of the 
SDS national office and several of the regional 
offices.  We then made the tragic decision­in 
1969, at the height of the war­to kill off SDS 
because it wasn?t revolutionary enough for us.  I am not proud of this history.

    So there is no reason in the world why you 
should want to listen to me, except for the fact 
that over the last thirty seven years I?ve 
reflected continually about the complex of errors 
that led to the death of SDS and also on my part 
in this historical crime.  As a result I?ve come 
up with some hard-won conclusions.

    I often read references in historical 
literature and commentary to SDS 
?self-destructing.?  This seems to refer to a 
constellation of generalized forces including 
Maoist sectarian infiltration, the development of 
various brands of Marxist dogmatism among the 
?regulars,? the drive toward hyper-militancy, 
violent confrontation, and ultimately ?armed 
struggle,? all within a bitter context of 
government repression.  In some renditions of the 
death of SDS story there is the consoling air of 
historical inevitability­no matter what we in the 
national leadership would have done, SDS was 
destined (by  the God of History, I suppose) to implode.

    But I don?t agree.  I remember a certain 
meeting with no more than ten people present­out 
of a national membership of 12,000 and perhaps 
ten times that many chapter members­at which we 
in the Weatherman clique running the NO decided 
to scuttle SDS.  I remember driving a VW van with 
Teddy Gold from the NY Regional Office in the 
basement of 131 Prince St. to the Sanitation 
Dept. pier at the end of W. 14th St., just a few 
blocks from here, and dumping the addressograph 
mailing stencils and other records from the 
Regional Office onto a barge.  These were insane 
decisions which I and my comrades made 
unilaterally, to the exclusion of other, much 
better, choices.  We could have, for example, 
fought to keep SDS in existence so as to unite as 
many people as possible against the war (which is 
what the Vietnamese had asked us to do) while at 
the same time educating around imperialism.  I 
often wonder, had we done so, where we would have 
been a few months later, in May, 1970, when the 
biggest student protests in American history 
jumped off?  Or today, when imperialist war rages 
yet again, would we have had to reinvent the 
anti-imperialist movement almost from scratch?

    Alas, with all the best intentions of 
promoting revolutionary solidarity with the 
people of the world, the Weatherman faction by 
killing off SDS did the work of the FBI for 
them.  Assuming we weren?t in the pay of the FBI, we should have been.

(clip)


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