about us

Democracy, in world history, has been a fragile, contested, unfinished, and relatively recent growth. Defining democracy can be difficult. In theory it means a civilization where the population of that society controls the government. In the realm of law it requires free, universal, secret, adult, and equal suffrage; the classic civil freedoms of speech, conscience, assembly, association, and the press; and freedom from arrest without trial. By this legal definition, the majority of nation states achieved a democratic government within the twentieth century. However, as these representative democracies were slowly attained through the political, social, and cultural struggles of the last century, it became increasingly apparent that the legal definition of democracy did not necessarily attain what its theoretical counterpart implied.

Because every generation has inherited an unequal world where nationality, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race, gender, and class give some more power, more money, and more freedom than others, certain people have had and continue to have more control over society. Because of this inequity, the struggle for democracy in the latter half of the twentieth century has become principally a struggle for equality. What troubles us most, as people entering the twenty-first Century, is the erosion of that equality in recent years, in both the national and international arena, and its implications for the future of democracy.

PDX SDS, located in Portland, Oregon, is a chapter of the rapidly growing radical movement Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). SDS began in the 1960s, using civil disobedience and cultural upheaval to guarantee all human beings their right to a life and a democratic system that would allow them achieve their full potential as human beings, regardless of sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, race, gender, and class. As we enter a new millennium, PDX SDS aims to continue that fight against war, imperialism, economic inequality, racism, sexism, homophobia and the increasing attacks on worker's rights and benefits.

In order to achieve this goal we plan to unify activist communities within Portland, Oregon, and the entire Northwest Region. We intend to do this through both radical action and creative community education and enhancement. We invite all of you to join us fight for a better world.