Summary Of The Port Huron Statement
The source itself is an extract of The Port Huron Statement of 1962. It was produced by 58 members of the Student for a Democratic Society, including large contributions by their Field Secretary Tom Hayden. The 25,700 word statement aimed to “articulate the fundamental problems of American society and laid a radical vision for a better future”. The manifesto advances the call for participatory democracy in which each individual citizen could help make “social decisions determining the quality and direction” of their lives. The SDS believed Human beings were “infinitely precious and possessed of unfulfilled capacities for reason, freedom and love” . It is these poignantly written, humanitarian viewpoints which created this view of the ‘sixties
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The United States claimed to stand as a beacon of democracy and freedom despite being rife with “racial bigotry” and surrounded in the merciless atmosphere of McCarthyism. It is within these contradictive issues at home that American foreign policy is criticized by the SDS. Noting upon the paradox of “peaceful intentions… contradict[ing] its economic and military investments”, the SDS questions the “national stalemate” of democratic reform within the country and urges for America to bear its concerns homeward rather than in foreign lands. The Port Huron Statement also ushers in the ideology of participatory democracy, which itself is a radical step forward from the conservative decade preceding them; as it moves away from the “tradition bound” America emerging from World War II. The Port Huron Statement raises many concerns with the political system within the 1960’s, but also the fears of a growing democratically warped capitalist state. Whilst it is not explicitly addressed within the extract, it is evident from the SDS’s left-wing origins and the criticism of the class system “While two-thirds of mankind suffers undernourishment, our own upper classes revel amidst superfluous abundance”. It is understandable as to why the SDS did not specifically address capitalism overtly, as it may lead to the alienation of the audience during the turbulent era of
The United States claimed to stand as a beacon of democracy and freedom despite being rife with “racial bigotry” and surrounded in the merciless atmosphere of McCarthyism. It is within these contradictive issues at home that American foreign policy is criticized by the SDS. Noting upon the paradox of “peaceful intentions… contradict[ing] its economic and military investments”, the SDS questions the “national stalemate” of democratic reform within the country and urges for America to bear its concerns homeward rather than in foreign lands. The Port Huron Statement also ushers in the ideology of participatory democracy, which itself is a radical step forward from the conservative decade preceding them; as it moves away from the “tradition bound” America emerging from World War II. The Port Huron Statement raises many concerns with the political system within the 1960’s, but also the fears of a growing democratically warped capitalist state. Whilst it is not explicitly addressed within the extract, it is evident from the SDS’s left-wing origins and the criticism of the class system “While two-thirds of mankind suffers undernourishment, our own upper classes revel amidst superfluous abundance”. It is understandable as to why the SDS did not specifically address capitalism overtly, as it may lead to the alienation of the audience during the turbulent era of