Democracy Is in the Streets: From Port Huron to the Siege of Chicago

In 1962, at Port Huron, Mich., Tom Hayden led members of Students for a Democratic Society in drafting a manifesto advocating participatory democracy. ""The Port Huron Statement'' became a beacon to student activists and civil rights workers during the 1960s. Miller, an ex-SDS member and author of Rousseau: Dreamer of Democracy, argues here that the Port Huron proclamation owes as much to Quaker practices, John Dewey's pragmatism and civic republican philosophy as it does to Karl Marx. In charting the history of the New Left through the lives of a handful of SDS leaders, this highly personal chronicle sometimes lacks balance and loses sight of the broader political context. The participatory spirit of Port Huron lives on, maintains Miller, in current efforts to democratize all areas of life, from the workplace to the family. An appendix reprints the 63-page ``Port Huron Statement.'' (May 21)