SDS Columbia is committed to using non-violent direct action as our primary strategy of protest against the administration, the government, and other institutions of oppression and inequality in our society. Non-violent direct action includes protests, rallies, strikes, and building occupations. We draw upon a long-history of  non-violent direct action in movements that support the freedom and power of marginalized groups!

We believe in a system of participatory democracy that places power in the hands of the many and not the few. We practice bottom-up decision making, and ensure that all members are able to speak and act.

We are the “Action Faction”. We believe in the power of radical action to “release the tremendous potential of the base.” Our goal is to show at Columbia the power of students when engaged in radical protest. We are a “revolution in microcosm” and a symbol to other groups of what can be achieved.

We are also committed to the work of organizing and base-building, which includes teach-ins, seminars, and direct discussions/conversations with individuals. This is work that Columbia SDS has been committed to for the past five years. However, organizing must be combined with direct, radical action.

As the war grows, we want the campus community to become more and more radicalized. We practice a “confrontational style of politics” that forces the opposition to react and the moderates to choose sides. We want students to question both the war and the university’s involvement in it. Our goal is to politicize people, and help to move them from the default state in this society, which is thoroughly apolitical.

We want to start a revolution, and we believe that confrontational politics is the only way to create radical change. We “put the administration and the interests they represent on one side, leftist students and the interest of humanity on the other. Those undecided in the middle are forced to choose sides.”