Timeline of the Young Social Democrats (Young Peoples' Socialist League)
  • 1905: ~The Intercoligiate Socialist Society is founded for "educating Americans about the need to extend democracy to every aspect of our society".~
  • 1907: ~Young Peoples' Socialist League (YPSL) is founded as a youth circle in Chicago, IL. Individual groups form an organization called the Young Peoples' Socialst Federation.~
  • 1913: ~YPSL becomes the youth affilate of the Socialist Party of America (SPA).~
  • 1919: ~In October, the New York Young Peoples' Socialist League splits from the SPA, declaring itself to be "an intergrel part of the international communist movement".~
  • 1921: ~The Intercoligiate Socialist Society changes its name to the League for Industrial Democracy.~
  • 1931: ~The Student League for Idustrial Democracy is formed.~
  • 1932: ~There is infighting between two factions in the SPA: the 'Left Wing' Militants vs the 'Right Wing' Old Gaurd. The Young Peoples' Socialist League (whose membership has grown to about 2,500) sides with the militants. The Old Gaurd decides to leave the SPA and form Social Democractic Federation.~
  • 1935: ~The Student League for Industrial Democracy splits from the League for Industrial Democracy and, together with the National Student League, forms the National Student Union.~
  • 1936: ~The Worker's Party of the United States entered the SPA as part of the Trotskyist' 'French Turn'.~
  • 1937: ~This same Worker's Party of the United States is expelled from the SPA and form the Socialist Worker's Party. Most of the YPSL members left with them.~
  • 1945: ~The League for Industrial Democracy again constitued a Student League for Industrial Democracy, although the group remained small through the nineteen-fifties.~
  • 1952: ~The YPSL has 134 members, 62 of which were recruited in this year.~
  • 1953: ~The youth affilate of the Independent Socialist League, formerly the Worker's Party, the Socialist Youth League makes overtures to the YPSL. In August, YPSL disaffiliates from the SPA.~
  • 1954: ~In February, YPSL mergers with the Socialist Youth League and form Young Socialist League.~
  • 1958: ~The Independent Socialist League disolves, and the YPSL is reconstitued.~
  • 1959-1964: ~YPSL helps to form Student Peace Union. The YPSL divides into factions. The 'Left Wing' wants to create a mass labor party. Meanwhile, the 'Right Wing' wants realignemnt in the Democratic Party.~
  • 1960: ~The Student League for Industrial Democracy is renamed Students for a Democratic Society and becomes the largest and most influential left wing student group in the history of America.~
  • 1964: ~The 'Left Wing' gains control of the YPSL but later becomes itself broken into factions; the YPSL disolves.~
  • 1965: ~The League for Industrial Democracy severs ties with Students for a Democratic Society.~
  • 1966: ~The Young Peoples' Socialist League is reconstitued, although there is deep division in the organization over the Veitnam War. Disidents, calling themselves the 'Coalition Cacus', back an immediate withdrawl. They identify themselves with a similar movement within the Socialist Party USA.~
  • 1969: ~Students for a Democratic Society is disolved, due to internal fighting between factions.~
  • 1972: ~The 'Unity Cucus', another faction of the YPSL, reform the Young Peoples' Socialist League as a youth group of the Social Democrats USA.~
  • 1973: ~The Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee is formed. Many of its leaders are former members of YPSL. They form their own 'Youth Section'. (After the 1983 merger with the New American Movment, this group will be called the Young Democratic Socialist.)~
  • 1976: ~YPSL changes its name to Young Social Democrats, while still incorperating the name Young Peoples' Socialist League and maintaining its bank account in that name. Many former Young Peoples' Socialist leaders, such as Carl Gershman (founding director, National Endowment for Democracy) and Josuha Muravchik (American Enterprise Institute), become neo-conservatives.~
  • 1989: ~Social Democrats USA continues using the name Young Peoples' Socialist League for organizational reunions; another YPSL (YPSL.org) is reconsituted as an autononomous youth affiliate of the Socialist Party of the United States of America.~
  • 2006: ~On Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday, a new Students for a Democratic Society is declared. It has numerous high-school and college chapters. Many original leaders of Students for a Democratic Society, along with leaders of the Direct Action Tendency of the Socialist Party of the United States, are active in the orginazation. It is alied with the group Movement for a Democratic Society, in an effort to resurect an organization of the same name developed in the late nineteen-sixties, for radicals older than students. There is also an orginazation called Foundation for a Democratic Society, which seeks to link the work of both Movement for a Democratic Society and Students for a Democratic Society.~
  • 2007: ~In June, YPSL.org holds a national convention with seven members in attendence. The convention calls for the formation of regional organizing committees and support for a joint project between the YPSL and the Socialist Party of the United States of America entitled "No War But Class War".~
  • 2007: ~Former members of YPSL hold a reunion on Labour Day weekend.~
  • 2008: ~The Young Social Democrats is reconstitued as a youth group of the Social Democrats USA--Socialist Party of America.~