Hayden, Tom (1939–)

Thomas Emmett “Tom” Hayden is one of the preeminent activists of the 1960s, having helped to found the Students for a Democratic Society and being arrested as one of the Chicago Seven. Since that time, he has worked continuously on issues of social justice at the local, state, national, and international levels.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1939, Hayden attended the University of Michigan, where he served as editor of the Michigan Daily. In 1960, Hayden, along with other activists such as Michael Harrington and Robert Alan Haber, founded Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), an offshoot of the League for Industrial Democracy and the Intercollegiate Socialist Society. In 1962, Hayden's work, The Port Huron Statement, became the political manifesto for SDS, calling on students to utilize nonviolent means to develop a participatory democracy in the United States. Hayden served as president of SDS from 1962 to 1963. From 1964 to 1968, Hayden worked in Newark, New Jersey, with a local community group. During that time, Hayden observed the city's race riots, and penned Rebellion in Newark: Official Violence and Ghetto Response of 1967 in response to the uprising. He also served as a Freedom Rider in the South, struggling for equal rights for African Americans.

By 1968 Hayden was playing an integral part in the protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, eventually being beaten, gassed, and arrested with Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and others as part of the Chicago Seven, charged with conspiracy and other crimes. After 5 years in the judicial system, Hayden was acquitted on all counts. Simultaneously, with the buildup of the American presence in Vietnam, Hayden began organizing civil disobedience to protest against the war, and in 1965 made the first of many trips to Vietnam, including the controversial 1972 trip to Hanoi with his future wife, Jane Fonda.

In the mid-1970s, the California political system opened to citizen activist groups and began allowing for grassroots-led ballot propositions. With Fonda, Hayden founded the Campaign for Economic Democracy (CED), helping the organization to defeat the building of a nuclear power plant through a referendum, passing Proposition 65 of 1986, which required labels on carcinogenic products, and developing Proposition 99, which funded public health and anti-tobacco initiatives.

Starting in 1976, Hayden entered electoral politics, beginning with a primary challenge against California's U.S. Senator John Tunney. Hayden served in the California State Assembly from 1982 to 1992 and the California State Senate from 1992 to 2000, ushering in legislation at the state level dealing with social justice issues, such as equity issues in the public university system, environmental measures such as the banning of MTBE in drinking water and the drafting of the largest environmental restoration bond in California history, and the training of immigrant parents of public schoolchildren. Twice during Hayden's tenure in the California state legislature, he was subjected to Republican-led expulsion hearings.

Hayden now works on behalf of ending the war in Iraq, eliminating sweatshops (as codirector of No More Sweatshops!), environmental protection, and greater citizen participation in the political system. He is a member of The Nation's editorial board, teaches at a variety of Los Angeles–area universities and colleges, and continues to write on the American political system.

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