BY NANCY ROSENSTOCK
BROOKLYN, New York - We are off and running! As the
accompanying scoreboard indicates, slightly over $10,000 has
been contributed so far for the Militant Fund.
The drive to raise money to sustain the publication of the Militant and its sister Spanish-language monthly Perspectiva Mundial got a boost last week from successful fund-raising meetings in several cities.
Supporters in Pittsburgh gathered September 23. The featured speaker was Tom Leonard, a long-time member of the Socialist Workers Party who was active in the National Maritime Union during and after World War II.
`Must keep getting out Militant'
Leonard explained that the Militant has been striving to
get out the working-class point of view since its inception
in 1928. He told the meeting about one particular example of
this in Harlem in the mid-1950s. At a protest meeting
organized to oppose the lynching of Emmitt Till in
Mississippi, Leonard brought a small bundle of the issue of
the Militant that highlighted the case. He quickly sold out.
He then made arrangements to come back with several hundred
more copies, which also quickly sold out. "We must continue
in that spirit," Leonard concluded, "to get the Militant out
to working people and youth and to contribute generously to
keep the paper going."
Also speaking at the meeting in Pittsburgh was Chris Zimmerman of the Bruderhof Christian Community near Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Zimmerman and his organization have been active in the fight against the death penalty and in defending Mumia Abu-Jamal. "We're not socialists," Zimmerman said, "but we started reading the Militant this past spring and find that it not only helps us understand the Mumia case but what is happening around the world."
Supporters in Des Moines, Iowa, also held a fund-raising meeting September 23. Doug Jenness, who was the featured speaker, told those attending about his recent Militant reporting trip to Japan, where he participated in the events marking the 50th anniversary of the U.S.-inflicted nuclear holocaust in Hiroshima.
A member of the United Rubber Workers who was part of the strike against Bridgestone/Firestone attended the meeting. He too had just returned from Japan, where a delegation of former strikers met with Bridgestone/Firestone workers in Japan.
As a result of the event, supporter Joanne Murphy reported, pledges in Des Moines now total $2,400, and $421 was collected at the meeting toward the local goal of $3,200.
New readers kick in
As supporters of the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial
participate in the drive to win new readers, the
international fund drive will also receive a boost. Many
people who first pick up the Militant from a street table or
from a visit to their home may want to kick in some money to
keep a working-class paper going. Manhattan supporters, for
example, found it helpful to have attractive collection cans
on their tables where working people could easily
contribute. Many did. During their big sales effort on
September 24 they collected $18.
A Militant Fund committee in Brooklyn is coordinating the organization of the international fund drive. This committee will be looking for short articles on how supporters are carrying out the fund drive, who is contributing, and what they have to say about the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial. These articles can be sent to the Brooklyn Pathfinder bookstore at the address listed on page 12; they can be faxed to (718) 399-3492.
Payments received by Tuesday 5:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time at the Militant business office will be reflected on the weekly chart.
Edwin Fruit, a member of the International Association of Machinists in Pittsburgh, contributed to this article.