BY NANCY ROSENSTOCK
BROOKLYN, New York - First of all, a word is in order to celebrate the success of the campaign to sell subscriptions to the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial. These socialist papers are now getting into the hands of 2,600 new readers. And to those readers: welcome!
Now this victory can be put to good use by parlaying it into the campaign to raise $125,000 for these two socialist publications.
In the past week, readers of the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial in many cities shifted into high gear and increased their collection of contributions to the Militant Fund. This is reflected in this week's chart. We've started to close the gap, standing at 76 percent of the international goal - and we should be at 80 percent.
Now we're in the final stretch to December 3. Every day, every dollar, and every contributor counts.
The campaign got a boost from several fund-raising events. One recent highlight was Los Angeles, where 65 people attended a Militant Fund rally. The speakers at the event reflected the breadth of support for the socialist press.
Joseph Harvey, vice president of the Irish Northern Aid chapter in Los Angeles, commented on how the Militant "opened up my eyes to many things" including the Detroit newspaper strike and the Quebec independence struggle. Alejandra Rebeles, a new subscriber of the Militant who is a high school student and member of the Young Socialists, remarked that "reading the Militant I found out that I'm not alone. People in Canada, Africa, and Mexico are fighting too." Suropan, a Thai student at California State University in Los Angeles, was introduced to the socialist press at a table on his campus. "The Militant is one of the magnificent tools I use to train myself in politics," he said. "It and New International offer workers an alternative."
José Morales, a young welder who explained how he relies on Perspectiva Mundial, gave an unabashedly bold fund pitch, speaking in Spanish with English translation. When the total pledges raised came a little short of $10,000, Morales returned to the podium during the meeting and elicited the necessary pledges to put Los Angeles supporters above their local goal. By the end of the evening they had also raised a whopping $3,300 in cash and checks.
Following a successful fund-raising event in Peoria, Illinois, on November 12, Militant supporters in that area have raised their goal to $2,400. The three speakers at the fund event there were Reid Craig, a student at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois; Nick Clark, a student at the University of Missouri in St. Louis and a member of the Young Socialists; and Norton Sandler, a socialist from Des Moines, Iowa.
The audience included several members of the United Auto Workers on strike against Caterpillar and eight college students from a number of campuses.
The Bradley University Scout, the campus newspaper of Bradley University in Peoria, covered the event with an article titled "Socialist Leader Explains Ideology." It reports, " `The enemy is capitalism, which puts the profits of wealthy millionaires over the rights of the working people,' said Sandler, a leader of the Socialist Workers Party." The article also quotes Craig, who stressed, "The Militant doesn't just point fingers. It points to the problem so we can read it and deal with it."
The scoreboard includes several additions this week. Militant promoters in Alburquerque, New Mexico, have adopted a goal of $600; supporters in Cincinnati a goal of $250; and international support grows with the addition of Mexico and a goal of $300 from supporters in France.
Let's step up the pace and keep the money rolling in! If we keep reaching out widely to supporters of the socialist press, by December 3 we can definitely reach not only the $125,000 goal but the $130,000 in total pledges - which is the amount actually needed to keep publishing for the next year.
Carole Lesnick from Los Angeles and Dannen Vance from Peoria contributed to this article.