The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.19           May 18, 1998 
 
 
Final Push For Militant Fund  

BY JON ERWAY
NEWARK - As the $110,000 international Militant Fund enters its final, eighth week, partisans of the socialist press are making the final push to raise all the remaining money needed to complete their goals by May 10. We collected almost $17,000 last week, closing the gap, but are still behind at 77 percent of the total goal.

In many cities, Militant supporters report they are organizing a special phone-calling effort to contact people who have made pledges but have not yet paid them. Some contributors have raised their pledges.

"It's going to be a little tight, but we're going to make our goal of $3,200," reported Mike Italie, Militant fund director in Atlanta. "Over two dozen people have made pledges," he noted, "and we're going the extra mile to call others who have already pledged and asking them if they will raise their pledges. "

There is a noticeable increase in workers who are contributing to the fund. In Los Angeles, for example, a rail worker who appreciates the Militant's truthful coverage donated $10, and a United Airlines worker involved in the defense of the Cuban revolution gave $20.

Militant promoters in Los Angeles, who had previously organized a fund-raiser at a regional socialist conference in early April, organized a wrap-up event May 1. It featured Virginia Garza, who reported on the international women's conference she had just attended in Havana, Cuba. The meeting attracted a number of people to their first such political event, including a young woman who is an activist for Puerto Rican independence.

Dave Ferguson from Houston reports that at an April 29 Militant Fund meeting there, a panel of speakers on labor resistance today included two locked-out Crown workers. Tim Mardis, a Teamster who was recently on strike against Laidlaw, a hazardous waste disposal company, spoke from the floor about their fight. He came with another Laidlaw worker who is a Militant reader, Shawn Matlock. Some $2,600 was collected at that meeting.

Special steps such as all these, plus continuing to get generous donations from co-workers and other working people who have become new readers during the current Militant subscription drive, are key to reaching the goal posts by May 10.  
 
 
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