The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.40           November 9, 1998 
 
 
Sharp Shifts Needed To Raise Funds For New International  

BY BROCK SATTER
NEWARK, New Jersey - At press time, into the sixth week of the New International Fund campaign, we are only at 31 percent of the $115,000 goal. In the final two and a half weeks, about $80,000 needs to be raised to reach this goal. This requires a sharp shift by supporters of the Marxist magazine to organize the necessary day-to-day fund-raising work - both in collecting pledges already made and in reaching out to fellow working people and others to contribute to make it possible to print New International.

Public fund-raising meetings are now taking place in many cities. In Los Angeles, 100 people attended a forum featuring Mámud Shirvani, a Pathfinder editor of Farsi-language books.

Many of those present were socialist workers from around the country who were in Los Angeles to discuss perspectives for advancing communist trade union work in three unions, the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, International Association of Machinists, and Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers. Participants at the event raised $1,290 toward the goal in Los Angeles, and an additional $830 toward the goals of the other cities where they came from.

In Atlanta, a New International Fund rally will feature Eddie Slaughter, a farmer and activist from Buena Vista, Georgia, and vice-president of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association based in Tillery, North Carolina. Slaughter is a plaintiff in the Pigford vs. Glickman class-action discrimination lawsuit by Black farmers against the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Slaughter will share the platform with Doug Jenness, Socialist Workers Party's national campaign director.

Arlene Rubinstein from Atlanta reports she and others are building this meeting by "calling people we met at the Million Youth Movement and at a street festival in the Black business district in Atlanta, where we sold five copies of the New International and 30 people signed up for more information." Rubinstein noted that "some supporters of the fund have raised their pledges closer to a week's pay."

In St. Paul, Minnesota, Young Socialists member Mai Thong Yang from Los Angeles will be speaking at a fund-raising event. Her visit is part of a series of events the local YS chapter is organizing, in collaboration with SWP members, to meet revolutionary-minded young people and involve them in political activities, building through this effort the December 4-6 national YS convention in Los Angeles. A dinner will be organized before the New International Fund forum to raise money for travel to the youth convention.

YS chapter organizer Heather Wood reports the YS has been holding weekly classes for youth interested in socialism, through which one person has joined the organization so far. YS members have also been participating in Socialist Workers campaign events; one has taken part in speaking engagements at two high schools. The YS and SWP are organizing speaking engagements at several college campuses for Yang. They will use her trip to take further steps in joining the protests by Hmong youth in the area against racist slurs by a show on radio station KQRS.

In Birmingham, George Williams reports he received two contributions from co-workers where he works at a United Auto Workers-organized plant that refurbishes airplanes.

In Boston, fund supporters sent out a letter quoting endorsements from several people. The endorsers included Robert Struthers, an Amtrak railroad engineer, and Claudia Kaiser-Lenoir, a political activist who teaches at Tufts University. Local fund director Greg McCartan reported that the letter went out to 60 people, and New International supporters have been following up with phone calls. "$105 just came in the mail from three people so far," McCartan reported.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home