NEWARK, New Jersey- As we reach the halfway mark in the drive to raise $90,000 for the Socialist Workers 1996 national campaign, supporters of the socialist alternative across the country must now shift gears in a big way to collect contributions and obtain pledges.

Nearly $11,000 had been received in the national campaign headquarters in New York as of Tuesday, May 14. Last week we had about $9,000. With only a handful of areas outstanding, local campaign goals now add up to slightly over $85,000.

Energetic fund-raising efforts by campaign supporters in Minnesota are beginning to pay off. And socialist vice- presidential candidate Laura Garza's swing through Minneapolis and St. Paul "boosted our fund-raising efforts," said Jon Hillson, director of the election campaign there.

At a May 11 public meeting featuring Garza, an appeal to supporters by socialist workers congressional candidate Jennifer Benton netted $1,320 in cash and checks and an additional $1,240 in pledges. Prior to the meeting, supporters had organized to collect another $1,200. Those figures "showed us that we can raise the remaining pledges needed to reach our goal of $5,000, and collect it all in the next month," Hillson remarked.

He noted that among those donating funds during Garza's tour in the Twin Cities "were young socialists working on their first election campaign ever, a co-worker of SWP senatorial candidate Tom Fiske, and other new supporters - as well as longtime partisans of the socialist movement."

Hillson added, "we will be asking for contributions from the nine United Auto Workers members who signed up for more information at a plant-gate campaign stop by Laura Garza."

In preparation for a campaign event during Memorial Day weekend, socialist campaigners in San Francisco are casting their fund-raising net wide. Among other things, they are sending a 200-piece mailing to a broad range of people, including workers and youth met during recent sales of revolutionary books and through the current drive to win new readers to the socialist press.

"We see all these political efforts as reinforcing each other," explained Toba Singer, coordinator of the drive to collect $10,000 in the San Francisco area. "New subscribers to the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial are going to be reading regularly about the socialist campaign, so they will be among those most interested in contributing. And we are inviting them to join the campaign," Singer added.

The May 27 event in San Francisco will feature three local socialist candidates for U.S. Congress, Marklyn Wilson, Omari Musa, and Steve Gordon, who is a member of the Young Socialists; as well as Susan Zárate, who is running for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Some Militant readers have been clipping the fund coupon in the paper and sending it into the national campaign headquarters with contributions attached. This week, for example, a supporter in Wakefield, Massachusetts, mailed in a coupon along with $35, and another one in Boca Ratón, Florida, contributed $100.

A supporter in Greensboro sent in an initial contribution of $150 with a note explaining she had to work some overtime lately. In it she also emphasized, "I wanted to get this to the campaign now, when we especially need it."  
 
 
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