BY DEBORAH LIATOS
NEW YORK - Arlene Rubenstein wrote to the Militant, "The March 8 Militant Fund rally in Atlanta successfully launched the fund here. As a result, supporters in Atlanta decided to raise their goal from $3,100 to $3,500."

She reported that several new pledges and contributions came in, including from a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees and two Militant readers who recently renewed their subscriptions - an auto worker at Ford and a Cuba solidarity activist. At the meeting itself $451 was collected. "Pledges from the Atlanta chapter of the Young Socialists now total $175," Rubenstein added. "At the rally, one YS member raised his pledge from $20 to $100."

Frank Gorton from Detroit said Militant supporters there have now raised their goal from $4,000 to $4,750 due to the response they have received from reaching out to readers. Partisans of the socialist press in Christchurch, New Zealand, also decided to increase their goal, by $700.

Margrethe Siem reports from New York that one of her co- workers in a garment shop bought a copy of Perspectiva Mundial, the Spanish-language sister publication of the Militant, during a discussion on the economic crisis in Mexico. Another worker there, who became a new reader of the PM a couple of weeks earlier, helped to sell the magazine. When she heard about the Militant Fund Drive, she said, "I'll support that. Bring me a copy every time a new issue comes out." She also donated $3.50 to fund the socialist periodicals. That will go toward a goal of $25 taken by socialist garment workers to be raised on the job.

As the February 22 - April 26, 1997 Militant Fund Drive enters its third week, pledges from around the world exceed the $110,000 goal by more than $5,000. Internationally, however, we are behind schedule in the collection of these pledges. Cities need to re-double their efforts to help complete the drive on time. Many Militant Fund rallies are scheduled in the next few weeks. Reports on these rallies and workers correspondence should be sent in for future articles on the progress of the fund.

Supporters of the Militant and contributors to the fund drive will be interested in the very first campaign to raise money for the socialist paper. Reprinted below is an excerpt of a column on this subject written by Sara Lobman during the 1993 Militant Fund Campaign.

When James Cannon, Martin Abern, and Max Shachtman began planning the first issue of The Militant just 65 years ago, they had no idea how it would be paid for. The three working- class leaders, just expelled from the Communist Party for opposing the thuggery and counterrevolutionary course of Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union, had no money of their own.

A local printer agreed to print the first issue on credit and supporters in Chicago scrounged up a little cash. The new paper promised to come out twice a month. The second issue ran an advertisement for the first Militant fundraising event-a "Cabaret and Dance" to be held in New York on Dec. 1, 1928. The paper was able to keep its promise to come out every other week. It printed documents smuggled out of the Soviet Union from those leading the fight against Stalin and his followers. It covered the union organizing campaigns and strikes in the textile mills of North Carolina and the debates and discussions among coal miners in the Illinois coalfields and garment workers in New York. In short, it provided fighting workers with the news and analysis they needed to learn from previous struggles and to be better and more effective fighters in the battles of the day.

In early 1929, the Militant placed a challenge before its readers. If $2,000 was collected, the editors said, the Militant could end its semimonthly schedule. The final leg of this campaign was launched in September. Two months later-in a fitting celebration of the 12th anniversary of the Russian revolution-the Militant would become a weekly!...

The first weekly issue of the paper was dated November 30,1929. "We can publish the Militant regularly and improve it with each issue only with YOUR aid," the preceding issue had explained. To that end, the Militant launched a Sustaining Fund on the heels of the successful fund for the weekly. The goal, the editors said, was to "establish a firm foundation under our feet."

"If you can give an outright donation of money, sent it in immediately," Militant readers were asked. "If you can make a pledge to send in a sum of money each week...no matter how large or small the pledge may be, let us know right away."  
 
 
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