Vol. 73/No. 39      October 12, 2009

Speaking in New York September 25, at a meeting titled “U.S. and World Capitalism: The Crisis Deepens, the Wars Spread,” Militant editor Sam Manuel responded to a question about the “single-payer” idea for health care. “Under the guise of providing ‘universal health care,’ the U.S. rulers are attacking working people’s access to health care,” he said.

Manuel pointed to the provision in all the health-care bills currently in Congress to make health insurance obligatory and subject working people to fines if they don’t purchase it. “They are trying to shift the burden for health care more and more onto working people,” he stated. “What we’re for is what working people in Cuba have. Health care for all. To get that will take making a revolution.”

Seth Galinsky, the fund director in New York, reports that just over $2,000 was collected at the meeting.

In San Francisco 48 people attended a September 26 event where Ma’mud Shirvani spoke on “Iran: The Struggle for Democratic Rights—Working People in the U.S. Need to Demand ‘Imperialist Hands Off!’” The event gave a lift to the fund, boosting to $8,971 the total pledged toward a quota of $13,000 in San Francisco. Nearly $2,000 was collected at the meeting, bringing to $5,236 the total contributed so far.

Shirvani spoke in Los Angeles the next day. He noted that sales of revolutionary titles translated into Farsi and Arabic had expanded in the last few months. He said this is an indication of the growing thirst for revolutionary theory in the Middle East. “These are not regular books,” Shirvani pointed out, “but the congealed experiences of the working class and so they find a resonance among young fighters.”

Commenting on the popular mobilizations of young people in Iran he said this helped millions around the world to see Iranians in a new light, not just as oppressed victims. “They saw young people, including young women, demonstrating for democratic rights. Now they are back in the streets demanding freedom for the political prisoners. This has an effect on the entire region. For example in August there was a demonstration for democratic rights by young people in Saudi Arabia,” Shirvani said.

James Harris, a member of Local 770 of the United Food and Commercial Workers and one of the national co-chairs of the party-building fund, gave the fund pitch. Participants donated $1,957. Harris said the revolutionary party is funded entirely by contributions from workers.

Contributions to the fund can be sent to 306 W. 37th Street, 10th floor, New York, NY 10018. Checks or money orders should be written out to the Socialist Workers Party. Seth Galinsky in New York, Joel Britton in San Francisco, and Dean Hazlewood in Los Angeles contributed to this article.

Party-building fund: Week 1 of 8 (chart)