BY DEBORAH LIATOS AND ELLIE GARCÍA
NEW YORK - We're over the top! Partisans of the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial have ended the 1997 Militant Fund with 113 percent of the goal - more than $124,000 total. An extra push made by supporters in the last few weeks to reach out more broadly paid off. One example of this is how supporters in Sydney, Australia, were able to raise $220 in the last couple of weeks by phoning Militant subscribers.

Nat London writes from Paris, "Of particular note was the number of co-workers of longtime Militant supporters who contributed. Three workers at Renault and two at Alshom contributed a total of 300 francs [over $50]. None of these workers can read English or Spanish.. [but] they know that the Militant regularly publishes articles on the struggles of workers here in France as well as in other countries."

United Transportation Union (UTU) member Ruth Robinette, who works at Amtrak in New York, approached several workers there. Four of her co-workers contributed $79.

Often, raising the money went hand-in-hand with the Militant subscription drive. "The main thing we had going for us was a couple of important struggles in the Greensboro area where supporters of the Militant participated," said Karen Kopperud in a telephone interview. "One is with Black farmers fighting against land loss, centered around the organization Concerned Citizens of Tillery. Another is with the struggle of packinghouse workers at Case Farms in Morganton, North Carolina."

"The subscription drive was pretty easy," she noted. "We sold a lot of subs to people in and around this fight. Almost every team that went out came back with at least one subscription. The Militant Fund flowed from that. One of my co-workers asked me what I was doing these days. When I told him I was helping to organize a rally for the Militant Fund, he asked if I wanted him to contribute, and gave $20," added Kopperud who is a rail worker and a member of the UTU.

Maggie McCraw from Miami reports, "We sent a mailing early on in the drive and got quite a few contributions. A Cuban who had bought a copy of Perspectiva Mundial sent in $20. We stressed weekly payments on the pledges made, and in the end got contributions from 30 people." Public charts in the Pathfinder Bookstore showing where the fund stood locally and nationally helped create a campaign atmosphere.

"We raised both our New International and Perspectiva Mundial goals during the subscription drive," McCraw said. "We sold lots, especially New Internationals at two immigrant rights demonstrations here, and finally went over on all three goals," McCraw said.

"The most important thing is to ask," said Pete Seidman in a telephone interview. Supporters in Philadelphia raised $93 among their co-workers at USAir, Boeing, and the Riverview garment shop.

Marla Puziss in Atlanta reports that friends of the Militant put a lot of work into building the Young Socialists convention, hosted in that city. This gave a boost to the fund campaign. They raised their goal from $3,100 to $3,500, and collected $4,013.

Meeting and surpassing the fund goal makes it possible to send eyewitness reporting teams to Albania and Cuba as readers can see from the coverage in this issue. But mostly the fund makes it possible for the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial to simply come out week to week. The enthusiastic response to the Militant Fund reflects the importance that workers, youth, and others place on receiving a socialist analysis on world events.  
 
 
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