BY ESTELLE DEBATES
NEW YORK - The campaign to raise $75,000 for the Socialist
Workers 1999 Party Building Fund by June 15 has reached the
halfway point. To date $14,154 has been collected - we now
need to collect $15,200 every week for the remainder of the
drive to meet the national goal. Supporters in every city need
to step up the collection of funds and the effort to win new
contributors among the workers, farmers, and youth they are
meeting in working-class struggles today.
Special fund meetings over the next week will be an aid to supporters in every city in getting the drive on target and assuring that each local goal will be met in full and on time.
The response of coal miners to the Militant's working-class reporting and explanation of the U.S.-NATO assault Yugoslavia - buying hundreds of copies of the paper - was echoed by a supporter in Salt Lake City who sent in a contribution of $250 indicating his appreciation of the Balkans coverage as well.
Supporters in Chicago hosted one of the first special meetings for the fund. More than 50 people packed the Pathfinder bookstore May 16 to hear Argiris Malapanis give an eyewitness report from Yugoslavia and Albania. The meeting was co-sponsored by the Militant Labor Forum and the Socialist Workers 1999 Party Building Fund.
Malapanis's explanation of the U.S. war drive to divide up Yugoslavia and roll back the workers state there, and the response of workers in the Balkans, provoked both a lively discussion and a spirited response to the goal of raising $5,000 for the Party Building Fund in the central Midwest. People came to the meeting not only from the Chicago area, but also from Springfield and DeKalb in central Illinois, Wisconsin, and Des Moines, Iowa.
The meeting attracted several workers who face contract expirations in the next few weeks, two workers who are originally from Colombia, and a woman who immigrated from Russia two years ago. In addition, a handful of students from DePaul University who are organizing to protest the U.S.-NATO war on campus participated in the meeting.
Zena McFadden, from DeKalb, reported that she is active in an antiwar group functioning at Northern Illinois University. Following the meeting she decided to take copies of the last few issues of the Militant newspaper with the coverage by the Balkans reporting team and use them to try and sell subscriptions to activists in the committee there.
The meeting concluded with an announcement encouraging participants to take part in two upcoming protests against the U.S. assault on Yugoslavia. One will take place at the June 12 commencement services at Northwestern University where U.S. president William Clinton is speaking. The other protest will be held June 18 when Secretary of State Madeleine Albright speaks at the University of Chicago.
The meeting raised $4,354 in donations and pledges for the Party Building Fund. In addition, $375 in literature was sold at the Pathfinder Bookstore, including five copies of Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the Millennium.
Contributions can be sent to 410 West Street, New York, NY 10014. Please make checks and money orders out to Socialist Workers Party.
John Studer in Chicago contributed to this article.