"This included $225 in new pledges and $393 in higher pledges. At this point we have $1,960 pledged to the fund in St. Louis," said Ressler.

The topic of the St. Louis meeting focused on the Israeli campaign of repression and the Palestinian fight for national self-determination today.

Presentations were given by a meat packer from Chicago and Ron Romaha of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Islamic League of St. Louis.

In addition, Lewis Fitch, president of the National Black Lung Association, sent a message to the meeting. "I'll tell you what I think of the Militant," wrote Fitch. "It is one of the most informative papers for the working person that I have ever read. It has a wide range of articles from all over the country. I am ashamed that other papers do not have this kind of coverage. For a little paper, I don't see how you can cover so much of importance to workers. Keep up the good work, and I hope you have a successful meeting."

The fund-raising event held recently in Atlanta received comments by Gladys Williams, an activist in the fight to defend family farmers and a member of the People's Tribunal, an organization in Valdosta, Georgia, fighting police brutality. "The Militant informs the working-class people of the struggles we are all involved in individually and collectively. Otherwise we would be at the mercy of the papers we read every day, that don't give the real story--that there are fights going on all over the world. The farmers' situation is one of a never-ending fight. The Militant gives us an understanding of the source of the problems we have and what some of the solutions can be," wrote Williams.

Supporters of the Militant in Upper Manhattan sponsored a meeting October 14 that featured Militant and Perspectiva Mundial editor Martín Koppel, who took up issues in the class struggle today from the successful revolt by working people in Yugoslavia to the U.S. rulers' efforts to curtail democratic rights at home through their current "antiterrorist" campaign over the explosion on a U.S. warship in Yemen.

"Our goal going into the weekend was to get ourselves on schedule in payments to the fund," said Don Mackle, one of the organizers of the local fund effort in Upper Manhattan. "We did that by collecting more than $700 at the meeting itself. We also got an additional $195 in pledges leading up to the meeting and have more people to call about making pledges."

The fund serves not only to cover the socialist publications' normal operating expenses but to make possible special reporting teams to cover the class struggle worldwide.

Right now an international Militant reporting team is heading to Yugoslavia. The team will interview workers, farmers, students, and others on their role in the successful political strike that ousted the hated regime of Slobodan Milosevic and the steps they are taking now to assert their rights. This is one more good reason many working-class fighters and politically minded youth will be interested in contributing to the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial Fund.

With four weeks to go in the fund drive, both working hard to bridge the gap in pledges to reach the $110,000 goal and accelerating the fund payments will be crucial to making the drive a success.