The New York/New Jersey meetings will feature Socialist Workers Party leader Jack Willey and Arrin Hawkins, a leader of the Young Socialists, both of whom will have just returned from participating in a May 17–18 forum of young socialists in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The two will speak on "Prospects for building an international socialist movement of working people and youth" at forums in Upper Manhattan, the Garment District, and Brooklyn areas of New York, and in Newark, New Jersey.

The initiative taken by socialist workers and youth in New York and Newark helps set a good example of how the largest number of supporters of the paper can be won to making a contribution over the coming weeks.

Other public fund meetings now being discussed from London to Sydney to Atlanta will take up major developments in the class struggle, and the unfolding social movements of resistance to the offensive of the imperialist powers at home and abroad.

The meeting being planned in Cleveland will discuss the struggles by coal miners, their widows, and their communities, to defend their living standards, lives, and limbs against the coal barons. The recent mine workers’ union victory in the contract fight at Maple Creek in Pennsylvania was the fruit of miners’ determination through a series of running confrontations with the company.

Fund supporters in Chicago have begun planning a meeting on May 26 to coincide with a weekend of volunteer work to prepare their move into a new hall and Pathfinder bookstore in a workers district in the city. Joel Britton told the Militant that organizers are "confident that we can involve several young people who participated in the Midwest Socialist Conference last month."

Supporters of the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial in a number of cities in the United States and other countries have adopted goals for the international fund drive. The international campaign to increase the readership of the socialist periodicals and books (see article "Socialists plan sales to coal mining regions" elswhere in this issue) offers a good opportunity to win contributors. Fund organizers should also contact long-term readers of the two publications to ask for a contribution. Socialist workers plan on taking the appeal to co-workers and those they meet on picket lines, and at protest actions and political events. A bilingual flyer explaining the fund drive, sent out to distributors of the Militant last week, will aid in these efforts.

In response to previous Militant articles about the appeal, a couple more longtime partisans of the publications have sent in contributions directly to the Militant offices in New York over the past week. "Enclosed is a financial contribution to help you continue the great work you’ve all been doing," wrote Roger Bland from Chicago in a note accompanying his $400 check. With this and other donations the fund presently stands at $1,700.

Fund directors in every city can keep track of the progress of the drive by recording contributions on the website established for the campaign. We encourage fund organizers to update the database with the local goal and pledges and contributions made in each area. Reports sent to the Militant on plans and progress in the drive will help readers see how the fund’s success is tied to the political work of socialist workers and youth as part of the broader working-class resistance.  
 
 
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