More than 500 people have made pledges toward the international goal. Fund-raising meetings have been taking place in a number of cities and the pace of the campaign has picked up. Last week the Militant received the largest amount of payments so far: nearly $10,650. This puts us at $33,582--40 percent of the international goal.

Two weeks are left in this campaign, however, posing a substantial challenge to collect and send in the more than $50,000 in outstanding payments. Judging from the pledges, this is within reach, but it will take a concerted effort between now and May 12.

Campaigners in several areas are planning public fund events on the May 3 weekend or on the last weekend of the drive, which will be a major focus for raising contributions.

To bring the fund drive to a successful conclusion, additional steps are required. In each city, supporters of the Militant/Perspectiva Mundial Fund need to make progress on a day-to-day basis. Above all, this means calling or visiting every individual who has made a pledge and organizing to collect their payments.

This effort can be coupled with fund raising on the job, at plant gates, and on Militant sales tables in working-class neighborhoods and on campuses.

It’s important to explain to every contributor, and potential contributor, that the Militant and the Spanish-language magazine, Perspectiva Mundial, are financed entirely by working people and others who look to it for news on revolutionary struggles. These two socialist periodicals are irreplaceable as a source of facts and a guide to working-class action.

This fund drive makes it possible to meet the basic weekly expenses of producing these publications--paying the printer, the landlord and utility companies, the postage and shipping services, as well as supplies. Payments come due every week, so the funds are needed now.

In addition, the fund allows the Militant to field special reporting teams to cover important developments in the class struggle around the country and internationally.  
 
Receptivity to ‘Militant’ and fund appeal
A good example of the response to the Militant/Perspectiva Mundial fund appeal was an April 27 benefit held in Houston. One of the speakers there was Joshua Lawrence, a student at the University of Houston and a new Militant reader.

Lawrence, who is working with four or five other students to visit Cuba in the upcoming Cuba-U.S. Youth Exchange, thanked the Militant for campaigning in defense of the Cuban Revolution. "My interest in going to Cuba," he said, "has to do with the obvious misinformation that all people here see in the U.S. news media. I want to go there myself and see what the truth is."

The meeting featured Socialist Workers Party leader Nan Bailey from Los Angeles. She presented a working-class explanation of the imperialist war drive in the Middle East, how it fits into the longer-term decline of the world imperialist system, and what it will take for fighting workers and farmers to bring down the world’s final empire.

Bailey’s talk was supplemented by a brief report from Jacquie Henderson, a socialist and garment worker in Houston, on the strike by 4,000 Machinists standing up to Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas. She had just visited the picket line as part of a team of workers to express solidarity, and report on the struggle for the Militant.

More than $1,000 was collected at the event. Another $700 was pledged to the fund drive. After the meeting, organizers of the event received an e-mail message from a Militant reader thanking the paper for its coverage of the Lockheed strike, and pledging $100 to the fund.

Please make checks or money orders payable to the Militant and send contributions to the Militant, 152 W. 36th Street #401, New York, NY 10018. Fund payments must be received in the Militant offices by noon on May 13 in order to be counted for the campaign.

Click here for latest fund drive chart  
 
 
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