Supporters of the fund have scheduled public fund-raising events in four cities and plans are under way in eight others. Organizing timely meetings in every city is key to reaching out broadly for new contributors as well as to winning contributions from long-time supporters of the socialist press in the four remaining weeks (see list of events on page 3).
Four weeks into the drive, $45,000 needs to have been collected. We have continued to fall behind, however, with less than $16,000 received in contributions to date.These funds are being used week by week to help pay for rent, utilities, and printing and shipping costs for the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial.
The work to build the upcoming meetings provides a focus to approach regular contributors beforehand as well as to maximize attendance by potential new contributors.
Tom Leonard, a veteran leader of the Socialist Workers Party who was active as a merchant seaman at the end of World War II, will speak at a May 14 Militant Fund event in San Francisco on the topic There Is No Peace! 60 Years Since the End of World War II. The presentation will draw on the lessons of that war for class-struggle fighters today. Ron Smith, a Young Socialist in Pittsburgh, will speak in Cleveland May 1 on the same subject.
Militant staff member Arrin Hawkins will be speaking in Boston May 7 on “Cuba and the Coming American Revolution.” Hawkins was part of a Militant reporting team in February that covered this year’s Havana International Book Fair and other events. Brian Taylor, a coal miner and the Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of Pittsburgh, will speak in Houston on “Capitalism’s Long Hot Winter Has Begun: The Working-Class Road to Power.”
Supporters of the Militant are encouraged to send in accounts of their progress each week that can be included in this column. Checks or money orders should be made out to the Militant, earmarked “Spring Fund Drive,” and sent to the Militant at 306 W. 37th Street, 10th floor, New York, NY 10018.
Click here to see the fund chart