At an April 27 meeting of the United Steel Workers Unity Committee, representatives of copper miners and oil refinery workers heard a presentation on the case and discussed its implications for labor. The USW was created recently from the merger of the United Steelworkers of America and PACE unions. Oil workers there said they have backed the Co-Op miners’ union-organizing struggle all along, said Paul Mailhot, who represented the Militant Fighting Fund at the meeting. “Kyle Wulle of USW Local 8-593 recounted how oil workers invited Co-Op miners to recent union conferences to build solidarity for their fight,” Mailhot said. “Wulle, and Julie Holzer and Howard Beck, two other union officers, endorsed the Militant Fighting Fund.”

Susan Vogel, a publisher and former attorney in Salt Lake City, and University of Utah Professor of Education Nancy Winitzky also endorsed the Militant Fighting Fund and suggested approaching others.

“A Militant supporter in the Salt Lake area contributed $1,000,” Mailhot said.

Bob and Ann Fivecoat from East Carbon, Utah, who organize the Co-Op miners solidarity fund have also endorsed. “We have been very impressed and grateful for the Militant’s total coverage of the plight and the fight of the Co-Op miners,” Ann Fivecoat said in a note she sent along with the endorsement. “We have followed and been involved in this fight from the beginning.”

The Militant Fighting Fund was established with the help of the Political Rights Defense Fund (PRDF) to organize the political campaign—and raise the substantial contributions needed—to meet mounting legal and publicity expenses in the case.

Three regional forums to promote the fund were held in Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Chicago in April. About 170 people attended, contributing $8,000. Since then, backers of this fight have begun a nationwide effort to promote the Militant Fighting Fund and win new endorsers and contributors.

These efforts are beginning to pay off. Lynne Stewart, for example, endorsed the fight May 2. Stewart is an attorney in New York who was recently convicted on frame-up charges by the U.S. government of “aiding terrorism” because she defended Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was convicted of conspiring to bomb the World Trade Center in New York in the 1990s. Stewart is waging a defense effort prior to her sentencing in September. Stewart said she would talk about the Militant Fighting Fund in presentations on her case because this is a “fight about free speech and freedom of the press.” Donations (checks made to Militant Fighting Fund) are tax deductible. They can be sent, along with endorsements, to the Militant Fighting Fund, Box 761 Church St. Station, New York, NY 10007.
 
 
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‘Militant,’ SWP brief backs motion to dismiss harassment lawsuit
Chicago forum promotes Militant Fighting Fund  
 
 
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