Sustainers- The Campaign Continues
Dear NACLA: My hands and feet are numb as I write this because my income forces me to live in a house with no heat. As a kid growing up in northern New Jersey, I started wage-slavery at the age...
...To bring you up to date on our Sustainers' appeal: we have received about 40% of our goal of $30,000...
...We are reprinting a few of the many letters we have received...
...C.B., Cuernavaca, Mexico "We were terribly distressed by your recent letter and furious at the same time...
...In the end, I ask for moral and financial solidarity...
...C.T...
...Of all our publications, it's highly revealing that he picked this excerpt: What if the machinery were reversed...
...S.O., Ann Arbor, MI "Hereby I send you a fotocopy of an article I wrote for De Groene Amsterdammer, a Dutch independent, left-wing weekly...
...Believe me, I hate being cold...
...Surely by now you folks must realize that the quality of your work is excellent and very much appreciated by many of us...
...K.D., Washington, DC As most of you know, in December 1979 we sent an appeal for funds to all our subscribers...
...Keep struggling...
...L.H., Helsinki, Finland "Please include my sub renewal in this...
...D.J...
...Congratulations on your enemies...
...Keep up your good work...
...The basis of his attack, however, was quite significant...
...I'm sorry I can't send you more money-but this is what I can afford...
...Keep up the excellent research and analysis on events in the Western Hemisphere...
...Although he is obviously upset by our political conclusions, he is more disturbed by the fact that we are examining his corporation in the first place...
...and A.M., Mexico City, Mexico "I'd like to give more, but I can't afford it...
...What if the habits, problems, secrets and unconscious motivations of the wealthy and powerful were daily scrutinized by a thousand systematic researchers, were hourly pried into, analyzed and cross-referenced, tabulated and published in a hundred inexpensive mass circulation journals and written so that even the fifteen-year old high school dropout could understand it . . ? It is necessary, in other words, to take the information available about power in this society and turn it against that power in ways which weaken its strangle-hold upon us...
...or hungry...
...P.M., Burlington, VT...
...We will gladly print an ad for you free and will certainly make mention of what is happening to you in our next editorial...
...P.B., Amsterdam, Netherlands "Please accept this small check as a gift...
...We sincerely thank you for this...
...On the political front, at least one of our detractors is still at it...
...The article is a summary of the letter you wrote to the subscribers and the things that have been written about it in the Reports...
...or without medical care...
...And, from your response to our appeal, it is also clear that you're not going to let him win...
...Kirchhoff, President of Castle 44 & Cooke, wrote yet another extended attack on NACLA in the December 1979-January 1980 issue of The Presbyterian Layman, a mass circulation publication of the Presbyterian Lay Committee, Inc...
...R.M., San Pedro, CA JanlFeb 1980 "We enclose a $10 contribution to help support NACLA's activities and Reports which we consider highly valuable and important, mostly taking into account the serious present condition within the U.S...
...Your feedback is extremely important to us, both in evaluating how our work is used and in planning future issues of the Report...
...We still must raise the remaining 60% of our goal if we are to continue publishing...
...Seen in this light, research is an instrument of our liberation...
...I occasionally teach a survey course in Latin American History and find NACLA Report to be a vital information source for my work...
...Deeply sorry I can't afford more...
...NACLA Reportupdate * update * update . update "KEEP STRUGGLING" "Continue our sub as long as possible with this (donation...
...I suppose you cannot read the Dutch but at least it gives you an idea there is something like Dutch solidarity with NACLA...
...If you have not yet contributed to the NACLA Sustainer campaign-and even if you have-we need your help...
...What can the Finnish Peace Committee and its new Latin America Solidarity Committee do for your support...
...Our own Research Methodology Guide has sold more than 75,000 copies...
...For those who have contributed already, thank you very, very much...
...B.R., Everett, MA "I have heard that your organization has been subjected to strong political pressure and suppression...
...and the international situation...
...I'd like to see NACLA around for a long time...
...In the winters I used to cry a lot because I'd get so damned cold...
...That letter described how two of our most dangerous enemies-inflation and 1980-style McCarthyism-were ganging up on us in order to silence our voice...
...I'm a public school teacher...
...As a kid growing up in northern New Jersey, I started wage-slavery at the age of five-hawking newspapers on the street...
...People are having a hard time making ends meet...
...No doubt about it-the letters and donations have been extremely encouraging...
...Here is my check for $50 to help out...
...But more than that, I hate the system that forces so many of us to be cold...
...And literally millions of people now know more about how corporations function, and how the powerful rule, by reading the dozens of newsletters and journals pubished by many organizations similar to NACLA which have emerged...
...Information on the nefarious activities of capitalism in Latin America is hard to obtain without access to non-capitalist research & so I'm quite pleased to help in what small way I can...
...I am enclosing a $25 check for two gift subscriptions and a $5 donation...
...It is clear to us that Kirchoff will fight us-and others-to keep his corporate activities in the dark...
...Kirchoff again took issue with those in the church who have supported our work over the years...
...or illiterate...
...Of course, if you weren't doing so well, you would not be attacked...
...To prove his point, he cited a paragraph from our Research Methodology Guide which he found both subversive and abhorent...
...This still remains an important goal for NACLA, and we are pleased that we have made significant progress towards opening the corporate books...
...Imagine...
...But we'd like to give you more help if possible...
...Since that time, we have received literally hundreds of letters of support-in fact, so many that we haven't been able to acknowledge all of them in the personal way we would have liked...
...A lot of people are unemployed and feeling the squeeze of inflation and the greed of large corporations...
...They were so encouraging that we wanted to share them with you...
...H.S., San Diego, CA "Enclosed is my check for $100, which I am certain that you will put to good use...
...I'd certainly hate to see you all go under...
...Enclosed is a little bit of money via gift subscriptions...
...We will soon be preparing a questionnaire in the Report so we can get your response in a more systematic way...
...R.B., Cine Tracts, Montreal, Canada "Estimados Companeros de NACLA: I was and am extremely concerned by the attacks on NACLA...
...I would be happy to help in any way I could to support NACLA against the reactionary forces that are attempting to silence you...
...The reality of the current economic situation is clearly--painfully-reflected in many of your letters, like the one we printed above...
...V.O., Oakland, CA "Keep it up, brothers and sisters...
...F.K., Menomonie, WI "The integrity, maturity and depth of your work should continue...
Vol. 14 • January 1980 • No. 1
