Cambridge Socialist Group Seeks Student Donations

Members of The Haymarket Peoples Fund, an organization promoting equal distribution of political and economic power, met at Phillips Brooks House last night to encourage students to donate money for community projects to aid working class people.

"What we're doing is organizing the working classes, women and others directly affected by the worst aspects of capitalism to get together and question this mold society has put them into," Debbie Wright, a Haymarket member, said last night.

Inherited Wealth

Haymarket uses money donated by individuals with inherited wealth to support the people in taking more control over the basic institutions affecting their lives.

The organization deals with questions about their housing, schools and health conditions.

"We want people to ask why they are being oppressed; these are grass-root movements fighting for social change," Janet Axelrod, a Haymarket member, said.

Haymarket also serves as an organization to give an individual with inherited wealth a structured method of dealing with it responsibly, David Crocker, another Haymarket member, said.

Some students with inherited wealth who were interested in helping others financially started the Haymarket Fund two-and-a-half years ago.

Since then, Haymarket has taken on a more political nture, helping community groups "participate in a struggle for a more equitable distribution of wealth and power," Crocker said.

This is the first time Haymarket has formally approached Harvard students for donations.

Wright said one alternative to traditional society is socialism and their goal of redistributing the wealth of the nation is related to it. She cites their staff as an example. There is no administrative heirarchy and decisions are made by consensus.