Subject: SOS from the Marxist Reading Group Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2008 23:43:23 -0500 (EST) From: Wesley Beal <wbeal at ufl.edu>
I'm writing on behalf of the Marxist Reading Group to ask for your help. After 10 hugely successful years featuring keynote addresses from Hardt, Spivak, Jameson, and many others, the MRG conference faces a major budget shortfall. This year, our budget was cut by more than 60%.
We were informed of this cut only recently, and we have no institutional options left to fill the gap between the budget that was "revised" and the expenses we anticipate to provide for a conference with a high-caliber keynote speaker.
I want to remind you of the value of this conference--not only for faculty and graduate students at UF, not only for the opportunities it has created for you over the years, but for its efforts in building a real Marxist intellectual community in this country. The current members of the MRG still believe in this project and we are working toward a conference that will continue this great legacy, but we cannot go forward without your help.
And so we're asking that you send a donation of $50, or more if you can manage it. You can write a check to "University of Florida" with "MRG Conf" in the memo line and send it to:
Wesley Beal Department of English 4008 Turlington Hall PO Box 117310 Gainesville, FL 32601
Sadly, our timeframe is short. We need your support by Saturday, November 15 so that we can ensure we have enough money to continue planning for the conference. If you can't get something in the mail that quickly but would still like to contribute, please send me an email and we'll work something out. In the unlikely event that your fellow MRG supporters fail to heed this call and we cannot raise enough money, of course your check will be returned to you.
You have been a reliable ally of this conference for years, and with your help, we can draw together current MRGers, MRG alumni, and supportive UF faculty so that collectively we can sustain this important work.
We are counting on your support for the continued success of this conference!
Wesley Beal, for the MRG