Vol.59/No.19           May 15, 1995 
 
 
International Campaign To Win New Readers
Special Measures Planned To Boost `Militant' Sales Effort  

BY LAURA GARZA
Coal miners in Kentucky, metal workers from Germany at a conference in Detroit, and students in a class discussion on Cuba at the University of California, Santa Barbara - these are some of the people who had bought subscriptions to the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial and copies of New International magazine by the midway point of the special target week April 29-May 6. After four weeks of an international campaign to gain new readers for these socialist publications, 29 percent of the overall goal has been met. However, the campaign is now 11 percent behind schedule.

While all the results of the target week are not in yet, supporters in many areas are taking special measures to reach out to working people, students, and others, which will certainly pay off.

Supporters of the socialist press are scheduling more teams to help boost the effort. A visit to Ireland is planned by socialist workers from Britain who will be aided by a Young Socialist member in Belfast. They will attend a commemoration in Belfast for Bobby Sands and other Irish political prisoners who carried out a hunger strike that brought worldwide attention to the conditions of Irish political prisoners and the struggle for self determination by the people of Ireland.

Many supporters of the Militant in the United States will have the perfect opportunity to step up the pace of the sales campaign during the coast-to-coast visit by the president of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams. People interested in hearing a well- known spokesperson for the Irish freedom struggle will also like to read a newspaper that is dedicated to reporting on and campaigning for the struggles of working people across the world.

Teams are also set to visit rail yards in Denver and Cheyenne and Alliance, Wyoming. Distributors of the Militant in Peoria, Illinois, are coordinating efforts to reach coal miners and other workers in the southern part of the state. An effort to reach textile and meatpacking workers in the South is being organized out of Atlanta and Greensboro, North Carolina.

Reports that have come in the last week provide a look at the interest working people and students have expressed in the socialist press. We hope supporters will keep the reports coming in on upcoming teams and the kinds of political discussions new readers of the Militant are interested in.

Over three days recently mine workers, rail workers, and others were introduced to the Militant in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. At the Marrowbone mine 15 copies of the Militant were sold, and 3 subscriptions. Militant supporters from Pittsburgh and Atlanta were on the team and they reported some of the comments included, "You should have more domestic coverage." This was immediately followed by another miner who said, "I am really interested in what's going on in Ireland."

The team members also went door-to-door and met with two miners who subscribed previously and decided to do so again. Along with selling five subscriptions to the Militant and 24 single copies, the team talked to coal miners about the case of framed up union activist Mark Curtis, selling one pamphlet on his case. Several people agreed to write letters in support of Curtis's fight.

The visit was also the first time supporters of the Militant were able to meet and talk with workers at a big rail yard in the area.

The campaign to win new readers got a boost during the Labor Notes conference in Detroit. Many union activists were among the 1,200 conference participants, including many from abroad. There were people from 15 countries in all. A group of metal workers from Germany were especially active during the conference trying to link workers struggles against the bosses worldwide with the demand for a shorter workweek. Three members of their delegation were among the 16 people who bought subscriptions to the Militant. Others included two paperworkers, a professor from Japan, members of the Canadian Auto Workers and Canadian Union of Public employees, and members of U.S. unions in the rail, steel, auto, and oil and chemical industries, along with members of the public employees union and the Teamsters.

One of those attending the conference was a woman helping to organize maquiladoras along the U.S.-Mexico border. She bought a subscription to Perspectiva Mundial, as did a Mexican auto worker and a Dominican activist from New York. Conference participants also bought a total of 56 copies of the Militant, 3 copies of Perspectiva Mundial, and 10 copies of the pamphlet Why Is Mark Curtis Still In Prison?

In Los Angeles, visits to three campuses by Militant supporters in the first few days of the target week netted six subscriptions. Members of the Young Socialists were invited to speak at Cinco de Mayo activities at Citrus College, and participated in a discussion at the University of California at Santa Barbara on Cuba. Their plans for the week also included attending a symposium at the University of California Los Angeles on affirmative action, the California convention of the National Organization for Women in San Diego, and a rally to oppose the Contract With America. They also made plans to join supporters of the Militant in Tucson, Arizona for the weekend. The extra effort produced results in discussions with co-workers as four subscriptions were sold to fellow union members.

A Militant supporter in Houston used her last day on the job at the Maxwell House coffee plant to sell two subscriptions and two more renewals before moving on to a new job at a chemical plant. Another member of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers (OCAW) union sold three subscriptions to fellow workers in an oil refinery bringing the total to seven OCAW members there who have recently become regular readers of the socialist press.

Houston distributors also organized to visit the Pan American campus of the University of Texas in the Rio Grande Valley. They joined members of the recently formed Young Socialists there in setting up a literature table at a protest of the proposed Welfare Reform Act, sponsored by a Chicano student group and the student government.

"The government just can't let up on Iraq," was the response of one United Airlines mechanic who expressed disgust at the initial anti-Middle East propaganda after the Oklahoma City bombing. "I was in the Gulf war, and most people here still don't see what that was about," he told a Militant distributor and decided to read New International no. 7 with the article titled "Washington's Assault on Iraq - Opening Guns of World War III."

In St. Paul, Minnesota, weekly Friday night presentations of Cuban films, sponsored by the La Raza Student Cultural Center at the University of Minnesota have provided an opportunity to introduce the socialist press to people interested in Cuba. Three copies of New International, English and Spanish editions, have been sold along with subscriptions to the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial at these events. On April 21 more than 40 people participated in a half-hour discussion on the efforts of Cuban revolutionaries today to defend their country after viewing the movie Death of a Bureaucrat.

Contributing to this article were Dick Geyer from Pittsburgh, Willie Mae Reid from Detroit, Craig Honts from Los Angeles, Robbie Scherr from Houston, Kathleen Denny from San Francisco, and Jon Hillson from St. Paul.  
 
 
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