With one week left in the effort, a total of 1,953 subscriptions to the Militant and 446 to the Spanish- language monthly Perspectiva Mundial had arrived at the Militant office in New York - 66 percent of the goal. Distributors also reported a total of 821 copies of the Marxist magazine New International sold.
Militant supporters who are close to making their goals are aiming to go over as a part of helping the international effort to maximize the number of new readers. The last subscriptions and New International sales totals must be in the Militant office by Wednesday, June 14, at noon E.S.T. to be counted on the final chart that will be printed in next week's Militant. Below are a few of the recent experiences Militant supporters have had selling the socialist press.
Los Angeles distributors report selling more than a dozen Militant subscriptions, as well as copies of New International, at two universities in Los Angeles and San Diego in the last week. Another team sold eight subscriptions to Perspectiva Mundial going door-to-door for an hour and a half in a neighborhood called La Cooperativa in Ventura. The community traces its roots to a struggle by farm workers in the 1960s who fought for land to build their houses. All who bought subscriptions were angry about revelations of FBI spying on United Farm Workers leader César Chávez.
Seven more Militant subscriptions and a Perspectiva Mundial subscription were sold to participants in a Militant Labor Forum on the "counterterrorism" bill currently in Congress. Speakers at the forum, which drew 70 people, included several prominent fighters for democratic rights and political freedom.
"The moment we put up one of our poster-size Pathfinder book covers, the literature table was surrounded by people, primarily young asking, `Are those books for sale?' " wrote a participant in recent reporting trip to Haiti. Pathfinder literature tables were set up at the Third Congress of the National Popular Association (APN), at a student conference against the policies of the International Monetary Fund, and at a college campus, all in Port-au-Prince.
The top-sellers were books and pamphlets on the Cuban revolution, including 22 copies of Socialism and Man in Cuba by Che Guevara and 12 copies of Che Guevara and the Fight for Socialism Today by Mary-Alice Waters, both in French.
Jean Louis Joseph, a student activist from Cap Haitien who opposes the occupation of Haiti by U.S. and United Nations troops, has been unable to find work and lives with his uncle, who sews shoes. Joseph said that on a good day his uncle makes $4. After seeing the Pathfinder table, the young activist went around to his friends and collected $13 so that they could share several books and pamphlets by Karl Marx, V.I. Lenin, Che Guevara, and Fidel Castro.
Seven copies of the French-language Nouvelle Internationale no. 5, with the main article titled "Imperialism's March Toward Fascism and War," were among the 12 copies of Nouvelle Internationale sold during the brief trip.
Workers in the coalfields have welcomed the chance to get the Militant. A supporter from Boston joined a team to reach out to coal miners around Birmingham, Alabama. In a week of sales, including several at mine portals and door-to-door in coal communities, they sold 70 single copies and six Militant subscriptions.
Salt Lake City supporters organized to return to mines they had visited recently in Window Rock and Kayenta, Arizona, where they sold 31 copies of the Militant and a subscription to miners at one site, and 29 single copies and four subscriptions at another location. The mostly Navajo miners were appreciative of the coverage the Militant gives to the struggles of coal miners, and also wanted to read the articles on the struggle for land rights by Maoris in New Zealand.
Barry Fatland from Los Angeles, Simone Berg from Newark, Tim Mailhot from Birmingham, Kevin Johnson from Pittsburgh, and Dan Fein from Salt Lake City contributed to this column.