The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.6           February 16, 1998 
 
 
Working-Class Campaign Against U.S. Attacks On Iraq  
In response to Washington's course toward war against the Iraqi people, supporters of the Militant have launched a month- long campaign to increase sales of single issues of the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial, as well as sell issue no. 7 of the Marxist magazine New International, which features "Opening Guns of World War III: Washington's Assault on Iraq" by Jack Barnes, and the new booklet Celebrating the Homecoming of Ernesto Che Guevara's Reinforcement Brigade to Cuba. The goals include sales of the English, French, Spanish, and Swedish-language editions of that issue of New International, and the booklet is available in English and Spanish.

As the ad on the front page in this issue: "Books for a working-class campaign against imperialism and war" indicates, The Changing Face of U.S. Politics: Working-Class Politics and the Trade Unions by Jack Barnes and U.S. Hands Off the Mideast! Cuba Speaks Out at the United Nations also take on added importance today.

The chart on this page lists the goals socialist workers and young socialists have taken in various cities and trade unions for selling these publications in the month of February. It will be updated weekly to show the progress toward these goals.

*****

CHICAGO - Supporters of the Militant here took a goal of selling 75 single copies of the Militant over a five-day period between January 29 and February 2. We went over the top, selling 102 copies. The goal was taken to place the distribution of the socialist press at the center of explaining Washington's war drive against Iraq. Distributors of the socialist press fanned out to area campuses and factory gates along with attending a number of political events. These are some of the sales campaign highlights:

Supporters set up tables in working-class communities and visited striking Teamsters at Empire Galvanizing in Franklin Park, where three strikers bought copies of the Militant. Young Socialists (YS) set up a literature table at Harold Washington University in downtown Chicago where they sold three Pathfinder titles and three Militants and brought a student with them to the U.S. Hands Off Iraq! picket that was organized for the same day. The YS also set up a literature table at University of Illinois-Chicago where 16 Militants were sold. Another four copies of the paper were sold at De Paul University the same day.

Members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) who distribute the socialist press sold one subscription each to the Militant and its sister publication in Spanish, Perspectiva Mundial. An auto worker at the ElectiMotive Division of General Motors bought a copy of U.S. Hands Off the Mideast. At plant gates, supporters sold eight copies of the Militant to airport workers who are members of the International Association of Machinists and three papers to members of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees at a garment factory.

A sales table in the Hyde Park section of Chicago's Southside netted nine copies of the Militant and a copy of In Defense of Socialism: Four speeches on the 30th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. Supporters of the socialist press sold nearly 30 Militants and numerous books at political events - a rally to commemorate the Bloody Sunday Massacre that drew 50 people; an event to honor José Martí and Eugenio Maria de Hostos, which drew 150 people; an event with Angela Davis on the "Prison Industrial Complex"; and a U.S. Hands Off Iraq! picket.

Danny Booher

*****

NEWARK, New Jersey -Socialists in the UAW have taken a goal of selling 200 copies of the Militant on the job in February and campaigning to convince 11 co-workers to renew their subscriptions to the Militant or Perspectiva Mundial over the same period. Socialist auto workers also plan to use the Marxist magazine New International, and titles published by Pathfinder Press, to campaign against imperialism and war.

The goals of selling 10 copies of New International no. 7 and 20 copies of Celebrating the Homecoming of Ernesto Che Guevara's Reinforcement Brigade to Cuba are part of an overall goal of selling 50 titles in February - more than doubling the January total of 20 books sold on the job.

In January socialists at the Ford assembly plant in Edison, New Jersey, sold five copies of the new book John Coltrane and the Jazz Revolution of the 1960s and got an order for a hardback edition and a down payment for another. One worker bought the Spanish-language edition of The Changing Face of U.S. Politics last month. Members of UAW Local 980 bought 17 copies of the Militant and two of Perspectiva Mundial in the plant the last week of January.

UAW members in Chicago and New York bought copies of the New International containing "Opening Guns of World War III" last month, and two Militant renewals, two introductory subscriptions, and a Perspectiva Mundial sub were also sold to UAW members on the job.

Bob Miller

*****

DETROIT - Supporters of the Militant here sold 23 copies of Militant issue no. 4. That's been about average, but we did it somewhat differently than usual. In response to Washington's war preparations, the Detroit Socialist Workers Party called a protest action.

One special sale to build the demonstration was a door-to- door team in a Chaldean-Iraqi neighborhood. We sold the six papers we took in well under an hour, even though the majority of people we talked to did not speak English as a first language. We also visited the Chaldean Center, a social service center and school attached to a church, where the staff took leaflets and agreed to announce the protest. Two people came to the picket line after hearing about it from the center.

A socialist auto worker brought a co-worker who is Iraqi to the Pathfinder bookstore, where he purchased U.S. Hands Off the Mideast! and a subscription to the Militant. He then came to the picket line.

We plan to return to the Iraqi neighborhood and the other Arab communities in this area, along with our regular sales in the Black community and on campus, as we campaign against the impending war by U.S. imperialism.

John Sarge

 
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home