The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.10           March 15, 1999 
 
 
Workers Buy `Militant' At Illinois Plant  

BY LEAH FINGER
Supporters of the socialist press are entering the final week of a month-long campaign to get 275 subscription renewals to the Militant and 85 renewals to Perspectiva Mundial and sell copies of the two publications. To make the renewal goals we need to sell 100 renewals to the Militant and 57 renewals to Perspectiva Mundial. Organizing teams like the ones reported below will help ensure the campaign ends in success.

CHICAGO - Socialist workers and members of the Young Socialists in Illinois have embarked on a special ten-day campaign to sell hundreds of copies of Militant no. 9 and discuss politics with the workers, farmers, miners, and youth across the region.

In addition to coverage on the upturn in working-class resistance and the fight by Black farmers, issue no. 9 features a tribute to Rodney Garman, a member of United Auto Workers Local 974 and a longtime leader of the fight against the Caterpillar bosses' attacks on the union. Garman died February 15.

Many Militant supporters were inspired by the example Garman had set as a vanguard fighter and felt his story should be told to as many new combatants as possible.

On February 27 the first Saturday of the campaign, sales teams visited the picket line at Tazewell Machine in Pekin, Illinois, and sold at two Caterpillar plants in Peoria. Workers bought 50 papers during the afternoon shift change. The following day a team sold 18 papers at the Bridgestone/Firestone tire plant in Normal, Illinois, and another team sold 13 papers at LTV steel in Whiting, Indiana. By the end of the weekend, nearly 100 papers had been bought by industrial workers.

Team members used their sales trips to tell other workers about the expanded picket line at Tazewell Machine on March 1. As a result two workers from one of the Cat plants came and joined with the couple of dozen Caterpillar workers who were also there. Workers at the picket line purchased 13 papers and a subscription.

Beginning that afternoon two Militant supporters volunteered to use the week to visit Caterpillar workers and sell this issue at plant gates and mine portals. That night they visited a worker at Caterpillar who had been illegally terminated and is now back to work, and his wife. After a two- and-half-hour discussion they bought a one-year subscription and a half-dozen papers to give to other Caterpillar workers.

On Wednesday morning, March 3, at the Freeman United Crown No. 2 mine in Virden, a sales team sold nine papers, including one to a miner who gave $10 for the Militant. Several of the miners had bought the paper the week before, and wanted the new issue. Later that afternoon the team sold at the Caterpillar plant in Decatur, where workers bought 16 papers in blustery conditions.

Then the team was invited to dinner by a UAW member from the Decatur plant. The socialist activists talked with him and his family about the history of the UAW struggle against Caterpillar from the '70s on, what the children of the strikers did during the strike and what workers face today. He bought extra copies of the papers to give to co-workers. So far, discussions with Caterpillar workers have resulted in the team selling three subscription renewals to the Militant and 150 copies of the paper.

*****
BY DAG TIRSÉN

KIRUNA, Sweden - A group of Militant supporters traveled to this iron ore mining town in the extreme north of Sweden. In 1969-70 it was the scene of a eight-week-long strike, which also involved mines in Svappavaara and Malmberget. The battle attracted huge publicity and a wave of solidarity swept the country.

For many years the miners union has been in a retreat, and a few years ago it merged with the Metal Workers union. When socialist workers spoke to the miners at the portal we were told how the union in the Kiruna mine had been involved in a fight with the company over work hours last fall. Miners told us how the union had canceled a program for joint management with the company. In part of the mine the production stopped. The company was forced to retreat on its demands, and the workers gained some confidence in their strength. Asked if that fight meant that the union woke up, one of the miners responded, "Yes, you can say that."

The support for the bus drivers' fight was strong (see article on page 10). One miner who was the first woman to work underground, and participated in the 1969 strike, said, "I really support the bus drivers."

Many of them showed interest in the Militant as a newspaper that reports on workers' fights and takes the workers' side. For some of them it was only the language problem that prevented them from buying, as English was their third language after Finnish and Swedish.

In the evening Militant supporters went door to door and sold six copies of the paper, after a lot of discussions about the bus drivers strike and what it meant for other workers. One person who worked at the hospital said, "The hospital workers will be next to fight; the budget cuts have made conditions unbearable."

The next day the team went to Svappavaara, a small village built at the Levaniemi mine. The mine is now closed and it is only the mill that makes pellets of the Kiruna iron ore that runs. The village where 1,200 people used to live, today has only 350 inhabitants. We sold three Militants and one copy of An Action Program to Confront the Coming Economic Crisis in Swedish.

*****

A team of Militant supporters sold 11 copies of the paper at the Tosco refinery plant gate in Avon, California, where an explosion occurred killing three workers. "This is a cold- blooded outfit," one worker said. A lab worker remarked, "I lost a good friend. The company wants to operate with a hundred less people, working them 18 hours a day." A number of workers who didn't stop raised their fists in solidarity.

 
 
 
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