BY SALM KOLIS
PITTSBURGH - "I have to have that book," said a meatpacker
and member of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)
in Perry, Iowa, referring to the new title from Pathfinder,
Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-class Politics at the
Millennium. At their April union meeting, Edwin Fruit showed
the book to this worker, who is originally from El Salvador.
She had participated in a March 28 immigrant rights march in
Marshalltown, Iowa, and is interested in helping to get a
contingent of meatpackers to the May 1 rally celebrating the
one-year anniversary of the strike by members of the United
Steelworkers of America (USWA) at Titan Tire in Des Moines.
Fruit said, "I asked her if she would have a problem with the
book being in English, and she replied, `I want to practice
my English and I can use a dictionary if I don't know what a
world means.' "
The Iowa tour of Cuban youth leaders Itamys García and Luis Ernesto Morejón set the stage for selling five more copies of Capitalism's World Disorder. People "bought the book because they were interested in an understanding the crisis of capitalism," said USWA member Simone Berg. "Hearing Luis and Itamys explain what the Cuban revolution was about really brought home the idea that you can change society, and that you need to have an analysis of the problems that we face to do that." Four of those who bought books also joined the Pathfinder Readers Club. The first chapter of the book, "A Sea Change in Working-Class Politics," is the first reading for a local Young Socialists class series on the Prospects for Socialism Today.
In Seattle, Scott Breen has sold four copies of the new book so far. "Three members of the International Association of Machinists from Boeing went to the picket line in front of Kaiser Aluminum's plant in Tacoma, Washington, to show solidarity with their six-month strike," Breen said. "While we were there, we met a striker who has a subscription to the Militant. When I showed him a copy of Capitalism's World Disorder, he mentioned he had read about this new title. He said he was driving down to Fortuna, California, to participate in a conference on Labor and the Environment and I drew his attention to the section of the book that deals with the socialist view of that very question. He wrote a check out for the book on the spot."
Two additional copies of the new book were sold while Breen was staffing the Pathfinder Bookstore. "Lastly," Breen reported, "I called a co-worker at Boeing to invite him to a Militant Labor Forum on Yugoslavia, and told him about the new book. He came to the forum and bought the book, renewing his membership to the Pathfinder Reader's Club as well."
Mary Martin, a member of the International Association of Machinists, was part of a three-day team of socialist workers who sold 37 copies of the Militant and two subscriptions to striking shipyard workers, other workers, and students in the Newport News area, which is the site of a strike of 9,000 shipyard workers.
"I sold my third copy of Capitalism's World Disorder this past week to a striking shipyard worker at Newport News Shipbuilding" Martin reports. "This Steelworker had expressed interest the first time I met him in getting a subscription to the Militant and a copy of Capitalism's World Disorder. I met him again last week when we were both taking a break from the picket line. After completing the subscription form and receiving his first copy of the Militant, he pointed to the ad on the front page of the paper and asked, `Now, what about this book?' I had it with me and he made a hefty down-payment and promised to pay off the few remaining dollars on my next visit.
"We talked about how the strike is part of the resistance by working people to their worsening living conditions. And how the road to winning battles to defend our living conditions and rights, as explained in the book, lies, in part, in fighting workers' ability to find each other, learn about and back each others' fights."
Supporters of the campaign are urged to review their local quotas in light of the overall campaign. Next week's Militant will report total sales in each city so far. The deadline for sending in these figures each week is Tuesday at noon, E.D.T.