BY ESTELLE DEBATES
NEW YORK - Members and supporters of the communist movement
are responding to the increased opportunities to hook up with
workers, farmers, and youth across the country who are fighting
against their exploiters. This means organizing to join the
fights wherever they are taking place - be it in the shipyards
of Newport News, Virginia, where 9,000 members of United
Steelworkers of America Local 8888 are striking to win a decent
contract, or in Buffalo, New York, where we joined with others
to push back an attempt by right-wing forces to shut down
clinics that provide abortions.
Contributions to the Party Building fund help make this all possible. Three weeks into the drive to raise $75,000, we are lagging behind in collecting on pledges made to the fund and at winning new contributors among fighting workers and farmers. What is needed now is a serious effort over the next two weeks to send in substantial collections that will help get the fund on schedule.
The response teams of communist workers and youth received in the coalfields of Alabama and Kentucky is yet another example of the hunger that exists among many workers today for solidarity and for working-class explanations of political developments in the world today. Jerry Freiwirth, an oil worker from Houston, was part of a team that reached out to miners in western Kentucky over the past week. The team decided to go back to a Peabody mine where 55 issues of the Militant were sold the previous week.
"We sold 20 issues of the Militant and also a copy of the newly reprinted pamphlet Coal Miners on Strike at a shift change," said Freiwirth. "We sold an additional 27 copies of the paper at another Peabody-owned mine in the area that day as well." The team later went back to these two mines and sold an another 25 issues of the paper. "On our second visit back we were able to have a few more extended discussions with miners," reported Freiwirth. "We learned about threats by the company to close one of the mines, and we were able to exchange names and phone numbers with a few miners."
"We found a lot of interest in the Militant's coverage on Yugoslavia," said Susan Lamont, a steelworker from Alabama who participated in a Birmingham-based team that fanned out across the coalfields of Southern Appalachia. The coalfield team sold an issue of the Militant with the headline "NATO assault brings disaster to workers in Yugoslavia." Lamont said one miner at the US Steel portal who was opposed to the U.S. bombing said, "It's terrible what the government's doing to them. Those people drove the Nazis out during World War II." Twelve miners, including two women, decided to buy a copy from the team. The team sold an additional 15 copies at one Jim Walters mine, and three copies at another. At the second mine, they ran into a former subscriber to the paper who asked that team members get back in touch with him.
The tremendous interest in the truth about the U.S.-led war in Yugoslavia is reflected in the number of requests for Militant reporter Argiris Malapanis to speak at special meetings to raise money for the Party Building fund. Supporters in Miami are planning a meeting featuring James Harris, a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees in Atlanta, who is active in linking workers up with farmers fighting for justice in the South. Pittsburgh supporters are planning a panel that includes Brian Williams, a steelworker from Washington, D.C., who is building solidarity with striking shipyard workers in Newport News. Also included on the panel is a young worker who helped lead a recent team to the coalfields in southern Illinois.
Supporters in every city are encouraged to nail down plans for meetings that will take place over the next few weeks. These events can be a real boost to catching up and helping to ensure that on June 15 the local goals are met in full and on time.
Contributions can be sent to 410 West Street, New York, NY 10014. Please make checks and money orders out to the Socialist Workers Party.