The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.22           June 7, 1999 
 
 
Help Sell `Capitalism's World Disorder'  

BY FRANK FORRESTAL
"We know a new pattern is being woven in struggle as working people emerge from a period of retreat, resisting the consequences of the rulers' final blow-off boom, of `globalization' - their grandiloquent term that displays imperial arrogance while it masks brutal assaults on human dignity. The emerging pattern is taking shape, defined by the actions of a vanguard resisting indignity and isolation, whose ranks increase with every single worker or farmer who reaches out to others with the hand of solidarity and offers to fight together."

- Jack Barnes, December 1998

PITTSBURGH - The above quote, taken from "A Sea Change in Working-Class Politics," the first article in Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the Millennium, captures the spirit of the unfolding resistance of which there is more evidence every week.

Getting this book into the hands of workers on the front lines is the main goal of the campaign socialist workers are on to sell 1,500 copies by June 14. Over the next few weeks we need to continue an "all-out" approach -fielding regional teams, talking to co-workers on the job, reaching out to workers on strike, going to farms and meetings of farmers - to meet this goal and the quotas in the subscription drive for the Militant and its Spanish-language sister magazine Perspectiva Mundial.

There are currently three major strikes under way by members of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA): at Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia; at Titan Tire plants in Iowa and Mississippi; and at Kaiser Aluminum nationwide, where the strike became a lockout. This past week 8,000 shipyard workers struck Ingalls Shipbuilding. And thousands more shipyard workers in Avondale, Louisiana, are engaged in a battle for union recognition.

This deepening labor resistance takes place in the context of a massive U.S.-organized NATO bombing assault against working people in Yugoslavia. The war is the most important question for workers to discuss out today.

Join teams to meet workers in struggle
To meet this need, socialist workers across the United States are organizing special teams to get Capitalism's World Disorder and the Militant into workers' hands. To join one, see the listings on page 12.

There are weekly Militant sales and reporting teams to the Tidewater, Virginia, area -where the Newport News strike is taking place.

In the past few years, workers in the Ohio Valley have waged important union battles. Next week Steelworkers in the valley will vote on union contracts May 31 at Century Aluminum in Ravenswood, West Virginia, and at the Ormet Aluminum plant in Hannibal, Ohio. In the early 1990s, USWA members at Ravenswood Aluminum, now called Century and once a flagship plant of owned by Kaiser, won a bitter 20-month lockout. During the afternoon shift change May 22, some 50 USWA members there bought copies of the Militant, a clear signal that workers are not in a concession mood. A team of socialist workers are heading back this weekend.

Some 16,000 members of the Machinists Union at TWA are nearing the end of a 30-day "cooling off" period. A team is planning to go to St. Louis, where TWA has its main hub.

Danny Booher, a Steelworker from Pittsburgh, helped lead a week-long team to the coal fields of West Virginia and southern Ohio. He reported that more than 150 Militants were sold at portals and plant gates, as well as six copies of Capitalism's World Disorder, a Militant subscription, and a copy of New International no. 11, featuring "U.S. Imperialism Has Lost the Cold War."

Recently, the UMWA won a representation election at Day Mining in Cabin Creek, West Virginia. The team visited the portal to find out that the 82 miners no longer worked there because the coal bosses shut it down. According to a miner who worked there, the company gave 60-day notice that the mine would be closed after the union was voted in.

The team was also successful on campus and in receiving commercial book orders from two stores. "Team members set up a literature table at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, where we sold 23 Militants and several Pathfinder titles. We also got an order for $380 worth of Pathfinder books from a local record store, including a copy of Capitalism's World Disorder and a wide range of other books," said Kevin Dwire, who works at a UAW-organized plant that is currently on strike. Sales to commercial bookstores count toward the local quotas for the Capitalism's World Disorder sales campaign.

Three Black farmers and leaders of the fight for land bought copies of Capitalism's World Disorder at the 2nd National Black Farmers conference in New Orleans. Since the book campaign began, more than 15 farmers have bought the book. There will continue to be opportunities to reach out to farmers, as many farmers are planning to attend the upcoming National Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association (BFAA) conference in Tillery, North Carolina, on June 11-12.

As of May 25, sales of Capitalism's World Disorder during the campaign total 616, leaving 884 to go. Of these 193 have been sold through the work of socialist workers in their unions, toward the quota of 500. Closing this gap will be interconnected with reaching the goals of selling 1,100 Militant subscriptions, 350 Perspectiva Mundial subs, and 600 copies of the Marxist magazine New International by June 27. The following stories point to how this can be achieved.

*****
BY MAGGIE TROWE

STORM LAKE, Iowa - After four days of travel throughout Minnesota and Iowa, socialist participants in the Midwest meatpacking team have found a significant number of workers interested in their ideas. To date, 11 people have bought subscriptions to Perspectiva Mundial, 38 people purchased copies of the Militant, and 31 have bought copies of Perspectiva Mundial.

We have visited six towns so far that have beef or pork cut- and-kill operations. Many of the workers we have talked to are members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. Team members also attended a picnic in Marshalltown, Iowa, organized by workers at the Swift packinghouse to send off fellow worker Maggie Trowe, who is moving to Minnesota. Among the 35 people at the picnic were a number of workers who have participated in the Ad Hoc Committee for Human Rights, which organized a march for immigrant rights in March.

The war in Yugoslavia, the headline of both the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial, was one of the main topics of discussion. Some workers said they supported the war, while others opposed it or had questions about the motives of Washington and NATO.

Our most successful effort was a sale at the shift change at the nonunionized IBP plant in Storm Lake, Iowa. Five workers bought PM subs, and we sold 17 copies of PM and 14 Militants. One second shift worker, who had previous union experience as a hotel worker in California, invited us to visit him the next morning to continue the discussion.

At the shift change for the Waterloo IBP plant we sold 14 Militants and 6 PMs. One young worker we met said, "I don't like the war." He pulled up his sleeve and showed us a scar. "I was a soldier in Bosnia and I got shot." He encouraged us to visit a local bar frequented by Yugoslav immigrants from Bosnia. Another worker told us that there were 2,000 Yugoslavs in the Waterloo area. A local community paper has articles in Spanish, English, and Serbo-Croatian.

In Tama, Iowa, we learned that there had been a small protest against the local police being deputized with deportation powers. We met a woman whose Mexican-born husband had been deported in January. "It's terrible," one woman said. "Some days people just disappear or don't show up to work. We just come here to work; we haven't committed any crime."

Participants in the nine-day team have included packinghouse workers and other industrial workers in the Socialist Workers Party and Young Socialists.

*****
BY LEA SHERMAN

HOUSTON - Among those participating in the May 17-19 conference and rallies of the Kaiser Steelworkers and environmentalists (see article on page 3) was Dick Geyer, from USWA Local 12014 in Birmingham, Alabama. He sold two copies of Capitalism's World Disorder and three Militant subscriptions at the events.

Geyer reported, "After the main session of the conference on Tuesday, I sat down in the lobby and began talking with a worker from the Kaiser local in Tacoma. I showed him the Militant with the article on Kaiser. Then he looked at the pictures of the factories that were bombed in Yugoslavia. Looking on the front cover he saw the ad for the special offer of the Militant sub and the book for just $30 and got it. His wife joined him at the end and was very interested too." The two have been part of a team of Kaiser workers based in Los Angeles in recent weeks speaking to union locals and Kaiser customers about their fight.

At the march and rally Tuesday afternoon, Geyer sold a Militant subscription to a young teacher who was wearing a T- shirt of the Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara. He got the sub because he really liked the Yugoslavia coverage. Later that night at a public forum, a carpenter who heard the Kaiser workers speak at his local's meeting also bought a sub.

Ellen Haywood, a Steelworker from Pittsburg, California, participated in the discussion at a workshop on protectionism and free trade. She pointed to her T-shirt that displays the picture of a co-worker killed recently in that mill and said, "How can we join with these same bosses to fight for their trade policies? They are our enemies. We can't be drawn into these campaigns, which drag us into nationalism, a grave threat to labor." The workshop leaders had referred to several books to read, and Haywood recommended Capitalism's World Disorder. Several workshop participants continued the discussion after the workshop and one bought the book.

"A Kaiser worker, who is also a new reader of the Militant, helped organize members of USWA Local 5702 in Gramercy, Louisiana, to get to the Avondale shipyard workers rally in New Orleans in April," added Tony Dutrow. "He has visited workers at plants that are customers of Kaiser Aluminum, including in Kentucky and Virginia. When we were on the bus heading back to Gramercy, we talked about how valuable a book like Capitalism's World Disorder is to workers that are meeting other workers involved in struggle. During the last day of events in Houston, I reminded him about the book and he bought it. We made plans to talk about the book and their fight as soon as I can get back to Gramercy."

 
 
 
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