The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.32           September 20, 1999 
 
 
Virginia Trip Shows Value Of Taking Book To Fighting Workers  

BY NAN BAILEY
The reports below are from a team in the Tidewater region of Virginia headed by Nan Bailey, a member of the Socialist Workers Party's Trade Union Committee who is heading up the effort to get Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the Millennium into bookstores and libraries that workers use.

We met up in Washington, D.C., this morning [Tuesday, August 24] because we wanted to get a short orientation on placing Pathfinder books in stores and libraries from Tom Headly, who could not join us. He's a rail worker in D.C. with experience placing books. He made it simple and to the point.

We did a short political orientation and discussed the plan for each day. One-third of time on book placements. We'll begin with suggestions we've gotten from workers we've met here on where they and others like them go to find books. Socialist workers from Washington came up with about seven such places by talking to Steelworkers at the Newport News shipyard gate and beginning to call the approximately 10 Militant subscribers in the Tidewater area. We'll also go to a number of plant gates. We'll spend the evenings doing some door-to-door sales, as well as talking to subscribers. We also want to get to one or two of the campuses in the area.

Accomplished Tuesday: A few of us spent about an hour talking to a member of USWA Local 8888 who has worked at the shipyard for 16 years. He just got a subscription to the Militant last week and we talked to him about a number of things, including getting Capitalism's World Disorder. He's already looked over the Pathfinder catalog and picked some things he's interested in.

He said he knows there's a stigma against socialism in this country and he's not a socialist but he wants to learn more about us. He said he likes the idea that capitalism in Russia can't be reestablished without smashing the workers first and he wants to learn more about this. He was impressed with a recent article he read on the internet about Russian workers at a mill taking over and sending management away.

He had already given us three bookstore suggestions prior to our arrival and as we spoke he thought of another: a Black bookstore in town that he'd been to and whose manager he knows. Gave us the name and said to mention his.

Bookstore Visits: We've got three appointments for tomorrow. One in Newport News and two in nearby Hampton. That's where Hampton Institute is, a predominantly Black college. The team there will check out the campus to see if there's activity and we'll return if there is. We got these appointments from early evening phone calls.

We also reached a handful of subscribers. One said he'd meet us at the 8888 plant gate tomorrow. One not interested. Two more asked us to call back tomorrow to see if we could set a time to meet and talk.

Wednesday, August 25
Our big accomplishment today: Team of Ruth and Ned got a placement at a bookstore in Hampton of two copies of Capitalism's World Disorder. This is a bookstore one of the 8888 strikers recommended we try out. They get most of their books from a large distributor, but the buyer bought the two books (paid on the spot) herself. She is looking through the catalog and indicated she will probably fax an order.

Ruth and Ned also kept an appointment at another bookstore in Hampton. This one was recommended to us by about three different steelworkers we met down here. This buyer said he doesn't make snap decisions and wanted to take more time to go through the catalog, but he's considering ordering a few of the titles on the fight for Black rights. Half the store is comic books. Other books sold are used paperbacks, and a small section of new books. A number in this section are directed to customers interested in the fight for Black rights.

Mary and Bobbi visited a store in Newport News. We got this one off a list sent to us by Pathfinder of bookstores in the Virginia area. Romance novels is what they sell. No interest in our titles. Proof that it's best to stay on course with the leads we get from workers and others we meet. Those are the stops where we got better results.

Nan and Ralph visited a community center in a Black neighborhood in Newport News which has a section where music tapes, CDs, and books are sold. Manager we came to see was not in and we will call and revisit tomorrow. Looks promising. Sign posted on front door said "This establishment supports USWA Local 8888 steelworkers on strike."

Have appointment tomorrow at another store recommended by a steelworker. We also got two library recommendations from workers.

Plant Gates: We did an early morning plant gate at two adjacent meatpacking plants in Smithfield, Virginia. We sold 16 Militants and got two names of people considering whether to buy Capitalism's World Disorder. Main interest was in the article on the ending of the Newport News strike. Also got some interest in the Che Guevara speech from a few workers who wanted to see what he was like.

We tried to do the early morning shift at Newport News Shipbuilding, but we were 30 minutes off. Sold one Militant, but it was too late. We returned to the shipyard in the afternoon but were frustrated again by a heavy downpour of rain. We went to a nearby restaurant where workers stop in before and after the shift and were able to get into some discussions with steelworkers and sold five Militants.

Several of the steelworkers we met at the shipyard wanted to discuss the mess they are in financially because of how the union officials treated them in giving out benefits - or not giving them out - after scrutinizing people's personal bills. They told us a few co-workers are in jail for nonpayment of child support because the union officials refused to okay these benefits payments. They said that after going through the humiliation of waiting for hours each week with their bills in hand to be interviewed in detail, many were denied benefits.

Thursday, August 26
We sold two more copies of Capitalism's World Disorder today. Our day began with an early morning plantgate at Norshipco shipyard in Norfolk. Shipyard where workers told us about 1,300 workers are employed. They're organized by the boilermakers. We sold eight Militants and got one callback for a Capitalism's World Disorder. In the background while the sale was going on was maybe 75 sailors doing their morning exercises in formation right in front of the Norshipco main gate.

Next we went to Tidewater Community College, Norfolk campus. We had a table up outside for about an hour and a half. Sold four Militants and one Pathfinder catalog. Nan and Bobbi visited the campus library. Buyer wasn't in and we left a catalog, got her name and Nan will follow up to call her. We also visited a bookstore we noticed down the street from the campus but no sale. The selection there made us think we could get some books placed, but the owner said he only buys overstocked books at discount prices, no new titles.

Buyers at two Black community bookstores had given us a time to come in but neither was there when we went in. We should visit both again on next return trip to the area.

We did the afternoon shipyard sale at Newport News shipyard. A couple of us hawked Capitalism's World Disorder. Sold nine Militants, one Capitalism's World Disorder, one Malcolm X pamphlet, one Pathfinder catalog. Two workers who recognized us from a sale at the plantgate the previous day stopped to say hello.

In the evening we met with one of the Newport News steelworkers. He said the solidarity inside the yard and the numbers who had joined the union prior to the strike (he's been there several years and said the number of union members had noticeably grown early this year) inspired him.

We had a final meeting with a worker who had helped us to let him know what we had accomplished here. Since he had made some of the suggestions on bookstore visits, he wanted to know how we'd done.

We've had three useful political discussions on the team over the last 24 hours:

1. One was on the sections of The Changing Face of U.S. Politics which refer to the Newport News shipyard organizing drive and earlier strike (1979), and the SWP's work.

2. We discussed why we were prioritizing the bookstores that were recommended to us by workers. Someone passed along to us a listing of bookstores in the area around here and there was temptation to go down that listing. One team member asked why aren't we prioritizing the bigger book chains also. We discussed this and why we can't prioritize both right now (we truly haven't even had enough time to follow through on all the suggestions made to us), why the stores and libraries workers in struggle lead us to are the priority of this campaign. Some of our results are proof of this. We'll get back to the larger chains, but doing this along the lines of how this centralized campaign has been launched by the party is critical. We don't want to get diverted.

3. We discussed how we have to look for the workers who are interested in our politics when we do these plant gates and when we get into discussions with workers like those we've been setting up meetings with.

 
 
 
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