The campaign to promote Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the Millennium has been extended until March 15 (see article on page 6). This week we are running reports from a garment worker and from workers in the rail industry.

The first report was faxed in by members of a team that traveled to South Carolina to meet longshoremen in Charleston who had stood up for their rights and their union—the International Longshore-men's Association (ILA)—against police assault They also sold the Militant, Perspectiva Mundial, and Pathfinder titles, including Capitalism's World Disorder, to other workers, students, and from street tables. 
 
 
BY PAUL CORNISH 
CHARLESTON, South Carolina—Fifteen copies of the socialist newsweekly, the Militant, were sold to students at the College of Charleston here January 25. In addition, students bought the Communist Manifesto, Intensify the Struggle by Nelson Mandela (in Spanish), Socialism and Man in Cuba by Che Guevara, Cuba Will Never Adopt Capitalist Methods by Fidel Castro, and a pamphlet defending women's right to choose abortion. We also sold one introductory subscription to the Militant. Four people signed the Young Socialists mailing list.

Seven papers were sold at a shift change at the Westracol Paper Mill Co. One busload from this workplace attended the anti-racist demonstration in Columbia on Martin Luther King Day. That protest attracted 50,000 people who demanded that the Confederate battle flag be taken down from the state capitol.

One paper was sold in the Black community off a street table. Thirteen papers were sold to longshoremen at their ILA union meeting.  
 

Rail workers meet their goals

The Militant has received a number of reports from these workers who describe how they have sold and placed the book while they work to strengthen their union.

Amtrak conductor Ruth Robinett reported selling one to a motorman during a week last December when Transit Workers Union members were preparing for a strike to press their contract demands. Employers and union officials struck a deal on the eve of the strike. "He said he had been thinking about the similarities of problems all workers face, and also the dominance of big business in government."

Another Amtrak worker bought a copy that same week. "He was disillusioned with the Democratic Party candidate he had voted for in a local election," wrote Robinett. "The candidate won the election and promptly came out against the transit workers. I plan to talk to him next week to see what he thinks about what he's reading."

Robinett and other rail workers also promoted Capitalism's World Disorder to members of other unions, and to young fighters and small producers.

Andrea Morell, a conductor at Amtrak in Boston, reported that "two rail conductors sold a copy of the book to a dairy farmer in Vermont. He bought the book for its explanation of the world capitalist crisis, whose effects he and his family feel acutely as milk prices drop and government price supports are threatened. On that same trip five books were placed in a nearby bookstore."

Morell wrote that "one freight engineer at CSX has got to know some small fishermen in New England who are resisting government attacks on their livelihoods. She placed a book in a store in the small Massachusetts fishing port of Sictuate."

Chris Rayson, a switchman at the Burlington Northern/Santa Fe in Seattle, explained, "Socialist UTU members here were very active in calling for solidarity with the port drivers, who organized a strike during August last year. We regularly attended rallies and picket lines. I was running a campaign for Seattle Port Commission and participated in many of these activities as a communist candidate on the railroad.

"Another socialist works in an intermodal yard near the docks. He was on trains where the crew refused to cross the picket line and was involved in discussions with coworkers on how to carry out solidarity effectively," continued Rayson.

"Out of this work opportunities arose for deeper discussions with rank-and-file truck drivers leading to sales of the book. I participated in two house meetings with truck drivers and their families as a candidate. At one of these meetings

"I sold a copy of Capitalism's World Disorder. My socialist coworker was asked to go along with another truck driver as he worked. In the course of that another book was sold."

Paul Cornish is a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees in Atlanta. He is also a member of the Young Socialists.  
 
 
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