"One miner looked the paper over on his way out. 'So if you're against both the Democrats and Republicans, do you run candidates of your own?' he asked." The two steelworkers explained that the Socialist Workers Party runs working-class candidates in opposition to the representatives of big business.

"He was interested in why we thought socialism would work, Cuba, farmers, and our explanation of the degeneration of the Soviet Union," reported Seidman. "He looked over the half dozen Pathfinder books and we talked about Capitalism's World Disorder."

Seidman's report shows how promoting Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the Millennium helps deepen political discussions among union members and other fighters. In the book, SWP national secretary Jack Barnes discusses the major political turning points of the 1990s. He describes the deep capitalist crisis that lies underneath those events, and the anticapitalist struggles by working people that point the way forward for humanity.

If the experiences of the successful campaign with the book in the months of 1999 are a gauge, the portal sale will have opened the door to more opportunities. The miner in Pennsylvania will probably want to discuss what he reads, and will have ideas about people who may want to read the book, and stores and libraries that may want to buy it. Those are the different elements of the campaign, which has been extended to March 15.

Doug Jenness writes from Minnesota that socialists there sold a copy of Capitalism's World Disorder to a student attending a meetings organized by the Minnesota Farmers Union to build support for a national rally planned for March 21 in Washington, D.C. They went to three such events, attended by close to 200 people. "We sold 16 single copies of the Militant, and one introductory subscription to the paper," reports Jenness.

The campaign with Capitalism's World Disorder will lead into a two-month drive to sell introductory subscriptions to the socialist periodicals the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial. Stefanie Trice reports from New Jersey that she got an early start on this effort at the February 11 rally by truck drivers reported on the front page.

"In an hour's time four truckers bought subscriptions to Pespectiva Mundial--two for the three-month introductory period and two for six months--and one bought a Militant subscription. Truckers who asked about the paper were told by the new subscribers that they should also sign up. In this way, the four PM subscriptions were sold within about 15 minutes.

"Afterwards, with copies of the magazine in hand, the group of new subscribers--including one from Ecuador, one from Mexico, and one from Colombia--continued discussion with me about the paper, the demise of the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, and developments in the class struggle today," writes Trice. One is making plans to get the newly published El desorden mundial del capitalismo--the Spanish edition of Capitalism's World Disorder.

"These workers were particularly interested in the fact the paper covers struggles like their own and the fight by dockworkers in South Carolina," she said.

Miami dockworkers are also interested in the socialist press, reports Rachele Fruit from Florida. "We sold 20 copies of the Militant at the hiring hall of the International Longshoremen's Association here on February 12." Workers snapped up both issues that reported on the fight by dockworkers in Charleston. "Several workers told us that the union is organizing buses to the rally to defend affirmative action in Tallahassee on March 7."

With one month to go in the campaign, socialist workers and youth should be stepping up their efforts. The Militant welcomes reports from teams organized to sell the book, and to place it in libraries and stores. Union members should inform the Militant of the goals they adopt for the campaign.  
 
 
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