In several places participants in the drive reported selling out their bundles of the paper. The warehouse storage of last week's issue of the Militant was virtually cleaned out as extra orders of the paper were requested by supporters across the country and a large bundle was sent out for the miners' rally.

Campaigners in every city mapped out plans to meet the goals they decided on for the subscription drive, and began carrying them out right away. Across the country socialist workers and Young Socialists deepened their participation in strikes and labor solidarity actions, mobilizations by coal miners, protests to demand a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal, and picket lines to defend the Cuban revolution. Teams setting up tables of socialist literature found substantial interest on college campuses and street corners in the communist viewpoint expressed in articles in the Militant.

Socialist Workers Party and Young Socialists who are members of industrial unions discussed how they can meet and exceed their goals as well. Several indicate they can raise their goals, increasing the number of co-workers and fellow unionists reading the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial.

Socialists in a good number of cities report they will meet their goals by May 22, the original end of the drive. With the one-week extension through Memorial Day weekend, the Militant encourages supporters in every city possible to raise their goals to reflect the extra week to win new readers. This will ensure the international goals are met, in addition to the local goals.

"We sold about 37 Militant subscriptions, 325 copies of the paper, 5 copies of Capitalism's World Disorder, and a lot of other Pathfinder titles to coal miners and their supporters at the demonstration," said Janice Lynn, an airline worker in Washington. Thousands of miners came to the action in buses from Kentucky, Virginia, Alabama, and elsewhere to demand the government keep its commitment to provide lifetime health care for UMWA retirees. Lynn said they set up tables at various locations at the event. Many workers had seen the paper before from sales teams that sold at the mine portals.

"People wanted to talk, saying this is a life and death question," said Stu Singer, a rail worker. "One woman, a widow of a miner, who bought a paper from me said, 'I just had open heart surgery. If I didn't have the miners' health card I would be dead right now.' " Singer said one iron worker who purchased a subscription with her husband remarked that workers and farmers have to stick together. "They liked the article in the Militant on the farmers' rally."

Another worker who purchased a subscription was a Black miner who worked 44 years in the mines, starting in 1939. He said he has been to Washington three times for miners' actions, including the rally for black lung benefits in 1981.

Miners at the P&M McKinley mine in Gallop, New Mexico, walked out at midnight May 14 (story on page 6). Socialist workers were there expressing their solidarity. Showing the Militant around, they said almost everyone was familiar with the paper from sales teams over past years. The team sold two subscriptions during their discussions with the strikers. Altogether they sold five Militant subscriptions and 40 papers after visiting other mine portals, including one at the Kayenta mine in Arizona whose contract is expiring soon.

The subscription drive in Atlanta received a boost from the election campaign of Paul Cornish who is the Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. Congress in Georgia. Supporters of the candidate set up a campaign table at the May 13–14 Auburn Avenue festival where they sold two subscriptions to the Militant, 10 copies of the paper, and several Pathfinder titles. They said many people acknowledged agreement with a sign at the table urging Washington to return Elián González and his family to Cuba.

"We plan to continue to help in the international campaign and to meet our other goals," wrote Jill Fein, who heads the circulation campaign there. "We plan to have a team going door-to-door in apartment complexes where Mexican construction workers live. We are also organizing a team to join with others in Charlotte, North Carolina, to sell more subscriptions and help build a public meeting for the Socialist Workers election campaign there."

In the final two weeks, partisans of the subscription campaign will be pulling out all the stops to make the drive. In many areas they are raising their orders to maximize sales efforts at political events, on the job, at plant gates, and elsewhere.

"We would like to increase our bundle to 100 copies of the Militant and 15 copies of PM," wrote Diana Newberry, a garment worker in Pittsburgh. "We have just learned the Service Employees International Union convention will be taking place here and they are projecting 5,000 rank-and-file members will attend. This includes the janitors who just won their contract fights in several cities."  
 
 
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