Alessio, who is a garment worker in New York, said, "Our chapter discussed how we want young people we meet to come to the Militant Labor Forum, read the Militant each week, and participate in study classes. That's how we get our political education."

Socialist Workers Party and Young Socialists members across the United States are stepping up their weekly efforts to introduce youth and working people to the communist movement. Both organizations and their supporters have launched a campaign to double the membership of the Young Socialists. Finding increased interest in and sales of the revolutionary books and Marxist titles published by Pathfinder Press among youth, workers, and farmers involved in struggles today, the SWP and YS are taking steps to meet the opportunities to win a new generation to the need to build a proletarian party and communist youth organization.

For branches of the Socialist Workers Party--whether or not there are any Young Socialists currently in the area--this means systematic political work to build up the number of people they are in contact with who want to learn more and become involved in the socialist movement. This is a key aspect of the current drive to win new subscribers to the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial through June 10.

In New York, an important aspect of this effort has been organizing regular Militant Labor Forums, preforum dinners, and making phone calls to remind people about the weekly public meetings. The forums are weekly free-speech events where workers, students, and others can come to discuss the political questions facing working people, farmers, and young people today. All those seeking to advance the fight against injustice and exploitation are welcome to attend and participate in the discussions. Many who attend forums first met SWP and YS members at sales tables or through door-to-door visits in workers districts, on picket lines, and at political events.

"Since we began to establish ourselves in the New York Garment District and to reach out with Pathfinder books, the Militant, Perspectiva Mundial, and the forums, we noticed people were anxious to get on our mailing list, including workers from West Africa and Latin America," said Andrés Pérez, from the SWP branch in the Garment District. "This has been a tremendous boost to attendance at the weekly Militant Labor Forums, and we have turned to using our forum series as a main recruitment tool. This includes a well-prepared meeting, having a lively discussion period, and organizing monthly dinners before the forum as a fund-raiser and a more relaxed way to get to know people. Recently, several people wanted to talk more and we've gone to a nearby restaurant to continue the discussion.

"Our recruitment efforts include dividing up the 40 to 50 names on the mailing list among party and YS activists so that each person has one to three names to call to invite someone to the weekly Friday evening forum," Pérez said. "We are giving our forums mailing list a lot of attention. Many of the people who signed up have purchased books and subscriptions to the Militant and PM. One of our regular forum participants, a man from West Africa, has brought some of his friends around who are from other West African countries."  
 
Forums picking up across the country
With a new YS chapter in Pittsburgh, said Chris Remple, the party branch has stepped up joint efforts to build the weekly Militant Labor Forum series, "including posting leaflets on campuses, which has helped our efforts to bring new people to the forums. With this work we have expanded our reach."

SWP and YS members work together on the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial subscription drive, he said. This has included several trips to Penn State University "where Black students recently organized protests against racist death threats aimed at leaders of the Black student organization on the campus."

The Militant Labor Forums are picking up across the country, attracting students, political activists, and people from the job. A student who is from Argentina met socialists at a protest action in Washington, D.C., several months ago, Mary Martin reported. "He met us again at a literature table on his campus and came to the Militant Labor Forum on revolutionary Cuba's defeat of Washington's mercenary invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961. After the forum he joined us again on campus the next week and helped out at the literature table we set up, calling students over to look at the books and pamphlets displayed. He is planning to come to the next forum, which will discuss the U.S. Navy bombing of Vieques, Puerto Rico. He said he wants to go to the May 20 meeting in New York advertised on the front page of the Militant."

"A Haitian co-worker from a meatpacking plant where a couple of us work came to our forum on immigrant rights after a discussion with socialists at work," Martin added. "He is reading a pamphlet he got at the Pathfinder bookstore on the writings of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara, whom he admires greatly."

Ernie Mailhot, who works in meatpacking plant in Seattle, said party and YS members, along with several young people, worked together to remodel the local Pathfinder bookstore and SWP headquarters. "The Young Socialists are leading our subscription drive here, partly by involving another young person interested in socialism in the sales effort. We have gone together to a series of one-day strikes by state workers and a public event in Seattle marking the 40th anniversary of Cuba's victory at the Bay Pigs," he said. "Three young people are participating on a series of classes around the Communist Manifesto."

In Grand Junction, Colorado, socialist workers have contacted high school students near Denver who are involved in political activities and plan to meet with four students from Colorado College in Colorado Springs who attended the recent national congress of the Central Organization of Cuban Workers. One of them is a new subscriber to the Militant. They are planning a public meeting to discuss their experiences in Cuba.

"We're also planning to meet with a student activist at Mesa State College who bought a copy of the Militant," added one of the socialist workers in Colorado. "She gave the Militant to her grandmother, who decided to buy a subscription because of its coverage of the struggle for compensation by uranium miners and those who were downwind of nuclear testing. The Militant has gained respect among those in the area who are confronting the callous disregard for uranium miners shown by the government."

Opportunities to meet revolutionary-minded workers and students were apparent at the rally for immigrant rights in Sacramento, California, May 7. Socialist workers from San Francisco set up a Pathfinder literature table that was a constant center of discussion. "Several people came over to the table and remembered us from previous immigrant rights actions," reports Deborah Liatos. "There was big interest in anything by Ernesto Che Guevara. We sold five subscriptions to Perspectiva Mundial, including one for a year, and five copies of The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning by Jack Barnes."
 
 
Related articles:
Build the communist movement
YS in Tucson sets pace for subscription drive
Pathfinder supporters broaden reach of revolutionary books
 
 
 
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