The Militant (logo)  
   Vol.66/No.42           November 11, 2002  
 
 
Sales drive gets boost
at meetings of Cuban
revolutionaries on tour
 
BY JACK WILLEY  
Militant and Perspectiva Mundial campaigners ended the strongest week of sales yet in the fall subscription drive. They sold the socialist press, as well as copies of New International and Capitalism’s World Disorder, to coal and copper miners in the West, longshore workers, and participants in demonstrations opposing the Bush administration’s policy toward Iraq.

Among those interested in a revolutionary perspective were some of the students who came to hear two Cuban revolutionaries, Commander Víctor Dreke and Ana Morales, a doctor who worked in Africa, speak in Washington, on "Cuba and Africa: 1959 to Today." At the University of Maryland in Baltimore County, students picked up six subscriptions to the socialist press and $250 in Pathfinder literature.

Thirty people bought Pathfinder’s From the Escambray to the Congo by Dreke at the October 25 meeting at Howard University. One Puerto Rican independence supporter said, "You read about Che [Guevara], but when you meet someone like Víctor Dreke it shows you that Che was not alone."

A group of eight students at American University who came before the meeting to be part of its defense, stuck around for awhile afterward and purchased a number of books on revolutionary politics.

Through the Washington leg of the Africa-Cuba tour, seven people bought copies of New International and Capitalism’s World Disorder and 56 picked up From the Escambray to the Congo. All told, $1,500 in revolutionary literature was sold.  
 
Sales to coal and copper miners in West
Supporters of the socialist press from Western Colorado, New Mexico, and California sold three subscriptions to the Militant, 57 copies of the paper, and $187 in Pathfinder books in four days in New Mexico.

The team sold a subscription and 39 copies of the Militant in front of Pittsburg & Midway’s McKinley Mine on the Navajo Nation. Workers who stopped were particularly interested in the coverage on the truth about U.S. imperialism’s steps toward war against Iraq and on the brewing battle between workers and the company at the Kennecott Utah Copper mine. Several miners said that they had worked at other mines owned by Kennecott and were not surprised by the bosses’ attempt to deal blows to the unions there.

A few days later, two Militant supporters from Western Colorado attended a public meeting for Fernando Bielsa Garcia, first secretary of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington. The meeting, held at Highlands College in Las Vegas, New Mexico, was attended by 60 people from the area. Four bought copies of October 1962: The ‘Missile’ Crisis as Seen from Cuba.

On October 26, Jason Alessio, the Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. Congress in Colorado, campaigned with supporters at a demonstration of 300 people in Salt Lake City, Utah, opposed to the Bush ad-ministration’s Mideast policies. The table was busy throughout the day, and turned into a center of debate over how to effectively fight against imperialism. More than $100 in Pathfinder literature was sold, including two copies of New International no. 7 with the lead article titled "Opening Guns of World War III: Washington’s Assault on Iraq," and two copies of October 1962: The ‘MissileCrisis as Seen from Cuba.

Later in the day Alessio and a campaign supporter sold 17 copies of the Militant at the Kennecott mine.

On the West Coast, longshore workers are in the midst of a government-imposed "cooling off" period in their fight against the shippers’ attempts to slash jobs, weaken safety, and roll back union control over jobs. In the last three weeks, Militant supporters in Seattle sold 76 copies of the paper to dockworkers in the area. One worker who had purchased the paper before said he appreciated that "it was very informative. I didn’t know they were already bombing Iraq," he noted. Dozens of other papers have been sold on the docks in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Long Beach and Los Angeles area.

On October 26, socialists set up tables with communist literature at several demonstrations opposing the White House’s foreign policy in the Mideast. They met many demonstrators looking for a deeper understanding of Washington’s war moves in the Middle East and Far East. At the protest in Washington, socialists sold 28 subscriptions to the Militant and more than 250 copies of the paper, as well as 31 copies of New International and Capitalism’s World Disorder. In San Francisco, socialist campaigners of Nan Bailey for governor and William Kalman for lieutenant governor of California sold another six subscriptions and 70 copies of the Militant. More than $1,500 in Pathfinder literature was sold at the various protests that day.  
 
 
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