The challenge now facing supporters of the socialist press is to bridge the substantial gap that exists between the goals adopted for sales to unionists in the garment, textile, meatpacking plants, and coal mines, and the results so far. Immediate attention is needed with a plan to talk to co-workers and other unionists about renewing their subscriptions, introducing others to the paper, and spending some time with co-workers off the job to dig into the political questions raised in the paper.

Kari Sachs, Socialist Workers Party candidate for governor of Minnesota, has shown the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial to a number of her co-workers in the lunchroom of GFI American, the meatpacking plant where she works in Minneapolis.

One worker, who is originally from Guatemala, listened to Sachs’s talk about the recent contract victory at Dakota Premium Foods, a slaughterhouse in neighboring South St. Paul, and asked, "Why can’t we do the same thing here?" After showing the Militant’s coverage of this union victory around the lunchroom two people decided to subscribe to Perspectiva Mundial.

Later she showed the same article to a fat trimmer. He too was convinced he needed the Militant in order to follow important union struggles, like the several year fight at Dakota Premium. A fourth co-worker signed up for a subscription after having a similar discussion with Sachs.  
 
Campaigning for communism
The Socialist Workers campaign in New York took to the streets November 3, two days before the elections. The regular Sunday campaigning was beefed up by young socialists from several areas of the country who were in New York. They had come to attend a public meeting the day before, on "Campaigning for communism, responding to political openings; the struggle against imperialism today."

A dozen young socialists set up two tables at a bustling intersection on 125th Street in Harlem. They took turns speaking through a bullhorn in English and Spanish while standing on a milk crate. As they spoke, others handed out campaign leaflets and sold the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial. At times a half dozen people gathered around to look at books by revolutionary leaders.

"I don’t agree with everything on your campaign flyer," said a woman who stopped to listen to the socialists. "But I’m sure glad you’re here today." Others signed up for more information about the communist movement and the Congress of Latin American and Caribbean Studentstaking place November 29–December 2 in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Two people picked up subscriptions to the Militant, one to Perspectiva Mundial, and several bought books.

Unlike the Democratic and Republican Party candidates who end their campaigns on election day, socialists will continue street campaigning all year round, introducing workers to the socialist alternative to the parties of imperialism and war.

Half a world away supporters of the Militant joined a protest meeting in Queensland, Australia, October 9. It was attended by some 600 sugarcane farmers demanding government relief in face of a decline in sugar prices and government deregulation plans (see article on page 4).

Meeting chair Bill Micola, a salesperson for a cane harvesting manufacturer, publicly welcomed Brendan Gleeson and Ron Poulson, two socialist workers from Sydney, to the meeting.

Before the protest meeting Gleeson and Poulson paid a visit to a sugar mill in Victoria. Brett, a locomotive driver at the mill, said that today he makes half of what he earned five years ago. Maurice Battoraro, the delegate of the Australian Workers Union at the mill, said it was time for sugar workers and cane farmers to get together. "We have shared interests in resisting this crisis," he said, as he signed up for a Militant subscription.

During their visit, the socialists sold five copies of New International no. 4, which includes the article titled "The Fight for a Workers and Farmers Government in the United States." Five others bought the pamphlet, Farmers Face the Crisis of the 1990s, and two picked up subscriptions to the Militant.  
 
Cuba-Africa tour in Atlanta
At the halfway point in the speaking tour by Víctor Dreke, a commander the Cuban Revolution, and Ana Morales, a doctor who helped lead Cuba’s medical missions in Africa, supporters of the Militant continue to report brisk sales.

One of the organizers of the tour in Georgia, a student originally from Cape Verde, signed up for a subscription and bought $80 worth of books. Eight other people picked up subscriptions to the Militant, and two signed up for four months of Perspectiva Mundial. Seven copies of New International and Capitalism’s World Disorder were sold, along with 54 copies of From the Escambray to the Congo, and many other titles. A whopping $1,400 worth of Pathfinder books was purchased over the course of the visit by Dreke and Morales.  
 
 
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