The Militant - August 11, 2003 -- Subscription renewal campaign begins

Vol. 67/No. 27 August 11, 2003

Subscription renewal campaign begins
(feature article)

BY SAM MANUEL
On July 26 supporters of the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial began an international effort to expand the long-term readership of the socialist press, especially among unionists and other workers. The subscription renewal campaign will last three weeks, ending August 17. It will include calls and visits to hundreds of current readers whose subscriptions are about to expire or have already run out, to encourage them to renew.

The overall target is to get 200 subscription renewals to the Militant and 75 to Perspectiva Mundial.

This campaign will build on the success of the last circulation drive, in which distributors reached the international goals for subscriptions to both socialist publications. Partisans of the Militant are also finding interest in continuing to receive the paper among participants in the “Fight to Win/Sí Se Puede” speaking tour of staff member Róger Calero, currently in progress.

Among the readers of the socialist press are hundreds of militant workers, as well as students and youth, who have become familiar with the newsweekly and monthly magazine and respect them as tribunes of their struggles and as sources of information about broader political questions. Many of these workers from Wisconsin to Georgia, North Carolina, and Mississippi have been involved in picket lines, union-organizing campaigns, or support to other social struggles.

Edwin Fruit in Des Moines, Iowa, said he recently received a phone call from a worker in Cherokee who works for IBP/Tyson. The worker called to express appreciation for the article Fruit wrote on the Tyson strike in Jefferson, Wisconsin. The article was shown to him by a coworker who subscribes.

Arlene Rubinstein in Atlanta reported that a worker in Moultrie, Georgia, subscribed during a trip to report on a United Food and Commercial Workers organizing drive, which the workers narrowly lost.

A union organizer took the Militant reporters around to visit workers active in the drive and invited them to introduce the paper to these unionists.

A short campaign of this type will require careful planning to maximize the opportunities and follow up on leads. Weekly correspondence—both stories on the fruits of the week’s work in getting sub renewals and photos related to propaganda work—is needed from all distributors in order to put together an overall progress report. Please send subscription renewals and related reports to the Militant every week by Sunday night.

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