The campaign, which began with an international goal of 1,500, quickly blew past that mark. Based on the response, the Militant doubled the target—and the final total went even higher.

“The success reflects a discussion that’s taking place among hundreds of thousands of workers, farmers, and youth who are looking for an alternative to the course of the war party—both Democrats and Republicans,” Perasso said.

“This response to the Militant was marked by the interest of rank-and-file workers on the front lines of resistance to the bosses’ antilabor offensive.”

A month before the campaign began, mechanics and cleaners at Northwest Airlines walked out, the first major airline strike in 15 years. Sales of the Militant to airline workers immediately jumped around the country—and have continued.

Readers brought the paper to ports across the U.S. and other countries to extend solidarity with the fight by independent truckers for union recognition in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Drivers eagerly snapped up subscriptions, including 36 in Newark.

For campaigners in Des Moines and the Twin Cities, sales to packinghouse workers in the region were key to the nearly 350 subscriptions sold there. Forty-two new readers signed up in Norfolk, Nebraska, where a large slaughterhouse has been the site of recent union struggles.

In Canada, Militant supporters won dozens of new readers through regular solidarity visits to the picket lines at the Lakeside Packers slaughterhouse in Alberta, where workers won a contract after a hard-fought strike. Subbers in Canada doubled their quota in the final weeks of the drive and went well over the top.

In Livingston, California, about 50 new subscribers were won to the paper at the picket lines of poultry workers fighting for union recognition at the Foster Farms plant there and in door-to-door sales in the community.

“A new generation of young socialists made connections to these fighting workers through the sub drive,” Perasso noted. A number joined the Young Socialists through that effort. In Detroit, YS members at Wayne State took on a quota for the first time and sold a dozen subs.

“I’m confident the momentum from this campaign will translate into steady expansion of the readership of the Militant,” Perasso said. “We encourage all readers to sign up friends, relatives, and co-workers and renew their own sub before it expires.”

Click here to see the sub drive scoreboard  
 
 
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