Vol. 71/No. 10      March 12, 2007

“The high point of last week was a team to the San Joaquin Valley,” wrote Joel Britton and Gerardo Sánchez, both meat packers in San Francisco. “Among the five people renewing on Sunday were a young construction worker, a Foster Farms poultry worker who had helped win a contract after a long fight, and a farm worker.

“Four of those who renewed bought The First and Second Declarations of Havana, three bought Cuba and the Coming American Revolution, and three bought The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning: The Fraud of Education Reform under Capitalism,” wrote Britton and Sánchez. “We will return in a few weeks to discuss with these workers what they’re reading in the Militant and the books.”

This example is not unusual. From the Delmarva Peninsula in the mid-Atlantic region to the San Joaquin Valley, from the Upper Midwest to central Texas, Militant readers, especially workers, renewed and often picked up Pathfinder books and pamphlets when local distributors met them in person.

The Militant received many reports from its supporters about current readers who pass around the socialist newsweekly to their coworkers and friends. Discussions with readers netted not only renewals but also opened relationships with workers and others who have a broad range of political interests and class-struggle experience. These reports highlighted a point Militant editor Argiris Malapanis made in a February 19 letter to readers. “In the eyes of working people,” he said, “the Militant has become more of an instrument of the resistance to the bosses’ attacks.”

Halfway through the drive, Ellen Berman in Philadelphia reported that a young Eritrean worker renewed because “he thought it was important to build solidarity through supporting the paper.”

“Two renewals came in this week from workers at a nonunion meatpacking plant where a Militant supporter works,” wrote Bev Bernardo from Toronto, February 23. “They decided they wanted to be part of the Militant making its goal.”

In one weekend in mid-February, Militant supporters in Des Moines, Iowa, picked up 13 renewals from a rubber worker, meat packers, and construction workers in the area. They were attracted to the paper’s response to large-scale immigration raids at Swift packing plants, including the one in nearby Marshalltown.

While this circulation effort is over, the opportunities to expand the paper’s readership, and to increase the number of those making it happen, abound. Before the end of March the Militant will launch its spring subscription drive to reach out to new readers. To get involved in these efforts, contact local distributors listed on page 8.

Click here to see the 'Militant' subscription renewal drive chart