The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 74/No. 35      September 20, 2010

 
Drive opens: Sell ‘Workers
Power’ and ‘Militant’
(front page)
 
BY PAUL MAILHOT  
Supporters of the Militant newspaper begin an eight-week campaign September 11 to sell some 1,800 copies of Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power by Jack Barnes, alongside a Militant subscription drive to sign up some 2,100 new and returning readers. The campaign will run through November 9.

The drive builds on the success of socialist workers last spring in introducing 1,870 people to the Workers Power book, many of whom also subscribed or renewed their subscription to the Militant.

As Barnes’s introductory sentence describes, the book is “about the dictatorship of capital and the road to the dictatorship of the proletariat.” It is a must read for any militant worker or young person today, as it puts in perspective the last century and a half of the class struggle in the United States to illustrate the weighty role that workers who are Black will play in the mass social movement that will make a socialist revolution.

Barnes explains the necessity of working people wresting power from the hands of the capitalist rulers and how the toilers can wield that state power to end all forms of oppression and exploitation. In this context, the book discusses the last year of Malcolm X’s life and “how he became the face and the authentic voice of the forces of the coming American revolution.”

As communist workers begin selling the book and introducing workers, farmers, and young people to the Militant this fall, there has been no letup in the capitalist crisis. It continues to grind on with its economic, political, and social consequences for the world’s toilers. At the same time, the rulers are expanding their war in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the surrounding region, and increasing the economic and political pressure, including plans for military action against Iran. These are the conditions that make working people look for the perspectives presented in Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power.

The heart of the effort this fall will be sales in working-class communities, especially where many Black workers live. In addition socialist workers will reach out on the job and at plant gates. They will go to political events and onto the campuses for the type of exchange that will advance an understanding of the capitalist dictatorship and the road to workers power. This effort will be substantially aided by the election campaigns of socialist candidates in cities across the country presenting a working-class alternative to the Democratic and Republican parties.

Recent experience indicates the kind of response we can expect. Socialist campaigners at the August 28 march in Washington, D.C., which was called to counter a rally organized by conservative talk-show host Glenn Beck, sold 23 copies of the Workers Power book, along with 23 subscriptions to the Militant.

At the August 28 demonstration in Detroit, an auto worker who is Black bought the book. He told John Hawkins, the Socialist Workers Party candidate for governor of Illinois, “You see all this going on—layoffs, closing down plants, foreclosures. You know people who are going through it. At a certain point you just have to stop sitting there and do something.”

In conjunction with the drive to sell the Workers Power book and subscriptions to the Militant, the Socialist Workers Party has launched a party-building fund to raise $95,000. The fund-raising campaign will also run from September 11 to November 9. The money raised will help finance the work of the party to reach out to working-class struggles in the United States and around the world.

Socialist workers around the world, whose campaign halls are listed on page 10, will spearhead the Workers Power book sales and subscription drives. SWP branches in the United States will organize the fund-raising campaign. Quotas adopted by local areas will be printed in next week’s issue of the Militant, along with the overall goals.

Readers of the Militant are encouraged to join in the effort and send articles, pictures, and short pieces that illustrate the discussions with working people that are helping to advance these campaigns.
 
 
Related articles:
Malcolm X is relevant for fighters today  
 
 
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