The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 75/No. 39      October 31, 2011

 
Social crisis, class struggle
spur interest in ‘Militant’
(front page)
 
BY MICHEL POITRAS  
Eight hundred seventy one people have bought Militant subscriptions in the first two weeks of the seven-week international drive! This is 40 percent of the 2,200 goal—well ahead of schedule.

Interest continues to grow among workers and youth in a newspaper that tells the truth about the deepening crisis of capitalist rule, builds solidarity with labor resistance, and points the road forward to the conquest of power by the working class.

On October 12, a half dozen members of the Socialist Workers Party in New York City sold 11 subscriptions and 135 single copies of the paper to a demonstration of 400 office cleaners that converged with Occupy Wall Street demonstrators. Unfortunately they ran out of papers before the action was over.

Then a few days later, the same thing happened in Kansas City, Mo., where party members were talking to Ford autoworkers voting on a new contract.

“Quite a few,” wrote Maggie Trowe, “were interested in Militant articles on the locked-out sugar workers in North Dakota and Minnesota and the fight against concessions by UAW members at Oshkosh Corp. in Wisconsin. Several workers wanted to talk about the Occupy Wall Street protests. We sold 27 single copies of the paper and 8 subscriptions—every paper we had—and kick ourselves for not bringing more.”

Clearly, Militant distributors need to adjust and start carrying more papers wherever they go now.

“A team went to sell the Militant at a shift change at the Ford assembly plant in Chicago,” wrote Ilona Gersh, “where 3,000 members of UAW Local 551 voted last week to reject the national contract by 77 percent. Five bought subscriptions and another 44 bought single copies.”

Gersh also reported that over the last two weekends, 13 subscriptions and two copies of Teamster Rebellion by Farrell Dobbs—one of five books on discount with a subscription—were sold to UAW members in Oshkosh, who recently pushed back the company’s attempt to weaken their union.

“Bay Area dockworkers represented by ILWU Local 10 have bought dozens of Militants, two subscriptions, and two copies of Teamster Rebellion since Sept. 6,” wrote Betsey Stone from San Francisco. “Especially appreciated was the paper’s three-column picture of the large Longview, Wash., solidarity rally” in issue no. 37.

Militant supporters from Atlanta, Chicago and Miami sold 77 copies of the paper, 21 subscriptions, and three copies of Teamster Rebellion during a four-day trip to the South Illinois coalfields. “The response was great,” wrote Alyson Kennedy from Chicago, “especially at the American Coal mine portal in Galatia, where 18 single copies of the paper were sold.”

“We sold 27 subscriptions so far this week, bringing our total to 37 as of Monday morning,” wrote Beverly Bernardo from Montreal. “We sold 10 subscriptions at the Occupy Wall Street protest here and 8 copies in French or English of the five books on special.” Two subscriptions to the paper were sold at the picket lines of striking campus workers at McGill University in Montreal and the University of Sherbooke.

In the last week 21 subscriptions were sold at Occupy Wall Street protests in New York. Nineteen signed up for subscriptions at similar actions in Iowa, 16 in London, and 5 in Sydney, Australia, during the course of the week.

“Several were keen to get a paper that explains the roots of the capitalist crisis and to find more about a working-class revolutionary course of action,” Paul Davis from London wrote.

In face of these seemingly endless openings, distributors in Canada; Des Moines, Iowa; Lincoln, Neb.; and London have increased their quotas this week. In addition, a distributor in Muscoda, Wis., has been added to the scoreboard. This brings the new quota total to 2,248.

Continue the good work!
 
 
Related articles:
Longshore workers snatch up ‘Teamster’ books
Fall 'Militant' subscription campaign Oct. 1-Nov 20 (week 2) (chart)  
 
 
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