The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 74/No. 42      November 8, 2010

 
Need concerted effort to achieve
‘Workers Power,’ ‘Militant’ goals
(front page)
 
BY SETH GALINSKY  
The international campaign to sell 1,800 copies of Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power by Jack Barnes and 2,100 subscriptions to the Militant by November 9 is in the final two-week stretch. As of October 27, 1,221 books and 1,411 subscriptions have been sold, putting the drive about 7 percent behind schedule. A concerted effort is needed to catch up and surpass the goals.

One highlight this week was participation in the Puerto Rican Studies Association conference in Hartford, Connecticut. Conference participants bought 23 copies of Workers Power and 21 subscriptions to the Militant.

At one workshop on “Future Voices of Puerto Rican Studies” a student on the panel encouraged voting for Democrats in the upcoming elections. “Obama is not perfect, but we have to stop the Republicans and tea party candidates,” she said. Dan Fein, Socialist Workers Party candidate for governor of New York, joined the discussion, explaining that the Democrats and Republicans are two wings of the same capitalist party. Workers need a labor party, he said, that would fight for the interests of the working class. Two panelists and another workshop participant bought the Workers Power book and Militant subscriptions.

Amanda Ulman, SWP candidate for governor of Texas, pointed a coworker interested in the Cuban Revolution to sections of Workers Power that talk about what working people can learn from Cuba for the fight to take political power in the United States. She lent him the book overnight. The next day he bought the book and a Militant subscription saying, “It has a lot in it that I haven’t seen before.”

Socialist workers sold seven copies of Workers Power and 13 subscriptions to the Militant at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, in just a few hours. “Three of the students who bought the literature are members of the Black Student Union on campus,” writes Edwin Fruit. “They invited us to come back and address the group in the future.”

Six taxi drivers in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, bought Workers Power and five subscriptions to the Militant.

Derek Jeffers reports a radio show in Paris, “Sign of unity,” hosted a discussion October 17 Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power.

Jeffers and Jean-Louis Salfati, who help distribute Pathfinder titles in France, introduced the book. “Capitalism shows, day in and day out, that it offers no future for humanity,” Salfati said. He noted that studying the ideas of Malcolm X and the Black liberation struggle is necessary today for charting a course for workers, who face increasing attacks from employers and their government, to take political power in their own hands.

Listeners called in with numerous questions, including on the Cuban Revolution, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the organization Malcolm X began to build at the end of his life.

Since early September volunteers in Paris have sold 90 copies of Workers Power.

Readers of the Militant can help introduce workers, farmers, students, and young people to the Workers Power book and newspaper, both indispensable tools for understanding the crisis of capitalism and what can be done to defend the interests of the working class. See page 8 to contact the nearest distributor.
 
 
Related articles:
Campaign to sell 'Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power' & 'Militant' (chart)  
 
 
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