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Vol. 74/No. 45      November 29, 2010

 
Selling our press at the plant gate
 
BY ANGEL LARISCY  
The Militant is regularly sold to workers outside factories and other worksites, a proud tradition that goes back many decades. Here are a few examples from around the country.

Becca Williamson and Helen Meyers sell each week by the Firestone tire factory parking lot in Des Moines, Iowa.

“This week we had a sign that said ‘Support workers locked out in Keokuk: Read the Militant,’” said Williamson. “Three people stopped to buy the paper and one gave a $5 donation. A number of cars honked in support and gave us the thumbs up.”

Socialists who work in the plant report the regular presence of the Militant outside has helped them to meet more people and expand the readership of the socialist newsweekly.

Supporters of the Militant in Miami sell at International Longshoremen’s Association hiring halls in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. Socialists set up from 5:30 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. on Saturday or Sunday mornings, with the permission of the union. “There are about 10 workers who maintain a subscription and others who buy the paper each week,” reported Bernie Senter. “We always sell a number of papers and all types of books on revolutionary, working-class politics, as well as get contributions for various funds.”

A weekly sale outside the Perrigo pharmaceutical company in the Bronx, New York, has helped socialists who work there reach out to workers in the plant. Over the last two months, 18 workers have subscribed to the Militant for the first time, three renewed their subscriptions, and 21 bought copies of Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power by Jack Barnes.

“Last week we sold four copies of the paper,” reports Steve Clark. “Two of them were to workers we had discussions with before, but this was the first time they bought a copy. Many of the workers who’ve shown interest in the paper and book recognize, to one degree or another, the depth of the current capitalist crisis and the toll it’s taking on our class. We spend most of our time talking about what working people can do to resist these conditions.”

The Militant invites supporters of the paper to send in stories of sales at plant gates.  
 
 
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