BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS
"We welcome all of our 1,412 new readers," said Militant editor Naomi Craine at the conclusion of a successful eight-week subscription drive that surpassed all its international goals. "We would appreciate your comments and opinions of the paper over the coming weeks."

From London to New York and Los Angeles, sales soared during the last week of the drive. Young Socialists, socialist workers, and other readers sold 367 Militant and 181 Perspectiva Mundial (PM) subscriptions, as well as 138 copies of the Marxist magazine New International during the past seven days.

"In Los Angeles we used the subscription campaign to reach out to many students and other young people with the truth about Cuba during a speaking tour by two representatives of the Cuban Interests Section [see article on page 7]," said Craig Honts, a member of the United Transportation Union in that city. "We sold 22 Militant subscriptions, 10 PM subs, 14 copies of the New International and nearly $800 worth of Pathfinder books mostly on campuses during the four days of the tour.

"One student at Cal State Northridge, Alex, came to the first meeting on October 22. He was drawn to Che Guevara and wanted to find out more about the Cuban revolution, so he had bought copies of books about Che by Jon Lee Anderson and Jorge Castaņeda," both of which give a falsified account of the revolutionary's ideas and actions.

The student "was glad to see the socialists literature table outside the meeting hall. He ended up subscribing to the Militant and bought copies of Che's Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War, Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution, and New International no. 8," which features articles on "Che Guevara, Cuba, and the Road to Socialism." Two other students from UCLA that YS members met at that meeting and subsequent events subscribed to the Militant and then came to a discussion about the socialist movement Young Socialists held at a coffee shop on campus.

About 1,000 people turned out for a demonstration called by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign in London October 17, reported Pamela Holmes from the British capital. "They came to commemorate Ernesto Che Guevara's fall in combat in Bolivia 30 years ago, oppose Washington's economic war on Cuba, and defend Cuba's sovereignty," Holmes said in a note to the Militant.

Members of the Communist League and others sold eight Militant and two PM subscriptions during the march as well as five New Internationals and 27 Pathfinder books and pamphlets.

"The day-school Viva Che organized by the North East London Cuba Solidarity Campaign group to discuss the life and legacy of Che Guevara attracted more than 80 people on October 25," Holmes said. "Seven participants subscribed to the Militant, four others bought copies of the New International, and we sold 25 Pathfinder titles there."

Sales were also brisk at the Million Woman March in Philadelphia October 25. Socialists sold more than 125 Pathfinder books, along with 130 single copies and 18 subscriptions to the Militant, reported Betsy Farley.

"Books on Cuba, the fight for women's liberation, and the struggle for Black freedom were the best sellers. Marchers bought 35 copies of the pamphlet Women's Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle by Thomas Sankara, the leader of the 1983 - 87 revolution in Burkina Faso, making the top-selling title of the day.

They also bought 10 copies of Guevara's Socialism and Man in Cuba and 16 books by Malcolm X," Farley said.

"Several demonstrators came to an open house for Socialist Workers candidates from the region after the march at the Philadelphia Pathfinder bookstore. The next day, five young people attended a class on women and the Cuban revolution sponsored by the Young Socialists."

The above stories are a small sample of the higher interest in the socialist press found in city after city around the world at the end of October.

In many cities the sheer number of subscriptions sold in one week - 47 in New York, for example -shows what is possible in raising the regular readership of the Militant over the long haul as an integral part of building the socialist movement.

While Militant supporters in most of the trade unions did not meet their goals, the increase in sales over the last week of the subscription campaign shows the potential to win more readers in this area as well. In the United States, socialist workers sold 49 subscriptions to the Militant to their co-workers in industry in the last week.

By the end of the year, the Militant will announce its next campaigns to increase circulation - a subscription renewal campaign in early 1998 followed by another drive to win new readers. "We welcome suggestions from all readers on how to get the Militant and Perspeciva Mundial into the hands of a growing number of fighting workers and youth," Craine said.  
 
 
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