The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.15           April 20, 1998 
 
 
`Militant' Sells Well At Plant Gates, Union Rallies  

BY MAURICE WILLIAMS
"Supporters of the Militant sold 19 papers to Caterpillar workers in East Peoria, Illinois, April 3 and the next day we went back and sold 12 more Militants to Caterpillar workers there, said Cappy Kidd, a member of the United Auto Workers in Chicago. "One worker renewed his subscription at the plant gate and urged others to buy the paper. `This is the only paper that stood behind us all the way,' he told his co-workers.' "

Kidd said he and other Militant supporters went to the home of the worker who renewed his subscription. They discussed politics with him, another Caterpillar worker, a retiree from the company, and their spouses. "One worker said, `Too bad no one has written a book about that fight.' They got excited when we told them about bound volumes of the Militant that contain articles about their strike."

Ned Dmytryshyn, a member of the International Association of Machinists from Vancouver said a Militant sales team joined an April 4 rally in Campbell River, British Columbia of 1,500 unionists and their families in support of the Fletcher Challenge strikers. "We met with success there selling six Militant subscriptions, 29 copies of the paper, and one copy of the Marxist magazine New International no. 2. We also sold two Militant subscriptions this week at work."

Supporters of the Militant have stepped up sales to working people at plant gates, on picket lines, and labor solidarity actions as part of a campaign to win new subscribers to the socialist weekly and its Spanish-language sister publication Perspectiva Mundial (PM), as well as copies of the Marxist magazine New International. Although the sales drive remains behind schedule, a few days into a special two-week effort to get on target, distributors in many areas are starting to gain momentum.

Activists in Chicago sold 10 copies of the paper to workers at the plant gate of the Amoco oil company and LTV Steel in a "steady rain." And Angel Lariscy from Miami reports, "We sold a Militant subscription at the rail yard where supporters of the paper sell every week. A track maintenance worker at CSX who had bought two copies of the Militant also decided to renew his subscription."

Distributors in Seattle sold eight Militant subscriptions at two rallies in support of fighting workers, wrote Chris Rayson. "We sold two subscriptions to workers at an April 2 rally of 200 people in defense of strawberry workers fighting to organize into the United Farm Workers union," he wrote. "One of the workers who bought a sub at the farm workers rally was a striker from the Jet Equipment and Tools company. John Naubert, a member of the International Association of Machinists, sold six Militant subscriptions at a rally of 100 people on April 3 that was organized to win support for 24 workers at the Jet Equipment and Tools company, who are fighting for a union contract. Five of those Naubert sold were to his co-workers from Hexcel who participated in the event, including three to members of the union women's committee.

*****
BY MAGGIE TROWE

DES MOINES - Elvidio Mejia, organizer of the Militant/Perspectiva Mundial circulation drive in Iowa, reports that supporters of the Militant and PM here are preparing to field a team in the Midwest meatpacking region - Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and southern Minnesota - from April 25 through May 2. They will pay special attention to packing plants organized by the United Food and Commercial Workers union.

"The team's itinerary will include stops for plant gate campaigning with Socialist Workers candidates from Iowa," said Mejia. "They will also visit campuses and go door-to- door in working-class neighborhoods."

Mejia explained that "destinations include the IBP-owned Tama Packing plant in Tama, Iowa, where the company called in the immigration cops in January after workers had staged two days of sit-down strikes in the cafeteria; the Swift ham plant in Omaha, Nebraska, where Immigration and Naturalization Service agents arrested 110 workers in February; and beef plants in Nebraska where the packing bosses sold hamburger tainted with E. coli bacteria last year, thousands of pounds of which was ordered recalled by government inspectors."

Socialist activists will also visit the large IBP plant in Perry, Iowa, where Thomas Alter, Socialist Workers candidate for governor of Iowa, works. They will combine plant gate campaigning with visits to university campuses in Des Moines; Omaha; Lawrence, Kansas; and Grinnell, Iowa. The sales team will also reach out to working farmers in the area, including hog farmers who have been hit by a steep drop in prices and competition with big capitalist farmers.

"Supporters of the Militant and PM can join us if they can get that week or part of it off," Mejia said. "While many of the packinghouse workers are Spanish-speaking, you don't have to speak Spanish to be part of the team. Anyone who is interested in the team can call us in Des Moines at (515) 277-2121."

*****
BY CANDACE WAGNER

PHILADELPHIA - Supporters of the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial traveled to Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, "the mushroom capital of the world," where workers at the Kaolin mushroom factory have been in a seven-year fight for a union contract. The team went to apartment buildings in the town, where one mushroom worker bought a subscription to Perspectiva Mundial and another mushroom worker renewed his PM subscription.

One worker bought a yearlong subscription along with the special offer of Celebrating the Homecoming of Ernesto Che Guevara's Reinforcement Brigade to Cuba. One former mushroom worker purchased a copy of Junto a Che Guevara (At the Side of Che Guevara) by Cuban leader Harry Villegas. Several expressed interest in attending a Militant Fund event in Philadelphia in two weeks.

Supporters of the socialist press sold two copies of the Militant to members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) at the plant gate of The Boeing Company. A sales team also talked to members of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees at the plant gate of Pincus Brothers garment factory where a woman worker from Bosnia insisted on giving $5.00 for the paper because of the coverage on the independence struggle of Albanians in Kosovo, Yugoslavia.

A sales teams also went to a bus barn where members of the Transportation Workers Union work. These workers are fighting for a contract with SEPTA, the regional transportation association, against demands for work rule changes and increased hiring of part-time workers. One driver bought the paper. At a previous sale, on the night that a possible strike was projected, one worker bought a Militant subscription and three others bought the paper.

Philadelphia supporters also set up a literature table at a meeting where 100 people came to hear Rafael Cancel Miranda, a longtime leader of the struggle for Puerto Rican independence. Participants at the meeting bought two subscriptions to the Militant, one to Perspectiva Mundial, and several books.

During the first three weeks of the sales campaign, six co-workers of Militant supporters have bought subscriptions. Two were sold to members of the Machinists union who attended a film showing at the Pathfinder bookstore that raised funds to send their co-worker, Becca Arenson, to an international women's conference in Havana, Cuba. A new subscriber at the Lear corporation in Newark, Delaware, attended a Militant Labor Forum and came to a class by Mámud Shirvani on the Russian revolution. A young Black worker at Boeing bought a subscription and then attended a campaign rally for his co-worker, Connie Allen, who is running for Congress on the socialist ticket.  
 
 
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