BY FRANK FORRESTAL
PITTSBURGH - "A few minutes of serious discussion were key to selling the book," said Norton Sandler, who sold five copies of Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the Millennium at the June 5 demonstration against the U.S.-NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in San Francisco.

"Though angered by the relentless weeks of bombing, many demonstrators were somewhat stunned by the war," said Sandler, a leader of the trade union work of the Socialist Workers Party. Some of the protesters said they thought Washington was achieving its goals in the war. "I urged them to read Capitalism's World Disorder, and emphasized that the war in Yugoslavia is part of the lawful workings of capitalism.

"I placed the war in context of the drive to reestablish capitalism in Eastern Europe on the backs of the working class, and pointed out that Wall Street and the White House are a long way from achieving their goals," said Sandler.

Sandler also drew attention to the first chapter of the book, "The Sea Change in Working-Class Politics," which explains the far reaching changes going in the working class in this country and the deepening labor resistance. "If we focus our eyes on the working class from Newport News to Yugoslavia, it is easier to see why it is going to become increasingly difficult for the wealthy U.S. rulers to achieve any of their goals," he said.

Altogether, seven people bought Capitalism's World Disorder at the San Francisco action, and six others at a similar protest in Washington, D.C., where at least a dozen people decided to subscribe to the Militant.

Getting into the serious discussions Sandler describes with many more workers and farmers for the next few weeks will be crucial to meeting the goals socialist workers have adopted for selling 1,500 copies of Capitalism's World Disorder and signing up 1,100 new readers to the Militant by June 27. For the last three weeks of the campaign, this means selling 226 copies of the book and 230 subscriptions weekly. There are similar challenges to meet the goals for subscriptions to the Spanish-language magazine Perspectiva Mundial and copies of the Marxist magazine New International. It's a lot, but can be done.

On the same day as the San Francisco demonstration, two auto workers from Detroit attended two protest meetings in Cincinnati against the bombing of Yugoslavia. One of these protests featured Anthony Benn, a Labour Party member of the United Kingdom parliament. While saying that the bombing of Yugoslavia by NATO forces was a crime, Benn supported a "peacekeeping" force in Kosova under the banner of the United Nations. He also argued against self-determination for Kosova, reported Frank Gorton, a member of the United Auto Workers in Detroit.

Some of the people attending the meeting were eager to get a different view than these pro-imperialist arguments. Three people bought Capitalism's World Disorder and two subscribed to the Militant. The following day another book was sold at the University of Cincinnati, plus 15 copies of the Militant and two subscriptions.

A supporter of the Militant in southern Indiana who has sold two copies of the book to co-workers, members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, organized a chance for the socialist workers from Detroit to talk with one of his co-workers. The discussion focused on the bombing of Yugoslavia and the land reform carried out by workers and farmers in Cuba after they took power in 1959. The worker decided to get a copy of The Changing Face of U.S. Politics: Working-Class Politics and the Trade Unions and New International no. 11, featuring "U.S. Imperialism Has Lost the Cold War" by Jack Barnes.

Central to these sales campaigns is the effort of socialist workers in the industrial unions to get these political tools into the hands of co-workers and other workers and farmers in their regions. Socialists in the unions have adopted quotas to sell 500 copies of Capitalism's World Disorder - one-third of the overall goal.

Arlene Rubinstein from Atlanta reports that two striking workers at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, bought copies of Capitalism's World Disorder. The strike has now ended and workers went back to work June 7.

One striker who picked up the book reports he is reading it on breaks and at lunch. Two co-workers have already asked to borrow it when he is through. Instead, he encouraged them to buy it for themselves and volunteered to take orders. Future trips to Pascagoula are in the works.

Another report we received this week came from Jane Harris, a rail worker from New Jersey. Her report underscored the kind of steady range of work that needs to be organized in the coming weeks.

"I was able to sell one copy of Capitalism's World Disorder and five Militant subscriptions last week," she said. One Militant subscription "came easy." The co-worker who bought it wanted to learn more about what was behind the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.

"I put in a total of seven hours in the course of two evenings on a literature table at a PATH subway stop and picked up two subs. One subscription was the result of calling someone who expressed interest earlier in the week to another Militant supporter," said Harris.

"The fifth subscription I sold was to a young woman from Toledo, Ohio, who attended the demonstration against the bombing of Yugoslavia in Washington, D.C. She was thrilled by the offer," said Harris.

Harris sold a copy of Capitalism's World Disorder as a result of "my first commercial sales trip for Pathfinder to a bookstore in Montclair, New Jersey," she said. The buyer bought a total of 20 books, including titles by Che Guevara, Malcolm X, Fidel Castro, and Leon Trotsky. He asked Harris to come back in October for another order.

Karen Ray in San Francisco described a similar response from commercial bookstores there. Mary Lipman, who regularly sells Pathfinder books to stores in Santa Cruz, was in town for a week and helped Ray and others begin to organize these visits. "Our first visit was to a large store near the university campus in Berkeley," Ray said. She and Lipman met with three buyers there. "We began by giving everyone a catalog and a copy of Capitalism's World Disorder. This is our book about the millennium, which offers a hopeful perspective for the future, not one of doom and gloom that most other books offer. It is about how the working class is on the move. We showed them the photo signature, which does a great job of explaining the book.

"In the end they said they would order five copies and will feature it on the shelf with the cover facing out. This always gives a book more prominence."

Visiting another bookstore in Oakland that day, the team got an order for 26 titles - a total of 43 books - including two copies of Capitalism's World Disorder, three of The Truth About Yugoslavia: Why Working People Should Oppose Intervention, and a copy of New International no. 7, featuring "Opening Guns of World War III: Washington's Assault on Iraq."

Ruth Cheney, a member of the Pathfinder reprint project steering committee, turned in money June 9 for the third copy of Capitalism's World Disorder she had sold in the last few weeks. Several Bay Area supporters of the SWP have copies of the book on consignment and are organizing to sell them by the end of the campaign.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home