BY NAOMI CRAINE
Since April 1, socialist workers have sold more than 1,200
copies of Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class Politics
at the Millennium, including 339 copies to co-workers in the
industrial unions and other workers involved in labor
struggles. Socialist rail workers made an extra effort over the
last week of the campaign, selling at least one copy of
Capitalism's World Disorder to co-workers in each local area,
surpassing the national quota they had taken of 80 copies.
Although the final total falls short of the goals adopted - 1,500 copies overall and 500 through the unions - the response confirms what the preface to the book notes, "There is a new mood and growing confidence among clusters of vanguard workers and farmers from one end of the country to the other.... Everywhere we begin to see others like ourselves, working people who are thinking and acting in a similar way, resisting, refusing to be beaten... reading and studying and discussing with each other as we look for answers to explain how the wretched world in which we live came to be, how it was imposed on us, and how we can overturn it a build something new."
"Here in Houston, members of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers Union (PACE) were able to surpass our goal of 15 by selling 20 copies of Capitalism's World Disorder," reported Barbara Graham. "We were able to get the book both into the hands of co-workers on the job and workers involved in labor battles at Crown Central Petroleum and at Kaiser Aluminum. Members of PACE in Houston were a part of teams that traveled to Gramercy, Louisiana, to give solidarity to the locked-out Steelworkers at Kaiser Aluminum. We were fortunate too, that the Kaiser workers held a couple of successful rallies here in Houston in front of Kaiser's major stockholder Charles Hurwitz's office. The thing that was pretty common about all those who got the book was that they we're either involved in a fight or are looking for a way to fight because they're in a situation where the bosses are demanding more concessions.
"We are now organizing to follow up with our co-workers, see what they think about what they've read, and continue the discussion," she added.
In Des Moines, a big majority of the books - 25 out of 33 - were sold in the unions. Joe Swanson, a member of the United Auto Workers, sold six copies on the job at Emco Specialties. Three of these were to co-workers who are also strikers - members of United Steelworkers of America (USWA) Local 164 who walked out at Titan Tire in May 1998. Swanson says that he and one of these workers have pooled their money to buy a Laotian-English dictionary to help as they work through the book together.
Twelve copies were sold by supporters who work at packinghouses in Marshalltown and Perry, Iowa, and seven members of the USWA at the Bridgestone/Firestone tire plant bought the book.
The Des Moines branch of the Socialist Workers Party is launching a socialist summer school that will draw heavily on the politics of Capitalism's World Disorder and other material to begin discussion with workers and youth interested in attending the Active Workers Conference in August.