Labor battles like the one unfolding in Minnesota are at the heart of the resistance to imperialism and its war drive against the peoples of Afghanistan, as well as the U.S. rulers' assault on workers' rights. Fiske, like other socialist workers and members of the Young Socialists across the United States and in other countries, is striving to win new readers to the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial, and to sell copies of New International as part of a subscription drive that runs through November 18.

A central axis of the circulation drive is getting the socialist press, New International, and Pathfinder books into the hands of workers resisting the employer and government attacks on their working conditions and rights. Socialist workers are also putting a high priority on collaborating with members of the Young Socialists to get on college campuses to meet students who want to find a way to fight the assaults and brutalities of imperialism today.

After the first week of the subscription effort partisans of the campaign have sold 134 Militant subscriptions and 39 PM subscriptions. They are discussing goals for selling three issues of New International magazine as well. We're off to a good start, and an international target week October 6-14 will help get every area on or ahead of target by carrying out stepped-up sales in working-class districts, on college campuses, at plant gates and on the job, in coal mining regions, and elsewhere.

"I teamed up with a YS member to sell literature at the University of Minnesota last week," said Samuel Farley, a packinghouse worker in St. Paul. "One student there, who also attended the Militant Labor Forum a few days earlier, joined our table for five hours. She had purchased two Pathfinder titles: Socialism on Trial by James P. Cannon, and Too Many Babies? by Joseph Hansen.

"We were involved in numerous debates and discussions about socialism, terrorism, and democracy with several students," stated Farley. "By the end of the day we had sold five subscriptions to the Militant and around 18 copies of the paper. The student who joined our table asked us how she could join the Young Socialists, and said she would come to a class on Marxism we were organizing the next day."

"We took off work early to set up a literature table at the north campus of Florida International University," said Argiris Malapanis, a meat packer in Miami. "It was our best sales effort there over the past year. One Haitian student who purchased a Militant subscription remarked how Washington's war drive was headed toward another world war and fascism. Another student who bought a subscription saw Capitalism's World Disorder on the table and said he wanted to meet us at the same spot next week to buy it."  
 
'This will last longer than 12 weeks'
From Boston, Ted Leonard wrote, "After discussing the U.S. government's war drive with a student at a literature table at Harvard University, I suggested she get a 12-week introductory subscription to the Militant. She said, 'This thing will last longer than 12 weeks,' and bought a one-year subscription to the Militant and a copy of Capitalism's World Disorder."

At a rally in Washington September 29 attended by many young people opposed to Washington's war plans and attacks at home, socialist workers and Young Socialists sold four subscriptions to the Militant, 56 papers, and $200 worth of literature. Textile worker Andrea Morell said she raised with people at the rally that to be effective in opposing Washington's imperialist war drive it's necessary to read the information provided regularly in the Militant. This, along with articles on the mine workers' fight for safety, the protests in Cincinnati against the freeing of the cop who killed Timothy Thomas, and the breadth of articles from around the world helped convince people to purchase the paper. Two subscribers also took advantage of an offer to get the book Cuba and the Coming American Revolution for the special price of $10 with the subscription.

"One young woman debated which titles on the Middle East she should get, saying she was torn on the subject," wrote Laura Garza from Brooklyn, who also went to the rally. "After some discussion she bought two pamphlets-- Israel and the Arab Revolution and Socialists and the Fight Against Anti-Semitism. After discussing the history of the Washington's slaughter of Iraqis and the devastation of that country during the Gulf War, and the bombings by Washington and London that continue to this day, another person bought New International no. 7 with the feature article "The Opening Guns of World War III: Washington's Assault on Iraq."

In New Jersey federal and local cops have organized raids targeting Arabs in several cities. One focus of these attacks has been Jersey City, home to many workers from Central Asia and the Middle East. "I went on a sales and reporting team there last week," said Abby Tilsner, a socialist worker in Newark. "At one restaurant we met Ahmed, a young Egyptian worker, who told us, 'the media lies and tries to make us Arabs look like criminals.'

"He introduced us to his friend Nader, who also voiced his opposition to the imperialist war and the antiterror campaign," continued Tilsner. "'When I moved here they said the United States was about freedom--but it isn't free. I have friends who can't walk the streets without fear. Every day the FBI is at Journal Square. They called it 'Terror Town' in the New York Daily News,' Nader told us. He bought a copy of New International no. 7 and a subscription to the Militant."

In the New York Garment District Maggie Trowe said that a man approached the sales table wearing a shirt with a picture of Osama bin Laden and the slogan "Wanted: Dead or Alive." Trowe said, "I showed him the Militant, explaining that it was a socialist weekly against imperialism and its war against Afghanistan and the attacks on workers' rights. He said, 'That looks interesting,' and decided to buy a Militant subscription and a copy of New International no. 7."

"Because our conversation was civil and relaxed I told him that one of ways the rulers draw workers into supporting their war moves is to encourage us to wear T-shirts with U.S. flags and patriotic slogans like the one he was wearing. He thought about it and said, 'Yes, I think you're right.'"

Militant supporters in Auckland, New Zealand, have been receiving a warm response to the paper's coverage of imperialism's war drive against the people of Afghanistan. "In the working-class district of Otahuhu, we sold six papers at a table September 21. At another table on the university campus we sold out of our bundle of 17 papers in half a day, meeting students from Afghanistan, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Oman, and Korea. Two of the students asked to be called back about a subscription," wrote Felicity Coggan.
 
 
Related article:
Alabama miners snap up 'Militant'  
 
 
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