Participants in the international circulation drive to win new readers to the two publications are organizing a day-by-day plan of special sales teams and other sales activities as part of a concentrated effort to meet all the goals of the campaign. The pace of the target week will need to be kept up through November 18--the end of the drive--in order to meet all of the international goals. The response to the Militant among workers and young people across the country show that success is attainable.

"Please increase our Militant bundle for the target week and send it overnight along with some subscription blanks," wrote Francisco Picado in St. Paul, Minnesota. "Last week we sold 10 Militant subscriptions, two of them by going door-to-door in working-class districts in St. Paul and Minneapolis. Three people who came to their first Militant Labor Forum also bought Militant subscriptions."

Picado said two of his co-workers purchased subscriptions at the meatpacking plant where he works. "A couple of days after purchasing a subscription, one of them decided to buy New International no. 7, with the feature article "Opening Guns of World War III: Washington's Assault on Iraq." The other one, from Eritrea, has experience in that country's struggle for independence. He explained how the U.S. government cannot be trusted in what it says. He also noted how the U.S. media is not covering the news truthfully."

In Houston, Jacquie Henderson wrote, "We have a lot of names of people who have expressed an interest in buying subscriptions and Pathfinder books. So we should be able to move ahead with the target week with our plans to get out to Paris, Texas, where members of the United Food and Commercial Workers are locked out by the Campbell Soup company.

"We are starting to gain momentum selling the New International. We sold NI no. 7 this past weekend on a literature table we set up in the workers district where the Pathfinder bookstore is located," Henderson said, noting that NI no. 7 is their top seller so far. They sold a copy at the film showing of Lumumba, as well as two copies of Nouvelle Internationale. "Three people we met at the movie came to the Militant Labor Forum and said they planned to come back next week to buy copies of the NI to study."  
 
Use election campaign to win readers
In several areas where socialist workers are candidates for public office, partisans of the Militant are planning a final flurry of activities for the last days of the election campaign to win subscribers. "Last week was our best of sales in the subscription drive," wrote Argiris Malapanis. "This was partly a result of our election campaign activities, especially the fight against the political firing of Michael Italie, Socialist Workers candidate for mayor of Miami. We have sent you by express mail six more new Militant subscriptions and two to PM."

Naomi Craine from Charlotte, North Carolina, said she helped staff an all-day literature table at the University of South Carolina in Columbia "where we sold two Militant subscriptions, about a dozen copies of the paper, several copies of the International Social Review that was printed in a recent issue of the Militant, and some pamphlets by communist leaders V.I. Lenin and Frederick Engels."

"One of us dropped by a newsstand/bookstore that had taken a few Pathfinder titles last year," Craine wrote. "They're getting out of the book business due to competition from Barnes and Noble, but are expanding their magazines. The buyer ordered three copies of New International no. 11 that features the article 'U.S. Imperialism Has Lost the Cold War.'"

"A couple of us are on layoff this week, so we have some more special teams planned, including returning to the paperworkers' strike in Brevard, North Carolina, and a union conference in Raleigh, North Carolina," she added.

Supporters of the Militant in northeastern Pennsylvania visited the picket line and strike headquarters of United Auto Workers Local 1193 where a strike was in progress against General Dynamics' Land Systems division plant in Eynon, Pennsylvania.

"At the picket line, the strikers were glad to see the front page article on their strike," they wrote. "This opened a serious discussion about the past fights they had been through and why they were striking now. One worker commented that the company was to blame for trying to cut retiree benefits while making millions, saying they had to strike now because the contract was up.

"Another striker saw the Militant's headline opposing the war in Afghanistan and immediately asked, 'Is there oil there?' Others talked about their experience in Vietnam and the Gulf War. They agreed that like those wars, there was more to this war than what the U.S. government was saying.

"After a half hour of discussion, four strikers wanted copies of the Militant. They dug into their pockets, and came up with $8 for the four papers. We sold another paper at the strike headquarters and two strikers are considering getting subscriptions."  
 
 
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