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   Vol.65/No.47            December 10, 2001 
 
 
Sales campaign on course to make goals
 
BY MAURICE WILLIAMS  
The momentum gained over the past three weeks in the international sales drive to win new readers to the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial has put the campaign on course to meet all the goals by December 9. After taking a break over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, participants in the sales campaign are gearing up for the final stretch. Socialist workers and Young Socialists involved in the circulation effort in several areas have raised their goals, something supporters in every city that are in striking distance of their goal need to consider doing.

Special attention to selling New International nos. 7, 10, and 11 is also needed over the next two weeks. These titles feature, "Opening Guns of World War III: Washington's Assault On Iraq"; "Imperialism's March Toward Fascism and War"; "Defending Cuba, Defending Cuba's Socialist Revolution"; and "U.S. Imperialism has Lost the Cold War." The three titles present a working-class assessment of the evolution of world politics over the past two decades, prospects for revolutionary struggles by working people to overturn capitalism, the place of the Cuban Revolution in the world today, and the centrality of building proletarian parties.

"We raised all our sales goals and this week we are planning to go door-to-door in the workers district where the Pathfinder bookstore is located," said Joe Swanson from Des Moines, Iowa. "We will also set up a literature table at the Grinnell College campus on November 28 where the Iowa director of the American Civil Liberties Union will be speaking. Socialist workers have been invited to speak at three high school classes in Des Moines on November 29 about the war in Afghanistan and the assault on workers' rights, including the fight against the political firing of Michael Italie."

"On the first day back on the job after Thanksgiving, socialists who work at the meatpacking plant in Marshalltown, Iowa, sold a copy of New International no. 7, which features the article 'Opening Guns of World War III.' They sold it based on a number of discussions they've had over the last month on the imperialist war drive. They called me tonight after participating in a house meeting in Marshalltown with one of their co-workers who has been a long-term subscriber to PM and reader of Pathfinder titles. She had invited three other co-workers to the discussion, some of whom may become future readers of revolutionary literature."

Socialist workers in Australia have made their goal on PM subscriptions and are closing in on the Militant and NI. "We sold another Militant subscription and a copy of NI no. 7 this week," wrote Joanne Kuniansky from Sydney. "Both sales were off tables in the workers district where the Pathfinder bookshop is located. A young workmate at the meatpacking plant who is reading NI no. 7 said he is also considering getting a subscription to the Militant." Kuniansky said a couple of co-workers attended their most recent Militant Labor Forum, including a meat packer originally from Nepal who lives near the bookstore.

In Philadelphia, a number of young people have been introduced to the communist movement during the subscription campaign, reports John Studer, a garment worker there. "Four students from the University of Pennsylvania attended the last Militant Labor Forum and one of them bought a Militant subscription. They are against the U.S. war and have become interested in the forums. We are going to make sure all of them get copies of New International. The student who bought the subscription said she had already begun to look to the Militant, checking it out on the Internet. She said that she thought it would be better to get it regularly in the mail each week in a form easier to read and work from."

Studer said they raised their goal for selling Militant subscriptions and are organizing to meet their goals for PM subscriptions and New International. This weekend we are planning to send a sales team to Kennett Square where mushroom workers live. Many of them are Spanish speakers."

Studer added, "The headlines in the Militant on the war and attacks on workers' rights have been a big aid for selling subscriptions. This was true of two subscriptions we sold going door-to-door in the working-class neighborhood where the Pathfinder bookstore is located. We sold one of our subscriptions to a young worker originally from Vietnam who looked at the headline and said 'I agree with that.' Another subscription was purchased by a worker who hails from the West Indies. He was getting out of his car as we came up to his house. He looked at the paper, said that he had noticed it in the bookstore in the neighborhood, and said, 'I want one of those.'"

"Last week a Black worker came by the literature table we set up near the bookstore," continued Studer. "He was interested in some titles, but didn't buy anything right there. He got in his car, started off, then made a U-turn and pulled up to the table waving a $20 bill, saying he wanted to buy the book Capitalism's World Disorder he had seen on the table. Later we called him to tell him about the Militant subscription offer and he asked us to come over to get the money for the subscription."

Ted Leonard, a meat packer from Boston, said socialist workers there raised their goal after selling about 10 Militant subscriptions over the past week. "The Monday before the Thanksgiving holiday I went to see a co-worker who works a different shift than I do, in order to invite him to a rally later that day of hotel workers fighting for a contract. He couldn't go to the rally but did buy a Militant subscription. He had purchased a PM subscription and Pathfinder literature before and has been involved in the fight for safety in the union organizing drive at the plant."

Leonard said they sold 11 copies of the Militant at the hotel workers' rally and a subscription at a video showing about a meat packers' strike in 1954–55 in Boston. "We also sold the French and Spanish edition of New International and a subscription at a literature table at the University of Massachusetts," he added.  
 
 
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