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   Vol.66/No.15            April 15, 2002 
 
 
Brisk 'Militant' sales at Palestinian actions
 
BY JACK WILLEY  
Socialist workers and young socialists are responding to the events in the Middle East by getting out the truth about the fight for a democratic, secular Palestine and why working people in the United States should demand Washington end all aid to the regime in Israel. They are getting an excellent response to the Militant, Perspectiva Mundial, Pathfinder books, and New International on the job, at protest actions, among strikers, and from people they meet at street-corner literature tables.

Participants in the March 30 rally of 3,000 in Washington to support the Palestinians' struggle bought 130 copies of the Militant and a number of subscriptions. Three people purchased subscriptions after talking with socialists riding the buses from New York. On the buses and at several literature tables at the march workers and young people discussed the socialist workers' support for the fight for a democratic, secular Palestine, leading to sales of $125 in Pathfinder literature.

This response helps show what is possible to accomplish during the April 13 to June 9 campaign to sell 900 subscriptions to the Militant and 450 subscriptions to Perspectiva Mundial . The drive will include selling hundreds of copies of the Pathfinder book Cuba and the Coming American Revolution by Jack Barnes at a special price of $10. The book, available in English, French, and Spanish, explains how working people in Cuba were able to make a revolution and the perspective of building a proletarian party in the United States capable of leading masses of working people to overthrow the capitalist state and take power in their own countries.

At a March 30 demonstration in Toronto demanding the right of Palestinians to return to their land, 14 protesters bought the Militant and two Pathfinder titles on the Palestinian fight for liberation. Socialists handed out dozens of double-sided flyers announcing an upcoming Militant Labor Forum on the five Cuban revolutionaries in U.S. prisons on one side and a photocopy of the "Middle East--issues behind the conflict" page of the Pathfinder catalog along with the Pathfinder bookstore address on the other.

Bill Estrada from New York reports that socialist workers in Upper Manhattan sold some $65 in books at a literature table in the workers district near the Pathfinder bookstore, March 31. Many of the books focused on the Palestinian struggle, the nature of the state of Israel, and the history of oppression of Jews. Over that weekend a total of 30 single copies of the Militant and four subscriptions to the Militant, and two to Perspectiva Mundial were purchased by people in the area.

At the same location the week before, socialists sold close to $200 in Pathfinder literature. One man bought every title on the table that addressed the Palestinian struggle and the Jewish question, totaling some $100 in books and pamphlets.

Participants in the April 1 rally in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in support of the Widows' Walk to demand black lung benefits for miners and their spouses, picked up 15 copies of the Militant and three subscriptions during the rally and discussions afterward.

Kathie Fitzgerald reports that leading up to the Uniontown rally socialists from Pittsburgh sold 11 papers to miners at five mine portals. One team sold another nine papers to workers in a rural area outside Uniontown. Several people told Militant supporters about their own struggles to get black lung benefits in face of the coal operators' greed. In one small town socialists found the area had been posted with flyers on the Widows' Walk by a garment worker at the nearby Flushing Shirt plant.

Socialists from Cleveland and Pittsburgh sold another five papers going door-to-door in a neighborhood of Osage, a town that is majority Black. One person who bought a paper called up his neighbor and arranged to open up a museum that documents the history of the coal mining town.

Participants in the upcoming subscription drive are encouraged to send into the Militant their local goals for the campaign by April 9 and to make plans for the week starting April 13 to be a solid kickoff for the drive. Any notes or articles about sales experiences, as well as photographs of sales at literature tables in workers districts and on campuses, at plant-gates or mine portals, and protest actions are welcome.
 
 
Related articles:
Protests across Mideast condemn Israeli brutality
End all U.S. aid to Israel!
Pathfinder titles offer lessons on Palestine  
 
 
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