The drive to sell subscriptions to the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial, and copies of Cuba and the Coming American Revolution, has been extended by two weeks to July 7. Socialist workers in the trade unions requested the additional time to deepen their political work on the job and expand the paper’s reach among industrial workers. Militant supporters are also increasing the number of weekly sales at factory plant gates and mine portals to reinforce the work of socialists inside. This has proven effective in following up with workers who purchased a paper in the past and for meeting others for the first time. Below are reports of initial results in the unions over the past week.

BY JEREMY ROSE  
BLAIR, West Virginia--A Militant sales team of socialist workers from Pittsburgh and Cleveland visited three mine portals in southern West Virginia and sold door-to-door in several mining communities. Two of the portals, Hobet and Marrowbone, were visited earlier in the drive.

We sold a Militant subscription and 13 issues of the paper during two visits to Arch Coal’s Hobet mine. Workers at Marrowbone purchased four copies and one subscription, even though few cars passed by. The subscriber said that miners were on vacation. He told the team that the Marrowbone complex is divided between union and nonunion operations. The bosses pit union workers against nonunion workers by the way they dole out leases for production.

Miners picked up another seven copies and a subscription at the Ruffner mine. One worker told his friend that the Militant was the only paper that supported their 1993 strike. His friend bought it saying, "I’m not a communist or a Muslim, but I’ll get a copy of your paper and check it out!"

Another miner who is Black said he thought the latest war moves by Bush against Iraq were motivated by economic competition. "I’ve been saying that for years. Yes it’s money, money, money," he explained.

Militant supporters sold door-to-door in Blair, where a massive mountaintop removal coal mining operation was completed several years ago. The mining method removes upper layers of rock to reach thin seams of coal. The overburden that is scraped off is then dumped into nearby valleys.

Between the portals and visits to workers’ homes, Militant supporters sold a total of 33 copies and five subscriptions.
 

At least five miners decided to buy subscriptions in part through sales at the mine portals by supporters of the press. A good example of this was a recent team to southern West Virginia.

Socialists regularly sell in front of U.S. Steel’s Oak Grove mine here in Alabama. Recently a worker bought a paper and was later introduced to socialists also working in the mine. Some days later, he bought a subscription.

Socialist workers in the United Mine Workers in western Colorado have sold a few Militant subscriptions as part of sales at the Deserado mine portal in Rangely. One miner, who bought a copy of the paper on a previous occasion, invited the sales team to her house during a recent sale at the mine. After more discussion on political issues covered in the paper, she and her husband decided to get a subscription.

A union miner who attended the grand opening of the Pathfinder book store in Hazelton, in northeastern Pennsylvania, also picked up a Militant subscription.

Brian Taylor is a member of UMWA Local 2133.
 

Arlene Rubenstein from Atlanta reports, "I spent an hour and a half at the house of a chicken processing worker who lives near the Pathfinder bookstore. She had visited the bookstore and got a subscription to Perspectiva Mundial. Today she bought Cuba and the Coming American Revolution. She’s a good example of the kind of serious workers we are meeting today."

Some new readers are also getting into the act. Don Mackle from Detroit relates this story. "While leaving work today, I ran into a co-worker who had bought Perspectiva Mundial earlier. As I showed him the subscription form and he was deciding whether to get it, another worker came up and told him, ‘Get it man! Read about what’s going on in the world! Learn about Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. I read it. I was the first one here to buy a subscription.’ That helped. He took advantage of the introductory offer!"

Ted Leonard is in the midst of a union organizing fight at Kayem Foods in Chelsea, Massachusetts, near Boston. He reports that he was talking to another production worker he just met who supports the union. After discussing the need for a union, it became obvious that his co-worker was interested in other social questions. When Leonard showed him the paper, the guy bought a subscription.
 

In Atlanta, Ellie Garcia reports that she sold a Militant subscription at her sewing shop. "It began with a conversation at lunch, when a co-worker told me her husband, who is in the Air Force reserves, has been called up for duty," she said.

Garcia went to her home the same day and discussed a range of political questions for a couple hours. "It turns out she has taken on the school board in Marietta, Cobb County, for continuously placing one of her sons in classes below his testing level," Garcia reports. "She said she is fighting for all ‘the Hispanic and Black kids.’"

Marty Ressler works in a small apparel shop in Pittsburgh. She reports, "One day last week discussion broke out at work over the Bush administration’s proposal to expand FBI powers and about the government’s latest war moves.

"A co-worker said she wished she could find something that tells the truth about what the government is doing," Ressler said. "I told her about the Militant and showed her a copy later on. After reading it over, she decided to get a subscription."

Two socialist garment workers in New York went with a co-worker to visit one of the picket lines of the Transit Workers Union bus drivers on strike in Queens. After spending some time on the line, learning more about the strike and offering their solidarity, the co-worker bought subscriptions to both the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial.
 

Militant supporters in Birmingham, Chicago, and Omaha sent in these additional tidbits.

"We sold two copies of Cuba and the Coming American Revolution this weekend. One was sold to a farmer at an event in Sumter County, Alabama, sponsored by the Federation of Southern Cooperatives. His family recently won a long fight to get back the land stolen from them by the state of Alabama in 1963. The land belonged to the family since 1874."--Brian Taylor, Birmingham
 

"Three members of the Young Socialists joined a spirited march and rally at the Chicago Federal Building, June 25, to protest the ‘no match’ letters that the Social Security Administration is sending out to workers and employers. These letters claim that Social Security numbers of those workers are false. Many immigrants are losing their jobs due to this government-employer offensive.

"Of the 100 people who protested, two bought subscriptions to Perspectiva Mundial and several others bought copies of the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial." --Mike Ellis, Chicago
 

"Militant supporters in Omaha have decided to raise all our goals to help push the national goal over the top. We now have a goal of 13 Militants, up from 9; 22 Perspectiva Mundial, up from 15; and 15 Cuba and the Coming American Revolution; up from 10. A follow-up visit to the home of somebody who signed the subscription form at a Juneteenth celebration proved very valuable. After a wide-ranging discussion, we sold a subscription to the paper and Cuba and the Coming American Revolution."  
 
 
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