The response the Militant is getting reflects an increase in combativity among working people resisting attacks by the bosses on their pay, job conditions, and living standards.

“The number of work stoppages in the U.S., including strikes by unions and management-sponsored lockouts, is on the upswing as tensions rise between workers and companies that are seeking to cut wages and benefits,” reported the November 15 Wall Street Journal. The big-business daily noted that strikes have increased by 14 percent this year compared to last.

The bulk of subscriptions last week were sold at picket lines, union rallies, factory gates, and door-to-door sales in working-class districts. Below are a few of the many examples readers reported.

“In a two-day weekend effort, supporters of the Militant from Des Moines, Omaha, and the Twin Cities reached out to packinghouse and other workers in Nebraska and Iowa, winning 42 new readers to the paper,” Mary Martin from Des Moines reported November 14. “One team covering the Dakota City and Sioux City area of Nebraska sold 29 subs, including to union workers at the Tyson and John Morrell plants in those cities. In Des Moines, we have now surpassed our 150 sub quota and plan to continue getting the press out every day to win new readers and help make the international drive a success.”

“Today we sold outside a hall where poultry workers at Foster Farms were meeting,” reported Romina Green from San Francisco, who participated in a team to Livingston, California, where poultry workers are fighting for a union contract. “We sold 17 subscriptions, 46 single copies, and nine books and pamphlets.” San Francisco has now surpassed its quota and is using the final stretch to do the same as Des Moines.

Los Angeles raised its quota to 200 after a good week. In South Gate, an L.A. suburb where high school students went on strike (see article in this issue), 15 people subscribed, including students who were part of the protest. L.A. readers also went to Kearny, Arizona, to visit copper workers (see article in this issue). “Four subs were sold door-to-door, including to a deceased miners’ wife,” Frank Forrestal said. “When I knocked on the door, her daughter answered and yelled inside. ‘Hey mom, there’s a guy selling a pro-union newspaper. You want it?’ She yelled back, ‘Yes, tell him to come in.’” Two strikers on picket duty subscribed and another at the union hall for a total of 10.

Unionists at the Tyson-owned Lakeside Packers in Brooks, Alberta, hosted a team of Militant supporters November 10-13 for house meetings and subbing at shift changes at the giant slaughterhouse. On November 4, workers there won their first union contract after a 23-day strike. Twenty-three workers have signed up for subscriptions since the strike began, more than 100 have bought copies of the paper, and dozens have picked up books and pamphlets on world politics.

Click here to see the sub drive scoreboard  
 
 
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