Stone was describing the response by miners to a team of Militant supporters selling the paper at that mine portal near Window Rock, Arizona, January 30-31. Among the 300 workers there, 41 bought the issue with the banner headline “Unionize the mines! Build the UMWA!” and another four subscribed.

There was a similar response to last week’s issue across the United States and other countries, especially among miners. For that reason, the Militant went to press a second time, with some 13,000 copies of that issue distributed—more than double the normal run. Partisans of the paper are getting additional bundles of the last issue to continue selling in coming weeks at the special price of 25 cents per copy.

This response by working people is building momentum in the campaign to win 1,000 readers to renew their subscriptions or purchase long-term subs.

Dennis Adkins works at the Hobet mine, a UMWA-organized surface coal mine near Danville, West Virginia. He had subscribed to the Militant earlier and decided to renew for one year after he met other readers of the paper outside the mine January 28. “I’ve got a friend who worked at a Massey mine over in Mingo County,” Adkins told Militant reporter Paul Pederson. Massey Energy is the largest nonunion coal company in the state. “The bosses cut his wages from $17 to $12 and then $10 an hour. He quit. I told him we need to call the union and organize that mine.”

Fifteen Militant supporters went to mine portals and elsewhere in West Virginia last weekend, selling 60 copies, six subscription renewals, and two introductory subs, reported Ryan Scott, a coal miner in southwestern Pennsylvania. “A team I was part of met with four students near West Virginia University in Morgantown,” said Jay Ressler, also a coal miner and UMWA member. “Three of them were already getting the paper and decided to re-subscribe. They said they admire the Militant because of its uncompromising, working-class point of view. One of them bought the book Our History Is Still Being Written.” At the same time, Militant supporters in Utah sold about 100 copies of the last issue and a dozen subscription renewals. “Many working people want to talk about why most of the mines here are nonunion and what can be done to organize them,” said Alyson Kennedy. Joel Britton reported the following: “An older woman walked right up with her dollar, while we were selling the paper outside the post office in Price, and said, ‘I am really mad about what the coal companies are doing. I’ve always been for the union, and that’s what I tell the younger ones today. And when they tell me about the high wages, I tell them that’s not enough, as they will soon see, because of the safety problems.”

Other working people had a similar response. “The highlight of the day was when 49 workers bought the Militant and another subscribed for the first time at the gate of the Excel meatpacking plant in Hazleton, Pennsylvania,” reported George Chalmers, a garment worker in Philadelphia. “I held up El Militante and said, in Spanish, ‘For safety on the job and for the union.’ If there was any hesitation, I would add, ‘What happens in the mines affects us all.’ Many workers agreed.” The team also visited a number of Militant readers, four of whom decided to renew their subscriptions.

Militant readers in Des Moines, Iowa, organized one of the most successful efforts last weekend. They visited Storm Lake, Iowa; Norfolk, Nebraska; and the southern Illinois coalfields, selling 46 copies of the paper, 10 subscription renewals, and four introductory subs. “So far seven readers of the 41 who subscribed last fall in Norfolk have renewed,” said Edwin Fruit. “Many of them are meatpackers, originally from Somalia, who fought for prayer breaks last year at a union-organized plant there owned by Tyson. One worker from Mexico said he appreciates the paper’s coverage in Spanish of union struggles and the international news. Two subscribers exchanged phone numbers so they could collaborate in reaching the Militant if any new struggle breaks out in the area.”

College students are also following suit. “Two more students at the State University of New York here joined the Young Socialists last week,” said Ben O’Shaughnessy an Albany student, in a January 30 note. “All three of us hit the streets of Albany, selling six copies for the first time, and starting to learn the city better. We also got about half of the eight students who subscribed last fall to renew their subs.”

All readers can join such efforts. You can order a bundle by contacting the Militant or join teams organized by distributors nearest you.
 
Click here to see the 'Militant' Sub Renewal Campaign chart
 
 
Related articles:
Boss contempt for safety kills coal miner in Utah
Worker dies after blowout of coal face underground
Two more miners die in W. Virginia
Governor calls for ‘Mine Safety Stand Down’
Int’l Coal Group forced to allow UMWA officials into W. Virginia mine for Sago disaster investigation
Canada potash miners survive underground fire
Unionists support labor defense case
Company greed killed coal miners in Utah
21 years since Wilberg mine disaster; how Emery Mining Corp. tried to hide facts
No ‘freak accidents’
Court dismisses Massey defamation suit  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home