Vol. 72/No. 45 November 17, 2008
In the past two weeks 800 people have subscribed to the socialist newsweekly. This bodes well for completing the drive in full and on time.
New York campaign supporters sold 125 subscriptions in 10 days. SWP candidate for U.S. Congress Dan Fein, and others, soapboxed with a bullhorn in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights November 1, selling 11 subscriptions. Another campaign table in Jackson Heights, Queens, sold 12.
“Many campaigners pointed out, no matter who wins, the day after the election workers will be confronting the same challenges they faced the day before,” reports Seth Galinsky. “That’s why the Socialist Workers Party platform—with demands that can unite workers and point to the need for the working class to take political power—is so important.”
“I’ve seen you out here many times,” a University of Minnesota student said to campaigners on that campus. “Because of what is happening, I’m buying a subscription now.” This response is being found in working-class communities, at factories, and at schools.
Militant supporters found a hunger for the coverage in the paper when they visited two towns in Minnesota. Sixteen meat packers and other workers subscribed in Worthington and 11 in St. James, where an immigration raid had been carried out 10 days earlier, reports Tom Fiske.
An all-day Socialist Workers campaign table, near one for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, at the University of South Florida in Tampa, netted 10 subscriptions, reports Deborah Liatos. Supporters sold 11 subscriptions at four other campuses in the Miami area as well as 14 to farm workers in Homestead, Immokalee, and Indiantown. Four subscriptions were sold to coworkers in garment and meatpacking plants.
Along with 41 subscriptions in the last week, “teams of campaigners in Atlanta sold seven copies of New International no. 14 featuring the articles “Revolution, Internationalism, and Socialism: The Last Year of Malcolm X” and “The Clintons’ Antilabor Legacy: Roots of the 2008 World Financial Crisis” in the last 10 days,” writes Jacob Perasso. Subscribers can purchase the magazine for only $10 with a subscription to the Militant.
The eight-week international subscription drive is now ahead of schedule. But local quotas don’t yet add up to the international goal of 2,400 so any area that can raise their quota should consider doing so.
'Militant' fall 2008 Subscription drive chart: Week 5 of 8