The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 75/No. 40      November 7, 2011

 
Keep pace in ‘Militant’
subscription campaign
(front page)
 
BY MICHEL POITRAS  
At the end of its third week, the international campaign to win 2,200 new and renewed readers to the Militant reached a total of 1,116. This is 51 percent of our goal. While still well ahead of schedule, sales slowed down last week—something we need to pay close attention to.

Ongoing labor resistance from Alabama to the Midwest, from Montreal to Washington state, the deepening economic crisis in Europe, and the unceasing assaults by bosses and their governments on working people’s livelihood and rights continue to spur the interest of workers, farmers and youth in a working-class paper that builds bonds of solidarity among fighters and charts a course toward building a revolutionary movement to establish workers power.

According to Mary Martin from Seattle, a total of 11 subscriptions were sold over the past week to members and supporters of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 21 in Longview, Wash., who are fighting a union-busting campaign by EGT Development at the Port of Longview.

Janice Lynn reported members of the Socialist Workers Party from Atlanta sold 22 subscriptions and 71 single copies of the Militant at an October 22 demonstration of 3,000 in Birmingham, Ala., against the state’s new anti-immigrant law. They also sold four copies of the Spanish edition of Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power by Jack Barnes, as well as one copy in Spanish of Teamster Rebellion by Farrell Dobbs. These two titles are part of five books offered at reduced rates during the subscription drive.

“Six more subscriptions,” wrote Lynn, “were sold going door to door in apartment complexes in the Birmingham area, along with 16 single copies of the Militant and two additional copies of the Workers Power book, one in English and one in Spanish.”

In New York City 22 subscriptions and 83 single copies of the socialist paper were sold to some 350 Verizon workers and supporters in downtown Manhattan October 21 protesting the lack of progress in contract negotiations since their two-week strike last August. One worker bought a one-year renewal.

Seven subscriptions were sold to people attending two performances in the Bronx and Harlem of “Abracadabra,” a play about the Cuban Five. (See article on page 6.) These events were part of an October 15-29 tour by La Colmenita (The Little Beehive), the National Children’s Theater of Cuba.

“We sold our second subscription to the Militant to a striking McGill University support staff worker,” wrote John Steele from Montreal. (See article on page 5.) The Communist League in Canada is now at 50 of its goal of selling 85 subscriptions through the drive.

From Sydney, Australia, Linda Harris wrote that members of the Communist League sold 10 subscriptions, including two renewals, at the “Occupy Sydney” protest. “A young worker who drives a forklift,” said Harris, “came up to our table and signed up for the Militant and bought Is Socialist Revolution in the U.S. Possible? by Mary-Alice Waters,” another of the books offered at a discount during the drive.

Militant supporters in Albuquerque, N.M., and Cincinnati, Ohio, have joined the scoreboard this week, rising the global goal to 2,255! The campaign ends November 20.

This weekly column depends entirely on notes, reports and stories that distributors send us on experiences introducing the Militant to workers, farmers and youth. E-mail them by Tuesday at 8:00 a.m., New York time.
 
 
Related articles:
Fall 'Militant' subscription campaign Oct. 1-Nov. 20 (week 3) (chart).  
 
 
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