As U.S. planes bomb Bosnia and the big-business media is busy justifying this escalation of imperialist intervention, a different kind of battle plan is about to be put into action. Hundreds of readers and supporters of this newspaper in several countries will hit the streets September 23, armed with the Militant, the Spanish-language Perspectiva Mundial, and New International magazine - powerful political weapons that provide working people with the truth and a working-class perspective on the world.
In this drive, Militant supporters will place a premium on selling in working-class communities, introducing the paper to co-workers, joining picket lines, campaigning on campuses, and fielding teams to take the socialist press to regions outside their cities. Organizing a Militant army to campaign in this way is the best way to cast a wide net and sell subscriptions to the broadest number possible of first- time readers over the next eight weeks.
We invite every one of our readers to join this effort. In dozens of cities, working-class and young political activists are mapping out their plan for the first eight days - a special target week to get the subscription drive in full swing from the start. The goal of Militant readers in every city should be to get ahead of schedule by the end of this first week. This will be a key element in maintaining a steady campaign pace, week by week, to the last day.
This is a favorable time to broaden the readership of the socialist press. One sign is the positive response to young people who took part in last month's Cuba Lives! festival and are now getting out the truth about the Cuban revolution to a wide audience. Struggles by working people today, from the anticolonial upsurge in French-controlled Tahiti to the Detroit newspaper strike, are further indications of the political openings available to working- class campaigners.
In recent weeks Militant supporters have found a warm reception everywhere they go, as sales at numerous Labor Day actions indicate. Selling the socialist press is an important way to test the breadth of this political space.
To reach readers who have never been introduced to the Militant before, campaigners are taking a number of special steps. They are placing a bigger emphasis on selling the paper door to door in working-class neighborhoods. They are going to new areas or places they haven't been to in a while; targeting neighborhoods with many Spanish speakers with Perspectiva Mundial; and going to outlying regions to reach farm workers, city workers, farmers, students, and others.
Experiences in areas that have done well show that organizing special efforts early in the drive is key to building the necessary momentum throughout the eight weeks. Another vital ingredient for a campaign atmosphere is picking a weekly "movement day" in each area, such as Saturday or Sunday, when the maximum number of Militant supporters are able to go out in several teams and campaign together.
The Militant Fund is being launched simultaneously with the subscription drive and goes hand in hand with it. As with the sales campaign, the key to success in the effort to finance the socialist publications is to reach out broadly for contributions among working people and youth who agree that the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial are essential.
Payments on pledges to the fund are needed now. Public fund-raising meetings in the early weeks of the drive will maximize these efforts.
It's now up to all of us as Militant readers to get the socialist press into the hands of thousands of working people and to raise the necessary funds to sustain its publication. Onward to making both of these campaigns a success!