BY NAOMI CRAINE
We're off! With this issue of the Militant, supporters of the socialist paper will kick off an ambitious eight-week international drive to sell 1,950 introductory subscriptions to the Militant. Supporters have also taken goals of selling 525 subscriptions to the Spanish-language monthly Perspectiva Mundial and 750 copies of the Marxist magazine New International.
To get the drive off to a strong start, socialist workers and youth are mobilizing for a September 23 - October 1 "target week," where a special effort is made to get out to working-class areas, political events, and college campuses.
Supporters in Des Moines report that they are geared up for "a Saturday-Sunday blitz" the first week of the drive, including several regional trips. A team of them will go to Austin, Minnesota, where packinghouse workers at Hormel just rejected a contract offer, to sell the Militant door to door.
Another team will be headed for Iowa City, Iowa, to sell at the university there. They will be hitting the trailer parks where many meatpackers live in Perry, Iowa, and travel to Sioux City, Iowa, for a reportback from Cuba by two Native American activists who participated in the recent international youth festival there.
Target week plans
"We've already sold eight or nine subs just setting
up Socialist Workers election campaign tables" before
the drive starts, said Helen Meyers from Philadelphia.
She described some of the issues workers and young
people raise at these tables. "There's a lot of
discussion about the death penalty and Mumia Abu-
Jamal's case," she said. On one recent table "we had a
discussion on affirmative action and the fight for jobs
for all. Another young woman wanted to discuss the role
of Malcolm X - she said the books of his speeches that
Pathfinder publishes are just what she's been looking
for."
During the target week, Militant supporters in Philadelphia plan to travel to York, Pennsylvania, where United Auto Workers members are on strike against Caterpillar. "We'll go to the picket lines, set up tables at a couple of local universities, and also go door to door. The Caterpillar strike has had an impact on the community as a whole," Meyers noted.
While the drive is to sell introductory subs, the campaign atmosphere will encourage many current subscribers to renew. One Militant supporter in Philadelphia who sold a subscription to a co-worker at the airport last spring reported the reader gave her his renewal after receiving a notice from the Militant that his sub was about to expire. Readers like him will be good candidates to buy the New International, which goes more in depth into many questions taken up in the Militant. They are also potential contributors to the Militant Fund, which runs simultaneously with the sub drive.
Supporters in Chicago faxed a note to the Militant saying they have taken subscription goals for that week that would put them ahead of schedule in the drive. Several readers there are planning to take a day or more off of work that week to participate in all-day teams.
In Atlanta, Mike Italie reports supporters have been getting into the swing of sales in the week leading up to the drive "by going to working-class areas we haven't been in a long time. For example, last week we sold 14 papers in a short time in one neighborhood where there were a lot of exposures of cop brutality." The Militant Labor Forum the day before the sub drive starts will be on the issue of police brutality.
Young socialists back drive
Tom Alter, a member of the Young Socialists in
Bloomington, Indiana, called up the Militant to say he
and other YS members in that state have decided to take
a goal of selling 10 Militant subs. "We're encouraging
all YS members to get into the drive, including
internationally," said Jack Willey, a member of the YS
steering committee. Young Socialists can take on their
own goal, like in Indiana, "or collaborate with members
of the Socialist Workers Party and others if you're in
a city where there's already a goal."
The extra strength of young people joining in the drive may mean supporters in some cities can raise their goals.
Militant supporters in several cities who aren't yet listed on the chart are planning to take goals. Larry Lane, a laid off General Electric worker said he was sure Albany, New York, will soon be on the chart. "You can see the potential," he said. "I've been in a training program at Hudson Valley Community College with 200 other laid off GE workers. There's thousands of young workers there - the possibilities for political work are almost unlimited." He and other supporters sold nearly $100 worth of socialist literature at a local Labor Day event. Three workers there bought different issues of New International.
"We're going to take our table to a Hispanic fair for the kick-off of the drive and build the October 21 demonstration in New York" protesting Washington's policies against Cuba.
"The Detroit newspaper strike is quite well known around here," Lane noted, discussing other openings for selling subscriptions. "There's a lot happening around Ireland too. Five hundred people came to a commemoration of the cease-fire in Northern Ireland organized by Irish Northern Aid, including a lot of young people," he said.
Supporters in several cities who initially adopted low goals are taking another week to rediscuss them and come up with goals that challenge them to stretch and reach out to new readers for the entire eight weeks of the drive. Readers who are members of various trade unions are also in the process of adopting subscription goals. Members of the United Auto Workers, for example, have taken goals of selling 65 Militant subs, 10 Perspectiva Mundial subs, and 17 copies of New International. Supporters who are members of the International Association of Machinists and United Steelworkers of America also sent in their sales targets. Next week's chart will include the goals for sales in the unions.
Get your by-line in this column!
The Militant is looking for short articles on how supporters are carrying out the subscription drive. You can describe where you're selling, who's buying subscriptions, and why they decide to check out a socialist newsweekly published in the interests of working people.
To get your sales totals into the weekly chart, subscriptions and reports on New International sales must be received in the Militant by Tuesday at 5:00 p.m.