BY MICHAEL BAUMANN

Armed with books, pamphlets, newspapers, campaign statements, and leaflets for quickly called Militant Labor Forums, socialist workers and Young Socialists around the world fanned out this week to campaign against Washington's bombing of Iraq.

From Auckland to Brooklyn to Montreal, teams took part in demonstrations and picket lines, organized sales at plant gates and mine portals, and set up tables at universities and on street corners. Their actions were part of a stepped-up effort to bring working people and young rebels the facts they need to understand the connection between the war drive in the Middle East and the mounting assault on the social wage in the United States and elsewhere.

Initial reports indicate an increased interest in Pathfinder titles on the Middle East and the imperialist war drive, as well as in books explaining how working people can fight the related assaults on social security, medical care, and education.

Now is also the time to step up sales visits to non- Pathfinder bookstores, campus outlets and university departments, and libraries, suggesting titles on the Middle East that they can feature right now.

In Auckland, New Zealand, Communist League candidates Eugen Lepou and Annalucia Vermunt set the tone with a September 4 statement announcing, "Our campaign supporters will be stepping up sales of socialist literature, such as the issue of the Marxist magazine New International that contains `Opening Guns of World War III: Washington's Assault on Iraq.' " For openers, a special campaign table and protest is planned to take place in front of the U.S. consulate in central Auckland.

Communist League members in Christchurch, New Zealand, with plans for a similar campaign, placed a rush order for ten copies of the pamphlet Action Program to Confront the Coming Economic Crisis. And socialists in Cleveland looked at their stock and decided they could use five more copies of the latest New International, featuring the article "Imperialism's March toward Fascism and War," as well as another five of the issue on the Gulf War.

In New York, socialist workers took part in a midtown antiwar rally of 200 September 3. Susan Kim, 18, heard about the protest on WBAI, a local radio station. She snapped up a copy of the magazine New International that included the article "Opening Guns of World War III." Sales at the rally included three copies of New International, the pamphlet Genocide against the Indians, and at least a dozen copies of the Militant. The socialists also organized a special plant-gate sale at Bushwick Terminal, Brooklyn's garment center.

The day before, under a big banner reading "U.S. Hands Off Iraq!" in English, French, and Spanish, an all-day team at Brooklyn's massive Caribbean Day festival sold a total of 27 books. Among the titles most sought after were Maurice Bishop Speaks, by the leader of the 1979 revolution in Grenada who was later murdered in a Stalinist-led counterrevolution.

In Greensboro, North Carolina, an emergency news conference called September 3 by Socialist Workers candidates drew several people and resulted in a sale of a New International. Participants in the news conference called a picket line at the federal building for the following day, and several plan to attend a Militant Labor Forum scheduled for the weekend.

Pathfinder supporters, including Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. Senate David Salner, were among the 1,000 who attended the Labor Day picnic in Racine, West Virginia, sponsored by the United Mine Workers of America.

"The socialist campaign table - featuring a good selection of Pathfinder books, the Militant, and plenty of campaign literature - was a place for thoughtful political discussion with miners, their families, and other workers from the region," Estelle DeBates reports. "Many wanted to discuss their concern about the recent assaults on welfare. Most people saw this attack as related to other attacks on workers benefits including Black Lung, which is denied to many people who suffer from the disease." Five issues of the Militant were sold, along with a Pathfinder catalog.

The following day Salner and gubernatorial candidate Dennis Richter led teams to West Virginia University and a mine portal in Carmichael, Pennsylvania. "We decided the best piece of campaign literature we had was New International no. 7 and we adopted a goal to sell two copies during the week," DeBates said.

Supporters in Newark met September 3 and adopted a goal of selling 10 New Internationals within a week, reports socialist campaign suppporter Bob Miller, in New Jersey. The effort to sell the Marxist magazine will be part of the work around organizing a campaign news conference, a forum, and increased sales on the job, at local plant gates, and universities, Miller said.

Special Militant Labor Forums to speak out against the war drive will be used to introduce Pathfinder titles to new readers.

These efforts build on the upturn in sales from Pathfinder bookstores in August compared to the previous three months (see accompanying chart). Socialists around the world can use the opportunity of responding to world events in a timely and political manner to meet or exceed their goals in September.  
 
 
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