BY MAURICE WILLIAMS
Distributors and readers of the Militant will kick off a seven-week subscription campaign March 8 to April 26, after organizing a successful renewal drive. They will visit picket lines, plant gates, go door-to-door in working-class communities, participate in political events, set up literature tables on campuses, and sell the socialist press to co-workers. Socialist workers, Young Socialists, and others plan to win 1,400 new readers to the Militant, 450 subscribers to Perspectiva Mundial, its sister publication in Spanish, and sell 600 copies of the Marxist magazine New International.

Militant supporters wrapped up the renewal drive selling 338 subscriptions -134 percent of the goal of 250. There were 60 Perspectiva Mundial readers that renewed, short of the goal of 125. Overall, nearly 400 readers signed up to keep reading both publications - more than the total goal of 375. The renewal effort was aimed at broadening the number of regular, long-term readers of the communist press and following up on the initial contact with subscribers by selling them Pathfinder books.

"We sold eight renewals to co-workers at Shell Oil and Lyondel-Citgo refineries," wrote Patti Iiyama, an oil worker in Houston. "While they liked reading about a range of subjects, most particularly appreciated the articles on safety issues in the refineries, airlines, and railroads." Several of the renewals were sold "as a direct result of the Militant editorial entitled `Safety is a union question,' because it addresses many of the problems that workers in the refineries are increasingly grappling with today and points a way forward," she added.

Iiyama said communist workers in Houston were "enthusiastic" about the renewal campaign because it helped focus attention on co-workers who had been reading the Militant for years. "We lost some long-term subscribers because we paid scant attention to long-term Militant readers at the refineries."

Eight workers at the Ford auto plant in Edison, New Jersey, renewed their Militant subscriptions. "One Perspectiva Mundial subscriber from Palisades Park, New Jersey, bought a six-month renewal as well as several Pathfinder titles, including El Diario del Che en Bolivia (Che's Bolivian diary), El manifiesto comunista (The communist manifesto), and Che Guevara Speaks," said rail worker Lee Oleson in Newark, New Jersey.

Another rail worker, United Transportation Union member Karen Kopperud in Greensboro, reports she sold four renewals to her co-workers at Amtrak. Lisa Potash, a textile worker at the Karastan Rug Mill in Greensboro, said two members of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) where she works renewed their subscriptions to the Militant. "We want to approach them for written testimonials in support of the paper," she said.

Winning class-conscious workers and young fighters to publicly endorse the socialist press or speak at fund raising events are good ways to broaden its readership.

The drive to win new readers will build on the momentum of the renewal effort. Supporters of the subscription campaign will reach out to help recruit dozens of young rebels to the communist movement and invite them to attend the national convention of the Young Socialists, scheduled for March 28-30 in Atlanta. Socialists will also sell subscriptions and Pathfinder books to those they are working with to build and participate in the Young Feminist Summit, which will be held in Washington, D.C. April 11-13.

Black farmers are organizing a conference on Black Land Loss in Enfield, North Carolina, March 20-23. A number of them organized a protest at the White House in December and bought subscriptions to the Militant.

Socialist worker Stu Singer in Washington, D.C., said campaigners for the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial were invited to attend the conference and set up a literature table. "We will find a number of people interested in the broadest discussions of world politics and the crisis of capitalism participating in the Land Loss conference," said Singer.

Militant supporters are urged to send sales stories and pictures of political events and other sales activities every week. These reports will strengthen the sales drive and reflect the response of workers, fighters and youth to the campaign over the next two months.  
 
 
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