BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS
The first week of the subscription drive was a success. Nearly 230 industrial workers, students, and others signed up to get the Militant and its Spanish-language sister publication Perspectiva Mundial -slightly over where we should be. Militant supporters also sold at least 76 copies of the Marxist magazine New International.

One of the highlights of the week was the AFL- CIO-sponsored Ask a Working Woman conference in Washington, D.C. "Women unionists and labor activists bought a total of 26 subscriptions and 43 single copies of the Militant and four subscriptions to Perspectiva Mundial," reported Maggie Pucci, a rail worker and member of the United Transportation Union from the U.S. capital. About 1,700 people attended the gathering (see article on page 8). "Socialist workers also sold 10 copies of The Changing Face of U.S. Politics by SWP national secretary Jack Barnes, and one copy of its Spanish- language edition. We also sold another 41 books, including five copies of Woman's Evolution by Evelyn Reed."

Among the new subscribers, 10 opted for the special offer advertised on the front page. United Auto Workers member Willie Reid from Detroit sold five of the Changing Face- Militant subscription combinations. "I appealed to women who want to fight," she said. "The Changing Face explains the challenges the bosses face today with a workforce that is made up of more Blacks, Latinos, women, and young workers. This makes us stronger in organizing resistance." These results bode well for winning many new subscribers during the events surrounding the September 21-25 AFL-CIO convention in Pittsburgh.

A number of readers from the United States also report higher sales at plant gates at factories and mills where socialists have a consistent presence every week. "We have recently changed the location of our sale at the Firestone plant to a place where we can reach a larger part of the workforce," said a socialist worker from Des Moines, Iowa, in a September 7 note. "In the last three weeks we've sold four, nine, and then 11 copies of the paper there. People get their money out when they see us selling!"

Sales also picked up among young people. "We did four campus teams, two of which were longer than usual, where we sold five subs," reported Maggie McGraw, a member of the International Association of Machinists in Miami. Militant supporters in Miami are organizing a sales team to Puerto Rico October 16 -20, during the Claridad Festival where pro- independence forces will be prominent. They are inviting others to join them.

"Members of the Young Socialists chapter in Chicago set up a sales table at a concert of Rage Against the Machine," wrote Tami Peterson and Lieff Gutthiudaschmitt. "Between midnight and 12:20 a.m. we sold nearly $90 worth of Pathfinder literature - including three copies of Che Guevara Speaks - and 15 issues of the Militant. YS members also sold the first subscription of the sales drive here in Chicago." They also invited youth there to a YS class on Che Guevara's Socialism and Man in Cuba.

Socialist workers from Birmingham, Alabama, and Pittsburgh took part in a Labor Day picnic sponsored by the United Mine Workers of America in Racine, West Virginia. The union recently won a number of organizing victories at mines in that state and in western Kentucky. Salm Kolis from Pittsburgh reported that the socialists set up a booth and sold two Militant subscriptions - to a laid-off miner and a high school student, who also bought The Communist Manifesto.

Tom Alter, a YS National Committee member and meatpacker in Des Moines, said socialist workers are organizing a regional sales team to packing plants in the Midwest. Readers can join in by contacting Alter in Des Moines at the number listed on page 12.

"This weekend [September 13-14] we are sending a team to the Hunter Valley #1 mine where a strike for a contract just resumed," reported Bob Aiken from Sydney, Australia.

In California, socialists are organizing a sales and reporting team in the Sacramento area September 16 - 20. They will participate in a joint rally of Janitors for Justice and the United Farm Workers and then do door-to-door visits and other sales. If you want to go, call the Los Angeles or San Francisco numbers listed on page 12.

We urge all readers to join the effort. And continue to send us weekly reports on sales. As you can see from the chart, we did not get reports on New International sales from about 10 cities. Please send these by Tuesday each week, noon eastern standard time.  
 
 
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