BY MEGAN ARNEY
The slaughter in Yugoslavia shows every sign of deepening
and drawing in other countries. There is already a United
Nations intervention force there - so-called "peace-keeping"
troops - for the first time ever in Europe. We cannot predict
whether the war will expand, or foresee the forms an
escalation might take. Nor do we know how long the current
imperialist "peacekeeping" will take; we do know the longer it
takes, the more likely it is to turn into "peacebreaking." Our
job as communist workers is to demand a halt to the
imperialist intervention and fight every attempt to deepen it.
We need to keep speaking the truth about the stake workers
have in this struggle, and to support the toilers throughout
the Yugoslav workers state who are trying to defend their
social conquests and bring the butchery to an end."
- from "Youth and the Communist Movement" by Jack Barnes, 1992, in Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the Millennium
Pathfinder's newest book, Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the Millennium by Jack Barnes, is the most important book workers and youth can be reading and selling as Washington rains missiles down on the Yugoslav workers state.
At meetings in mid-March, Socialist Workers in seven industrial trade unions took a goal to sell 500 copies of the book. The goal includes books sold to co-workers and to workers and farmers on picket lines, protest rallies, conferences, and plant gate sales they organize to participate in as part of political work on the job and in the union.
The new mood and growing confidence among workers and farmers throughout the country have led to some good initial results (see list below). Mary Martin, a member of the International Association of Machinists in Washington, D.C., wrote to the Militant, "I sold my first copy of Capitalism's World Disorder on the job on March 15. Lawrence, an IAM- organized aircraft fueler, had asked me a couple weeks ago for a book that explained capitalism. He is in his mid-30s. He used to work at Eastern Airlines before the strike. Now he works two jobs and said he has reached the point in his life when he thought he needed to try to figure out what was going on with the `business world.' Lawrence said he had gone to a bookstore and they suggested a book by John K. Galbraith, but told him it was out of print.
"Another fueler who had bought books from me before told Lawrence to check out the ones I bring to work. But we kept missing each other. Finally, we met and I had the book with me. I showed it to Lawrence and he pulled out the money on the spot and paid for it," wrote Martin.
Susan Anmuth, a socialist worker in the United Auto Workers who works at Ford in Edison, New Jersey, sold six copies of Capitalism's World Disorder to co-workers in one week. She said the sales came after many discussions about working-class struggles today, from the sustained protests against the police killing of Amadou Diallo in New York to the strike by miners at the Jeddo Coal Co. in Pennsylvania and the fight by catfish workers in Mississippi for dignity. Anmuth reports that she systematically went through the book - from the cover, to the table of contents and the photographs. Several workers who purchased the book said they were interested in studying it with others.
Mike Galati, a meatpacker in New York, writes: "A Puerto Rican nationalist and a co-worker of mine with 26 years in the United Food and Commercial Workers bought a copy of Capitalism's World Disorder at a Militant Labor Forum protesting the Oscar to Elia Kazan. This is the second forum he has attended in the last few weeks.
"The sale came out of a number of discussions at work around the deepening resistance in the labor movement and the polarization in politics today. It all was a direct result of discussions at the forum, including with two members of the Young Socialists on the history of Puerto Rico's fight for self- determination; with other workers on the importance of building solidarity with the striking miners at Jeddo; and the fight against police brutality," Galati continues.
"He was convinced to buy the book as he saw that it really was a handbook for understanding and participating effectively in the growing working-class struggles on a number of fronts today."
Members of the socialist Workers Party are also meeting with supporters of the party to encourage them to join in the campaign to sell Capitalism's World Disorder.
The Militant staff encourages our readers to send in stories and photographs. Every week we'll have a chart, which is updated every Tuesday at noon.