BY SALM KOLIS
PITTSBURGH - Lea Sherman reports that in the week after
socialist workers in the industrial unions took on the quota
of selling 500 copies of Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-
Class Politics at the Millennium to co-workers and through
political work in the unions, she sold her first copy to a
Machinist at the aerospace plant where she works in Houston.
"I decided to take the book to work, let other workers see what I'm reading, and talk to them about why they should do the same," Sherman said. "The first worker I showed it to was a guy who has been following discussions about the `new millennium.' His immediate response was, `I want this book.' "
The campaign, which runs through May 31, was launched at a national meeting of socialists who are members of the International Association of Machinists (IAM), United Auto Workers (UAW), United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), United Steelworkers of America (USWA) and Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) in Chicago March 13-14.
Over the next several days, members of the United Transportation Union (UTU) from across the United States and members of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers (PACE) in Houston also adopted quotas for the campaign.
Each week over the next two months, weekly sales updates, articles, and reviews of Capitalism's World Disorder will be organized by supporters here who are campaigning to sell the book. A team of three - Salm Kolis, a steelworker; Linn Hamilton, a retired dairy farmer; and Frank Forrestal, a rail worker and leader of the Socialist Workers Party's trade union and farm work - have volunteered to oversee this work.
"There are more political openings today, the result of a shift in politics. More workers and farmers are looking for ways to reach each other, for more solidarity," said Forrestal. "The book has the facts and ideas workers and farmers need to become conscious of our power to transform the world."
Discussion on war in Yugoslavia
One reason the book should be read today is because it
sheds light on the brutal war unfolding in Yugoslavia.
Capitalism's World Disorder explains, said Forrestal, that
the latest brutal imperialist assault, is not an "aberration,
but a foreshadowing of the direction of world politics," as
Jack Barnes, the author of the book puts it in the closing
chapter of the book.
Ellie García, a member of the UTU in Newark, sent the following note: "Three railworkers at Amtrak have picked up copies of Capitalism's World Disorder, however, there are other workers here who have looked through the book, have read portions of it, and are thinking about it.
"One such person is a young Polish immigrant who at first was reluctant to say what he thought about the US/NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. When I said working people had to demand U.S. and NATO out of Yugoslavia and at the same time demand independence for Kosova, he told me it was only a matter of time before a NATO bomber was brought down. He said the Yugoslav defense forces had technical superiority over those in Iraq, that this would not be the same thing that happened in Iraq.
"When I brought out Capitalism's World Disorder, he took the book and looked through it for the rest of the trip to Washington. The photos really caught his attention. I explained what some of the struggles captured in the photos were about, which he didn't know too much about such as the protest against racist frame-ups and discrimination. He took the book with him into the Washington station and after a while handed it back to me and said he would think about getting it."
Wider effort to be launched at Socialist Workers Party convention
The SWP's union fractions will focus on sales to co-workers
and to workers in their respective unions. As part of this,
socialists will include in their quotas books sold through
activities connected to broader trade union work that they
build on the job, such as at pickets and solidarity rallies,
among working farmers, and through other social struggles.
These initiatives will be the backbone of a bigger effort to sell the book that will be launched at the 14th Constitution Convention of the Socialist Workers Party taking place April 1-3 in San Francisco.
Convention delegates and guests who participate in a workshop on the effort will discuss how to immediately launch a broader effort, with every party branch taking quotas. In some areas supporters of the SWP have purchased an extra copy - or two or three - of Capitalism's World Disorder to sell to others. "We could have sold more at a meeting of supporters in Pittsburgh, if we hadn't underestimated the response. We sold 15 and had to order 20 more copies from Pathfinder," said Forrestal. One supporter bought five copies.
In order to focus on getting this campaign rolling, the proposal at the convention workshop will be to organize a subscription campaign for the Militant and its Spanish- language sister magazine Perspectiva Mundial in May and June - later in the year than usual.
Linn Hamilton, a retired dairy farmer from Washington, Pennsylvania, first saw Capitalism's World Disorder at the March 2 protest at the Federal Court Building in Washington, D.C., where farmers came to speak out against an unfair proposal to settle the claims of farmers who are Black who have lost or are losing their land as a result of government discrimination.
During a recess in the hearing, Hamilton looked through the book carefully. "I definitely want to get this book, but first I have to finish `U.S. Imperialism Has Lost The Cold War,' " in the magazine New International. A few days later, Hamilton picked up his copy and joined the Pathfinder Readers' Club at the same time. (At $10 a year, the Readers' Club allows for a 15 percent discount on all Pathfinder titles.)
At a March 26 Militant Labor Forum in Pittsburgh opposing the bombing of Yugoslavia, he said he had been reading the book. "I'm beginning to understand that when you look at things from the working-class point of view, it really helps you understand what's going on and what to do about it."
After the forum, Hamilton talked to an auto worker who has been thinking about getting the book for several weeks. Hamilton convinced him not to postpone the purchase any longer. "This is the book you need to get, it lays it all out there, how fascism, Stalinism, and imperialism are all enemies of the world-wide working class. It also shows how capitalism will use fascism in periods of economic and social crisis. It's the most important book in the store. You ought to get it tonight." The bookstore director chimed in that the auto worker could get the book and join the readers club at the same time. He left with the book and a reader's club membership that night.
Hamilton participated in staffing a socialist literature table at the March 28 solidarity rally in Niles, Ohio, to support steelworkers who are on strike against RMI Corp.
On the way back from the solidarity rally, Tony Prince, a member of UNITE from Cleveland, sold a copy of the book to a leader of a union struggle at a UNITE-organized plant in Cleveland who came to the rally with him. "We went through the book on the drive back to Cleveland and discussed what all the pictures were about," explained Prince.
Participants at the RMI rally bought five Pathfinder pamphlets, three catalogs, close to 50 copies of the Militant, and a subscription.
In Atlanta, eight people bought Capitalism's World Disorder during the tour of two young Cubans (see articles on page 12). Arlene Rubenstien, a member of UNITE, reports, "Selling the books wasn't hard. It naturally flowed out of the discussions about how Cuba fits into the world." All but one of the people who bought the book attended more than one of the meetings for the Cuban youth, because the political discussions at the meetings were so interesting.
Reports on sales of the books should be sent care of the Pathfinder bookstore in Pittsburgh, Fax: (412) 381-9785; E- mail 103122.720@compuserve.com