BY MAURICE WILLIAMS
"We passed out leaflets at the plant gate where Ardella
Blandford works announcing a press conference to launch her
campaign as the Socialist Workers candidate for mayor of
Birmingham, Alabama," said Susan LaMont. "We also sold three
copies of the Militant."
"Some of my co-workers are excited that I'm running," said Blandford, a member of the United Auto Workers at Pemco, an aerospace manufacturing facility. "A couple of co-workers are getting involved in political activities, including one who raised $100 to get a van to drive to the March 2 rally in Washington, D.C., called by the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association (BFAA)."
LaMont, a member of the United Steelworkers, participated in a February 20 meeting in Durham, North Carolina, by the BFAA (see front page article). "About 120 people attended the conference, mostly farmers," said LaMont. "They appreciated the Militant's coverage of their struggle and are thirsty for information and connection with other struggles."
LaMont said they were especially interested in the Militant's coverage of the farmers who met in Albany, Georgia, and discussed the USDA settlement; farmers from Northern Ireland on tour in the United States; and an article in a previous issue of the paper that showed BFAA leader Eddie Slaughter speaking at a rally of oil workers in Pasadena, Texas, who are locked out from the Crown refinery.
"Participants bought 18 copies and four subscriptions to the Militant, and several Pathfinder titles, including Farmers Face the Crisis of the 1990s and Fighting Racism in World War II," she said.
LaMont said supporters of the Militant are also in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, attending one among a series of meetings being organized across the country to discuss the terms of the USDA consent decree.
Supporters of the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial in Birmingham and other cities around the world are at the midpoint in a four-week drive to win subscription renewals and sell copies of the two publications. The campaign has fallen slightly behind schedule, but with an extra push over the next two weeks we can make the goals. The Militant urges its supporters to send in pictures of sales activities, reports on sales at plant gates, discussions with co-workers, at campuses, and on regional sales teams like the one below.
AUCKLAND, New Zealand - We made a three-hour drive from here to Rangiuru in the Bay of Plenty, a meat packing plant owned by AFFCO February 22. The company is carrying out a restructuring program involving plant closures and attacks on workers' conditions. One worker pointed to two placards the team had prepared, saying he agreed with one that read "Protest Attacks on Conditions at Rangiuru and Moerewa," another AFFCO plant. He disagreed with another sign opposing the imperialist bombing of Iraq. After a friendly discussion of about five minutes, he bought a copy of Militant, saying he was prepared to consider the view expressed in it. We sold 12 papers to workers at the plant that day.
This sale is part of our campaign here to reach out to workers in export meat plants -an effort that has taken us to a number of areas around the North and South Islands. Sales at plant gates are also an important part of Militant promotion in Auckland. Workers at the wharf here have regularly bought between two and five papers.