"Campaigners in cities across the United States are doubling their bundles and making plans to go all out over the Memorial Day weekend," said Militant editor Martin Koppel. "We want to press on the campaign we've been carrying out in defense of the working class in Cuba and in the United States and push to get this issue into the hands of workers and farmers."

Koppel said reading and discussing the feature article "Cuban workers discuss reforms in factory management" in this issue would be the best preparation for an energetic political campaign among co-workers, union and farm fighters, and rebel-minded youth. "We should get back to those who bought a copy of the paper during the past weeks to encourage them to get this issue and a subscription. This goes for the PM as well. We're getting extra orders for the June issue of PM which features the article, "Two conflicting class views: Did U.S. win the Cold War? Are workers doing okay?"

As we enter the last days of the drive, supporters of the campaign are urged to send their latest sales results to the Militant by e-mail or fax by 5:00 p.m., Saturday, May 27. The results will be posted on the Militant's web site that evening. All subscriptions received in the Militant business office by noon on Wednesday, May 31 will be counted in the drive and printed in the scoreboard the next day.

Participants in the subscription effort across the country report how the recent actions by miners, including the May 17 rally in Washington, D.C., and the strike in New Mexico, provided a big impulse to the campaign. The Militant was well received by striking miners at the Pittsburg & Midway mine in Tse Bonito, New Mexico, and by miners at the Peabody Western Kayenta mine in Kayenta, Arizona.

Many workers at the two mines were interested in the Militant's coverage of the rally by mine workers, retired coal miners, and their supporters demanding the government continue to fund health care for retired miners and their dependents. During visits to the picket lines, coal portals, and mining communities a sales team in the region sold 70 copies of the paper and 10 subscriptions.

Candace Wagner from Pennsylvania wrote, "Through the subscription campaign so far, we've made progress in meeting young people and other workers in northeastern Pennsylvania who were excited to meet socialists. Many of them followed the news about the U.S. government's attack on Cuban sovereignty in the Elián González case, the commando-style raid in Miami, and the removal of demonstrators from the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. The articles in the Militant clarifying the interests of working people on these questions were welcomed

"Last Sunday we held a discussion at a local cafe in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on these articles. A student at Kings College who met a sales team at an apartment complex and another young woman who has been active in social protests participated. On the final weekend of the drive we plan to get back to Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, where we successfully turned back a legal challenge to our right to sell the paper door-to-door. Tamaqua is a town in the center of the coal mining region here."  
 

Some of those who bought the PM not only opposed the INS raid for the right reasons--as a dangerous precedent for more violations of democratic rights--but also supported Elián being repatriated to Cuba. A minority of the papers we sold were to workers from Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, and elsewhere in Latin America. The striking thing was that we didn't meet even a hint of hostility, including from right-wingers who laughed when we said we were selling a socialist newspaper published in the interests of working people.

One Cuban woman with rightist views about Cuba who said, "You can sell this paper here, but in Cuba there is no such freedom," bought a PM supplement after a discussion about attacks on democratic rights in the United States. Another Cuban, a former Eastern Airlines worker, expressed the view that "Cubans in Miami" have finally been initiated into the reality of what all workers face when it comes to the cops and the INS. He bought a PM and a supplement.

We plan to continue doing regular door-to-door sales and other political work there. It's a pleasure!

Altogether we sold 11 Militant subscriptions, 2 PM subs, 5 copies of New International, and 44 copies of the paper in the city and the region last week. We sold one subscription at a Haitian immigrants rights march and one at a vigil against police brutality commemorating the 20-year anniversary of the killing of Arthur McDuffy. He was killed by the cops, which sparked a rebellion in Overtown.

One team went to West Palm Beach, selling three subscriptions to Haitians at a Haitian flag day event and three more going door-to-door in Miami. Another team went to Orlando and sold one Militant subscription and one to PM in a mainly Puerto Rican neighborhood.

We also made some breakthroughs in our political work on the job, selling subscriptions to both the Militant and PM at an aerospace plant, a PM subscription to a union member at CSX railroad, and one copy of Nueva Internacional no. 3 to a worker at a garment shop.

We decided to double our initial order of the next issue. We have also completely sold out of Militant no. 18, featuring the article "INS assault in Miami: a blow to the working class" and would like to order 15 copies of that issue. We would also like to order another 20 PM supplements as well.  
 
 
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