'Militant' subscription campaign kicks off
(feature article)
BY MAURICE WILLIAMS
With this issue the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial are launching a nine-week international campaign to win new readers to the two socialist periodicals. The drive includes sales of Pathfinder's newest title, The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning: The Fraud of Education Reform under Capitalism by Jack Barnes. The goals of the campaign are to sell 1,000 subscriptions to the Militant, 350 PM subs, and 1,500 copies of the pamphlet. The pamphlet is available for $1 to anyone purchasing a subscription to the Militant or PM.
The drive offers a great opportunity to campaign for the socialist alternative in 2000--James Harris, Margaret Trowe, and dozens of other working-class candidates challenging the Democrats and Republicans in the elections.
Socialists workers, Young Socialists, and other partisans of the Militant are mapping out plans for the drive that include regional teams, day-long tables at college campuses, special weekend mobilizations, sales to co-workers, and going door-to-door in working-class neighborhoods. Supporters will be participating in protest actions and other events, like the Latino book fair in Los Angeles where this past week a team sold $700 worth of literature, including eight Militant and PM subscriptions and several copies of the new pamphlet.
James Harris, the Socialist Workers candidate for president, spoke at the Labor Day rally of 2,000 in Charleston, South Carolina. A campaign team there sold two Militant subs and six copies of The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning. In California, Deborah Liaotos, socialist candidate for Congress, participated in an August 26 march and rally of 2,000 people. The action demanded amnesty and union rights for undocumented workers. Sales there included 4 copies of the new pamphlet, 10 PMs, 3 Militants, and 1 copy of Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the Millennium.
Elizabeth Lariscy, a partisan of the Militant and PM in Los Angeles, said she joined with dairy farmers who carried out a milk dumping protest action in Corcoran, California. "One dairy farmer who brought her children to the action bought a copy of the Militant and Capitalism's World Disorder" by Jack Barnes, said Lariscy. "She wasn't dumping milk but wanted to show solidarity with the action."
Participants in the circulation effort in Australia are also gearing up for the drive. During a visit of Socialist Workers vice-presidential candidate Margaret Trowe they sold five Militant subs, all with the special offer that includes the new Pathfinder pamphlet.
Another warm-up action for the sales campaign was the August 26 national march on Washington against cop brutality. Campaigners for the socialist press sold 14 Militant subscriptions, 230 copies of the paper, and 38 pamphlets at that demonstration. results reflect the growing opportunities to substantially bolster the paper's readership and recruit among youth and workers repelled by increasing cop violence meted out against the working class and its allies.
*****
Farm workers buy 'PM'
BY NED MEASEL
AND ELIZABETH LARISCY
FRESNO, California--A team of three socialist workers from Fresno, Los Angeles, and San Francisco attended the 15th constitutional convention of the United Farm Workers union here September 2 and 3. They observed the convention and through sales of the Militant, Perspectiva Mundial, and Pathfinder books and pamphlets introduced other participants to the Socialist Workers presidential campaign ticket of James Harris and Margaret Trowe.
Over the two days, 11 new subscribers to Perspectiva Mundial and 2 to the Militant signed up. Convention participants also purchased 45 books and pamphlets, totaling $425. Among them were two copies of New International no. 8, titled "Che Guevara and the Road to Socialism," and six copies of The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning.
*****
Sales to coal miners
BY JACK PARKER
TSE BONITO, New Mexico--"Here is $1.50," a miner said after he stopped his car and rolled down the window at the main gate entrance to the McKinley mine here. "I know how much effort you put into getting out your paper."
That coal miner was one of 32 who bought the Militant at a plant-gate sale held here September 2. That Saturday was an overtime day and not all of the 320 union members at the mine were working.
Many of those who stopped wore United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) hats showing support for their union.
The miners at McKinley just won a hard-fought 12-week strike against Pittsburg and Midway Coal Co., which the Militant covered on a weekly basis.
"We would like to get an extra paper to show around inside," one miner said as he and his friend handed one of the Militant salespeople a $5 bill. "We'll take one apiece and show the other to our friends."
"I would like to get the latest Militant," some miners said, explaining that they already had the issue with the coverage of their settlement. A couple of other unionists stopped to wish the sales team well and say they were subscribers to the paper.
Toward the end of the sale, one of the leaders of the strike stopped his car to say hello to the members of the sales team, several of whom he had previously seen on the picket line. He took a subscription blank and reached into his wallet for a $10 bill. "I'll get a subscription to the paper," he said. "Now that we are back to work I have some money. I want to keep up with what is happening with other unions."
UMWA miners at the Kayenta and Black Mesa mines in Arizona bought 17 copies of the Militant. On Sunday morning the team met over breakfast with one of the McKinley miners. The team also sold 10 copies of the Militant going door to door in Window Rock, Arizona. Altogether the team sold 59 papers and one subscription to the socialist paper.
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