"This past Sunday we held a class at our bookstore in Newark on The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning after setting up street tables in workers districts in two areas of the city where we are looking to establish a headquarters," said Nancy Rosenstock, who works at a garment shop in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. She said they sold 6 copies of the Militant, 1 PM subscription, 6 copies of The Transformation of Learning, and one each of Malcolm X on Afro-American History, Malcolm X Talks to Young People, and Puerto Rico: Independence is a Necessity.

"One of the people who came to the class is a Puerto Rican youth who works at Port Newark," said Rosenstock. "He had bought the new Pathfinder pamphlet along with a sub to the Militant during the circulation campaign. 'Clinton says he's for defending public education, but how can we take this seriously when he sends his daughter to a private school?' he said to us, noting the point made in the pamphlet on how schools for the working class and schools for the ruling class are qualitatively different things."

A young Black worker who came to the class decided to buy a subscription to the Militant. He had attended the Active Workers Conference held in July in Oberlin, Ohio. Both workers said they plan to attend the next class and the upcoming Militant Labor Forum featuring a reportback from the Guadalajara Book Fair in Mexico.  
 
Sales to newspaper strikers in Seattle
Ernie Mailhot, a meat packer in Seattle, said many unionists on strike against the Times and Post-Intelligencer were very interested in the article he wrote on their struggle. "We sold more than 30 copies of the Militant to strikers and their supporters at the December 2 march and rally," said Mailhot. "One striking member of the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild, who had been interviewed by the Militant a week earlier, read the Militant article on the newspaper strike while at the rally. 'It's really good. I liked it,' she said as she told her friend about the article."

Mailhot said that while rally participants were especially interested in the article on the newspaper strike, many bought the paper after seeing that it covered the growing labor resistance throughout the United States and around the world, as well as broader political questions. Several asked about the general strike in Argentina.

"A young striker at the P-I had gotten the paper at an earlier picket line," said Mailhot. "She pointed to the coverage of the Cuban revolution and stated, 'I'm really interested in that.'" Mailhot said she indicated she would show the paper to her roommates, at least one of whom is an anarchist. She planned to show him a recent Militant article headlined, "Anarchism vs. the revolutionary fight for state power," which included excerpts from the writings of Frederick Engels.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home