Reports in this issue from meetings of socialist workers in the garment and textile industries and the coal mines show the kind of political work that can be carried out on the job over the coming weeks as part of meeting the international goals in the subscription and pamphleteering campaign. The Militant will accept all subscriptions received until noon on Wednesday, June 13, when we go to press.

Efforts in the circulation campaign got a political boost this past week with the publication of Cuba and the Coming American Revolution by Jack Barnes. It is one of the three Pathfinder titles that are part of the drive. Sales of the new book, together with the pamphlets The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning and Pathfinder was Born with the October Revolution jumped by 285 this past week.

"We’re selling the book and pamphlets like crazy right now," wrote Nell Wheeler from San Francisco. At a Militant Labor Forum featuring a presentation by high school students who had recently returned from Cuba, two participants signed up for subscriptions to the Militant along with The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning. Several more purchased Cuba and the Coming American Revolution after a discussion about politics in the United States.

The next day socialist workers joined a rally for racial justice in San Jose where several people who had seen the Militant before decided to sign up to get the paper on a regular basis and three picked up the new book. At a protest march of 700 to demand equal rights for immigrants, one participant recognized himself on the front cover of a recent issue of the Militant, and signed up for a subscription to Perspectiva Mundial. Another three marchers also purchased PM subscriptions and the new title with the subscription.

"We sold six copies of the new book and two copies of the Transformation of Learning at the demonstration," Wheeler said. "Over the course of the weekend we sold 21 of these titles. Twice weekly tables in New York’s garment district are becoming recognized by more working people in the area who return for more discussion. This past Sunday a team sold three subscriptions to Perspectiva Mundial and one to the Militant and three of the new subscribers purchased a copy of Cuba and the Coming American Revolution. A total of $153 of Pathfinder literature was purchased by workers from the table.

One young woman was excited to meet socialists. "I’m a socialist too!" she said. "I’m so glad to finally meet some people who think like I do." She picked up a copy of Playa Girón/Bay of Pigs: Washington’s First Military Defeat in the Americas along with a subscription to the Militant.

Two days later a garment worker originally from Ecuador who had read some of Karl Marx’s Capital purchased State and Revolution by V.I. Lenin from an early morning plant gate table. Earlier in the week another garment worker who had received a flyer on the Pathfinder bookstore stopped by the store, purchased a subscription to Perspectiva Mundial and a copy of The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning.  
 
Young Socialists win new readers
Bernard Isley, a 24-year-old carpenter apprentice and YS member, joined a sales team at the University of Pittsburgh that sold 10 copies of the Militant. "I also posted leaflets on campus to build the upcoming Militant Labor Forum," said Isley. "We are very close to having a YS chapter here through our efforts in organizing a delegation to the Cuba-U.S. Youth Exchange and other political activities.

YS members are also planning to go with others to the protest against cop brutality in Ohio. One person interested in joining the communist movement came to the forum this past weekend and bought a Militant subscription, a copy of The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning, and the new Pathfinder book Cuba and the Coming American Revolution."

Osborne Hart, a meat packer in Detroit, said socialist workers in that city are "planning a number of activities here, which include attending the conference at the University of Michigan to defend affirmative action and the June 2 demonstration against the cop killing of Timothy Thomas in Cincinnati. Support is growing for the action in Cincinnati, which has been endorsed by Thomas’s mother, a number of unions, political organizations, and the Black clergy," he said.

"One of my co-workers is considering the June 9 rally in South Carolina to defend the Charleston dockworkers," said Connie Allen, a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE), from Charlotte, North Carolina. "He was frustrated about the large layoffs recently announced by the company and said to me, ‘I really want to read that book on the coming American revolution that I was reading about in the Militant.’ He took advantage of the special offer and subscribed to the Militant, purchased a copy of Cuba and the Coming American Revolution, as well as the pamphlet The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning."

Socialist meat packers in Omaha, Nebraska, said they used Memorial Day to get out to Columbus, Nebraska, about a two-hour drive. "We went to a large trailer park, where we sold three PM subs, all to meat packers," the team wrote. "The first subscription was sold to a worker we met two or three weeks ago. Later we had a meeting to map out a plan for the rest of the sales drive. Our biggest challenges are the Militant and pamphlet goals. We discussed trying to follow up on a number of people who expressed interest in Militant subscriptions this week. We will also be calling all of our current subscribers to talk with them about getting a copy of the new book and the pamphlets."

Participants in the circulation campaign are also getting back to areas where working people have been involved in labor battles and other social struggles. For example, socialist workers in Allentown, Pennsylvania, went back to the Hollander Home Fashions plant in Frackville May 25. The UNITE members had recently ended a three-week strike after winning improvements in the health insurance plan.

"This was the first time we sold the Militant at the plant gate since the workers approved a contract to end their strike," they wrote. "Many of the workers had money in their hands to buy the latest issue of the paper as they drove out of the plant. A couple of workers told us that word got around in the plant that ‘you would be coming and we should have our money ready.’"

They sold 26 copies of the Militant within 10 minutes. "Cars were lined up behind a stop sign to get the paper and no one honked their horn to protest the delay caused by the sales effort," they reported.  
 
 
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