"Another important component of our effort was giving a call to everyone who expressed interest in our forums or the Young Socialists," she said. "A Palestinian student at Macalester College, who had bought Che Guevara Talks to Young People previously, invited socialists to his dorm and decided to subscribe."

Three meat packers at Dakota Premium, where workers have been waging a long fight for union recognition and a contract, subscribed to Perspectiva Mundial this past week. A meat packer at another plant in the St. Paul area subscribed to the Militant after going with a couple of co-workers to a picket-line of the Minnesota state workers who are on strike. About a dozen strikers have picked up the paper, laying the groundwork for follow-up subscriptions.

Initiatives by campaigners in St. Paul can be emulated in the coming days and weeks to get the international campaign by socialist workers, Young Socialists, and other working people to sell 1,100 Militant and 500 Perspectiva Mundial subscriptions by November 18 back on target. After two weeks, the drive stands at 19 percent, with 206 Militants sold and 78 copies of Perspectiva Mundial.

The drive to win new readers to the socialist press, New International, and Pathfinder books through sales on campuses, in working-class districts, and meeting workers on the picket-line or a protest is a centerpiece of the working-class campaign against the imperialists' Afghan war and the attacks on workers' rights at home.

"We've sold another 30 Militant copies at mine portals, campuses, and on door-to-door sales last week, bringing our total to over 80 papers since the Jim Walter mine disaster, September 23," reported Bob Tucker from Birmingham, Alabama. Militant supporters from Atlanta, Detroit, New York, and other cities have come in to join the sales efforts in the coal communities. An activist in the Black Lung Association decided to purchase the Pathfinder pamphlet The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning by Jack Barnes.

"A young Black man we met in Birmingham said he agreed with the headline in the paper, 'End war against Afghan people,'" said Tucker. The young person said, "They're trying to make us put aside our struggles for the war. They're dropping a few boxes of crackers to try to convince us they are there for humanitarian reasons." After their discussion, the guy bought a copy of the paper.

Socialists in western Colorado traveled across three states to reach coal miners with the Militant's coverage on the Alabama mine disaster and on U.S. imperialism's Afghan war. At the Deer Creek Mine near Price, Utah, one miner bought a subscription and five others picked up a single copy. The team sold another nine papers at a nearby grocery store that many miners shop at.

"In the western Colorado area no local or regional papers have reported on the Alabama mine explosion," reported Jason Vergara. "Many miners who stopped when they saw our sign, 'Worst mine disaster since Wilberg fire! Company at fault in 13 deaths at Alabama coal mines,' said they had not heard about the accident. Others who knew about it wanted to learn more."

Vergara explained that at the Deserado Mine in Rangely, Colorado, a miner who buys the paper at every portal sale was encouraged to read the article on the mine explosion. He responded, "Yes, I've heard about that, but what I really want to read is your coverage on the Afghanistan war."  
 
Socialist candidates
In New York City, Socialist Workers candidates for mayor and city council hit the pavement campaigning against imperialism and war. Bill Estrada, Socialist Workers candidate for city council and a meat packer who is a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers, campaigned at a communist literature table in the working-class neighborhood of Washington Heights, October 7, the day the bombing of Afghanistan began. "Interest really picked up after the first reports of the bombings. There were times when our table was surrounded with people who wanted to discuss the war," Estrada reported.

One worker, originally from Ecuador, read through the September 11 statement by socialist mayoral candidate Martín Koppel opposing Washington's war moves and assault on workers rights. Based on the statement and his discussion with socialists at the table, he bought a subscription to Perspectiva Mundial and a copy of Nueva Internacional no. 4, containing "Imper-ialism's March Toward Fascism and War." Another PM subscription and a Militant subscription were also sold at the table.

Koppel joined three campaign tables in front of union-organized garment shops in New York's garment district this week, selling Perspectiva Mundial and the Militant and getting out statements to interested workers. Koppel joined a couple hundred mainly young demonstrators at Times Square, October 8, to protest the U.S. war in Afghanistan. A dozen people snatched up the paper and some college students expressed interest in having Koppel speak on their campuses.

Ilona Gersh and Mike Fitzsimmons reported that two teams of socialists from Cleveland and Detroit went down to Cincinnati, where there were recent protests against the exoneration of the cop charged with murdering Timothy Thomas, a 19-year-old Black youth.

A student who recently called the Socialist Workers Party National Office to get more information about the socialist movement joined a day-long literature table on her campus, Northern Kentucky University. She had already mailed in her subscription and picked up New International no. 7, featuring "Opening Guns of World War III," and The Working-Class and the Transformation of Learning at the table.

A young machinist at Comair, and member of the International Association of Machinists, said he was glad to see the coverage on the Alabama mine disaster, since workers at Comair had recently gone through a pilots strike at the airline. He picked up a copy of the paper.

The Cincinnati teams sold two subscriptions and 16 single copies of the Militant.  
 
 
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