A second aspect of the drive is to sell hundreds of copies of Cuba and the Coming American Revolution, by Jack Barnes. The book is available in English, French, and Spanish and will be offered for only $10 for the duration of the circulation campaign.

Over the past months the socialist publications have been welcomed by, among others, coal miners and participants in protests condemning police brutality across the United States; unionists at the 20,000-strong march in Victoria, British Columbia; and working people and youth at rallies to oppose the brutal treatment of immigrants by the Australian government. Many are interested in reading the Militant or Perspectiva Mundial not only because of the coverage provided of their own struggles but for the wide range of articles on U.S. and world politics presented in the pages of the two publications.

Reading the Militant, Perspectiva Mundial, and Pathfinder books is a crucial way for anyone involved in a struggle against the bosses to gain a broader view of similar battles today, as well as the fundamental reasons for the imperialists' assaults on workers and farmers at home and abroad. The publications also provide working people and youth with an introduction to the communist movement and an explanation of why they need to be a part of building proletarian parties and the Young Socialists in the country where they live.

As the article on the opposite page about the increase in Pathfinder sales in the United Kingdom points out, setting up regular literature tables in workers districts surrounding Pathfinder bookstores is among the best ways to expand the readership of the socialist press. Especially during a time of increased political polarization over questions such as imperialist war, attacks on democratic rights, racist killings by cops, and other political questions, having an established public presence on a street corner provides a lively forum for discussions among workers and a place many can count on to find the Militant or a book they have been thinking about purchasing. In several cities, workers who have recently joined the communist movement first met socialists at one of these tables.

As communist workers establish themselves as fractions in the garment, meatpacking, and coal mining industries, opportunities for winning new readers are opening up. By far the most interest and consistent results have been from coal miners, who are buying the Militant on the job, at mine portals, and union events. Many in these regions are interested in the fight by coal miners and their widows for federal black lung benefits, and struggles to defend safety on the job. Fielding more teams to the coalfield communities and mine portals will be a feature of the circulation campaign.

There is also a small but growing readership of Pathfinder and the socialist press among garment and meatpacking workers. In the last subscription drive members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union sold 55 subscriptions to the Militant, and 67 to Perspectiva Mundial. The ongoing union-organizing struggles in the Midwest, and the initial stages of a social movement interconnected with these fights, show the continued opportunities along these lines.  
 
The coming American Revolution
Socialists in the unions will be discussing how to utilize Cuba and the Coming American Revolution to discuss central questions in world politics with their co-workers, including the prospects for building revolutionary parties in Canada, New Zealand, the United States, and elsewhere. The book offers workers an introduction to the communist movement, pointing to "the example set by the people of Cuba that revolution is not only necessary--it can be made," as the back cover of the book explains.

Cuba and the Coming American Revolution explains that the exploiting classes promote the myth that working people can never organize to make a revolution, never mind reorganize all of society to meet the needs of humanity. The capitalist rulers tend to make workers and farmers underestimate what they can accomplish and to doubt our own worth, the book points out.

Mary-Alice Waters answers this claim in the introduction. "What the workers and farmers of Cuba showed us," Waters writes, "is that with class solidarity, political consciousness, courage, focused and persistent efforts at education, and a revolutionary leadership of high caliber like that in Cuba, tested and forged in battle over the years, it is possible to stand up to enormous might and seemingly insurmountable odds and win."

This revolutionary perspective is why socialist workers will be organizing a week-by-week campaign to get the book into the hands of as many workers, farmers, and youth as possible, along with the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial.

The increased number of book tables, work on the job, and door-to-door sales will also help expand the building of the weekly Militant Labor Forums as a place where working people and youth can discuss a proletarian course to confront the horrors of capitalism. They will be an aid in bringing people to Pathfinder bookstores where the full selection of books and pamphlets distributed by the publishing house are available.

Over the last several weeks, the Militant has been well received by working people who are hungry for answers to the growing brutalities of capitalism. At a protest in front of a Brooklyn federal detention center March 23 demanding the release of detainees locked up after September 11, 12 people bought the Militant and several Pathfinder books.  
 
Recent sales successes
In the first 16 days of the Lockheed strike in Marietta, Georgia, workers picked up 34 copies of the socialist paper, which has covered their fight against outsourcing work and for increased health coverage premiums from the day they walked out. Twelve participants in a protest in front of a federal detention center March 23, demanding the release of people held under the pretext of "fighting terror," bought the paper.

In order to run a scoreboard with goals for the circulation campaign, please send information on the local goals and plans for a big kickoff week into the Militant by the end of the day April 8. We encourage participants in the drive to send in notes or articles about their experiences. And pictures of sales at literature tables, plant gates or mine portals, and protest actions are also encouraged. Specifications for submitting a photograph or article to the Militant can be found at themilitant.com.  
 
 
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