The fall subscription campaign ended with a magnificent finish--going well over the Militant goal. With momentum building steadily throughout the drive, in the final week the campaign shot over the top, finishing at 1,246 Militant subscriptions--113 percent of the goal. See final chart.

A total of 441 subscriptions were sold to Perspectiva Mundial--88 percent of the goal. Supporters also sold 803 copies of several books--Capitalism’s World Disorder and three issues of New International magazine: "The Opening Guns of World War III," "Imperialism’s March Toward Fascism and War," and "U.S. Imperialism Has Lost the Cold War."

By the last day of the Pathfinder Fund, more than $107,000 had been collected and sent in. Almost $6,500 more was collected and is being sent in, for a grand total of more than $113,000! See final chart.

The fund is essential for Pathfinder Press to carry out its ambitious publishing programs. The next title to come off the presses will be Malcolm X Talks to Young People in both English and Spanish.

In the subscription drive, campaigners in several cities that were behind turned things around in the last week. Substantial progress was also made on the subscription goals in the unions. Meat packers in the United States snapped up 21 subscriptions to the Militant in the final week, making the goal of 50 that had been set by socialist meat packers. Sales to garment workers and coal miners fell short of the respective goals, however.  
 
Sales to meat packers
"Sales to workers in two meatpacking plants where supporters of the Militant work led the final week of the drive in Minnesota to victory," reported Becky Ellis. Eleven workers from meatpacking plants in the state signed up for subscriptions to the Militant and 22 subscribed to Perspectiva Mundial during the 10-week drive.

In the last week Kari Sachs, who recently ran as the Socialist Workers candidate for governor of Minnesota, sold three Militant subscriptions to co-workers at the packing plant in South Minneapolis where she works. One of her co-workers came to a Militant Labor Forum at the Pathfinder bookstore in St. Paul on the recent contract victory and ongoing struggle by packinghouse workers at Dakota Premium Foods. At the forum he signed up for a subscription and bought a copy of New international no. 7 with the article "The Opening Guns of World War III."

Several subscriptions were sold at weekly sales at the gates of two meat-packing plants where socialists in the Twin Cities work. In the last week two campaigners went to a packinghouse in Long Prairie, Minnesota, and sold at the shift change. The team had dinner with a worker in the boning department at that plant and she bought a subscription to the Militant. They also campaigned door-to-door in a nearby neighborhood where they met another worker from the plant who signed up for a PM sub.

In Omaha, Nebraska, meat packers signed up for 7 Militant and 19 Perspectiva Mundial subscriptions. Many of the new subscribers are workers at the Swift plant who recently won their first union contract.

Several partisans of the socialist press from Nebraska went to Dennison, Iowa, where working people had been outraged about the discovery of the bodies of 11 immigrant workers inside a rail car. They were trapped trying to cross the border from Mexico. The campaigners also sold the socialist publications at a big meatpacking plant there and met other packinghouse workers while going door-to-door.  
 
Comeback stories
"On Saturday morning we had 15 Militant subs left to sell," reports Dan Fein, sales director in New York’s Garment District. "It was chilly and rainy all weekend, so we got on the phone. We called people we met during the election campaign and lined up appointments to visit them. We got three subscriptions through these visits."

The campaigners stopped by the home of one individual who works as a cutter in a unionized garment plant in Brooklyn. He said that he has been working in garment plants in New York since 1968. His introduction to the socialist press was through meeting another socialist employed at the plant where he works. He purchased a subscription and a copy of New International no. 7. Through door-to-door sales, campaigners in the Garment District sold seven subs that Sunday.

The next day at a table at Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), five people signed up for subscriptions to the Militant. Fein reported that the last subscription was clinched when one person decided to sign up and then took the team over to an ATM to be able pay for it. Through the course of the Socialist Workers election campaign, weekly tabling and soapboxing teams at BMCC have become a familiar sight--dubbed "the socialist rally" by a student who frequently stops by.

Despite the weather, supporters of the Militant in the Garment District surpassed their quota in the final two days, selling 83 out of a goal of 80 Militant subscriptions.

In Tampa, Florida, supporters of the Militant had seven subscriptions left to make their goal before the final weekend. Their efforts got a boost when 12 students from the University of South Florida--where Cuban revolutionary leader Víctor Dreke spoke on November 12--attended a Militant Labor Forum entitled "Cuba and the Coming American Revolution." Six of the students at the forum had participated in the security teams at the meetings for Dreke in both Tampa and Atlanta.

Two people signed up for Militant subscriptions and several books and pamphlets were sold at the forum. The remaining five subscriptions were sold through calling co-workers and others and visiting them over the weekend. While they were closing in on the goals, supporters were also soliciting contributions to the international Pathfinder Fund.

A fund-raising program in Washington on November 9 attracted youth and workers to help go over the top in the campaign there. "Not only did we get a good collection, but got another $145 in pledges," Nancy Boyasko reports. "A worker at the unionized Smithfield meatpacking plant attended and pledged $5, and this will be the second contribution from workers there." Speakers at the program included Michel Watts, a member of the Young Socialists, who described how he first got hold of a Pathfinder book, Lenin’s Final Fight, while studying Marxist philosophy in Cuba.

"He especially liked the minicatalogs in the final pages of ads in the book," said Boyasko, and he convinced his neighborhood Borders bookstore to place special orders with Pathfinder for him.  
 
 
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