Frank Forrestal reported October 12 that sales teams had gotten out to three strike-vote meetings that led up to the October 11 walkout at the Vons chain. “One woman was drawn to the Militant’s coverage of the Utah coal miners’ fight to organize a union,” Forrestal said. “She took out a $10 introductory subscription, and told us that her father had worked in a Pennsylvania coal mine.”

Workers there also bought more than 40 copies of the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial, and two Pathfinder pamphlets: the Communist Manifesto and The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning by Jack Barnes.

Turning to these kinds of political openings has helped Militant supporters in Los Angeles keep up the momentum in the eight-week drive to sell 950 Militant subscriptions, 400 subscriptions to Perspectiva Mundial, and 500 Pathfinder books with subscriptions.

At the end of week two, campaigners had sold 217 Militant subscriptions, or 23 percent of the goal—just behind where we should be. Sales of Perspectiva Mundial subscriptions are at 35 percent. Book sales are lagging, however, as the chart shows.

In a note accompanying the addresses of ten new subscribers, Jacob Perasso in Omaha pointed out the interest that the coverage of the fight in Utah has sparked among those looking to resist the attacks of the employers and their government.

“A team sold three Militant subscriptions in a working-class district this past week,” he said. “A meatpacking worker who said he was glad to hear about the union-organizing victories at a couple of plants here that have been reported in the Militant.”

Perasso also reported that “a worker at the Swift plant here bought a subscription to PM from a co-worker.” Workers at Swift are working under a United Food and Commercial Workers contract after scoring a victory in an organizing drive last year.

Jim Spaul said that he and another socialist worker had paid a visit to picketing rail workers in London. “When we showed workers the Militant,” Spaul said, “one said to another, ‘That’s the paper you lost yesterday.’ The guy bought another copy, pleased to be able to replace the one that had gone walkabout.”

Ruth Robinett reported from New York that students at an English class at the Borough of Manhattan Community College bought several copies of the Militant and a number of Pathfinder titles after hearing a brief presentation by Paul Pederson, a Socialist Workers Party candidate for New York City Council. A student had arranged the invitation with his teacher.

Among the titles sold were The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning, Capitalism’s World Disorder by Jack Barnes, and Che Guevara Talks to Young People. Pederson reported that one student asked about the former government of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Party.

“What is Ba’athism?” she said, as she selected a couple of pamphlets. “Isn’t it true that Saddam Hussein was good for the people of Iraq?” Pederson described the anti-working-class character of the regime, whose reactionary policies gave Washington and London an opening to carry out their invasion and occupation of the country.

Campaigners are urged to send in reports and photos of their sales efforts for this column. Reports on book sales need to be sent each week, along with details of subscriptions. A running total of sales in your area in all categories is also a help to volunteers who compile the sales figures. The deadline for such information is Monday at 8:00 a.m. in New York.

See subscription drive chart  
 
 
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