Dutrow had just finished a stint as part of a team of a half-dozen volunteers who are taking the Militant, Perspectiva Mundial, and Pathfinder books to mining towns and coal mine portals in western Colorado and Utah.

“In our first six days, starting Tuesday, October 14, the team sold eight Militant subscriptions and 74 single copies, along with six copies of Perspectiva Mundial,” Dutrow said. “On the weekend we split up and canvassed door-to-door at areas in or near Price, Utah, selling seven of those subscriptions in South Price, East Carbon, Huntington, and Orangeville. We also sold at five mine portals, and set up sales tables at grocery stores and a local campus.”

Dutrow said socialists found keen interest in the firsthand reports and photos of the current United Mine Workers of America fight to organize the Co-op mine in Huntington. People in the area are also following the strikes by the transit and grocery workers in Los Angeles, he said. Volunteers on the team include Young Socialists who recently took part in the Socialist Workers Party gubernatorial campaign in California.

Another group of volunteers just completed a weekend trip to northwestern Iowa, northeastern Nebraska, and southwestern Minnesota. A report of their accomplishments will appear in next week’s column. In getting to areas where the socialist press is not often sold, such teams play an essential part in the eight-week international campaign to sign up 1,350 subscribers—950 to the Militant and 400 to Perspectiva Mundial—and to sell 500 Pathfinder books to those who subscribe.

This week’s chart shows that overall the campaign has fallen a little further behind, putting a premium not just on special efforts like these teams, but also on a steady, weekly rhythm of sales. Keeping the local and international goals in their sights, campaigners are organizing sales teams to factory gates and setting up literature tables in working-class districts and on university campuses. They are also responding to strikes and picket lines, as well as to protests like the planned October 25 march in Washington, D.C., against the U.S. occupation of Iraq.  
 
Wilberg mine disaster
“Orangeville is close to the Wilberg mine, where a fire in 1984 killed 27 miners,” Dutrow said. Militant reporters on the scene at the time won respect for accurately reporting the disaster and the UMWA’s efforts to uncover the truth about company liability. Union spokespeople criticized not only the mine owners for their disregard for safety, but also the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, which turned a blind eye to the company’s violations.

The Militant has also covered the strike by workers at the Sterling industrial laundry in Washington, D.C., to organize a union. Lea Sherman reported October 19 that a leader of the UNITE union fight bought a Perspectiva Mundial subscription at a Militant Labor Forum at which she had spoken about the organizing battle.

“We also sold a Militant subscription at a rally in solidarity with the Sterling workers outside a hotel that uses the laundry’s services,” Sherman said.

Sarah Katz, who is helping to organize the sales drive in Newark, New Jersey, said that campaigners have begun calling those who subscribed in the first week of the drive to make sure that each is receiving his or her weekly Militant copy. The work is yielding results. “One guy who had bought a subscription at a political meeting said he really likes it, and had decided to extend it,” Katz said.

From Houston, Jacquie Henderson wrote on October 18: “We met a lot of interest in Pathfinder books, the Militant, and Perspectiva Mundial at the October 11-12 Latino Book and Family Festival in Houston. The nine people who bought subscriptions—five to the Militant and four to PM—each bought at least one Pathfinder title. We sold 59 books and pamphlets!”

Henderson added: “There was also a lot of interest in the Socialist Workers Party campaign for mayor of Houston.” The candidate is Anthony Dutrow, who later that week packed his bags and headed off to join the team in the Western coal fields.

See subscription drive chart.  
 
 
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