Supporters of the socialist publications are now charting a course to maintain that momentum throughout the eight-week campaign, which runs through May 17. The international goals are 2,000 Militant and 600 Perspectiva Mundial subscriptions.

Eleven coal miners signed up for subscriptions to the Militant and one to Perspectiva Mundial over the March 20-21 weekend, reported Betsey Farley, a coal miner from northeastern Pennsylvania. “Six subscriptions were sold to coal miners in Farmington, New Mexico,” she said, along with “four to coal miners in Alabama, and one to a surface miner in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. A miner in Utah signed up for a subscription to Perspectiva Mundial.”

Farley is helping put together teams in mining areas. The three-person New Mexico team hailed from Colorado and Utah, she said. They traveled to Farmington, New Mexico, to sell the socialist press to workers at two coal mines owned by BHP Billiton.

The miners, the majority of whom are Navajo, are members of the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 953. In a 12-day strike in January they won a wage increase, improvements in the retirement package, and increased health-care benefits. Six miners from the local signed up for introductory subscriptions to the Militant, reported Farley. A Navajo cattle rancher who drove past while the team was selling at the mine also bought one. In addition, 18 miners bought single issues of the paper.

One new subscriber told the team that a delegation of striking miners from the Co-Op mine in Huntington, Utah, had addressed the local.

Dan Fein reported on sales at the New York antiwar demonstration, which drew tens of thousands of people. “There was non-stop activity around our table and a lot of interest in the books and the Militant,” he said.

“By the end of the day we had sold dozens of books and subscriptions and had sold out of a number of titles.” Socialists sold more than 300 single copies and 42 subscriptions to the Militant, along with five subscriptions to Perspectiva Mundial and dozens of Pathfinder titles.

In Des Moines, Iowa, some 1,500 people turned out at Drake University for a march and indoor rally against the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

“The featured speaker was Thomas Hayden, an activist in the anti-Vietnam War movement and a Democratic Party politician,” reported Edwin Fruit. “He urged rally participants to support the Democratic presidential candidate and lauded the European imperialist governments that call for the occupation to be supervised by the United Nations, rather than Washington.

“Our socialist literature table was the site of lively discussions,” said Fruit. “While many agreed with Hayden, a number were open to hearing a revolutionary perspective. Five bought subscriptions to the Militant and we sold 12 books.”

Among the thousands rallying in San Francisco, reported Laura Anderson, “there was a lot of interest in the April 25 march on Washington to defend a woman’s right to choose as well as in the socialist newspapers and books. Our table featured a sign reading, ‘Defend a woman’s right to choose, Build April 25th March in D.C.’ Two students from the University of California at Santa Cruz asked if we could help them set up a table on campus to build the march.”

Anderson reported that more than 150 single issues and 21 Militant subscriptions were sold at the event, as well as over $300 worth of Pathfinder books.

Running concurrently with the circulation drive, an international campaign to raise $85,000 to help cover the operating costs of the two publications also began March 20. (See chart below.) Special fund-raising meetings are planned in a number of cities to help make this goal. These events will be advertised in coming issues of the Militant.

See chart of local goals  
 
 
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