“You guys sure are militant about selling the Militant,” she said, as she scanned the front page of the paper. “I’ve seen your tables and people selling this paper everywhere I go today. I’ll pick up a copy.”

Dotting the mall between the Capitol and the Washington Monument—in the midst of a sea of signs, balloons, banners, and thousands of youthful contingents—over 100 socialist campaigners joined the march and set up literature tables offering a working-class revolutionary perspective to those who mobilized to defend women’s rights.

More than 80 Militant subscriptions were sold at various kick-off activities the day before the abortion rights march. Fifteen people snapped up subscriptions to the Militant at a festival in Dupont Circle Park in support of a woman’s right to choose sponsored by Planned Parenthood.

The all-out effort by socialists to build and participate in the April 25 march has fired the momentum of the international Militant/Perspectiva Mundial subscription drive. At least 250 subscriptions to the Militant and nearly 500 Pathfinder books and pamphlets were sold at the weekend’s events alone. The total for the fifth week of the drive was a whopping 443 Militant subs. As we go to press, 1,432 Militant subscriptions have been sold—putting the campaign ahead of schedule and in a strong position to surpass the 2,000 goal.

The contradiction between the size of the local goals and the performance so far has become increasingly glaring—the total of the local targets adopted still falls 52 below the international goal. With supporters in half a dozen cities nearly at or over 90 percent of their quotas, and in two cases having surpassed the target three weeks ahead of schedule, the time is over-ripe for a number of increases in local goals.

A quick look at the “In the Unions” section of the chart shows that a challenge lies ahead in the remaining three weeks for socialist workers in garment factories, textile mills, meatpacking plants, coal mines, and elsewhere to bring the drive home in those industrial unions in full and on time.

A concerted effort is also needed to close the gap on the goal for Perspectiva Mundial subscriptions—nearly 100 short of the mark.

In addition to the excellent results during the march on Washington, many new readers were won elsewhere last week.

Socialist Workers Party and Young Socialists members got quite a response from a display they set up in Los Angeles at the April 24-25 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. They sold 40 Militant subscriptions there, and another six at a nearby women’s rights action in the city on April 25.

“Many were interested in the paper’s coverage of the Co-Op strike and the articles on Venezuela,” wrote Frank Forrestal from Los Angeles. “Most subs were sold with a few books or pamphlets.”

See sub drive chart  
 
 
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