The campaign remains slightly ahead of schedule only because of the large number of subscriptions sold at the very beginning through an intensive 12-day effort during the protests in New York that surrounded the Republican National Convention.

Picking up the pace now is necessary to stay on schedule.

A number of reports distributors sent in show how sub sales combined with campaigning for the Socialist Workers 2004 ticket, which includes selling books on revolutionary working-class politics like those included in the Pathfinder Supersaver Sale (see ad), can make this a reality.

At a day-and-a-half-long trip to Farmington, New Mexico, socialist campaigners from the Western coalfields got an enthusiastic response to the Militant from coal miners at three large mines. The team sold at the gate of two surface mines that sit on land that makes up part of the Navajo Nation and at an underground mine nearby. Nine miners signed up for subscriptions to the Militant, and 39 bought single copies during the team’s visit. Many were attracted to the paper’s ongoing coverage of the union struggle at the Co-Op mine in Huntington, Utah, and other labor battles. Over 600 miners, in their majority Navajo, work at these three sites, which are owned by BHP Billiton. In February, the workers, who are members of Local 953 of the International Union of Operating Engineers, held a 12-day strike and won their demands for a substantial wage increase and an allowance for traditional medicine.

In Seattle, campaigning for the socialist candidates in the senatorial race along with a steady weekly schedule of tabling on street corners, factory gates, and political events has kept the local supporters of the socialist press ahead of pace on their goal. “We were competing last week with the Democrats at one campaign table outside the Longshoremen’s hall,” reported Chris Hoeppner. “Supporters of the socialist presidential ticket and our candidate for U.S. Senate, Connie Allen, had a table outside the hall with a full spread of socialist books, pamphlets, and newspapers. Across from us, a local Democrat was handing out free barbeque to drum up votes.

“One young longshoreman, about 20 years old, came up to the table and noticed our sign in support of coal miners in Utah who are fighting for a union,” Hoeppner said. “This dockworker told us that he had met two of the miners when they spoke at a meeting of his local and he had contributed $100 toward their cause. He said he was interested in flying out to Utah to join the miners at their one-year anniversary event October 2 marking the beginning of their struggle.” Hoeppner reports that two locals of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union as well as the Service Employees International Union are helping to build the miners’ event.

In Minnesota, campaigners visited Buffalo Lake, a town in central Minnesota where workers at Minnesota Beef Industries, a nonunion beef slaughterhouse that employs 125, are fighting to bring in the union.

Bill Schmitt, Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. Congress in Minnesota’s 4th C.D., joined the team, which included Jacob Perasso, who works at Dakota Premium Foods, a large slaughterhouse in St. Paul, Minnesota, where workers fought and won a groundbreaking union-organizing battle.

“We visited workers who live in a trailer park not far from the plant,” Perasso said. “At one home, a worker invited us in. Three women who work on the kill floor and two men who work as cleaners at Minnesota Beef were sitting in the main room and a lively discussion began, ranging from the fight for the union to what’s unfolding in Venezuela.

“They were particularly interested in discussing what we had to say about the unions,” he said. “The coverage in Perspectiva Mundial on the fight for a union at the Co-Op mine in Utah was the thing that attracted the most interest. But workers had a lot of questions about the experience of workers at Dakota in our fight to defend the union. ‘What is it like to have a union?’ was the first question we got, followed by ‘How can we fight to get one?’ We sold three subscriptions to PM during our visit to the trailer park.”
 
Fall Subscription Drive Scoreboard
Pathfinder Supersaver Sale Ad  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home