The Militant (logo)  
   Vol. 69/No. 41           October 24, 2005  
 
 
(front page)
Meat packers, taxi drivers, truckers
snap up ‘Militant’ subscriptions
 
Militant/Jacob Perasso
Ross Hogan (right) and Becca Williamson sell Militant October 7 at gate of Dakota Premium Foods in South St. Paul, Minnesota. Twenty-seven workers bought paper.

BY PAUL PEDERSON  
Militant readers have sold nearly 1,100 subscriptions to the paper in the first three weeks of the eight-week circulation campaign. With such progress it is now possible to hit the 1,500 mark—the original goal for the entire effort—by next week: only halfway through the drive. Sales to meat packers, taxi drivers, and truckers were the feature of last week.

“Yesterday’s highlight was the plant gate sale at the meatpacking plant where Diana Newberry works,” reported Frank Forrestal from Los Angeles in an October 8 note. Newberry is the Socialist Workers Party candidate for City Council District 14 in L.A. “A bunch of her co-workers were socializing in the company parking lot. We showed them the campaign literature and the Militant. Four decided to subscribe. We had a back-and-forth exchange on the conditions in the plant—speedup, low wages, injuries, bosses treating workers like dogs, the fights going on for unionization, etc. In addition, three workers bought a copy of The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning pamphlet.”

A 20-person team, including eight Young Socialists, sold 48 subs and 200 copies of the paper during a four-day effort aimed at meat packers in Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska. In Norfolk, Nebraska, where unionized meat packers have been fighting against company harassment, 10 subscriptions were sold. In Storm Lake, Iowa, where workers at a Tyson plant have been fighting to organize a union, nine workers subscribed.

In New York, 26 cab drivers subscribed during three visits to the two main airports. On the first, campaigners forgot to bring books with them in addition to papers. On the second visit, they brought a stack and sold them out.

Sales at ports to independent truckers continue to be a highlight. Campaigners in Newark, New Jersey, upped their quota to 200 after selling over 100 subs in three weeks, 16 of them to truck drivers at the docks. In London, campaigners report a similar interest in the paper among lorry (truck) drivers.

This week subbing teams are planned at Michigan’s auto parts plants, Utah’s coalfields, and New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana hit by recent hurricanes. Many Militant supporters will also be mixing it up at the Millions More Movement rally in Washington, October 15.

Every reader can help sell subs. To join a team, contact the distributors nearest you (see directory of local distributors).

Click here to see the sub drive scoreboard  
 
 
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