We sold 16 subscriptions and 154 copies of the paper in the coal mining communities here over the two days. That brought the total in Harlan County, which has a population of some 32,000, to 31 new subscribers and more than 500 copies over the last month.

Five of the new readers signed up in one hour at a bluegrass concert that many coal miners and their families attended.

One worker there told us he had found a copy of the Militant the previous week in a Wal-Mart parking lot. He said he had taken it home and read it, and now wanted a subscription because he liked the coverage on the struggles of miners for safety on the job.

At a railroad crossing on Route 38—the main road linking many of the mines and mining towns in Harlan County—the widow of one of the five miners killed in the May 20 explosion at Darby No. 1 Mine (see front page article) bought extra copies of the Militant and took several subscription envelopes to sign up other people she knows. A continuous mine machine operator who worked at that mine also bought a subscription at the crossing.

Many workers remembered the paper from two previous sales teams in May and June. Some expressed appreciation for the paper’s factual coverage of the blast and the actions since then by relatives of the deceased miners demanding justice.

Ryan Curtis, a conductor for CSX railroad, was among 10 other workers who subscribed at the parking lot of a local shopping mall. “This will start to happen in other work places if the unions don’t stand up,” he said.

“We need a strong union,” said Donald Massey, a former coal miner who now works in a nonunion garment shop.

Sam Manuel contributed to this article.
 

Militant supporters across the United States and other countries are organizing similar outreach efforts in July and August, which will be capped off with a subscription renewal campaign at the end of the summer. Please join in. Order a bundle, if you don’t already receive one, and ask relatives, neighbors, friends, co-workers, fellow students, or other acquaintances to subscribe. This is a good time too to begin reaching out to new readers whose subs are about to expire and ask them to renew. To find out how, contact the Militant directly (see contact link on home page) or our distributors nearest you (see directory link on home page).

—Argiris Malapanis, Editor
 
 
Related articles:
Lone survivor of Sago disaster: ‘We expected to be rescued’
Federal officials, company refused to use machinery that has saved miners’ lives
Families of miners killed underground in Kentucky demand access to inquiry  
 
 
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