BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS
Subscriptions to the Militant keep rolling in. By the end of the first week of the two-month fall subscription drive, nearly 600 people subscribed, including about 120 who renewed or bought new long-term subscriptions. Many of the new or repeat readers come from work by supporters of the paper on the job, at plant gates, and in the Black community. Here are a few examples.
“In Chicago, Socialist Workers Party candidates and their supporters campaigned at a meatpacking plant where there is a United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) organizing drive,” said Laura Anderson, a Militant supporter in Chicago. “At the plant gate we sold 10 copies. Two weeks earlier we had sold 15 papers there. We also sold 4 subscriptions and 7 copies in the Black community on the South Side of Chicago. During a conversation on police brutality, two cops harassed the son of a woman we were talking to a couple of houses away. After the police left, the young man bought the Militant.”
Militant supporters had a good week in Washington and Philadelphia, said Janice Lynn, a meat packer and member of UFCW Local 27, in Washington. “In about two hours going door-to-door last Sunday in two towns on the Delmarva peninsula in Delaware, where two large poultry plants are located, we sold 20 subscriptions and 42 copies of the Militant,” she said. “Most of those who subscribed are poultry, construction, and farm workers. In addition, we sold two subs at a meeting of my union local following an announcement by one of the UFCW reps that I am the socialist candidate for delegate to the House of Representatives and I had participated in a recent action in Richmond, Virginia, supporting the efforts of Smithfield workers at Tar Heel, North Carolina, to unionize that huge hog slaughterhouse. Another co-worker subscribed at the Briggs packing plant.”
There’s a similar response in other countries. “We sold a couple of renewals to co-workers on the job at two meat plants,” said Alasdair McDonald, a supporter of the Militant in Sydney.
Keep such reports coming in. Every reader can join the effort. If you don’t receive a bundle you can order one at 70 cents per copy by contacting the Militant. Or you can join teams organized by distributors near you.
Click here to see the Militant sales goals chart