Vol. 71/No. 43      November 19, 2007

Militant campaigners need to map out plans in their city and region to regain the momentum.

In one successful effort, partisans of the socialist paper in New York organized a special target week effort over eight days and brought in 64 subscriptions. Dan Fein sold 16 subs in New York, becoming the top seller last week. Sixteen is the highest individual sub total of any week since the drive began.

Teams in New York sold a number of times at the Jacob Riis public housing complex on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Jayson Tirado, a 25-year-old resident of that complex, was killed October 21 by an off-duty cop, and some of the angry residents were glad to see a newspaper that took their side.

In Des Moines, Iowa, the sub campaign is cooking. There supporters have reached 90 percent of an already increased goal of 145. Last week, in one afternoon, teams sold 18 subscriptions in the main Black neighborhood there.

“One worker who bought a subscription lived in New Orleans during the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster and was rescued by helicopter,” Des Moines campaigner Joe Swanson reported. This worker was attracted to the Militant coverage on the California wildfires. “He saw the similarities in how workers were hit the hardest,” Swanson said.

Many immigrant workers are now moving into this neighborhood. Swanson reported that 10 of the 18 subs were sold to immigrants from Latin America and Vietnam.

The next day, a team from the Twin Cities in Minnesota sold seven subscriptions going door-to-door in the packinghouse town of Austin, two hours south of there. A number were sold to workers at a Quality Pork Processing slaughterhouse.

Please be sure to keep reports coming on highlights of sales in your area and the weekly top sellers.

Click here to see the 'Militant' subscription drive chart