Vol. 72/No. 44      November 10, 2008

The effort to increase the subscription base of the socialist newsweekly is boosted by campaigning for Socialist Workers Party candidates Róger Calero for president and Alyson Kennedy for vice president, as well as local candidates across the United States. In other countries, candidates for the Communist Leagues are also promoting the newspaper.

In an 11-day blitz to take advantage of the openings to discuss politics with workers and students leading up to the U.S. elections, a 12-week subscription for new readers is only $3. The offer expires November 4. This special price helped supporters of the paper in New York sell 65 subscriptions this week, double what they sold in the first three weeks of the drive. On Sunday, October 26, campaign supporters set up tables in the Bronx, Harlem, Jackson Heights, and Brooklyn, along with a door-to-door team to the Lower East Side of Manhattan. They sold 40 subscriptions and six copies of New International no. 14.

In Boston, supporters are utilizing the French-language translation of the SWP campaign platform to visit Haitian working-class communities. Sarah Ullman reports they are also fielding teams to sell to garment and textile workers in Lawrence and New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Seattle SWP campaigners set up a lunchtime table at Mercer Island High School. “Two young women got subscriptions and one got a copy of Woman’s Evolution by Evelyn Reed,” writes Edwin Fruit.

“Students at Swarthmore College near Philadelphia bought five subscriptions to the Militant and purchased more than $100 of Pathfinder titles,” writes Janet Post. “One student, Ben, who is from the coal mining region of western Virginia and Kentucky, bought a subscription, the book Teamster Rebellion, and a copy of New International no. 14.”

All those who subscribe or renew their subscriptions can purchase for only $10 New International no. 14 or Nueva Internacional no. 8, which contain the articles “The Clintons’ Antilabor Legacy: Roots of the 2008 World Financial Crisis” and “Revolution, Internationalism, and Socialism: The Last Year of Malcolm X.”

Three more areas raised their subscription drive quotas this week—Houston, Australia, and New Zealand. Quotas don’t yet add up to the 2,400 international goal but all reports indicate we’re well on the way to making the goal.

Militant fall 2008 subscription drive chart: week 4 of 8