Vol. 73/No. 42      November 2, 2009

We start the fifth week slightly behind schedule but with many local areas making significant gains. Our distributors are using the Militant’s special supplement featuring the introduction to the forthcoming Pathfinder book Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power to boost subscription sales. Supporters of the socialist newsweekly in New York are making the supplement available free to anyone who subscribes. It normally sells for 50 cents.

This past week Militant distributors in Des Moines, Iowa, and Minneapolis organized to visit Midwest towns where large meatpacking plants are located. Over three days 16 subscriptions were sold in working-class neighborhoods, reports David Rosenfeld, who organizes the subscription effort in Des Moines. Nine people subscribed in Fairbault, Minnesota. At the Quality Pork Processors and Hormel plants in Austin, Minnesota, 21 workers bought copies of the paper as they were getting off their shift.

At the international conference on the political contributions of Cuban independence leader José Martí, Mexican president Benito Juárez, and U.S. president Abraham Lincoln, in Monterrey, Mexico, 25 workers, students, and professors from the United States, Mexico, Venezuela, and Canada subscribed to the socialist press, reports Martín Koppel.

Distributors in Montreal sold nine subscriptions to the Militant at the recent Quebec Social Forum held in that city.

John Studer from Philadelphia says supporters of the Militant there and in Washington, D.C., are planning to visit Georgetown, Delaware, this weekend where large meatpacking plants are located, as part of making their local quotas.

Many of the new subscribers are getting the Militant because they oppose the U.S.-led wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. In Boston seven protesters subscribed at a demonstration demanding “All troops home now” and against Washington’s support of the Israeli occupation of Gaza. “One participant renewed his sub and gave a contribution to the Socialist Workers party-building fund,” reports Kevin Dwire.

At a similar action in San Francisco, two protestors got introductory subscriptions, says Lea Sherman. More than a dozen single issues of the paper and $148 in books by Pathfinder Press were also sold.

Eight subscriptions were sold in the Miami area this week reports Emily Paul, including one at a meeting demanding the immediate release of the Cuban Five. Four were sold to cab drivers at taxi stands at Miami area airports.

In many areas supporters of the Militant have been accumulating subscriptions by consistently organizing to sell to students on college campuses each Friday afternoon. Bill Arth from Los Angeles reports that three subs were sold this week at California State University at Dominguez Hills, bringing their total on that campus to nine for the drive.

“A few students are starting to ask for the paper by name,” reports Doug Nelson from New York, who has been selling regularly at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. Last Friday afternoon supporters of the Militant sold five subscriptions and 53 single issues to students at three colleges that are part of the City University of New York.

Ron Richards in San Juan, Puerto Rico, reports that 59 participants at a national work stoppage bought copies of the paper.

'Militant' Subscription Drive: Week 5 (chart)