Vol. 74/No. 4      February 1, 2010

The first part of the drive is a four-week effort to get readers of the Militant to renew their subscriptions and purchase a copy of the new book. Volunteers are calling and visiting subscribers, even if their subscription is not close to expiring, to tell them about the book.

The effort will focus on predominantly Black working-class neighborhoods and will include street tables, going door-to-door, and regular plant-gate sales at factories with a substantial Black workforce. Supporters of the paper will also sell in other working-class areas, on college campuses, and at demonstrations and other political events.

Ten copies of Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power were sold at the Martin Luther King Day parade in Atlanta, four with introductory subscriptions.

“The president of a United Postal Workers local here bought the book,” writes Jacob Perasso, who was part of the Atlanta sales team. “He said the union is opposed to moving the main Atlanta post office to the north side of the city, making it harder for working people to get to. He bought the book after seeing the photos of the struggles in the 1960s that Malcolm X sought to link up with—from the Cuban Revolution to the struggle against colonialism in Africa and the Caribbean.”  
 
Packinghouse workers buy book
In the Twin Cities in Minnesota, three workers at the Dakota Premium beef slaughterhouse renewed their subscriptions to the Militant and bought the new book, reports Frank Forrestal. One, a worker originally from Burma, said he wanted to talk more about the Militant and Malcolm X. So far three Black workers on the kill floor have purchased the book.

Forrestal notes that communists on the job have been distributing the Militant supplement with the introduction to Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power. This helped spark interest in the book.

In the book’s introduction, Barnes explains why the “revolutionary conquest of state power by a politically class-conscious and organized vanguard of the working class—millions strong—is necessary. About why that new state power provides working people the mightiest weapon possible to wage the ongoing battle to end Black oppression and every form of exploitation and human degradation.”

The book will be of particular interest to those seeking to understand how the working class fight for power is the answer to social catastrophes like the one in Haiti that is the product of imperialism. Two copies of the book were sold in Chicago at a meeting to discuss the earthquake and its aftermath.

An 82-year-old retired school teacher and Militant subscriber in New York City said, “The paper is so interesting. It makes you look at the world differently. It opens your eyes.” She has been reading about the new book in the Militant, and bought it along with Cuba and the Coming American Revolution and The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning.

A young auto mechanic in Miami, who had bought a subscription last year in Liberty City, visited the Socialist Workers Party hall after getting a phone call about renewing his subscription. “I liked the paper and wanted to know more about the ideas of the people who distribute it,” he said, mentioning that he had a Cuban American friend “who had different views.” After the discussion, he renewed his subscription and bought Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power and Is Socialist Revolution in the U.S. Possible?

Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power can be purchased for just $10, half the cover price, with any subscription or renewal to the Militant or together with Cuba and the Coming American Revolution, The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning, or Is Socialist Revolution in the U.S. Possible? (See ad for special offer on pages 6 and 7).

Readers who would like to help get the book into the hands of coworkers, friends, or relatives, and expand readership of the Militant, can contact a distributor listed on page 8.

Please send reports of your experiences on distributing this literature to themilitant@mac.com. Let us know what people are saying when they buy the book or renew their subscription. Send in pictures of literature tables in working-class and Black communities, at factory gates, and at demonstrations.
 
 
Related articles:
Malcolm X: Revolutionary leader of the working class  
 
 
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