Vol. 74/No. 10      March 15, 2010

Accompanying the subscription campaign, the Militant is launching an international fund to raise $110,000. An annual effort to win contributions from working people serves as backbone of the Militant’s finances. This money is needed to maintain the paper’s production and finance the reporting of class struggle developments around the world.

These spring drives will build on the successful winter campaign in which Militant supporters met with readers, getting nearly 400 to renew their subscriptions, the majority of whom also bought the new book.

Drawing lessons from a century and a half of struggle, Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power explains why it is the revolutionary conquest of state power by the working class that will make possible the final battle for Black freedom—and open the way to a world based, not on exploitation, violence, and racism, but human solidarity.

The experience of the Militant subscription campaign last fall showed receptivity to communist politics as workers respond to the cumulative effects of capitalism’s deepening economic and social crises and Washington’s expanding wars.

The new propaganda possibilities were exemplified by the subscriptions sold in a number of cities by Militant supporters to their coworkers. This included 30 at the Dakota Premium Foods meatpacking plant in South St. Paul, Minnesota; 18 at the American Apparel garment factory in Los Angeles; and a similar number at the JBS Swift packing plant in Marshalltown, Iowa.

Many of these workers renewed their subscriptions during the winter. “This is a time when workers need more knowledge, more insight, so we can fully understand what we need to do,” said R. Henderson, a worker at American Apparel. “That’s why I got Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power when I renewed my subscription.”

In line with the new book’s explanation of the “vanguard place and weight of workers who are Black in broad proletarian-led social and political struggles in the United States,” the propaganda effort will focus on selling to Black workers and youth. One aspect of this will be organizing weekly door-to-door sales and setting up literature tables in predominantly Black working-class areas.

Consistent weekly sales of subscriptions and the book at factory gates and workplaces will be a regular activity of the campaign in every area.

In addition, expanding a readership base and building relations with students through weekly sales at campuses will be an important component.

The book will become available in Spanish later this month, and in French in April, in time to be distributed during the campaign.

The Militant is urging all of its supporters to join the drive to expand readership of the revolutionary press and to contribute generously to the $110,000 fund campaign. If you would like to help, contact a distributor listed on page 8.  
 
 
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