Vol. 77/No. 10      March 18, 2013

Over the last seven days, Militant supporters sold more than 300 subscriptions, along with dozens of books on revolutionary working-class politics, mainly going door to door in working-class neighborhoods from the U.S. and Canada to the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia.

The international goal is to sign up 1,950 readers to the socialist paper over five weeks. Standing at 977, the drive is 10 percent behind schedule. The success of the last week points the way forward to meet the goal in full and on time.

Caroline Bellamy reports from Manchester, England, that supporters there have increased their quota to 60 after reaching the 42 mark toward their initial goal of 50.

“Militant supporters in Seattle are now starting to get some traction, selling 20 subscriptions this past week,” John Naubert reported.

Four supporters from Seattle went to Longview, Wash., Feb. 26, to talk with people who helped sell subscriptions during the fall campaign, go door to door to meet workers who have not seen the paper before, and talk to subscribers about renewing.

“Good to see you all back again. How are things going with the paper?” asked Matt Holde as they entered the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 21 hall.

Holde was part of a successful eight-month fight by Local 21 in 2011-2012 against a concerted union-busting drive by EGT Development at its new grain terminal—a struggle that the Militant covered and supported.

“The Militant is a great paper,” Holde said while renewing his subscription.

Also present at the hall was Byron Jacobs, former secretary-treasurer of Local 21. He has been reading the Militant for about a year and a half and said his favorites are the “On the Picket Line” column and articles about the Cuban Five, revolutionaries framed up and jailed in the U.S. since 1998. (See page 10.)

“The Cuban Five never give up. You have to believe in your cause to not give up. If we stand together, we could make serious change,” he said.

Jacobs bought three books on special for subscribers: Cuba and Angola: Fighting for Africa’s Freedom and Our Own; Women and Revolution: The Living Example of the Cuban Revolution; and Women in Cuba: The Making of a Revolution Within the Revolution. (See ad below.)

“People want to fight but we are too divided,” said Roberto Pablo, a saw operator at one of the large cut and kill plants in South Omaha, Neb., when Jacob Perasso, Socialist Workers Party candidate for City Council, knocked on his door with other campaign supporters March 3. Pablo invited them in for food and discussion.

He said he bought a subscription to learn about the struggles of other working people and effectively fight for better working conditions, adding that he is going to support the socialist campaign.

“A new subscriber who got a copy of Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power also made sure to get a subscription for a friend who is in prison in Massachusetts who told her he would like to get the paper,” Kevin Dwire wrote from Boston.

That subscription and a renewal by a long-time reader in a Washington State prison put us at 14 subscriptions to working people behind bars on the chart.

“The Militant’s message hits close to home. I am about to get laid off or accept a crummy buyout. It is true what the paper says about the government doing nothing to put people to work,” said Lillian Martinez when supporters knocked on her door March 3 in the Inwood neighborhood of Upper Manhattan.

Martinez works in the laundry department of a New York City hotel and is a member of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union Local 6. She was one of five workers in her building who signed up that day.

Deborah Liatos reported that supporters sold 38 subscriptions during the March 2-3 weekend in the New York area. Since the beginning of the drive they have sold more than 100 books on working-class revolutionary politics.

“Capitalism seems to be centered around making the rich richer and the poor poorer,” said Michel Caroll and Hannah Demers when asked why they bought a subscription.

The young couple told supporters who knocked on their door in a working-class neighborhood of Montreal that they had recently been discussing among themselves about capitalism.

“Before going door to door March 2, I attended a meeting of the Nebraskans for Justice, a support group for Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa,” wrote Joe Swanson from Lincoln, Neb.

“Poindexter and we Langa were leaders of the Black Panthers in Omaha in the late 1960s and became targets of the Omaha police and the FBI,” Swanson explained. “They have been imprisoned for 42 years, serving life sentences on frame-up charges of killing an Omaha policeman.

“Nebraskans for Justice continue to work on public events to bring attention to the brothers’ fight to be released from prison,” Swanson said. Four meeting participants renewed their subscriptions to the Militant, including two who bought The Cuban Five: Who They Are, Why They were Framed, Why They Should Be Free.

Join the campaign. Introduce the socialist newsweekly to new working people. You can call distributors in your area (see directory on page 6). Or order a bundle at themilitant@mac.com or (212) 244-4899.