Vol. 77/No. 21      June 3, 2013

Four Militant supporters from Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle went to Utah May 16-19 to talk with coal miners and other working people and learn about the struggle by members of the United Mine Workers of America to defend their union at the Deer Creek Mine, the only union mine in the state.

The team sold 23 subscriptions, more than 50 single copies and eight books going door to door in the towns of Huntington, Price, and Helper, and to miners going into work at Deer Creek. (See ad below for books on special with a subscription.)

“It’s money in their pocket,” Pete Eaquinta in Helper commented on the deaths of more than 1,100 garment workers in Bangladesh, where the bosses’ drive for profits resulted in a factory building col-lapse. “And they take it out on the commoner. The number one thing is: people are dispensable. My heart goes out to those poor folks. But it can be conquered. One voice is loud, but a million voices are louder.”

A former miner who worked at Deer Creek and other mines in the area, Eaquinta bought a Militant subscription.

A team of Militant supporters in Australia May 18-19 went to the Hunter Valley, the biggest coal mining region in New South Wales, Joanne Kuniansky reported from Sydney. They sold four subscriptions going door to door.

A team of three supporters sold four subscriptions going door to door May 19 in White Center, just south of Seattle. Ramona Lee, 20, got one of them. She works on a mobile food truck.

“This book empowers women. It’s part of our history, a slice of something not heard of,” Lee said when she saw and bought Women and Revolution: The Living Example of the Cuban Revolution, one of the books on special.

James Keppler, a young plumber and pipe fitter in White Center, also signed up. “Workers rights interest me. They are worth fighting for,” he said after looking at the Militant. “Where the Militant comes from, I’m in.”

He got two of the books on special, The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning and The Cuban Five: Who They Are, Why They Were Framed, Why They Should Be Free.

During the May 18-19 weekend, Militant supporters Frank Forrestal and Diana Newberry from Minneapolis visited long-time subscribers who had been part of a recently concluded 20-month fight against a lockout by American Crystal Sugar at its factories in North Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa. Four renewed their subscriptions.

Mike Sinh had worked at the Drayton factory for 36 years. In addition to discussing the challenges sugar workers face as they go back to work side by side with former scabs and a 12-hour shift imposed, Sinh was interested in talking about the roots of the capitalist crisis and how workers can defend ourselves.

When shown sections of The Changing Face of U.S. Politics: Working-Class Politics and the Trade Unions by Jack Barnes, national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party, he said, “Let me get that book too.” He also kicked in $20 for the Militant Fighting Fund. (See article on page 4.)

“I am currently incarcerated and came across your newspaper from the guy in the cell next to me. It’s fabulous! Could you please send me a subscription?” wrote a prisoner from Florida. His request puts us at two prisoners subscriptions.

His example shows how our readers behind bars help expand the circulation of the socialist newsweekly among fellow workers in jail.

To join the campaign to expand circulation of the working-class press, call Militant distributors in your region listed on page 10 or contact the Militant at (212) 244-4899 or themilitant@mac.com.
 
 
Related articles:
Building active workers conference July 19-20
Spring ‘Militant’ subscription campaign May 4 – June 25 (week 2) (chart)
 
 
 
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