Vol. 77/No. 24      June 24, 2013

The great bulk of subscriptions are being sold door to door in working-class neighborhoods across the U.S. and in Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia.

On June 8, Dan Fein, Socialist Workers Party candidate for New York mayor, campaigned with supporters in the Rockaway neighborhood of Queens. When Fein told Dayann McDonough that he had spoken at a rally the week before to demand freedom for Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar López Rivera, she exclaimed, “I know about him. I corresponded with Oscar back and forth for years!”

“The government is not by the people and for the people. It belongs to the rich,” said her husband Brian McDonough, an electrician and a member of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 3, as he signed up for a subscription.

The two also got copies of The Changing Face of U.S. Politics: Working-Class Politics and the Trade Unions and The Cuban Five: Who They Are, Why They Were Framed, Why They Should Be Free.

“I hate oppression, this world is crazy,” said Nigeria-born Frank Dike, a construction worker, when Nyamekye Simms and Andrés Mendoza knocked on his door June 9 in the Clayton area of Manchester, England. “What’s the answer?” he asked.

Simms and Mendoza pointed to the Cuban Revolution and the revolutionary course of Thomas Sankara, leader of the 1983-87 revolution in the West African nation of Burkina Faso, as examples of the capacities of toiling humanity to change society and themselves in the process of revolutionary struggle. When they explained how following the Militant is a way for working people to learn about others working to organize politically along these lines, Dike decided to get a subscription along with a copy of Thomas Sankara Speaks.

“It’s nice when you see fact and truth written, rather than the usual stuff in the media,” Ngaire Hira, who works as a caretaker in Christchurch, New Zealand, told Militant supporters as she signed up for a subscription. The team of Militant distributors made the trip to talk to workers two years after a massive earthquake devastated the city.

“I’m becoming more interested in history since the last May Day march,” Mar Cruz, who works as a nanny, told Militant supporters when they knocked on her door in Kent, Wash., June 9. She had participated in the May 1 actions against deportations and criminalization of immigrant workers. “I’ve been trying to learn more about Cuba among other things,” said Cruz, who purchased a subscription and a copy of Women and Revolution: The Living Example of the Cuban Revolution.

Subscription renewals are also counted on the chart to register the goal of winning long-term readers.

“For the first time, I am really interested in learning about what’s happening in the world. The Militant helps me with that,” Heather Seymour told distributors from San Francisco who knocked on her door in San Bruno, Calif., June 6 to ask her to renew. Seymour works as a receptionist for a building supply company.

She signed up for another three months and bought Women in Cuba: The Making of a Revolution Within the Revolution and Women and Revolution.

“Workers in this country are facing a crisis and we have to do something about it,” Anthony Roberts, who renewed his subscription, told Militant supporters when they visited him in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood June 4. “We need to come together and fight. That’s the only solution for us.”

A cutter in a Brooklyn garment shop, Roberts was first introduced to the Militant by distributor Ruth Robinett when they worked together there. Roberts, originally from Grenada, supported Maurice Bishop, leader of the 1979-83 revolution there.

Roberts also gave $53 to the Militant Fighting Fund to help the paper and bought five of the books on special. (See article on page 5.)

Prisoners’ subscriptions
The Militant received the fourth prisoner subscription from a worker behind bars in Pennsylvania. We call on our readers behind bars to join the effort to expand the readership of the paper and reach the goal of getting 15 subscriptions in prisons.

The Militant Prisoners’ Fund makes it possible for inmates, often with help from friends and family, to subscribe at a reduced rate of $6 for six months. Subscriptions are also offered free of charge to those with no means to pay.

Next week will be another important opportunity to expand the Militant’s readership among coal miners with the June 17 protest in St Louis against Patriot Coal’s union-busting moves. Last week some 70 subscriptions were sold in mining regions, outside mine portals and at a protest against Patriot in Henderson, Ky.

Join the international campaign. Call distributors listed on page 8 or contact us at (212) 244-4899 or themilitant@mac.com.
 
 
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Spring ‘Militant’ subscription campaign May 4 June 25 (week 5) (chart)
 
 
 
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