Vol. 77/No. 38      October 28, 2013

Militant/Betsy Farley

Participants in Oct. 12 “Immigrant Dignity and Respect March” in Chicago find what they are looking for at table with Militant and Pathfinder books on first day of subscription campaign.

The bulk of the 164 new subscribers won over the first four days were from campaigning door to door in working-class neighborhoods. Supporters also found a good response to the paper among fellow protesters as they joined in a variety of political actions.

John Ryan, a seaman and member of the Maritime Union of Australia, sent in a one-year subscription for a friend who is in prison in Queensland. This is the first Militant subscriber behind bars in Australia, Ron Poulsen reported from Sydney.

The Militant has a growing number of subscribers in prisons around the world who see the paper as a link to the broader struggles of working people and as a political organizing tool. The Militant Prisoners Fund offers prisoners reduced subscription rates.

Ryan has subscribed for a year and gets his paper around, including leaving it for others at his barbershop.

Caroline Bellamy wrote from Manchester, England, that supporters there have decided to use Saturdays and Sundays to campaign widely in the working-class area of Wythenshawe in the city’s south.

“You’ve come to the right house,” Lee Boldsworth said when he bought a subscription there. “When I was in prison I earned $23 a week making clothes for prisoners eight hours a day, five days a week,” he said, discussing how the bosses foster competition among workers in an effort to drive down wages. “Now I’m fighting to get the disability money I’m due after wrecking my back stacking supermarket shelves.”

Nils Johansson, an IT worker, joined the door to door effort for the first time and Peter Griffith, a maintenance engineer in a warehouse, did so for the second time. “I liked that it was about listening and not repeating slogans,” Griffith said. “There is a respect for working people. I would definitely like to join the sales again.”

Mary Martin, Socialist Workers Party candidate for Seattle mayor, and Sydney Coe, a member of Teamsters Local 117 in Kent, Wash., signed up Miaga Son Nelson Oct. 13 as they campaigned in his neighborhood in Tacoma, Wash. Nelson lost his job as an electrician when he got hurt working in housing construction.

“I think that sounds great,” he said when Martin explained how the SWP campaigns for a fight for a massive, federally funded public works program to put millions to work. “Look at everything that’s taken away from us and everything that is being cut. People like me who got hurt on the job could do something useful in the field we know. Or we could get retrained for other jobs.”

Coe and Martin also spoke to Doreen X Ferguson, who works at Boeing in Auburn, Wash. She has read the Militant for a few years and decided to renew.

“I’m very busy everyday after work,” she said. “But when the Militant is delivered, I stop everything, sit down and read every article. The news in the Militant lets me know there are others who think like me. There’s a lot of us!”

Ferguson also bought three of the nine Pathfinder titles on special offer: Women and Revolution: The Living Example of the Cuban Revolution; Women in Cuba: The Making of a Revolution Within the Revolution; and The Cuban Five: Who They Are, Why They Were Framed, Why They Should Be Free. (See ad below.)

Janet Roth from Auckland, New Zealand, described a discussion with Madelline Manahan, one of her co-workers at the food-processing plant where she works, about how the company picks and chooses which workers to lay off. “She emailed me after work and said she wanted a subscription to the Militant,” Roth wrote. “She said she’d checked the website and found ‘it really interesting and informative.’”

Fernando Molina from Aurora, Ill., renewed his subscription at the Oct. 12 march in Chicago for immigrant reform, Betsy Farley reported. (See article on page 6.) He also picked up The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning, another book on special offer, as well as Che Guevara Talks to Young People. He had previously bought The Cuban Five.

“The struggle for justice is not only in this country, it is international,” he said. “But the capitalists just want you to see their side. The Militant gives the working-class view.”

We call on readers to join in the effort. The first weekly scoreboard reporting progress in the drive will appear in the next issue. You can order a bundle and get subscription blanks from the Militant, 306 W. 37th Street, 10th floor, New York, NY 10018 or call (212) 244-4899.

Please send in reports and photos by 9 a.m. New York time on Mondays about your experiences selling the Militant. These are the backbone of the weekly column on the campaign.  
 
 
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