Vol. 77/No. 46      December 23, 2013

Having already surpassed the international goal of 2,500, Militant supporters in the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are organizing to go way over.

“We’re doing sales every night,” Martin said. “A new subscriber last week signed up a friend. When she called to give her friend’s address, she said she thought going out selling the paper was something she’d like to do. So we’ll definitely take her up on that.”

“We just made our goal and now we’ll just go over as much as we can,” Katy LeRougetel from Montreal said as she called in Dec. 10. “On Saturday we’re going back to Saint-Hyacinthe with the Militant article on the strike at l’Hotel des Seigneurs.” (See page 5.)

At the picket line Dec. 4, striker Brigitte Malenfant exclaimed, “They won, they won,” referring to garment workers in Bangladesh who recently won a 77 percent raise in the minimum wage after six months of strikes and street mobilizations. She had just read about the victory in the French-language translation of the front page article in the Dec. 9 issue of the Militant.

Being just two subscriptions short of their goal, supporters in New York decided to go for at least another 40, becoming the third area to raise its goal.

A dozen members of Socialist Workers Party branches in Chicago; Des Moines, Iowa; New York; and Twin Cities, Minn., joined communist workers in Omaha, Neb., Dec. 6-9, to expand the subscription base there. Knocking on doors in working-class neighborhoods, they signed up 36 new readers.

“We met all kinds of workers — cleaners, casino workers, rail workers — who are attracted to fellow workers representing the building of a movement to challenge the rule of capital,” said Dennis Richter from Chicago.

Richter and Ellen Brickley from Des Moines sold a subscription to a rail worker in Omaha who had been fired and was fighting to get his job back. He liked the paper’s defense of the engineer, who the bosses blame for the disastrous derailment of a New York Metro-North train Dec. 1, and what the Militant said about only working people prioritize safety and can enforce it through union power and the fight for control of conditions on the job.

“The winter storm with single digit temperatures, ice and snow kept many indoors,” reported Lea Sherman who traveled to Omaha from New York. “In many cases we were invited to come inside to discuss politics and warm up. We also invited people to the upcoming Militant Labor Forum on ‘Support the Rights of Workers Behind Bars.’”

In Houston subscribers Glenn and Patricia Williams help get the paper to new readers. When Patricia Williams renewed, she asked for additional subscription blanks so they could sign up friends “who should be reading this paper.”

Glenn Williams bought a subscription for a friend in jail. “I want him to be able to read something from people who understand where he is, how it’s not about dividing all the races but unifying working people,” he said.

This inmate was one of four new readers behind bars this week, adding to a steadily expanding readership among prisoners. At 20 subscriptions, the “prisoners” line on the scoreboard is already five over the goal.

Cindy Jaquith and Mike Fitzsimmons in Houston knocked on Lester Cruz’s door Dec. 7. Cruz, who is Afro-Cuban, moved to the United States a year ago and works in a waste treatment plant.

“He was blown away when we showed him the paper and the book The Cuban Five: Who They Are, Why They Were Framed, Why They Should Be Free,” reported Jaquith. “He had no idea there was truthful reporting in the U.S. on the five Cuban revolutionaries. He asked us to come back when he had the money to buy the literature.”

The Cuban Five is one of nine books on special offer with a subscription (see ad below). Since the beginning of the drive supporters have sold nearly 500 copies of these titles.

When Jaquith and Fitzsimmons returned a week later, Cruz bought a subscription and the book. He pointed to the lead article “Rail Bosses’ Profit Drive Behind NY Train Disaster” and said, “This paper talks about what’s really going on. Here in America we live in the belly of the beast.”

When they showed him Cuba and Angola: Fighting for Africa’s Freedom and Our Own, he lit up and proudly said, “I served in Angola!”

“The door-to-door sales the last two weekends have been very good,” said Naomi Craine in Miami Dec. 10. “We went to Belle Glade and sold six subscriptions in a neighborhood where many work in the sugar and agricultural industry. This weekend we’re going back to Miami Gardens to go door to door in the area around the Quick Stop convenience store, which has been harassed by cops.” (See article on page 2.)

Manchester, England, has been high up on the scoreboard during the whole drive with a very steady pace. Almost one-quarter of the subscriptions are renewals, laying the base for a growing long-term readership.

“This is our highest proportion of renewals in many years,” reported Paul Davies. “We have planned renewal work with every sale. We have persistently called and arranged to visit readers at times most convenient for them.”

As part of a door-to-door sale, supporters met a subscriber who told them of a demonstration in Manchester Nov. 30 against the attacks and deportation of Ethiopian workers living in Saudi Arabia. At the action of some 60 people, they bumped into N Tafesse, who decided to renew. She had previously declined when they called at her home.

“They should stop the violence against immigrant workers,” she told the Militant. “I’m glad people have turned out to demonstrate today — they’re not waiting for someone to do something, but organizing for themselves.”
 
 
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Fall ‘Militant’ subscription campaign Oct. 12 – Dec. 17 (week 8) (chart)
 
 
 
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