Vol. 78/No. 21      June 2, 2014

In the final stretch supporters made a special effort to bring the drive home, selling 511 subscriptions in 10 days. “The highlight for us was an intense nine days at the end of April, when we participated in actions called by union members here, combined with taking the paper to workers’ doorsteps across the region,” Bill Arth said May 20 from Los Angeles.

On Thurs., April 24 postal workers protested against the move of postal services to Staples. On Saturday workers at Greyhound held a rally against the bus company’s demands for a concession contract. On Monday and Tuesday port truckers picketed, demanding to be recognized as wage workers instead of so-called independent contractors and to win a union.

Fifteen union members signed up to get the Militant at these actions. Another eight were sold May Day at a union-sponsored rally against deportations of immigrant workers. Fifteen more were sold going door to door.

“Workers were interested to hear what we had to say about the actions they had heard and read about in the media,” Arth said. “It boosted our confidence and we got better at talking about everything the paper writes about.”

Had New York made its quota of 300, the international campaign would have gone way over the top. As it is, we ended up 28 short of our 1,800 goal.

“We signed up 80 readers in the last 10 days, 33 on the last Sunday,” Tony Lane, organizer of the N.Y. effort, told the Militant. “If we had done that throughout the drive we wouldn’t have come up 60 short. Next time we have to make sure we’re ready from the get-go.”

During the drive more than half a dozen showings of Antonio Guerrero’s prison paintings “I Will Die the Way I’ve Lived” have taken place in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the U.S. Many visitors decided to sign up for a subscription to follow the campaign. Nearly 400 copies of two recently published Pathfinder books to aid the fight, I Will Die the Way I’ve Lived and Voices From Prison: The Cuban Five, were sold.

Supporters of the paper also sold more than 300 copies of 11 Pathfinder books on special offer — still available — with a subscription (see ad below). The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning and Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power together accounted for more than 100 of them.

Militant stalwarts are looking forward to continuing to expand the paper’s circulation — in working-class neighborhoods, on the job and at upcoming events. These include the Latin American Studies Association conference in Chicago May 21-24, further showings of “I Will Die the Way I’ve Lived” and “5 Days for the Cuban 5” activities in Washington, D.C., June 4-11.

We’re also looking forward to the Active Workers Conference in Ohio in June, hosted by the Socialist Workers Party, which offers the opportunity to come together for a few days of political discussions on the central questions working people face in today’s crisis-ridden capitalist world.

If you are a partisan of the Militant, the conference is for you.
 
 
Related articles:
Spring ‘Militant’ subscription campaign April 5 - May 14 (final)
SWP builds Active Workers Conference June 19-21
 
 
 
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