The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 79/No. 14      April 20, 2015

 
(front page)
Join ‘Militant’ subscription,
fund drives to broaden reach
 
BY EMMA JOHNSON
“Seven striking union members working at Pacific Steel Casting in Berkeley, California, signed up for subscriptions to the Militant on the picket line and at a March 29 gathering outside the plant to vote on a new contract,” said Joel Britton, one of those in Oakland, California, helping to prepare for the opening of the Militant’s seven-week spring drive to win new subscribers and contributions to the Militant Fighting Fund. The members of Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Workers Local 164B pushed back company takeaway demands in their one-week strike.

Militant supporters went door to door near the forge right after the proposed contract was approved, where two workers decided to sign up for the paper.

Participants in two meetings at the University of California at Berkeley organized to get out the truth about 43 students who were “disappeared” in Mexico last year, picked up 22 copies of the paper. Caravans across the U.S. are building solidarity with this fight.

The bedrock of the campaign will be knocking on doors at workers’ homes in big cities, small towns and farm communities. Participants will introduce the paper as they join in picket lines, demonstrations against police brutality, actions in defense of women’s right to choose abortion and other social struggles.

Four Pathfinder Press books on revolutionary politics and perspectives are on special offer with a subscription.

Militant readers are using the paper to help build nationwide protests called for April 15 for “$15 and a union.” In New York construction workers who support the fight held a march and rally April 4. Two members of the Laborers’ union decided to go for the introductory subscription, and one got Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power — one of the books on special — and wants to get another copy at the April 15 actions for a friend.

The Militant’s coverage of workers’ struggles, social protests and key questions in world politics today are reinforced by communist candidates running election campaigns in the U.S., Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the U.K. On April 5, Seth Galinsky and Maggie Trowe, Socialist Workers Party candidates in New York, campaigned in the East Village neighborhood near the site of the March 26 natural gas explosion that killed two people.

Mary Dillard works at a pet supplies store and lives close to the building that exploded. She was one of seven people who bought copies of the paper.

“I talked about how the dog-eat-dog, take-care-of-number-one morality of capitalism affects workers,” Trowe said. “I contrasted that with the values of solidarity workers gain through struggles, including the example of the Cuban Revolution. She agreed with me.”

To publish every week the Militant depends on its yearly fund drive. The Militant Fighting Fund appeals to those who appreciate and respect the paper to contribute and help finance it.

“We depend totally on our readers,” said business manager Lea Sherman. “The Militant is a working-class paper. It looks to the working class, and that’s who keeps it going. That’s how we pay the rent, printing, shipping and utilities.”

“Keeping our generous introductory offer of $5 for 12 weeks is very important,” she said. “We want workers to try the paper out, knowing many will become long-term readers. They become the backbone of the fighting fund,” Sherman said. “With the resistance around labor and social questions picking up, now is a good time to win new contributors. We should let anyone buying a single copy or a subscription know about the fund.”

We call on readers to join in this effort to expand the reach of the socialist newsweekly far and wide. Contact a distributor listed on page 8. If you send in reports on your weekly progress by Monday morning, we’ll share as many as possible in the next issue.  
 
 
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