Vol. 79/No. 38 October 26, 2015
Members and supporters are taking these efforts to workers’ doorsteps in cities and small towns, and with those involved in labor and social struggles.
In today’s slow-burning capitalist crisis, many workers are looking for an explanation of why things are as they are, how we can fight effectively and for a party with a program and continuity to point a road forward.
The Militant is the weekly voice of the party. So subscribing to it, and gaining access to Pathfinder books and issues of the Marxist magazine New International on special offer to those who take the paper, is one obvious step for those attracted to the Socialist Workers Party and its program.
The Communist Leagues in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom are doing the same.
“The overwhelming bulk of our subscriptions have been sold door to door,” writes Hugo Wils from Manchester, England. “And we’ve had some wind in our sails from political events, including a meeting on how to advance the fight to organize fast-food workers in the U.K. and a rally Oct. 11 to protest the Turkish government assault on the Kurds and the bombing of the demonstration in Ankara.” In addition to 79 subscriptions, Communist League members there have sold 44 books and copies of New International over the last five weeks.
“We’ve had wide-ranging discussions on doorsteps about how to advance our interests as workers,” Wils said. “Demi Jackson, a self-employed cleaner, said immigration is a problem because ‘it lowers wages and there aren’t enough houses as it is.’ But she agreed that people won’t stop coming to the U.K. and that the unions should organize all workers in order to lessen the competition that pushes wages down.
“The same day we met Jean Risby, who works with tutors at the Open University, which many workers and women with children use to extend their education. She described cuts there and plans to move to 12-hour shifts. She bought a copy of The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning: The Fraud of Education Reform Under Capitalism along with her subscription.”
“Socialist Workers Party members went to the BNSF Railway yard in Minneapolis to get out the facts and win support for rail workers Tom Harding and Richard Labrie against the Canadian government’s move to frame them up for the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster,” said Helen Meyers. “We distributed leaflets with a Militant editorial on the case. One switchman pulled his car over and said he was glad to see the Militant again. He got a subscription.”
“If you don’t read you’re in trouble,” Kirk Nervis, a new subscriber in Oakland, California, told SWP members there. Nervis is a butcher and longtime member of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. When he signed up for the subscription he got a copy of Teamster Power by Farrell Dobbs — a timely book for workers considering how we can act politically independent of the bosses and their parties today. The next week he added three other titles to his collection. Arming yourself with books is the way “to learn how to fight and win,” he said.
To join in campaigning with the Socialist Workers Party, contact the party in areas listed on page 8.
Related articles:
Socialist Workers Party drive for new readers! (chart)
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