Vol. 81/No. 34 September 18, 2017
(front page)
SWP sets fall book, circulation, fund drives
The drive takes place in the midst of a deep political crisis in the Democratic and Republican parties, the result of a world crisis of the capitalist system and the mounting carnage facing working people. The Militant newspaper, and the books being promoted, are indispensable to understanding the roots of the capitalist assault on working people and what kind of party and movement are needed to fight for workers power to reverse the devastating situation millions are being driven into.
The unending imperialist wars abroad of the U.S. rulers are aimed at protecting their profits and making workers and farmers pay for the crisis of their capitalist system. At home and abroad workers’ living conditions are deteriorating through lower wages, speedup, and increasingly dangerous conditions on the job. Working-class families are confronting an epidemic of opioid addiction and deaths.
The Militant’s circulation drive will promote five books on special that bring to life a revolutionary perspective for taking political power out of the capitalists’ hands. Available at half price when purchased with an introductory $5 Militant subscription, will be Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power, Are They Rich Because They’re Smart? and The Clintons’ Anti-Working-Class Record by SWP National Secretary Jack Barnes; and Is Socialist Revolution in the US Possible? by party leader Mary-Alice Waters. In addition “It’s the Poor Who Face the Savagery of the US ‘Justice’ System” by the Cuban Five, five Cuban revolutionaries framed up and jailed for more than a decade for actions in defense of the Cuban Revolution, can also be purchased for $5 with a subscription.
Socialist Workers Party members and supporters in the United States and members of the Communist Leagues in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom will center the circulation drive door to door in working-class neighborhoods. They will take the paper and books to anti-racist actions, picket lines and demonstrations in support of women’s rights.
Sales of the Militant and books by party leaders will also be an important aspect of socialists on the job advancing the perspective for organizing workers, unionization, and fighting for workers’ rights.
Socialist workers will take the Militant and books by party leaders with them to show to fellow participants at the “In the Footsteps of Che” brigade in Cuba and at the World Festival of Youth and Students in Sochi, Russia, both in October.
One important source of subscriptions and book sales will be from workers behind bars across the country. The Militant and Pathfinder Books have a growing readership among prisoners, who look to keep informed and involved in broader working-class political issues, as well as to keep up on the Militant’s battles against efforts by prison authorities to censor the paper.
The SWP National Committee also launched a concurrent nine-week fund drive to raise $100,000 to finance the Socialist Workers Party’s activities over the coming year. The fund is essential to advancing the work of taking the party’s program deeper into the working class.
The writer of this article, who is the party’s candidate for mayor in Seattle, is the organizer of the circulation drive. Chris Hoeppner, organizer of the SWP in Philadelphia, was assigned as director for the fund.
Join us
Next week we’ll announce the international goal for the subscription drive and book sales. We’ll begin to report on the quotas taken by party branches and individuals in local areas.
Help to sign up others to subscribe to the Militant and purchase the books described above. You can join us and make a contribution to the work of the Socialist Workers Party by contacting the nearest party branch listed on page 8.
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