The international drive to expand the readership of the Militant and of books by revolutionary leaders and to raise funds for the Socialist Workers Party was a big success. The decision to go for higher goals than previous drives — based on what workers face and are discussing — was proven correct.
As party members continue to reach out broadly among working people they are getting back in touch with those they met.
“We want to go over to their homes and talk about what they’ve been reading in the books and the paper,” Dan Fein, a member of the Socialist Workers Party in Chicago, told the Militant. “We will also invite them to attend the weekly Militant Labor Forum series.”
“In neighborhoods where we sold the most subscriptions we plan to keep going door to door to win new readers,” Fein said, “and we’ll see if those who already subscribed will join us.”
SWP campaigners in the U.S. and from the Communist Leagues in Australia, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand spoke with thousands of working people as we went door to door in big cities, small towns and rural areas. We brought solidarity to strike picket lines and joined protest actions to defend women’s right to choose abortion and actions against the military coup in Sudan. During the drive hundreds met SWP-endorsed candidates and more took flyers with the party’s election campaign platform or bought single copies of the Militant.
In New York keeping in touch with new readers is already paying off. SWP members sold subscriptions or books to at least a half-dozen taxi drivers, while they were waiting for a fare and during a drivers’ hunger strike and encampment at City Hall demanding debt relief for owners of city-issued medallions.
One driver introduced SWP campaigners to another driver he knew. That driver also got a subscription to the Militant, some books and joined SWP members at a protest against the U.S. embargo of Cuba.
The Militant has won growing respect from unionists as the only paper that lets striking workers speak in their own words about their struggles; that explains why solidarity is crucial to the outcome of their fights for better conditions and wages; and how victories scored in these struggles set an example to all workers.
From the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to rising conflicts between the rulers in the U.S. and China and what lay behind recent Democratic Party election losses, the Militant is indispensable for explaining all political questions from the standpoint of the rights and interests of the working class.
It’s the only paper that explains why workers need to break from both the Democratic and Republican parties and forge our own party, a labor party, as part of opening the road to taking power out of the hands of the capitalist class. Campaigners found growing interest this fall in workers forming their own party to strengthen their class battles.
Many new readers will be interested in getting books by SWP leaders and other revolutionaries that advance the understanding, confidence and combativity of working people. These titles provide lessons from previous working-class battles vital for building the fighting labor movement we need today.
Some subscribers will want to build support for strikes by unionists at Kellogg’s, at Warrior Met Coal or other workplaces and to visit their picket lines. Some will introduce us to neighbors, relatives, friends or co-workers who they think will also be interested in getting the Militant and learning about the party.
This will put us in good stead when the Militant begins a campaign to win new subscribers to renew. All this work will also help us recruit new members to the Socialist Workers Party and Communist Leagues today.
Interested in learning more? See the directory to contact the party branch nearest you or contact the Militant at themilitant@mac.com.