Following the successful completion of the eight-week fall campaign to sell 1,350 subscriptions to the Militant and the same number of books by Socialist Workers Party and other revolutionary leaders, the party and Communist Leagues in Australia, Canada and the U.K. are stepping up worldwide efforts to expand their reach.
They aim to discuss why it is in the interests of workers everywhere to defend Israel as a refuge for Jews, oppose Jew-hatred and the genocidal actions against Israel by Hamas and its backer in Tehran — and to support the battle of toilers in Ukraine to defend their independence against Moscow’s invasion.
The SWP and Communist League candidates and supporters talk to working people on their doorsteps in cities and rural areas, build solidarity with union strikes and join their picket lines, and take the party’s program to political protests.
The final scoreboard for the Sept. 23-Nov. 21 campaign, including the successful effort to raise over $140,000 to deepen the political work of the party, is printed below. We went over all of the international goals for selling Militant subscriptions and books, as well as the Party-Building Fund, and every area met or surpassed its goals!
Alex Huinil and Josefina Otero from Fort Worth, Texas, reported on a Nov. 26 SWP campaign team they went on to talk with truckers at a truck stop in Weatherford. “We learned from all the drivers we talked to about the deteriorating working conditions and the lowering of trip rates they face today,” Otero said. “One of the drivers had just been told on the phone that the truck he drives had been repossessed and he was fired. They just left him standing at the truck stop with his mother, waiting for a ride home!”
“A Cuban-born owner-operator from Miami told us he hadn’t been home for five months,” said Otero. “He bought a copy of the Militant and would have bought some books, including The Jewish Question, which explains why this is a working-class question, but he got a call on his radio from his boss and was told he had a delivery to make right away. We hope to get back to him in the future.
“Another driver was working on his truck. Huinil asked him if he was an independent trucker, and he said he’d been making a living that way for 30 years,” reported Otero. “The trucker said he has to do his own repairs because he can’t afford professional repair costs. He went looking for change and came up with a dollar for a Militant.
“We met a Mexican-born truck driver who lives in El Paso. He also complained about how the trucking bosses have lowered rates for deliveries. He said he was facing increasing difficulty making ends meet. Most truckers we talked to agreed with the SWP that working people need to stand in defense of Israel’s right to exist as a refuge for Jews, and in defense of Ukraine’s sovereignty,” Otero said.
This week party members in Fort Worth are planning a trip to Madisonville, the mushroom capital of Texas, about a 150-mile trip each way. Their goal is to talk to workers at Monterey Mushroom there, which employs some 700 workers, with many from all over Latin America.
They also plan to visit campuses in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, to find Jewish student organizations and offer our help in responding to harassment by supporters of Hamas.
“We also aim to call new Militant subscribers to ask them how they like the paper and to invite them to this Saturday’s Militant Labor Forum,” said Otero.
You can be part of these efforts! Get a subscription. Use your copy to discuss these crucial issues with co-workers, fellow union members, friends and others. To get involved, contact the nearest branch or themilitant@mac.com.