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The Militant (logo)
Vol. 79/No. 38 October 26, 2015
(front page)
Campaigning for Socialist Workers
Party with the ‘Militant,’ fund
BY NAOMI CRAINE
The next three weeks are an opportunity to campaign for the Socialist
Workers Party — the working-class alternative to Donald Trump, Bernie
Sanders and all the others scrambling to replace Barack Obama as the
mouthpiece for U.S. capital — as we organize the final weeks of the
party’s drives to win new readers of the Militant, expand the reach of
books by Pathfinder Press on revolutionary politics and the lessons of
past working-class battles, and to raise $100,000 to fund the party’s work.
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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