http://themilitant.com/2017/8113/811302.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 81/No. 13 April 3, 2017
(front page)
Socialist Workers Party sets campaign in working class
7-week drive to spread party’s reach with ‘Militant,’ books
Militant/Edwin Fruit
Mary Martin, SWP candidate for Seattle mayor, left, and campaign
supporter Leah O’Conner, far right, discuss SWP with Dennis Hanson and
Lorgin Scanlon outside their apartment Jan. 21.
BY BRIAN WILLIAMS
In response to increased opportunities to introduce the Socialist
Workers Party to working people and discuss the party’s perspective to
build a revolutionary working-class movement to end the carnage and
bloody wars resulting from the unfolding capitalist economic and
political crisis, the SWP has set a seven-week party-building campaign.
The drive will run from April 1 to May 23 to boost the number of
Militant subscribers, sales of revolutionary books published by
Pathfinder Press and raise $112,000 for the spring Militant Fighting Fund.
A central component of the drive will be introducing the party to
workers and youth through door-to-door discussions in cities, towns and
rural areas. SWP election campaigns in New York, Seattle, Los Angeles,
Atlanta, Miami and elsewhere will help draw people toward the party.
The international goal is 1,100 subscriptions to the party’s press and
sales of 1,100 books. Three Pathfinder titles: Are They Rich Because
They’re Smart? and The Clintons’ Anti-Working-Class Record, both by SWP
National Secretary Jack Barnes, and Is Socialist Revolution in the US
Possible? by Mary-Alice Waters are each offered at a special price of $5
with a Militant subscription or $7 if purchased without one.
Party branches are discussing and adopting quotas, and asking those they
do political work with if they want to join in. Meeting these goals will
help SWP members develop and deepen political relations and common
activity with workers, on their doorsteps and participating in labor and
social protests — for amnesty for all immigrants in the U.S., against
Jew-hatred and attacks on Muslims, in support of women’s right to choose
abortion and against cop brutality. The door is open to join the party.
Specials on several other books are being offered: “It’s the Poor Who
Face the Savagery of the US ‘Justice’ System”: The Cuban Five Talk About
Their Lives Within the US Working Class for $7; Malcolm X, Black
Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power by Barnes for $15, and Cuba
and Angola: The War for Freedom by Harry Villegas (“Pombo”) for $7.
The $112,000 annual Militant Fighting Fund is needed to cover the
paper’s operating expenses, including rent, printing and shipping. It
helps keep introductory subscriptions at the special low rate of $5 for
12 weeks and provides low-cost and complimentary subscriptions for
prisoners. It also maximizes the Militant’s ability to field reporting
trips in the U.S. and worldwide.
In addition to appealing to those who currently look to the paper for
political direction, there are increasing opportunities to raise funds
by asking for contributions while meeting and discussing the party with
workers on their doorsteps.
The Militant has a growing number of subscribers among workers behind
bars. The party has set a goal of getting at least 15 new Militant
subscribers in prison.
“Every week that we receive your newspaper the Militant, it gives us
more hope, more strength and more unity,” one worker behind bars wrote
recently from Florida. “I ask that you never give up your stride and
that you continue to be a tool and voice for the masses.”
Mary Martin, a leader of the SWP and party candidate for mayor of
Seattle, is director of the party-building campaign and Lea Sherman, the
Militant business manager, is director of the Militant Fighting Fund.
To join in the campaign, get a subscription, order some books or copies
of the paper to sell to others, and make a contribution to the Militant
Fighting Fund, get in touch with the SWP in your area listed in the
directory on page 4. Checks or money orders payable to the Militant can
be sent to 306 W. 37th St., 13th Floor, New York, NY 10018-2482.
Related articles:
SWP: Workers need to build our own political party!
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