WV Sub Drive Success

The 2016 Workers Vanguard subscription campaign concluded with 2,187 points nationally, surpassing our quota of 1,650 points. Most of the subs sold were full-year WV subs (which count as two points apiece). In addition, 78 subscriptions to Espartaco, the Spanish-language publication of our comrades of the Grupo Espartaquista de México, were sold, as well as 91 subs to the press of other sections of the International Communist League. We congratulate comrade Jake (New York), who won the sub drive with 137 points.

During the drive, held from late August to mid October, supporters of the Spartacist League visited cities and colleges where we do not have locals, introducing our Marxist press to new readers. While most of our subs are sold to students during the opening of the fall school term, we also use the sub drive as a chance to talk politics with trade unionists. Comrades sold to longshoremen in the ports of New York/New Jersey, Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston and New Orleans, as well as on the West Coast.

This year the sub drive took place in the lead-up to the presidential elections. Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were unpopular among youth and workers we met. As a comrade from the East Coast reported, “Students were at a loss for what to do. They felt both Trump and Clinton were horrible choices.” Our teams encountered some disappointed Bernie Sanders supporters who felt betrayed because he refused to run as a (supposedly) independent candidate. Our headline “Bernie Sanders: Imperialist Running Dog” (WV No. 1083, 12 February) attracted youth curious about socialism and tired of bourgeois electoral politics.

Among items of literature that were popular was WV No. 1093 (29 July), which declared: “Black People Under Siege.” This issue reprinted our leaflet joining in the cry of outrage against the police killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. As the leaflet explained, “shooting black people is a reflexive response by the police. Their job is to ‘serve and protect’ the ruling class that lords it over this society rooted in black oppression and the exploitation of the working class, whose labor is the lifeblood of the capitalist profit system.” Another article that sparked interest dealt with NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s protest against the racist police by refusing to stand for the national anthem (WV No. 1095, 9 September).

The weekend following the cop killing of Keith Scott in Charlotte, North Carolina, a team of comrades traveled there to distribute literature and argue for our revolutionary perspective. A member of the team reported that many black youth who came out to protest seemed dubious when we argued that the working class must take up the fight for black freedom. But some of them bought literature when she showed our articles dealing with lessons of past social struggles: the Civil War, the 1960s civil rights movement, the Black Panthers, etc. In North Carolina, activists from around the state described to us how white supremacists have increasingly been crawling out of their rat holes, emboldened by Trump’s campaign.

A team of comrades made a successful trip to Puerto Rico, where people are enduring great privation as a result of austerity measures dictated by Wall Street and Washington. Students were interested in our Spanish-language offprint on the debt crisis (a translation of “U.S. Colonialism Chokes Puerto Rico,” WV No. 1075, 2 October 2015), but many equally wanted to talk to us about mainland U.S. politics and especially the continuing protests against racist police brutality. Young men as well as women were interested in our articles championing women’s liberation.

We welcome our new readers.