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From Fourth International, vol.4 No.9, September 1943, p.258.
Transcribed, marked up & formatted by Ted Crawford & David Walters in 2008 for ETOL.
What in (previous years has been known as the “summer slump” has become a period of increased activity for us this year. Literature sales generally have increased and those branches which are conducting sales campaigns are meeting with phenomenal success. As the literature agent of Central Branch, Local New York, reported, “Literature sales are on the uptrend.”
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Chicago’s subscription campaign is drawing to a close. To date they’ve turned in $62.50 worth of subs and the latest information from the literature agent is that the drive has been extended two weeks. The additional time will undoubtedly bring the campaign to a rousing finish.
Further word is received from Chicago:
“Our literature sales have been good, considering the time of year. The FI now takes care of itself, I am glad to report. We used to have to sell it to ourselves and distribute it, but we now have steady customers for 100 copies. It should be 10,000, if more people knew what is worth reading.
“Yours for better business towards a better world.”
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Seattle has added another activity to an already busy schedule:
“In order not to confuse our newly organised Civil Rights Defense Committee teams, we are having to stage a sub campaign based on individuals. I don’t think we’ll get the results that we would if we could have teams competing, but we’ll be able to handle these later.”
Portland’s excellent idea for obtaining subscriptions should be tried by all the branches:
“We got a list of 20 names from a Negro contact and delivered four copies of the paper to them. Then we called on them.
“Enclosed subs are the first results and we will get more. The names were not selected – just a cross-section of Negro shipyard workers. We’ll summarise results when we’ve covered them all.”
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A friend in Cleveland asks:
“Can you send me the article by Leon Trotsky on the Manifesto - Introduction to the African edition. (90 Years of the Communist Manifesto which appears in the February 1938 New International). I need it for a class. If you have an FI of that issue, please send it ... can the bound volume be obtained? ... I would like to see an article in the FI on Post-War Economy.” (Prompt service: See article in this issue by C. Charles.)
For the information of our readers: We have an almost complete stock of single back copies which we can send to complete your files, or we have bound volumes beginning with the year 1938.
A friend in Los Angeles sends suggestions for future articles:
“The more I think of it, the more I’m convinced that a good increasing section of the FI should be devoted to reprints of articles which are difficult for us to get in book form. Would you please accept this as a suggestion for the FI – you once ran a poll to find out what type of articles were desired and, as a dialectician I don’t think you hold any ‘absolute’ ideas on the subject.”
A friend in Alabama writes:
“It has been an instructive experience, living in the homes of southern families, and before I leave Alabama I hope to write something of a report, dealing specifically with the position of the Negro in the south. The most obvious and encouraging fact is that the spirit of militancy now being shown by the Negro masses at home exists down here too and the white people are all very much conscious of it.”
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The following letter from Scotland was gratefully received and we look forward to receipt of the material mentioned with keen anticipation.
“Any spare moment I get I am compiling material to go into an article, which will be an attempt to give you a composite picture with statistics of the life and conditions of women in Engineering and Shipbuilding, Land Army, Regular Army, and the Home.”
A friend somewhere in the British army writes:
“I recently received, via England, copies of Fourth International dated April and May 1942. Although a year old, they made excellent reading and I offer my congratulations to you and your associates.
“Until conscripted, I never missed an issue before the war. Someone over there may remember sending me a bound volume of the New International in 1939 as a donation. However, I am not ‘scrounging’ this time: I want to buy two subscriptions to your magazine for 1943. If possible will you please send me the back issues for this year so that I can start reading at January. The second subscription is for a friend in the Indian Command.
“I hope to be able to take out subscriptions later on for 1944. In the meantime I offer you my very best wishes.”
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Last updated on 27.8.2008