How did Class War get its papers into newsagents?

[Bitter Ashes]

I was reading and burning the midnight oil again when I spotted this:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/the-end-of-anarchy-now-that-the-class-war-is-over-1252967.html

It's an article about how the original Class War (not the new London Class War) stopped printing in the mid 90's. What suprised me when I was reading it was this bit:


Unlike Socialist Worker, which is sold at strikes, rallies and railways stations, Class War secured distribution in newsagents in what it deemed "working-class communities" and so claimed sales at its height of 15,000 copies an issue. Even now the group claims sales of 4,000 copies.

I know it was only just over a decade ago, but I'm wondering how that was achieved. Yes, there's small independant newsagents, but they're so few and far between nowadays and everything I ever see is owned by the corporations like TESCO. Obviously, TESCO would neeeevvvveeeerrr allow one of its retailer to stock papers from anything not on thier order sheet, let alone sometimes that heralds the doom of the company executives. So, did they just sneak them in, or was the tactic more of to try find independant newsagents and do a cash in hand deal, or something completly different?

Not that I think newspaper sales are going to fix anything of course. :rolleyes:

[BobKKKindle$]

Incidentally, Socialist Worker is sold in newsagents as well - not that many, obviously, but in some it is. I've come across it myself several times.

[The Ungovernable Farce]

Yeah, the Morning Star's sold in a lot of newsagents as well. If something can be sold for a profit, capitalists aren't going to refuse to do so just because it calls for their destruction. Also it's worth bearing in mind that the Tescofication of Britain was a lot less advanced in the 80s and 90s than it is now.

[Pogue]

Yeh I sometimes get socialist worker around here from WHSmiths. Morning star is sold in quite alot of places, its not uncommon to find it.

I'm not actually sure what the actual answer is Ranma, I'll ask Ian Bone for you next time I see him and tell you.

Interestingly enough, a number of newsagents used to sell National Front material under the counter. I wouldn't be suprised if someone did it with Class War.

[nuisance]

Some shops still sell Class War, for example some Borders- despite the chain shutting down.

[The Idler]

Yeah I was in Borders and surprised to see lots of radical literature on its magazine shelves.

But as Lenin said;
"The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them."

[Spawn of Stalin]

Borders sell loads of left-wing stuff, never seen Class War though, I'll have to keep my eyes open for it. I was actually talking about this to my Uncle a while back, he used to know a guy who ran the local chippy and the bloke let him put some Class Wars in there for people to read while they had their chips, dunno how they got them into newsagents though.

[IrishWorker]

A sympathetic News Agent or Vender is always the best way to get your politics on the shelves.

Along with 50p from each copy sold of course.:)

[Wanted Man]

Heh, I bought the Morning Star in a newsagent in Edinburgh on vacation. It wasn't exactly 60p well spent in terms of content, but it's still pretty cool. I didn't see it in any other newsagents, though, so I guess it was just a coincidence. I suppose that in the past, when the European communist parties were much more visible in public life, all of them had widely read daily papers available everywhere. This is probably still the case in countries where the communists are still strong and have a mass base.

[The Idler]

L'Humanité has better circulation than any paper in the US or UK. They even translate into English.

[McCroskey]

From the CPB website:

The Morning Star is supplied to retailers on a sale or return basis so there is no risk to the shopkeeper in getting you Britain's only socialist daily paper.

So, if they don´t sell it, they don´t loose money, that´s the key. You can still find the Morning Star in many places around London.

[L.J.Solidarity]

In Germany, several left-wing papers are sold at major train stations and also some other outlets. The maoist MLPD's Rote Fahne (Red Flag) is easy to be found, as well as Graswurzelrevolution (Grassroots revolution, an anarchist/hippie magazine) and sometimes the SAV's Solidarität (Solidarity) and the anarcho-syndicalist's Direkte Aktion (Direct Action), but strangely I never saw Unsere Zeit (Our Time, the DKP's weekly) anywhere, despite their circulation probably being the highest of all organisation's papers.
Some of the aforementioned seem to never be bought, often when I buy one the salesperson looks for the price and has apparently never seen it before, so I wonder why they're still available. Perhaps it's got to do with German laws, it's somehow possible to basically force anyone selling newspapers to sell any given paper due to freedom of the press rules.

[Sean]

With the like of An Phoblacht (and I'm not going to argue on the class warriness of a Sinner publication), I've always seen it sold around republican watering holes and the like and in the cases of newsagents at least the ones from my area, it was a shop owner by shop owner affair and they didnt take much if anything for it, leaving a couple in was more akin to putting an ad on their billboard or something rather than haggling for it to be seen as a product if any of that helps. When I'm back over next time I see the wee woman that picks up subscriptions em I'll ask her.