The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.59/No.38           October 16, 1995 
 
 
Cuba Titles Attract Attention At China Conference (`Pathfinder Around The World' Column)  

Hundreds of participants in the Non-Governmental Organization Forum on Women in Huairou, China, stopped to take a look at the book table of socialist literature set up in the Global Pavilion, a center where women from every corner of the world distributed information on their organizations and sold handicrafts to help finance the trip to the conference. The forum was held in conjunction with the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in early September.

Conference participants bought literature in English, Spanish, French, and Farsi. The best-selling title was Che Guevara and the Fight for Socialism Today by Mary-Alice Waters. "You mean these books about Cuba are published in the United States?" asked one woman who stopped by the table. Participants bought seven copies of the pamphlet in three languages. Other titles on Cuba that were sold included Socialism and Man in Cuba, The Second Declaration of Havana, and Che Guevara Speaks.

Not surprisingly, titles on women's liberation were among the most popular. These included six copies of Women's Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle by Thomas Sankara and three copies of Feminism and the Marxist Movement by Mary-Alice Waters, as well as Sexism and Science, Abortion Is a Woman's Right, and Surrogate Motherhood, Women's Rights, and the Working Class.

Many people wanted to discuss the question of population control. Three copies of Too Many Babies: The Myth of the Population Explosion by Joseph Hansen were quickly sold out. Hansen argues that capitalism, not overpopulation, is the cause of poverty, unemployment, crowded living conditions, health problems, and the destruction of the environment, and that women should have the elementary right to decide whether and when to have children, and how many. Some who dropped by the table argued forcefully against this thesis, while others were convinced to read the pamphlet by discussing the issues with the socialists staffing the table.

There was a big demand for titles in French, as many of the 2,500 participants from Africa came from French-speaking countries. There was also a sizable delegation of women from France, a number of whom had come on a train from Europe to China.

Chinese forum participants, as well as volunteer translators from Beijing University and the Foreign Languages Institute, were also interested in the books, and bought several English- and Spanish-language titles. Some Chinese workers from the conference maintenance crews and food concessions also stopped by on their breaks.

Thirteen copies of New International, the Marxist magazine of politics and theory distributed by Pathfinder, were sold. Issue no. 7, which contains "Opening Guns of World War III," an article by Jack Barnes on the U.S. war against Iraq, attracted the most attention.

In all, forum participants bought 76 books and pamphlets.

"This is a thinking bookstore," one young woman said upon visiting the Pathfinder booth at the annual Seattle Bumbershoot arts festival. Among the $150 worth of books sold was a copy of The Revolution Betrayed by Leon Trotsky, purchased by a young woman who works as a nanny.

Another worker, who is part of a Teamster organizing drive in Seattle, recently bought a copy of The Changing Face of U.S. Politics: Working-Class Politics and the Trade Unions at a local bookstore. Two weeks later he stopped by the Pathfinder bookstore to join the Readers Club and to pick up several more titles, including Teamster Power, Teamster Politics, and American Railroads: The Case for Nationalization.

Pathfinder supporters in Newark, New Jersey, set up a table at the New Brunswick Book Fair in mid-September. The fair attracts local residents as well as students from Rutgers University. Fair goers bought $210 worth of Pathfinder books and pamphlets, including 14 copies of the Pathfinder catalog.

The titles sold included: Teamster Rebellion, On the Jewish Question, Woman's Evolution, Mother Jones Speaks, Their Morals and Ours, In Defense of Socialism, three copies each of The Communist Manifesto and Women's Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle.

Simone Berg in Newark and Lisa Ahlberg in Seattle contributed to this week's column.

 
 
 
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