In the fall of 1987 a wide range of individuals launched the Pathfinder Mural project. They included political activists in the arts, civil rights and anti-apartheid fighters, opponents of U.S. military aggression in Central America, supporters of women's equality, and rank-and-file unionists. For nearly a decade this mural has been a creative promotional for the revolutionary books and pamphlets published by Pathfinder.

The centerpiece of the Pathfinder Mural is a giant printing press on the background of a globe. The press churns out books for fighting unionists, farmers, and youth around the world. On the pages of the books are portraits of outstanding revolutionary, communist, and working-class leaders whose writings and speeches are published by Pathfinder. The press is engulfed in a march of fighting workers and farmers from throughout history and from around the world. At the base of the mural is a banner that proclaims "For a world without borders!" in English, French, and Spanish.

More than 80 artists from 20 countries contributed works on the mural, which took more than two years to complete.

The mural attracted interest and support - as well as political debate - from the start. As the mural was unveiled, two prominent New York dailies carried editorials attacking it. The New York Post condemned the decision by the New York State Council on the Arts to provide $500 for the $125,000 project. The Daily News editors invited vandalism of the artwork, suggesting someone paint "R.I.P." and "Never Again" over it.

The Post also ran an article by Patrick Buchanan titled "Why subsidize defamation?" The piece attacked both the Pathfinder mural and art exhibitions about AIDS.

Supporters of democratic rights responded. They spoke out in defense of free speech and sent protest messages to New York mayor Edward Koch, calling on city authorities to ensure the mural and the Pathfinder Building were not attacked. After a couple of vandal attacks, supporters of the mural organized nightly vigils to guard the mural against further assaults.

International project
Over the last seven years, the image of the mural has become known internationally, from book fairs in Tehran to factories in Cuba. In 1992, the Pathfinder Mural Bookstore opened next to it. There, visitors from all over the world who stop to look at the mural can purchase the range of books published and distributed by Pathfinder, as well as posters and postcards of the artwork.

Among the initial supporters of the project were singer- composers Pete Seeger, Roy Brown, and Thiago de Mello; poets Dennis Brutus and Sonia Sanchez; constitutional attorney William Kuntsler; and muralists Juan Sánchez, Eva Cockcroft, and Mike Alewitz, who organized the initial work and designed the conceptual sketch for the mural. African National Congress youth leader Victor Mashabela toured the United States promoting the mural and Pathfinder books.

Several prominent artists from around the world contributed major portraits. Arnoldo Guillén, director of the National School of Plastic Arts in Managua, Nicaragua, painted portraits of Nicaraguan revolutionaries Augusto César Sandino and Carlos Fonseca. Ricardo Carpani of Argentina and Dumile Feni of South Africa contributed portraits of Argentine-born Cuban revolutionary leader Ernesto Che Guevara and of Nelson Mandela, the then-imprisoned leader of the African National Congress of South Africa, respectively. Both Carpani and Dumile were forced into exile for the political character of their art.

Gerard Kelly, a prominent muralist in Belfast, Northern Ireland, was prevented by U.S. authorities from contributing his portrait of James Connolly, a socialist and central leader of the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland. He was arrested on arrival at New York's Kennedy Airport for allegedly failing to mention he had previously served a prison sentence in Northern Ireland. His sketch of Connolly was rendered by a New York artist.

Internationally exhibited Cuban artist Aldo Soler provided portraits of Fidel Castro and of the co-founder of modern communism, Karl Marx. The portrait of Marx's central collaborator, Frederick Engels, was done by Iranian artist Marjan Harmozi. Renowned U.S. muralist Eva Cockcroft painted the portrait of U.S. mineworkers leader Mother Jones. Carol Byard, a painter and sculptor in New York, contributed the portrait of the U.S.-born fighter for Black rights and revolutionary, Malcolm X.

Grenadian photographer and painter Maxine Broderick provided a portrait of the leader of the 1979 Grenadian revolution, Maurice Bishop. Lynne Pelletier of the Quebecois and English-Canadian group Artists for Action painted the portrait of Thomas Sankara, who headed the revolutionary democratic government of Burkina Faso in the mid-1980s. Portraits of Farrell Dobbs, a central leaders of the Minneapolis teamster labor upsurge and of the Socialist Workers Party, and of SWP founder James P. Cannon were painted by former coal miner Robert Allen.

Minneapolis-based artist Seitu Ken Jones painted the portrait of Black rights fighter W. E. B. DuBois, founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. A sketch by New York artist May Stevens of the Polish-born German revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg was rendered on the mural by Mike Alewitz.

Boston artist David Fichter contributed the portrait of U.S. Socialist Party leader Eugene Debs. A group portrait of five leaders of the Communist International in Russia - Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Karl Radek, Gregory Zinoviev, and Nikolai Bukharin - was painted by Malcolm McAllister from New Zealand.

Among those depicted in the crowd of fighting people are Chen Duxiu, a founder of the Chinese Communist Party; ex-slave, abolitionist, and Underground Railroad leader Harriet Tubman; Irish Republican Army fighter and prison hunger striker Bobby Sands; Cuban national independence leader José Martí; Native American Sioux leader Sitting Bull; New Caledonia independence leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou; Paris Commune leader Louise Michel, and many others. Teams of artists from Australia, Samoa, New Zealand, and the Philippines depicted scenes and leaders of struggles against colonial conquest in that region.

Advocate for revolutionary books
Artists from Mexico, El Salvador, Uruguay, and India contributed to the mural.

The promotional impact of the mural for Pathfinder extended beyond its location in Manhattan. The participation of international artists helped to spread the word about the mural and Pathfinder around the world. Artists groups, unionists, and political activists held events to raise funds and help send artists to participate in the painting of the mural.

Many of the artists contributing feature works in the mural also participated in speaking tours in which they spoke about their art, work on the project, and art and politics in their respective countries. These included discussions with striking paperworkers in Maine, farm workers in Washington state's Yakima Valley, striking coal miners in West Virginia, Turkish immigrant workers in London, and at art galleries and institutes across the country.

Photo displays of the mural have also been featured as promotionals for Pathfinder at book fairs in Havana, London, Tehran, Sydney, Montreal, Sweden, and Trinidad. Tourists and local residents visit the mural each year. Some tour organizations have added visits to the mural to their itineraries. Several art classes from nearby universities and high schools also include visits to the mural in their study courses.

During its production and afterward the mural received extensive media coverage. It included television news broadcasts on most stations in New York, many across the country, and several around the world. Articles on the mural appeared in many international newspapers and magazines.

Sam Manuel was the director of the Pathfinder Mural Project in 1988-89. He is a rail worker and member of the United Transportation Union in Washington, D.C.  
 
 
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