The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.5           February 5, 1996 
 
 
Autoworkers Step Up Sales Of Socialist Books  

BY GREG McCARTAN

Pathfinder, located in New York with distributors in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, publishes books and pamphlets by revolutionary and working-class leaders. Pathfinder bookstores are listed in the directory on page 12.

Marty Ressler, a member of the United Auto Workers union at General Motors in Tarrytown, New York, writes:

"Supporters of Pathfinder Press who work on the assembly lines at the Tarrytown GM plant had a discussion at the end of the fall circulation drive of the Militant, Perspectiva Mundial, and New International. We decided to see if we could show around and sell more books from local Pathfinder bookstores on the job. The results were fairly impressive.

"We sold $171.50 worth of books. They included: 10 on or about Malcolm X; Cointelpro: The FBI's Secret War on Political Freedom; Fascism: What It Is and How to Fight It, by Leon Trotsky; The Truth About Yugoslavia; Blacks in America's Wars; and An Action Program to Confront the Coming Economic Crisis.

"Workers at Tarrytown face the closing of the plant, which is the oldest auto plant in the country, in about six months. Discussions about how workers such as ourselves could fight to defend our lives and livelihoods against the rampant downsizing that is going on in companies such as AT&T and GM are popular and thoughtful ones."

The Pathfinder bookshop in London reports an increase in sales of The Truth About Yugoslavia: Why Working People Should Oppose Intervention, following a feature review of the book by the daily newspaper Morning Star.

Headlined, "Revealing the facts behind the NATO intervention," Will Podmore reports that the authors "argue passionately against NATO military intervention in the war-torn country."

Authors George Fyson, Argiris Malapanis, and Jonathan Silberman "show convincingly that intervention is just a cover for the selfish interests of the NATO powers and that it will delay, not promote, a durable peace."

Much of the material in the book, including photographs, draws on a trip to Yugoslavia by a team of Militant reporters, who spoke with workers and students in a number of cities across the country.

Citing the example of the Cuban revolution today, the introduction to the book concludes: "It is along such lines of class struggle and internationalism that working people in Yugoslavia can defend their common class interests and reconquer what previous generations began to achieve with the revolution of the 1940s. In the process they can create a society based on human solidarity, in contrast to the rivalry, brutality, and bloody conflict that is the true product of the crisis of the world capitalist market system."

The Association for the Fulfillment of Land and Humanity in Lebanon participates in an annual cultural fair in Beirut and includes as part of their exhibit a section of Pathfinder books. Some 50 books were sold during the week, including 9 on the Marxist view of anti-Semitism, the struggle of the Palestinian people, and the state of Israel; 13 on the Cuban revolution; 7 on the fight for women's liberation; and 9 by or about Malcolm X.

The new stirrings in the struggle for Chicano liberation - and interest in learning about the battles waged in the 1960s and 1970s - has prompted PBS to schedule airing of a four-hour documentary series, "Chicano!" The series will run in April in the western United States and, according to producers, seeks to be the Mexican-American equivalent to "Eyes on the Prize."

Pathfinder has just released a new edition of The Politics of Chicano Liberation, edited by Olga Rodri'guez. The book is written by participants in the struggle, and contains reports and resolutions adopted by the Socialist Workers Party on the revolutionary struggle against national oppression waged by Chicano workers and youth.

The book covers the rise of the Chicano liberation movement in the 1960s and 1970s, recounting the battles against racist discrimination, cop brutality, and harassment by immigration police. Organizing drives by the United Farm Workers union, the Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War, and the fight to establish affirmative action are all documented in this work.

The PBS documentary shows both the interest in books such as The Politics of Chicano Liberation, and the potential to sell the title today among co-workers, students, those involved in social protest action, and to retail bookstores as well.

 
 
 
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