BY LUIS MADRID
Pathfinder Press supporters around the world have launched a nine-week fund drive to raise $125,000. The fund, which runs September 1 - November 1, will make possible the publication of several new books by the end of this year and keeping in print the complete back list of Pathfinder's 300- plus titles.

The accompanying chart shows goals adopted in local areas around the world so far amount to $114,288. With only a handful of areas pending to adopt quotas, special attention must be paid over the next days to obtain new pledges and increase existing ones so that local goals exceed the international target of $125,000 before the end of the first week of the drive.

Pombo: A Man of Che's `Guerrilla' by Harry Villegas, and El rostro cambiante de la política en Estados Unidos, the Spanish-language edition of The Changing Face of U.S. Politics by Jack Barnes, are two of the six new titles the New York-based publisher has issued this year alone. The recent victory the Teamsters scored in their strike against UPS has led to increased sales of books on the labor movement, including Pathfinder's series on the origins and politics of that union. Farrell Dobbs's Teamster Rebellion and Teamster Power will join the more than 40 titles Pathfinder has reprinted so far this year. Six other new books are also scheduled to be off the press before the end of the year (see article on facing page).

Supporters in Seattle, Miami, and Des Moines, among other cities, explain they are organizing fund-raising activities in the context of the shift that has taken place in working-class resistance to the bosses demands for belt- tightening.

"We will concentrate on promoting the fund among coworkers, and fighters we met on the UPS picket lines," said Nan Bailey, who is helping to organize the effort in Seattle. "We should also be able to get contributions from farm workers." To get the campaign going, a mailing that includes a copy of a "new titles" brochure went out to all potential contributors, urging them to buy the newly released books and chip in for the fund, Bailey said.

Pathfinder supporters in many cities around the world are organizing forums and other meetings in September to reach out to industrial workers and other new contributors. They are also making plans to collect and send in at least half of their goal by the end of that month. "Funds are immediately needed for the publication of the new titles," said Sara Lobman, Pathfinder business manager.

The theme of The Changing Face of U.S. Politics for the fund-raiser in Seattle "will help us bring together those we are meeting to discuss U.S. and international politics, especially labor battles going on today," said Bailey. The Seattle meeting has been scheduled for September 16. "The date allows us to publicize the meeting widely during Labor Day weekend and the subsequent days, when many supporters of Pathfinder will be participating in an all-out effort to sell Pathfinder books and subscriptions to the Militant" (see front-page article).

Anyone interested in contributing can make checks payable to Pathfinder, and send them to: Pathfinder, 410 West Street, New York, NY 10014.  
 
 
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