The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.61/No.35           October 13, 1997 
 
 
Step Up Pathfinder Fund Collection  

BY FRANCISCO PICADO
NEW YORK - Over the last week supporters of Pathfinder Press in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and New York made or raised their pledges to the Pathfinder Fund, pushing the total amount pledged above the international goal of raising $125,000. Now the challenge is collecting the money.

As of September 30, the funds coming into Pathfinder's office in New York were nearly $20,000 behind schedule. As we enter week five in this nine-week campaign, supporters around the world are striving to catch up on the collections by October 7. That means sending in about $32,700 over the next week.

The Pathfinder Fund is aimed at making possible the publication and distribution of the books that tell the history of 150 years of struggle by the working class for its emancipation.

"It important to realize that these monies are needed now to keep the presses running," said Peter Thierjung, who is helping to organize the fund in New York. Thierjung works in the printshop where Pathfinder books are produced. "This past month we organized in the printshop to get out eight titles," he explained. "Seven of them were books that were out or nearly out of stock such as Teamsters Power by Farrell Dobbs and the French translation of Che Guevara: Economics and Politics in the Transition to Socialism by Carlos Tablada. These financial contributions make it possible in a very concrete way to keep these books in print."

Pathfinder also published a new title this past month: a new Spanish-language edition of Economics and Politics in the Transition to Socialism.

Fifty-nine copies of this new title were sold by a team of international volunteers at a fair organized by the Communist Party of Spain, in Madrid. "Participants bought more than $1,500 worth of Pathfinder titles," said Paco Sánchez, who also works at Pathfinder's printshop in New York. Sánchez "went way over the limits" of his luggage allowance to get the books to Madrid just two days after the new title had been printed.

Another team of volunteers, Luis Madrid and Margrethe Siem, are currently helping to promote this book in Puebla and Mexico City, Mexico, including at events where the author is speaking.

Supporters in cities through out the world are organizing fund rallies to discuss world politics and working-class resistance in the United States and elsewhere.

Nearly 50 people attended a September 27 benefit in Seattle celebrating Pathfinder's recent publication of the Spanish translation of The Changing Face of U.S. Politics -Working Class Politics and the Trade Unions by Jack Barnes. Speakers included Laura Garza, a member of the Socialist Workers Party's National Committee, and Tomás Villanueva, a leader of the United Farm Workers in Washington state. Those attending gave $1,890 to the Pathfinder Fund on the spot, and a few made new pledges that they will pay over the rest of the fund drive.  
 
 
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