BY DAN FEIN
ATLANTA - Thirty people attended the June 20 grand opening of the Pathfinder Bookstore at its new location at 230 Auburn Ave. in Atlanta. Auburn Avenue is the center of the historic Black business district of Atlanta on the east end of downtown, and a few blocks from Georgia State University.

The facility also serves as the campaign headquarters of the 1998 Socialist Workers Election Campaign. An attractive display in the window promotes James Harris for governor, Dan Fein for U.S. Senate, Arlene Rubinstein for U.S. Congress, 4th C.D., and Paul Cornish for U.S. Congress, 5th C.D.

Eddie Slaughter, a Black farmer from southern Georgia, began the event by explaining a lawsuit filed against the racist policies of the U.S. government toward Black farmers. Slaughter told the audience, "The fight is not simply Black farmers versus the U.S. government, but family farms versus corporate big-business farming. And the problem is not just in the U.S. It's the struggle of the poor versus the rich throughout the world." He announced that Black farmers and their supporters will be pressing their fight at the national convention of the NAACP, to be held in Atlanta July 11-15.

Tom Leonard, a longtime leader of the Socialist Workers Party from Houston, spoke on "Southern labor and working- class politics - part of a changing world." He addressed the increased resistance of working people, demonstrated in the strikes of auto workers against General Motors and other labor battles. He zeroed in on the Tow Boat Pilot's strike and the lockout of Crown oil refinery workers in Houston as examples of the greater opportunities for socialist workers to participate in struggles with other fighting workers today. "This increased resistance by workers makes them thirsty for the kind of books being sold in this bookstore," Leonard said.

The next day 21 people returned to hear a class by Leonard on "Imperialism and its wars - some lessons from World War II" and a class by Jerry Freiwirth on "The general strike in Denmark - an eyewitness report." Freiwirth is a member of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union in Houston and a member of the Socialist Workers Party.

Following the classes, the socialist candidates and a few supporters attended the San Juan Festival, where Puerto Ricans and others gathered for music, dance and food. The campaigners sold 12 Militants, two copies of Perspectiva Mundial, three copies of the pamphlet, Puerto Rico: U.S. Colony in the Caribbean, and handed out hundreds of leaflets advertising the following week's Militant Labor Forum on the Puerto Rican independence struggle.

Dan Fein is a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1996.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home