The central Florida farmer has been seeking answers to why there is hunger in a world of plenty, and how farmers and workers can end this problem.

"I became convinced that the government had no interest in eradicating hunger, and I was desperate for information," he said. "Pathfinder has given me the answers finally. It's a liberating experience."

Butts was speaking to an audience in Miami to raise contributions to the Pathfinder Fund. His remarks underlined why the $125,000 fund is needed now to keep publishing, and keep reprinting, the books he and other fighting farmers and workers need.

But to achieve this goal, a concerted effort is required between now and November 15 in every city where there are Pathfinder supporters.

As we go to press, $84,040 has been sent in. Another $40,960 must be raised to reach our collective goal — a substantial challenge.

This campaign got a big boost over the past week — the result of a more concerted effort than earlier weeks. Partisans of Pathfinder sent in one of the largest piles of checks yet.

Based on this momentum, what is needed now is to organize the final stretch day by day. This includes both bridging any gap between pledges and local goals, and collecting all funds on time. It means, above all, Pathfinder supporters broadening their appeal to fellow working people they hadn't approached before.

Using public meetings effectively to maximize the fund-raising is essential — broadly publicizing the event, organizing a program that captures the breadth of interest in Pathfinder books, and a carefully prepared fund pitch.

The reports below from Miami, Detroit, and St. Paul, Minnesota, highlight some ingredients of how we can achieve this objective.  
 

Florida small farmer: reading Pathfinder books is 'liberating'

MIAMI—Working people and others who frequent the Miami Pathfinder Bookstore celebrated the grand opening at its new location in Little Haiti on the October 30–31 weekend. The Saturday evening public event was used to help meet a local goal of raising $3,500 as part of the $125,000 fund drive. A total of $1,000 was collected at the meeting.

Rail worker Bill Kalman, director of the local fund-raising effort, thanked the many volunteers who helped transform a dark and dreary industrial office into a well-lit and gaily decorated bookstore and political center. Kalman especially thanked Bill Loomis, a political activist and worker at American Airlines, whose efforts made possible the complex electrical work necessary to run a professional site.

Karl Butts, a working vegetable farmer from Plant City, Florida, underscored the importance of Pathfinder books. His desire to "do something about hunger" from early in life led to his career in agriculture. He described several years of intensive lobbying for a world hunger organization because he felt that "only the federal government commands the necessary resources to make a difference."

Butts said, "I became convinced that the government had no interest in eradicating hunger, and I was desperate for information. Pathfinder has given me the answers finally. It's a liberating experience."

He expressed interest in visiting revolutionary Cuba as an alternative to capitalism's dog-eat-dog system. "I want to see a system that is not chaotic, where everyone is not competing for the same dollar, where farming can really be enjoyable," he explained.

Cindy Jaquith, a member of the United Steelworkers of America in Birmingham, Alabama, was the keynote speaker. "The way the mainstream media covers Patrick Buchanan's bid for the Reform Party nomination," she noted, "you would think he's on his last legs, that he's run out of steam. But just the opposite is true." Jaquith explained that the central ideas contained in Pathfinder's newest title, Capitalism's World Disorder by Jack Barnes, are essential to counter the radical rightist proposals of Buchanan that get a hearing among some workers and farmers.

Jaquith presented a class the next day on the 1979 Iranian revolution and political developments in Iran today. 
 

Detroit meeting on Cuba and farm struggle raises funds

DETROIT — At an October 31 benefit for the Pathfinder Fund here, James Harris spoke on the 40-year continuity of the Cuban revolution and the significance of the land reform carried out by peasants and workers in Cuba. Harris, a Socialist Workers Party leader in Atlanta, has been participating in land struggles and collaborating with several farmers to organize a trip by working farmers to Cuba to learn about agriculture and the revolution in that country.

Harris explained how Cuban farmers and workers took land from big landowners and capitalist farmers and began to organize agriculture for human needs, and how the revolutionary government guarantees their right to keep the land they work. He contrasted this to the crisis facing working farmers in the United States, who are being driven off the land by the "scissors effect" of low prices for agricultural produce and high interest rates and costs of farming supplies.

Harris underlined the importance of getting Pathfinder books into the hands of working farmers, who are also being courted by ultrarightist currents.

Young Socialists member Bill Schmitt reported on a team in which he participated, along with other socialist workers, that toured central Indiana, visiting picket lines, selling the Militant at plant gates, setting up a literature table near a college campus, and asking bookstores in working-class communities to carry Capitalism's World Disorder and other Pathfinder titles. Classical guitarist Frances Carew entertained the gathering during the dinner and at the conclusion of the program.

Those present contributed $1,045 to the fund, bringing the total collected in the Detroit area to $3,930. One contributor, unable to attend the meeting, made a new pledge of $500, putting pledges above the local goal of $4500.  
 

Minnesota event narrows gap toward Pathfinder Fund goal

ST. PAUL, Minnesota — Supporters of Pathfinder books in this region made substantial progress toward their Pathfinder Fund goals at a public meeting held here October 30.

Helping close a gap in pledges toward the $10,000 Twin Cities goal, participants offered an additional $824, raising total pledges to $8,338 — still a challenge for the next two weeks — and paid $1,274. An additional $380 was collected the following day.

Some $75 was collected toward the Chippewa Falls goal of $400.

Keynote speaker James Harris highlighted the significance of the Teamsters fight for union recognition at Overnite Trucking Co. A number of people in the audience had been at the Overnite picket line at the terminal in the Twin Cities area and described the fighting spirit of the strikers and their goals.

Harris also explained how several farm activists in Georgia have been helping to lead the campaign to sell Capitalism's World Disorder.

A photo display was set up in the meeting hall on the Steelworkers strike against ME International in Duluth, Minnesota. The strikers, who make castings for the mining industry, have been on the picket lines for more than two months.

Rachele Fruit in Miami, Charles Guerra in Detroit, and Doug Jenness in St. Paul contributed to this article.  
 
 
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