Six supporters of Pathfinder Press, including one from Iceland, staffed a table from the publishing house for the ninth consecutive year. Four of the six were under 25 years old. The first day and a half were open to trades people, including publishers, librarians, book chain representatives, and teachers. Representatives from several university libraries and other book buyers, including one from Norway, expressed interest in Pathfinder's titles.

In all, participants purchased $350 worth of books from the Pathfinder table. The majority of those engaged in discussions at the stand were overwhelmingly young people, many of them women. A book that attracted many youth to the Pathfinder stand was the new title Che Guevara Talks to Young People. The best seller was the Swedish edition of Socialism and Man in Cuba by Ernesto Che Guevara, with 11 copies sold. Other books by the Argentine-born leader of the Cuban revolution sparked interest.

Six copies of the Marxist magazine New International were sold, five in Swedish and one in English. U.S. Imperialism has Lost the Cold War was the title that drew the most attention, with some finding its explanation of world politics very controversial. Many visitors to the stand agreed when being told that the removal of the huge Stalinist obstacle to workers' struggles internationally has created new problems for the imperialist powers. Three copies of the Swedish edition were sold.

A young woman who at first decided to buy Ny International decided to take advantage of a special offer with a subscription to the Militant in order to follow week by week the growing workers' militancy around the world, and the development of the Cuban revolution. Five others also subscribed during the fair.

A student who has been taking a course on economics at the University of Gothenburg bought Ny International no. 2, featuring the article "What the 1987 Stock Market Crash Foretold."

"The course I'm taking is worthless," he said. "It has nothing to do with the world we live in today, not even with the world 150 years ago, when capitalism was young." Pointing to the article, "Defending Cuba, Defending Cuba's Socialist Revolution" in the same issue, he said, "I'm interested in Cuba, too. This will be a good book for me to buy."

A teacher stopped to look at the new pamphlet The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning by Jack Barnes. Hearing that the pamphlet argues that the main goal of the capitalist education system is not to educate but to make students obedient, she said, "That's so true. That helps me understand something that I've been thinking about--why my students are so aggressive. As a teacher I represent the system, that's why. I mustn't take it personally." Five copies of the title were sold, mostly to young people. This was also true for The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, four of which were sold.

Individual titles by Thomas Sankara, Malcolm X, Leon Trotsky, and Evelyn Reed were also sold, along with one copy of Capitalism's World Disorder, also by Barnes.

Anita Östling is a member of the Transport Workers Union in Stockholm, Sweden. Dag Tirsén and Daniel Ahl contributed to this article.  
 
 
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