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   Vol.64/No.47            December 11, 2000 
 
 
Pathfinder supporters place revolutionary titles in bookstores
 
BY SARA LOBMAN  
Pathfinder supporters in several cities are off to a good start in their renewed efforts to place Pathfinder books in stores, libraries, and other outlets.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, Michele Smith and Ellen Haywood visited a large retail bookstore in Berkeley that has had an account with Pathfinder for years. They placed a $610 order for some 40 different titles, including 10 in Spanish. The order included titles by Leon Trotsky, Ernesto Che Guevara, Malcolm X, Jack Barnes, Farrell Dobbs, Thomas Sankara, Nelson Mandela, and others.

"The book buyer asked to be faxed whenever new books come out and to be visited twice a year," Smith writes. "Ellen and I are willing to take on these responsibilities. Also, I think we should look over our Spanish-language titles again and fax him the list of any that were not brought to his attention during the visit."

Smith also visited a store in Oakland, this time with Barbara Bowman. The store placed a $260 order for 26 different titles, including El manifiesto comunista (The Communist Manifesto), Capitalism's World Disorder, and Leon Trotsky's The History of the Russian Revolution.

Bowman and Mary Lipman secured an order for $85 from a small bookstore in Capitola, California. Titles included Che Guevara habla a la juventud (Che Guevara Talks to Young People) Haciendo historia (Making History), Cointelpro: The FBI's Secret War on Political Freedom, and Che Guevara Speaks. About half the titles were in Spanish.

Pathfinder volunteers in San Francisco also visited a Borders store in the region. The buyer there explained that they order from their central warehouse and that he had already placed an order for three Pathfinder titles, including two in Spanish. He said he would place an order for an additional 20. Supporter Mary Lipman plans to follow up.

Lauren Hart sent in an order she got from a store that sells mainly used books in Charlotte, North Carolina. The owner said he would place the Pathfinder titles in a small new books section in the store. He placed an order for one copy each of 74 titles.

Mary Ann Schmidt and Cindy Jaquith visited the public library in a small town in central Florida earlier this month. The area is dominated by the sugar industry. "The head librarian had reviewed the Pathfinder catalog prior to our arrival and had a list of books he wanted," Jaquith writes. "He told us that a new branch of the library would be opening soon in the heart of the Black community, right next door to the sugar refinery. He planned to give some of the books as a gift to the new library. He ordered two sets of W.E.B. DuBois Speaks and a copy of Cointelpro."

Pathfinder volunteers set up a new account at a public library in northeastern Pennsylvania.

After commenting favorably on the notes and indexes in several of the titles and the high quality of the binding, the librarian ordered eight books, including Capitalism's World Disorder, The Great Labor Uprising of 1877, The Truth about Yugoslavia, Fascism and Big Business, and Cosmetics, Fashions, and the Exploitation of Women. She took two copies of the Pathfinder catalog to circulate among the library staff and asked that another meeting be set up for January when more funds become available.
 
 
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