BROOKLYN, New York--The Pathfinder Fund is off to a good start with more than $18,000 received as the Militant goes to press. Supporters of the publisher of revolutionary and Marxist titles sent in some $4,000 to Pathfinder this week. And pledges in cities around the world add up to just shy of $92,000, making it possible to set an ambitious goal of raising $100,000 by June 10.
Supporters of the fund here combined an April 29 open house at the new Pathfinder Bookstore with a program and dinner featuring Martin Koppel, editor of the Militant. A number of local residents took the opportunity to visit the bookstore during the afternoon and 19 people heard Koppel's presentation. Koppel made the point that titles like Making History: Interviews with Four Generals of Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces and Playa Girón/Bay of Pigs: Washington's First Military Defeat in the Americas are not so much history books as "lessons on what can and must be done in the United States."
Olympia Newton, a leader of the Young Socialists in New York, encouraged participants to contribute generously to the fund. A volunteer at Pathfinder's stand at the Havana International Book Fair, Newton said the response by young people in Cuba have a similar response--"I have to have that book!"--as those who see Pathfinder on street tables in New York.
Some $585 was raised at the door and in contributions and another $500 was pledged to the fund.
Meetings in New Zealand
The Pathfinder Fund was kicked off in New Zealand with meetings hosted by the Militant Labour Forum in Auckland and Christchurch.
Felicity Coggan, a sewing machine operator and a member of the National Committee of the Communist League, spoke at both meetings. She explained the role of Pathfinder books and pamphlets in unraveling what underlies the disordered world of capitalism today, and in making available to working people and youth the lessons of revolutionary struggles. The meetings were also an opportunity to celebrate the publication of the new Pathfinder book, Playa Girón/Bay of Pigs, and to discuss the centrality of the Cuban Revolution for working people worldwide.
More than $1,000 was pledged to the Pathfinder Fund appeal at the two meetings.
Michael Tucker from New Zealand contributed to this article.