The writings by the communist leaders cover eight decades of the class struggle and lessons in building a proletarian leadership of working people, including those of the first socialist revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik party. As imperialism once again drags humanity toward fascism and war, socialist workers and young socialists jumped at the opportunity to purchase these titles at sharply discounted rates. Conference participants found a chart listing which major works of the three communist leaders are contained in the collected volumes helpful in deciding what to purchase.

The books were rescued by a team of socialist workers in the early 1990s who happened to be in Russia. Ending any pretense at representing the continuity of the Russian Revolution after the collapse of the bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, the publishing house that owned the volumes began selling them off to a pulp mill for the price of scrap paper.

Many young people attending the conference, as well as others with years in the communist movement, carried away boxes of books to build their libraries or replace titles worn out from use over the years. In all, 161 individual volumes by Lenin and 490 by Marx and Engels were purchased, for a total of $1,383.50.

Tom Leonard from Houston helped staff the book sale table. "The most important thing was that the main purchasers were young people," Leonard said. "This was the biggest sale of Marx, Engels, and Lenin that I have been a part of in a long time. But I have had experiences locally where workers and young people have purchased Lenin off our book tables. So I wasn't surprised. The response is part of something a little bigger than what happened at the conference," he said.
 
 
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