Vol. 79/No. 11      March 30, 2015

The drive builds on a successful fall effort by more than 40 volunteers in 15 cities in the United States and Canada. A newly opened bookstore in Twin Cities, Minnesota, dedicated to titles on social justice ordered more than 100 books. A Chicago store that hadn’t purchased any Pathfinder titles in many years placed an order totaling more than $600. In total, volunteers placed 90 new orders last fall, five over their goal.

The victory winning freedom for the Cuban Five and decisions by the U.S. and Cuban governments to open discussions on re-establishing diplomatic relations, as well as widespread coverage on Cuba’s internationalist leadership in fighting Ebola in Africa, have spurred interest in Pathfinder’s many titles on the Cuban Revolution.

Volunteers in Greensboro, North Carolina, made their first sale in years to an independent bookstore after showing the owner clippings from the New York Times on Cuba. Among the books the owner bought were Voices From Prison: The Cuban Five; I Will Die the Way I’ve Lived; and The Cuban Five: Who They Are, Why They Were Framed, Why They Should be Free — all titles on the successful fight to free the Five.

As protests spread across the country against cop killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York, volunteers stepped up efforts to promote Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power by Socialist Workers Party National Secretary Jack Barnes. As a result, the book sold significantly more than in the preceding spring sales effort.

Broadening availability of this book remains a priority in the current effort. Recently, a New York museum that specializes in Black history and politics bought 10 copies in English and six in Arabic as part of an order for Black History Month.

A large bookstore in Washington, D.C., featured Malcolm X Talks to Young People in its February newsletter. The book “is getting lots of attention and is the most popular book in this newsletter (per the number of clicks),” the bookstore’s buyer told Pathfinder volunteers. “Spread the word to your colleagues.”

Many of Pathfinder’s titles address key questions in today’s political struggles. 50 Years of Covert Operations in the US explains the history of U.S. government spying and attacks against socialists and unionists. The Jewish Question and Fascism: What It Is and How to Fight It address how the propertied rulers use Jew-hatred to divide and weaken the working class in times of intensifying world capitalist crisis. As thousands took to the streets in Selma, Alabama, on the 50th anniversary of the fight for voting rights, Pathfinder’s February 1965: The Final Speeches includes a talk Malcolm X gave there.

Volunteers are confident that no matter what breaks in international politics, Pathfinder has books that highlight the lessons from previous revolutionary struggles that workers and their allies need to chart a road forward today.  
 
 
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