BY SARA LOBMAN
Pathfinder, located in New York with distributors in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, publishes books and pamphlets by revolutionary and working-class leaders. Pathfinder bookstores are listed in the directory on page 12.
The Pathfinder bookstore in Toronto sold more than Can$2,500 (US$1,840) worth of books in November, the best month in recent history. "The debate on the referendum on Quebec sovereignty, the increased resistance to government cuts in health, education, and welfare, and the discussions on the Cuban revolution prompted by the recent tour of Marķa del Carmen Barroso and Joel Queipo, two young communists from Cuba, all contributed to the higher sales," Mary Ellen Marus noted.
"The highlight of the month was the $625 worth of books and seven Militant subscriptions sold to participants in the five-day Ontario Federation of Labor convention," Marus said. Among other decisions, delegates to the meeting called a one-day citywide strike in London, Ontario, for December 11 to protest government cuts in social services.
A member of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), who was familiar with Pathfinder, came by the table and exclaimed, "You're missing the one book I want, Lenin's Final Fight." A volunteer went back to the bookstore to get him a copy. "He renewed his Pathfinder Readers Club membership and recommended that we urge delegates to buy Trade Unions in the Epoch of Imperialist Decay by Leon Trotsky," Marus said. "We took his advice and sold two copies of that title. By way of explaining who Trotsky was I showed one young woman The Struggle against Fascism in Germany. She bought both titles, saying that she would spend her per diem on books and get a friend to buy her lunch!"
As a result of discussions on the Quebecois fight for self-determination, convention participants bought two copies of New International no. 6, with the article "Land, Labor, and the Canadian Revolution." Two copies of The Eastern Airlines Strike: Accomplishments of the Rank-and- File Machinists were sold, including one to a member of the International Association of Machinists at Air Canada. "She made a point of telling us that her first job was with Eastern-33 years ago," Marus said.
A telephone operator and member of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union bought a copy of Mother Jones Speaks. Another convention participant, who is active in the fight for Black rights, bought a copy of February 1965: The Final Speeches by Malcolm X. Another unionist said a co- worker had urged her to buy Woman's Evolution. She also picked up a copy of Cosmetics, Fashions, and the Exploitation of Women. Thirteen people bought copies of the Pathfinder catalog.
The president of a CAW office local, who had already purchased New International no. 10, came by the table and asked which book would be the best to read on Cuba. He bought a copy of To Speak the Truth: Why Washington's `Cold War' against Cuba Doesn't End, as well as Surrogate Motherhood, Women's Rights, and the Working Class and Too Many Babies: The Myth of the Population Explosion. Later that day he attended a demonstration in defense of women's right to choose abortion.
In addition to the sales at the labor federation convention, some $250 worth of Pathfinder books were sold from tables on campuses where Barroso and Queipo spoke. "We paid special attention to making attractive book displays," Marus said. "A big poster titled `The Cuban Revolution in World Politics' featured the covers of several of Pathfinder's titles on the Cuban revolution, and we distributed a flier offering special discounts."
Titles sold included four copies of To Speak the Truth, and two copies each of How Far We Slaves Have Come, Socialism and Man in Cuba, The Bolivian Diary of Ernesto Che Guevara, and Che Guevara and the Fight for Socialism Today: Cuba Confronts the World Crisis of the '90s.
Other high points of Pathfinder sales in Toronto included $200 worth of books sold following a Militant Labor Forum on the Beijing women's conference, an $85 order placed by an out-of-town reader who had picked up a Pathfinder catalog a year ago, and a $350 purchase made by a new member of the Young Socialists, who had just received her student loan payment.
Participants at the November 17-19 Miami Bookfair International bought nearly $1,000 worth of Pathfinder books and pamphlets, as well as 13 copies of New International, 11 subscriptions to the Militant, and 9 subscriptions to Perspectiva Mundial. They also purchased 12 copies of Granma International, and 2 copies of La Gaceta de Cuba, both publications from Cuba. Members of the Young Socialists helped staff the booth, along with other socialists from the area. A big YS display highlighted The Communist Manifesto and other basic works of Marxism.
Two students from the University of Miami who are activists in defending abortion clinics from rightist attack and against the Ku Klux Klan bought On the Emancipation of Women by V.I. Lenin, The Long View of History by George Novack, and a copy of New International no. 9 on the rise and fall of the Nicaraguan revolution.
A high school student from Davie, Florida, bought a copy of The Eastern Airlines Strike. Her grandmother had been a flight attendant at Eastern Airlines and she wanted to learn more about that struggle.
A display advertising the Pathfinder Readers Club featured the newly reprinted Polemics in Marxist Philosophy and other titles by George Novack. An English professor from Florida International University bought a copy each of Polemics and America's Revolutionary Heritage. In all, eight copies of books by Novack were sold.
On the third day of the fair, several groups of rightist Cubans who oppose the revolution attempted to disrupt discussions at the booth. They failed after several people checking out the books answered their provocations. A man who had recently visited Cuba told them to respect freedom of speech. In response to the accusation that Pathfinder represented "the past," a woman from Puerto Rico told the rightists, "No, you represent the past."
Mary Ellen Marus from Toronto and Rachel Fruit from Miami contributed to this week's column.