BY MAURICE WILLIAMS AND GREG McCARTAN
Socialists around the world scored a real victory in April by selling more than 3,000 Pathfinder books and pamphlets to unionists, fighters involved in strikes and protests, youth seeking information on what socialism is, and others. These are the results from the first full-month of a special effort to utilize a "super sale" by Pathfinder of a wide range of revolutionary literature.

This week, the publishing house's distributor packaged and shipped many thousand more titles that will soon be on literature tables, shown around on the job, and put up on shelves in Pathfinder bookstores around the world. Volunteers have filled over 100 orders, including 125 of the special offer being advertised in the Militant of the 14- volume Writings of Leon Trotsky, a central leader of the Russian revolution and the Communist International.

As part of this effort, socialists are organizing classes, especially on "Their Trotsky and Ours: Communist Continuity Today," the feature article in New International no. 1, by Jack Barnes. Together with reaching out with the books and the Militant and joining the many social protest actions and political events, these educational classes will help interest those new to the socialist movement in joining the Young Socialists or the Socialist Workers Party, as well as attending the party's convention June 11-14 in Oberlin, Ohio.

Socialists plan to build on the experience gained in April over the coming months. For example, communist workers in the rail and steel industries held national meetings May 3-4 in San Francisco and Pittsburgh respectively. Participants in the meetings discussed some of the progress they are making in getting Pathfinder titles into the hands of co-workers in their unions and the increased political activity they are carrying out on the job as a result of the stepped-up sales effort.

L.A. socialists sell nearly 500 books
In Los Angeles, Craig Honts reports that socialists sold 495 Pathfinder titles in the month of April, including 169 books and pamphlets in the bookstore itself.

"We set up literature tables inside and outside the movie theater showing a movie on Che Guevara in Bolivia. Our table was swamped! During the first week the movie was shown we sold more than $2,200 worth of books and pamphlets including 23 copies of The Bolivian Diary of Ernesto Che Guevara. I think we'll go over $3,000 before the movie stops playing here," Honts said. "We met two high school students at the theater who came to the Young Socialist class on Che Guevara. They told us `the best thing about that movie was seeing it and meeting you guys.'"

The Los Angeles Pathfinder Bookstore set up a table at the L.A. Times Book Fair, where 123 books and pamphlets were sold. "Our best seller there was the Communist Manifesto," Honts reports, adding that they put books on special sale at the front of the table, but noted "it's the politics - what is in the books - that sells them.

"We can sell a lot of books to co-workers, also. I take a briefcase to work full of books and open it up at lunch time. One co-worker wanted every `supersaver' title on Malcolm X to build up his library. He also ordered W.E.B. Du Bois Speaks and Fighting Racism in World War II, a real popular book."

Many socialist workers have been finding ways to let fellow unionists know about the sale. Steelworkers in Cleveland put out a leaflet organized by topic, listing titles on labor struggles, the fight for Black liberation, socialism, and others. Others have been marking the books in a Pathfinder catalog available at special sales prices so coworkers can see the entire selection of titles distributed by the publishing house as well.

Activists in Philadelphia sold 135 Pathfinder titles last month, said garment worker Pete Seidman. "We sold 19 books and pamphlets at an April 27 protest against the Clinton administration's volunteer summit. The next day nine titles were bought by participants at an all-day teach-in organized by Local 1199 of the hospital workers union." Seidman said socialist workers sold 11 books at a feminist conference held at Temple University, including several copies of Women's Evolution by Evelyn Reed.

"We sold 146 books and pamphlets in April, our highest monthly total since we began the book sale effort more than a year ago," writes Peter Thierjung, Pathfinder Bookstore director in Greensboro. Thierjung reported a leader of the Concerned Citizens of Tillery, the group organizing Black farmers protesting land loss, bought 15 Pathfinder titles, including The Changing Face of U.S. Politics.

Socialist workers from Chicago participated along with 150 others in the National Independent Politics Summit in Decatur, Illinois May 1-3. While staffing a table at the conference, they sold 41 Pathfinder books, signed up two new members of the Pathfinder Readers Club, and four new subscribers to the Militant, reports Angel Lariscy. A member of the United Steel Workers of America who works at Bridgestone/Firestone in the city and was active in the strike there two years ago purchased eight books, as well as renewed his subscription to the paper. Conference participants bought five copies of A Packinghouse Worker's Fight for Justice: The Mark Curtis Story.

The Militant urges supporters to continue sending sales stories and pictures of political events, on the job, campus tables, plant gates, and at picket lines of striking workers. These reports strengthen the coverage of the response of workers, fighters, and youth to Pathfinder books, the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial.

Great sales in garment, textile
BY JOAN PALTRINERI

GREENSBORO - Members of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) are beginning to step up sales of Pathfinder titles to co-workers on the job. Socialist workers around the country who are members of UNITE are promoting the sale and sold 34 books in April, going over a goal of 26 for the month.

One member of Local 2603 at the Kmart distribution center here bought two books of Malcolm X's speeches and plans to buy more next month. He said the sale offers him an opportunity to expand his library. Three other Local 2603 members bought titles on Cuba to learn more about the Cuban revolution. One person also signed up for an introductory subscription to Perspectiva Mundial. Another unionist bought an introductory subscription to the Militant. One copy of New International has also been purchased.

Four members of Local 1994 at the Tultex textile mill in Martinsville, Virginia, placed orders for five titles, including four books of Malcolm X's speeches and a copy of the Action Program to Confront the Coming Economic Crisis. Peter Thierjung, a member of the local, reports that the orders, taken over three days, were the result of talking to as many co-workers are possible about the sale.

Sales to UNITE members in Atlanta include three titles on the Cuban revolution, five books of Malcolm X's speeches, and a copy of the Eastern Airlines Strike: Accomplishments of Rank-and-File Machinists. "The response to the sale opens new opportunities to discuss with coworkers subscribing to the socialist press," said Mike Italie who works at the plant.

Joan Paltrineri is a member of UNITE Local 2603 in Greensboro, North Carolina.  
 
 
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