BY SARA LOBMAN AND MEGAN ARNEY
OBERLIN, Ohio - A big feature of the June 11 - 14 international socialist conference here was the book tables that were the centerpiece of the exhibit and display center. The conference was interwoven with delegated sessions of the Socialist Workers Party convention that took place over the same four days. During every meal break and late into the night hundreds of conference participants - some attending their first socialist convention, others longtime veterans of the communist movement -could be found pouring over the more than 10,000 books that were available for sale, discussing the lessons for working-class struggle they contained, choosing titles to read and study over the coming weeks and months, and mapping out plans to help get more of the books into the hands of other fighters.

By the end of the convention only a few dozen books remained. More than 5,000 had been purchased by individual conference participants; another 5,000 were taken home for sale to workers and youth at factories, picket lines, demonstrations, working-class communities, and college campuses around the world. All told, the sales totaled $36,971.

Among the biggest sellers were four new titles published by Pathfinder and available for the first time at the conference. Pombo: A Man of Che's guerrilla by Harry Villegas tells the story of the 1966-68 revolutionary campaign in Bolivia led by Ernesto Che Guevara. Villegas, known by his nom de guerre, Pombo, was at the time a member of Guevara's general staff, a young Cuban fighter still in his 20s and already a veteran of a decade of struggle around the world.

Conference participants purchased 769 copies of the book and more than 900 copies of a pamphlet -published simultaneously in both Spanish and English - that contains recent interviews with Villegas, today a brigadier general in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba.

Also available for the first time at the conference was El rostro cambiante de la política en Estados Unidos: La política obrera y los sindicatos, the Spanish-language edition of The Changing Face of U.S. Politics: Working-Class Politics and the Trade Union by Jack Barnes. This book, more than any other, is a guide to a new generation of workers and youth-from Argentina and Albania to the United States and New Zealand-who are looking for a road forward, out of the wars, racism, and economic depression created by capitalism today.

At a rally the second day of the convention, Martín Koppel explained how eagerly young fogoneros (bonfire starters), leading the fight against government austerity measures in Argentina, had reached for the book. Koppel had taken the first 24 copies off the presses on a reporting trip to the southern cone country the week before the conference opened. Some 120 copies were sold at the conference. The French edition of the book will be available later this year.

Giant reproductions of the covers of the Villegas book and the French and Spanish editions of The Changing Face of U.S. Politics hung behind the stage at the convention sessions and major conference events.

A pipeline of communist literature
The book sale at the socialist conference was part of a more than year-long effort by socialist workers to place the production and distribution of communist books and pamphlets at the center of their efforts to build proletarian parties capable of leading the fight for socialism. The giant sale at the conference was a culmination of a supersale by Pathfinder Press during which a total of some 45,000 books were sold - Marxist classics, speeches of revolutionary leaders, books on the history of the SWP and class struggle in the United States, and titles on the fight for women's liberation and the Black struggle. Many conference participants already had several months' experience under their belts, taking advantage of the sale to increase political discussions and sales of revolutionary books to co-workers in the industrial unions and other workers and youth.

The sale also opened up possibilities to take a big step forward in the production and distribution of the books from the printshop and publishing house in New York. In the months and weeks leading up to the convention, volunteers in New York put in place a clean, uncluttered distribution center that makes it possible to pick, pack, and ship Pathfinder books quickly around the world.

The successful sale means there is now adequate space on the shelves for new titles coming off the presses and for reprints to be scheduled whenever stocks get low. Maintaining just-in-time inventories and rapid reprinting of books means transforming all departments of the printshop - from prepress to the bindery - and the attention Pathfinder's editorial office pays to reprinting this revolutionary arsenal.

At a workshop on selling Pathfinder books and pamphlets in the trade unions, socialist workers noted the increased opportunities to get the revolutionary literature into the hands of their co-workers.

Shelia Ostrow, a steelworker from Pittsburgh, kicked off the discussion by explaining what socialists at LTV steel mill in Pittsburgh have done in solidarity with the Wheeling- Pittsburgh Steel strike. She talked about building up solidarity in her plant for the strike, getting other unionists to the picket lines, and doing a plantgate collection for the strikers at her plant, which along with selling communist propaganda is part of doing politics on the job.

Sarah Katz, a member of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers and of the Young Socialists from St. Paul, Minnesota, talked about selling the Militant, Perspectiva Mundial, and Pathfinder books at factory gates. "We've made plant gate sales part of a weekly rhythm. Communicating with socialists inside the plant is important. We were able to change single issues sales into subscriptions, and introduce those interested in communist politics to socialists in the plant," Katz explained.

"But we're not just book vendors," Al Duncan, a railworker from New York explained. "We have the perspective of recruiting our co-workers to communist politics and the party."

Young socialists build Marxist libraries
Young Socialists at the conference were among the most enthusiastic participants in the book sale. The four YS members who attended from Sweden bought more than 100 books, including a lot of titles on Cuba and a set of the Marxist magazine New International. The Young Socialists in Sweden are now launching a class series based on some of these books. "This Sunday we're starting classes on the speeches of Fidel Castro, starting with In Defense of Socialism," said Camilo Bossi in a phone interview.

"I'm really excited about the books I got; I don't know which one to read next," said Jennifer, who met the Young Socialists and SWP at the Young Feminist Summit in April. She worked with others from Morgantown, West Virginia, to take advantage of the specials to expand her library. She purchased several titles on women's liberation, including Women and the Cuban Revolution: Speeches and Documents by Fidel Castro, Vilma Espín, and others. In addition she got New International no. 10, Teamster Rebellion by Farrell Dobbs, To Speak the Truth: Why Washington's `Cold War' against Cuba Doesn't End by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, Socialism and Man in Cuba by Guevara, The History of American Trotskyism: Report of a Participant by James P. Cannon, and The Revolution Betrayed: What Is the Soviet Union and Where Is It Going? by Leon Trotsky.

Many conference participants who have sizable libraries took advantage of the sale to replace titles they have worn out through use over the years. Several commented that they were especially glad to get the more durable hard back books at such prices.

Leslie Dork from Albuquerque, New Mexico, took back three boxes of titles. Dork is active in defense of the Cuban revolution and was especially interested in titles that would be useful for others involved in this activity. The coalition she is a part of has helped get 12 youth organized to attend the World Festival of Youth and Students to be held in Cuba this summer. She plans on making special offers on several titles for the Festival participants. In addition, she plans to set up a literature table at the university with special offers to introduce other young people to Pathfinder books.

On the final day of the conference, representatives of Pathfinder Bookstores from around the world met to pack up orders for their local bookstore. In addition, other activists who distribute Pathfinder, but live where there is no Pathfinder bookstore were invited to join in packing up boxes of super saver books for future sales. Patrick Jay, a member of the Young Socialists from Spokane filled a box. His selection included a wide variety of books and enough copies of Pombo: A Man of Che's Guerrilla for every member of the Spokane chapter.

Dozens of people also took advantage of a special sale of bound volumes of the socialist periodicals the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial. More than 200 of the yearly volumes were sold, going back to the 1970s. In many cases, these volumes will be placed in libraries organized by members of the Young Socialists and Socialist Workers Party for collective use in studying struggles of the last few decades.

The exhibit center also featured other displays including a table staffed by the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) of Brazil and an information table staffed by the Young Socialists.  
 
 
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