BY PETER THIERJUNG
TORONTO - "See you at the bookfair in February" was the message supporters of Pathfinder Press recently received in a New Year's greeting card from a student in Havana, referring to the upcoming International Havana Bookfair that will take place February 4 - 10. At the last Havana bookfair in 1996 this young woman, a member of the Federation of University Students, had returned to the Pathfinder booth day after day to read and discuss several books on communist and working- class politics.

"She was part of what you could call the Cuban version of the Pathfinder Readers Club - Cuban youth, workers, and others who visit the booth, sit down, and read Pathfinder books for hours," Perspectiva Mundial editor Martín Koppel reported to participants in the international socialist conference held here January 1- 2. "There are many such people in Cuba who are hungry for Pathfinder books because they are convinced they need these political weapons. That's why contributions are needed for the Books For Cuba Fund."

Koppel's appeal at the socialist conference launched a campaign to raise money for the Books for Cuba Fund. This fund was set up several years ago to make possible donations of Pathfinder books to institutions ranging from university and municipal libraries to workers' bookshelves in several Cuban factories, making these books available to thousands of people.

Those present contributed or pledged more than $4,600 at the conference for the Books for Cuba Fund. This money is needed to meet requests for book donations around the time of the Havana bookfair.

Koppel also described the response of revolutionary-minded youth in Santa Clara that he met during a Militant reporting trip that covered the massive turnout in October to honor Cuban revolutionary leader Ernesto Che Guevara and other fellow revolutionaries who fell in combat in Bolivia in 1967. One student, a member of the Che Studies Program at the University of Las Villas in Santa Clara, was delighted to see copies of two new Pathfinder titles, editions in Spanish of The Changing Face of U.S. Politics: Working-Class Politics and the Trade Unions by Jack Barnes and Che Guevara: Economics and Politics in the Transition to Socialism by Carlos Tablada.

"Seeing these books, and learning that communist workers sell them at picket lines and in their factories, opened her eyes further to the class struggle in the United States," Koppel said. The Che Studies Program there received a donation of Pathfinder books. So did workers at the Ariguanabo textile plant south of Havana, he added.

At the conference, supporters of Pathfinder in Canada also contributed to another fund, which was launched to cover the costs of sending a young worker and leader of the Young Socialists from Montreal to participate in the bookfair. This unionist will be part of an international team of socialist workers and youth from the United Kingdom, Sweden, New Zealand and other countries who will staff the Pathfinder exhibit. Some CAN$1,800 was raised in donations and pledges to this fund. In each of these countries Pathfinder supporters are raising funds to cover the costs of the booth and of sending a member of this team.

Contributions to the Books for Cuba Fund are urgently needed. Checks should be made payable to the Militant, earmarked for the Books for Cuba Fund, and sent to the Militant at 410 West St., New York, NY 10014.  
 
 
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