BY DAVE PRINCE
Pathfinder Press, located in New York with distributors in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, publishes books and pamphlets by revolutionary leaders whose writings on the struggle against capitalism, racism, and all forms of exploitation and oppression point the way forward for humanity. Pathfinder bookstores are listed in the directory on page 12.
Pathfinder sales representatives in the United Kingdom and in New Zealand report good results from recent sales trips and visits.
Bill Loxton sold 80 books and 67 pamphlets on a June sales trip to Ireland that included visits to shops in Dublin, Belfast, and Derry. Sales included four copies of New International no. 10, which features "Imperialism's March Toward Fascism and War," several copies of The Truth About Yugoslavia, and Art and Revolution by Leon Trotsky. Top sellers among the pamphlets were On the Irish Freedom Struggle by Bernadette Devlin McAliskey and Genocide against the Indians by George Novack, which was recently reviewed in Republican News.
This August sales representative Bob Buchan, a car plant worker in London, spent a week of his vacation on a sales trip to Scotland. As a result of 16 visits to stores in Dundee, Perth, Sterling, Glasgow and Edinburgh, he sold 244 books, including 65 different titles with a retail value of 2,619 (US $4,037).
"The second highest sale of the trip was to a student bookshop in Glasgow, which had a very small politics section," Buchan reports. "The manager at first seemed rather disinterested but ended up ordering 37 books. I think it shows that buyers appreciate that our books are useful to their customers who want to understand what's happening in the world." More than 20 copies of The Truth About Yugoslavia and 12 copies of Lenin's Final Fight were sold.
Buchan also reports that a number of international participants at a conference in London protesting economic sanctions against Third World countries were introduced to Pathfinder books recently. Among those buying Pathfinder books were participants from the Sudan, Germany, Cuba, Spain, Turkey, Kurdistan, the United States, and Britain. A total of 80 (US $123) of literature was sold.
Felicity Coggan from Auckland, New Zealand, writes that Pathfinder representatives have recently done some work to increase sales to libraries and for classroom use. She writes: "Return visits to libraries allows us to catch up with orders placed as a result of previous visits. Manukau Libraries, which covers the large working-class areas of South Auckland, recently acquired a copy of Nelson Mandela Speaks and The Bolivian Diary of Ernesto Che Guevara - the latter following a phone call and a request for some promotional material by mail.
"A number of visits have been made to academics in the history and political studies departments at the University of Auckland who recommend books for acquisition by the university library. The lecturer who teaches a course on the Russian revolution decided to order The History of the Russian Revolution and Problems of Everyday Life, both by Leon Trotsky. Another professor, who teaches courses on 19th and 20th century U.S. history, was interested in the four volume series on the Teamsters union by Farrell Dobbs, Malcolm X titles, and America's Revolutionary Heritage by George Novack.
A literature table at the recent annual meeting of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Funds attracted lively interest from participants. A total of $90 worth of Pathfinder titles were sold. A farmer from south Georgia, when asked what was best to read on the situation facing farmers, said, "Well, really, the best thing I've read is that yellow pamphlet for sale over there," pointing to the Pathfinder title Farmers Face the Crisis of the 1990s by Doug Jenness.