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.
This month Pathfinder is offering 25 percent off selected titles on the Cuban revolution for members of the Pathfinder Readers Club or with the purchase of an introductory subscription to the Militant. (See ad on page 9)
The special offer coincides with actions around the world calling for an end to the U.S. government's embargo of Cuba and supporting the island nation's right to self- determination, as well as the U.S. tour by Norberto Codina, a Cuban poet and editor of La Gaceta de Cuba, the magazine of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba. Pathfinder is the largest English-language publisher of the speeches and writings of Cuban revolutionary leaders Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara. It is also the U.S. distributor of La Gaceta.
In addition to the sale items, Pathfinder is highlighting several issues of New International, a Marxist magazine of politics and theory that it distributes. "Defending Cuba, Defending Cuba's Socialist Revolution" in New International no. 10 provides an essential analysis of Cuba's place in the world today and how workers and farmers in Cuba are using their own power-and the power of their government and state-to resist the depression conditions confronting working people worldwide.
These titles, along with books by Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, V.I. Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, and other revolutionary leaders, will be available at many of the demonstrations and Codina tour stops, including the October 14 protests in Chicago and San Francisco and the October 21 march and rally in New York. They are also available from local Pathfinder bookstores and can be ordered directly from Pathfinder in New York.
Volunteers at Pathfinder bookstores around the world are also organizing to increase the number of regular hours the bookstores are open, so working people, youth, and others can come by more often to buy books and discuss politics.
Ray Parsons from Chicago reports that the bookstore there has increased its weekend hours. It is now open every Friday afternoon, as well as Saturday and Sunday. In the last two weeks of September, some $300 worth of books were sold, a marked increase from the preceding months.
Titles sold included Leon Trotsky on China, The Origins of Materialism, and On the Jewish Question. In addition, Pathfinder books have been sold from tables set up at five colleges in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, and one high school in Chicago. Students bought copies of Socialism on Trial, Fascism: What It Is and How to Fight It, The Communist Manifesto, and several issues of New International, among other titles.
"We have taken a number of steps recently to improve the bookstore here," Jeff Hamill reports from Seattle. These include a improved lighting system and a special display devoted to the Pathfinder Readers Club. Regular hours five days a week have led to increased sales; more than half the $535 worth of books sold in September came from people coming by the bookstore. Some $80 worth of titles were sold by a regional team to eastern Washington and the rest were bought from tables at a book fair.
Now is a good time to join or renew your membership in the Pathfinder Readers Club. For an annual fee of $10, members of the Readers Club get a 15 percent discount on all Pathfinder publications, as well as being eligible for even higher discounts on selected titles-like the Cuba titles this month. To join, stop by the Pathfinder bookstore nearest you or send $10 to Pathfinder, 410 West Street, New York, NY 10014.