BY NAOMI CRAINE
"Selling the Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War - a book about workers taking power - and other Pathfinder books helps you be known for what you stand for in the world," said Joel Britton, the Socialist Workers Party national trade union director, in an interview. He was explaining why socialists who are members of eight industrial unions are organizing to go all out between now and April 1 to meet their goal of selling 500 copies of the book to co-workers on the job.
The results so far in the campaign "are uneven," Britton said. "But where local fractions of socialist workers have gotten onto a campaign footing - presenting the book to a broad range of co-workers - the interest they find shows the potential to make the goals."
The goal for sales on the job is part of an overall campaign by Pathfinder supporters in the United States to sell 1,550 copies of the book by April 1. The book contains Ernesto Che Guevara's description of the struggle that led the workers and farmers of Cuba to overthrow the Batista dictatorship and opened the door to the socialist revolution in the Americas. The Militant has received reports of 1,018 copies sold so far, including 149 to trade unionists.
In addition to the immediate campaign around Episodes, socialist workers have adopted goals for monthly sales of Pathfinder books and pamphlets, including on the job. "Selling and explaining the books helps you to stand up to all sorts of pressures and defend the Irish, the Palestinians, and others fighting against national oppression. It puts you in the best position to answer the ongoing slander campaign against the Cuban revolution. And it's part of recruiting workers to the perspective of proletarian revolution - by reading with them and encouraging them to come to activities like meetings in solidarity with Cuba."
While they are selling Episodes, socialist workers are also encouraging their co-workers to attend the upcoming congress of the Central Organization of Cuban Workers (CTC), April 25-30 in Havana.
Jerry Freiwirth, a member of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers in Houston, said Cuba has been a big discussion on the job there. A March 10 tour by José Basulto helped fuel interest in Episodes. Basulto is the right-wing "Brothers to the Rescue" leader who avoided being shot down with his cohorts over Cuban waters on February 24. In the three days following his visit to Houston, four oil workers bought copies of the book by Guevara.
"A key ingredient to selling the Che books is breaking out of the circle of people we regularly work and talk with on the job," Freiwirth wrote. "I stopped by a control room at the Shell refinery where I knew a few people from union activity but I had never had broader political discussion. I brought a small selection of Pathfinder books and showed them around. One worker ordered an Episodes book and a Pathfinder Readers Club membership. Another took a Pathfinder catalog to look over, and asked, `Do you have any Marx in here?' "
Socialists from Canada and the United States report good sales at the International Solidarity Conference with Cuba, held in Montreal March 15-16. Six conference participants bought Episodes, and five joined the Pathfinder Readers Club. In addition, socialist workers sold 48 copies of the Militant, two subscriptions, and a variety of other literature.
It will take a collective and well-planned effort to reach the Episodes goal by April 1. Local fractions of socialist workers in the unions will need to meet to discuss how they can maximize sales to co-workers. Pathfinder supporters in each city need to work out a battle plan to reach as many people as possible. Taking individual responsibility to follow through with people who express interest in the book will also be required.
Classes to discuss its contents and meetings celebrating the book, where various people who have been reading Episodes describe its importance, can help boost sales and get people digging into the politics. Six people picked up Episodes at a March 17 celebration in Los Angeles, for instance.
"We recently put out a promotional mailing to a list of Pathfinder Readers Club members, Militant subscribers, and others about the Episodes and our newly expanded hours," Susan LaMont, director of the Pathfinder bookstore in Birmingham, Alabama, wrote at the bottom of the weekly reporting form. "Bookstore volunteers have been calling those who received the mailing. This has resulted in 14 copies of the Episodes being sold and a number of folks dropping by the bookstore."
Along with the monthly goals supporters have taken to increase sales from Pathfinder bookstores, getting campus and other commercial stores to carry Pathfinder books helps expand the reach of revolutionary literature. At a February meeting, the SWP National Committee voted that every party member should participate in this effort, and make at least one commercial sales visit by April 1.
Tony Dutrow from Pittsburgh wrote in on the local reporting form, "We had our first training session tonight." Nine Pathfinder supporters in the area planned to call and make sales visits to bookstores that week.