BY SARA LOBMAN

"The main point of the campaign to sell Pathfinder books is that it helps us find the workers and youth who are interested in becoming part of the communist movement," Naomi Craine said during a recent interview. Craine, recently returned from the April 6-7 Young Socialists (YS) convention in Minneapolis, covering the event for the Militant.

She pointed to Monique, a student from Calgary, Alberta, in Canada, who joined the YS at the convention. Monique first found out about the YS at a conference in Omaha, Nebraska, entitled "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" that Pathfinder supporters from Des Moines, Iowa, had attended. She ended up taking a Greyhound bus from Calgary to the Twin Cities - a two-and-a-half day trip - to attend the YS meeting.

This was one of the fruits of the successful book sales campaign through Pathfinder bookstores in March. Distributors in the United States sold 1,890 books and pamphlets last month - 105 percent of their goal. They can now build on this accomplishment by repeating it in April and emulating it in sales though commercial accounts.

Overall, participants at the YS convention bought 75 Pathfinder books and pamphlets - 64 different titles. Three copies of Che Guevara's Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War were purchased. The biggest sellers were titles on the fight against fascism. Two participants became members of the Pathfinder Readers Club. Event organizers said that most youth at the meeting are not members of the club.

Machinists fight for `Episodes' goal
Janet Post, a member of the International Association of Machinists at United Airlines in Miami reports that four co- workers recently purchased a copy of the Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War, which describes how Cuban workers and peasants overthrew a U.S.-backed dictatorship in 1959.

"Do you know where I can get a copy of that book," one co-worker asked after Post had left a copy of Episodes on the lunch table at work. Another worker from Nicaragua bought the book after seeing it in Post's hands when they passed each other in the hallway. "Having a copy of Episodes with you all the time is important if you want to sell it at work," Post observed. A worker at Aerothrust in Miami bought a copy of Episodes and a Readers Club membership after discussing the Cuban workers' decision to defend their sovereignty by shooting down two planes that had violated Cuban airspace with the support of the U.S. government.

Making the goal of selling 500 copies of the Episodes to industrial workers by May 1 is the main challenge of the campaign.

At a March 31 meeting in Pittsburgh to celebrate the publication of Episodes, featuring Perspectiva Mundial editor Martín Koppel, eight copies of the book were sold, along with a variety of other titles.

Socialist workers and youth have been taking Pathfinder books and pamphlets with them to demonstrations and rallies in defense of immigrant rights. In Los Angeles, distributors sold $175 worth of Pathfinder books during the march, 65 copies of the Militant, 23 copies of Perspectiva Mundial, and 4 Militant subscriptions. "The table I was at sold two copies of Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War and a bunch of pamphlets," Virginia Garza reported. "There were people surrounding us constantly, from the moment we set up."

Lea Sherman reports from Houston that she and another Pathfinder supporter met with the buyers at two local bookstores in Dallas, who ordered a total of 56 books. These titles will show up on the chart next week. Volunteers in Birmingham have also been busy. In addition to visiting local bookstores, they've gotten orders from a public library in the region and from a civil rights institute.

Starting with this issue of the Militant, figures on sales to commercial distributors that appear in the chart will be based on actual sales invoiced out to customers by the Pathfinder business office. When figured by this method, 712 books were sold to retail bookstores and libraries in March - substantially more than the 467 reported in the Militant last week. This is because some bookstores or libraries send in orders on their own.

In addition, Pathfinder has clarified that all sales of titles distributed by the publisher (any title that appears in the catalog or order form), count toward the sales goals both through Pathfinder bookstores and other commercial outlets.

Finally, we want to remind readers that reports on local sales goals are due in the Militant no later than Monday morning at 8:00 a.m. EST. As you can see from the accompanying chart, sales through Pathfinder bookstores appears artificially low, since so many areas did not report in by the deadline this week.  
 
 
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