The Militant - 7/1/96 -- Join the campaign to sell Pathfinder books and pamphlets

Vol.60/No.26 July 1, 1996

Join the campaign to sell Pathfinder books and pamphlets

BY SARA LOBMAN

With supporters of Mark Curtis beginning the fight to defend the democratic rights of the unionist and socialist outside of prison, the Pathfinder pamphlet Why Is Mark Curtis Still in Prison? should get a good workout in coming weeks. The pamphlet, which is available in Spanish and French as well as English, tells the story of how Curtis was framed up for his political activity in defense of immigrant workers, and the international campaign in his defense. Curtis was just paroled to Illinois after serving nearly eight years in Iowa prisons. Alongside this issue of the Militant, which features Curtis's release, Why Is Mark Curtis Still in Prison? will be an invaluable aid in winning support for the next stage of this fight.

The chart below gives the final figures in the campaign to sell subscriptions to the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial and copies of the Marxist magazine New International. As readers can see, we fell short of our goals, winning 895 new readers to the Militant, 282 new readers to Perspectiva Mundial, and selling 346 copies of New International, out of goals of 1,100, 350, and 400 respectively. Participants in the July 6-9 socialist conference in Ohio (see article on front page) will be able to evaluate the campaign. The ongoing campaign to sell Pathfinder books and pamphlets stands at 621 of the monthly goal of 1,800 sold through Pathfinder bookstores in the United States.

The last week of the drive did see a marked increase in sales, with more than 700 units sold as socialist workers and others responded to political events by introducing working people and youth to the revolutionary books and periodicals. Below are a small sampling from the reports that were sent in, which readers may find useful in mapping out plans for continued sales of the socialist publications.

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"We made it!" Floyd Fowler reports from Atlanta. Supporters in Atlanta join those in London and Miami in making their circulation goals and being on schedule in the campaign to sell Pathfinder books and pamphlets. "A sale at a local apartment complex netted several subscriptions and a New International to immigrant workers from Bosnia and India. And a subscription and a New International sold to workers at the Ford assembly plant here put us over the top," Fowler added.

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A young socialist from Akureyri, Iceland, joined the socialist sales team in Reykjavik (some 300 miles away) for the final weekend of the sales campaign. Despite rain and soggy papers, two subscriptions to the Militant were sold off a literature table . The preceding week, a team from Reykjavik had joined a group of young socialists in Akureyri for sales and discussions on the recent trade union congress in Cuba. One copy each of Che Guevara's Bolivian Diary and the new Icelandic edition of Imperialism's March Toward Fascism and War were sold, in addition to three subscriptions to the Militant.

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Several papers had already been sold from a socialist literature table set up in busy shopping center in Manchester, England, when a large bomb exploded nearby, injuring more than 200 people and covering the table with black dust. The table included placards calling for British troops to get out of Ireland.

"I don't like to see people killed, but they should be talking to Sinn Fein now," said one man who stopped to talk after the explosion. Several copies of the Militant were sold before the police extended their cordon of the area, shutting down both the table and the Pathfinder bookshop. One woman asked the socialists to come by her house to continue the discussion and so she could buy a subscription to the Militant and a copy of the New International.

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An international team of socialist workers from Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States spent five days in Germany participating in protests against government attacks on social security, health care, pensions, and education. The team sold $360 worth of Pathfinder books, 5 Militant subscriptions and 69 single copies of the paper, 2 subscriptions to Perspectiva Mundial, and 7 copies of New International at tables set up at demonstrations, college campuses, and plant gates. They also got orders for 37 books from two commercial bookstores.

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"You guys tell the truth about the strike; you don't twist and chop up what we say," one of the 6,700 striking machinists at McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis said as he signed up for a subscription to the Militant. A team of socialists from across the United States has been in St. Louis since the strike began, participating in various strike activities. So far, 20 strikers have subscribed to the paper.

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Some 35 people, including students from the La Raza Cultural Center at the University of Minnesota, participated in a Militant Labor Forum featuring Olga Rodríguez, the editor of The Politics of Chicano Liberation.

Following a lively discussion, six copies of the book were sold, as well as a new membership to the Pathfinder Readers Club and a subscription to the Militant. Supporters in Minnesota have sold 15 copies of The Politics of Chicano Liberation since it was reissued in January.

Twin Cities participants in the upcoming U.S.-Cuba Youth exchange are also finding the socialist publications useful. Eight of the activists have purchased new subscriptions to the Militant, two renewed their subscriptions, and another bought an introductory subscription to Perspectiva Mundial.

Participants have also bought eight copies of Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War and two of Bolivian Diary, both by Ernesto Che Guevara, two copies of The Second Declaration of Havana, and a copy of How Far We Slaves Have Come, with speeches by Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela.

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