Below are excerpts from an article in the June 5 Washington Post under the headline, "Book Marx -Adams-Morgan Store Caters to Readers of Dead Reds."

Statues of Lenin have been toppled throughout Eastern Europe, East Germany has reunited with the West, the Cold War is over. Still, the doors of Pathfinder, a 30-year-old communist bookstore on the outskirts of Adams-Morgan, remain open.

The unremarkable storefront, with its hand-painted sandwich board, Ikea-style shelves and folding chairs, looks more like a Christian Science reading room than a revolutionary outpost. Except, that is, for the books. Several volumes containing "The Complete Works of Trotsky," "The Mao Myth," "Revolutionary Cuba Today" and "Eugene Debs Speaks" are displayed on the sparsely filled racks. Periodicals like the Militant and Granma Internacional are tucked like church bulletins into plastic clip-racks or stacked neatly on a bingo table set up by the front door.

"We're confident that there will be big class struggles in the future," says Janice Lynn, Pathfinder's new co-owner, "and we will grow accordingly." Maybe. Although for the moment, with the communist movement here more of a gaunt speck than the "haunting spectre" warned of by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the shop's single room is probably sufficient. Five visits to the store found only two customers: an Ethiopian-born international politics student who was accompanying a friend. Both nervously declined to be identified, saying only that "it wouldn't be good" if others found out where they'd been....

"While we get all types of people in here, most of our customers are young," Lynn insists, with the dog-eared optimism of a Boston Red Sox fan who is confident the team will win the World Series. "They see the attacks against unions and the insecurity of the working people. Not to exaggerate it, but there are a lot of people out there who are fed up and looking for answers. They come here to learn about the lessons and experiences of workers and revolutionaries."

Lynn, who has managed the Pathfinder for the past five years, joined with a co-worker, Brian Williams, to buy the store in January. It's one of 27 independently owned Pathfinder bookstores throughout the United States; another 11 are spread through Canada, Australia, Western Europe and New Zealand.

For Lynn, who was born in the Bronx, the bookstore remains more an act of devotion than a viable profession. She works full time in airline cabin service, the latest of several occupations she's held.

"We're trying to expand sales of the books and pamphlets by doing a lot of visitation to protests and different workplaces," Lynn says. "That's what we foresee for the future. And as developments in the class struggle take place, we'll be there."

The shop, kept open 26 hours a week by a group of about 10 volunteers including Lynn's husband, students, a college professor and railroad and auto workers, also serves as an off- hours meeting place for the Socialist Workers Party and the Young Socialists. In addition, the Pathfinder presents a weekly forum featuring a variety of topics like Irish-American unity, the bombing of Lebanon and the imprisonment of convicted cop killer and cause célebre Mumia Abu-Jamal. In total, about 30 people visit the shop each week, Lynn says.

Political ideology isn't all that's offered at Pathfinder, however. Amid the bulk of communist-related texts, browsers can find books on the history of the Teamsters, Malcolm X's rhetoric, women's issues and conflicts in Ireland and the Middle East.... Still, Pathfinder will never be your typical neighborhood bookstore. As Lynn says: "We offer some information that you can't find at Oleson's or the Super Crown."  
 
 
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