BY SARA LOBMAN
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The History of the Russian Revolution by Leon Trotsky; Cosmetics, Fashion, and the Exploitation of Women by Joseph Hansen, Evelyn Reed, and Mary-Alice Waters; Malcolm X: February 1965, The Final Speeches; and To Speak the Truth by Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara were among the Pathfinder titles ordered in July at the request of professors who have adopted them as a text for one of their classes this year. They will quickly make it into the hands of young people at colleges and universities across the United States.

Sales of revolutionary books to non-Pathfinder bookstores, college outlets, libraries, and retail chains was up significantly in July with 2,106 books sold. Classroom adoptions were an important part of these orders. In June 1,512 titles were sold to these accounts, and in May 570. A college in New York City ordered 50 copies of New International no. 6 for use in a class. This is the issue that includes the articles "The Second Assassination of Maurice Bishop" by Steve Clark and "Washington's 50-Year Domestic Contra Operation" by Larry Seigle.

The Communist Manifesto, written in 1848 to explain the line of march of the working class in the fight for socialism, is one of the most popular titles, with some 1,000 copies sold each year for classroom use. Like many other Pathfinder books, it is carefully annotated, with readable text and an attractive and sturdy cover.

Winning new classroom adoptions

While most orders for classroom adoptions for the current semester have already been placed, now is the perfect time for volunteers to introduce professors to Pathfinder titles they may want to use in 1997. Orders for next semester are usually placed in October. Pathfinder supporters who are setting up literature tables on campus can leave some time to drop by professors' offices in the History, Political Science, Philosophy, Black Studies, Women's Studies, and other departments, as well as setting up appointments with buyers in the campus bookstore and library.

Professors who are interested in using a Pathfinder title in one of their classes can request a complimentary copy directly from the publisher. Such requests should be made on departmental letterhead, and should include the name of the course, and the approximate student enrollment.

In a round of sales visits in June, Los Angeles sales volunteers found that-due to budgetary restrictions-many college bookstores were not able to order books until July. They offered to take the orders anyway, and noted on each the date it should be filled. Four bookstores ordered a total of 125 books in this way.

Tony Hunt, from Pathfinder Distribution in London, reports that sales to non-Pathfinder bookstores in the United Kingdom were up substantially in June. Total sales to these accounts was 8,484 (U.S.$13,210), with nearly 3,500 (U.S.$5,450) of this resulting directly from sales visits by volunteer reps. Supporters in Sweden have already won orders nearly double the value of those obtained in all of 1995.

"Welcome to the inaugural issue of the monthly central Illinois Pathfinder Readers Club Newsletter," said a two-page flyer prepared by the Pathfinder bookstore in Peoria, Illinois. The newsletter reports on titles that Pathfinder has upgraded in June and July and announces local specials for Readers Club members in August. Angel Lariscy, who volunteers in the Peoria bookstore, reports that four orders were mailed in as a result of the newsletter.

Bob Miller, who works in the Ford auto assembly plant in Edison, New Jersey, reports that he's sold 10 books on the job in August. "With the Big Three auto contract expiring September 14, many workers here are discussing how to strengthen our unions," he said. One worker, who had almost finished reading Teamster Rebellion by Farrell Dobbs, decided to get Teamster Politics, the second book in the series. Another, a member of the Readers Club, bought The Wages System by Frederick Engels and The Last Year of Malcolm X by George Breitman.

Pathfinder supporters from Greensboro sold 10 books and pamphlets to striking poultry workers and their supporters at a march and rally in Morganton, North Carolina. Two hundred workers, many originally from Guatemala, walked off the job August 8. Titles purchased included Nueva Internacional no. 2, Che Guevara y la lucha por el socialismo hoy (Che Guevara and the fight for socialism today), two pamphlets by Fidel Castro, and two copies of Sendero Luminoso: Evolución de una secta estalinista (Shining Path: evolution of a Stalinist sect) by Martín Koppel. One young person, at the rally as part of the AFL-CIO's "Union Summer," bought the Communist Manifesto and Socialism and Man in Cuba.

Jeff Jones, an airline worker from Twin Cities, reports that when he went into the breakroom recently to bring a co-worker the copy of Malcolm X Talks to Young People she had requested, two other workers quickly pulled out money to buy the book as well. Since he only had one copy with him, he gave a catalog to one of the workers, took prepayment for the book, and promised to bring more copies in the next day.

"Participants in the recent United Steel Workers of America (USWA) convention in Pittsburgh bought $170 of literature from the Pathfinder table set up outside the meeting," Peggy Kreiner and Bill Scheer report. A delegate from Chicago returned to the table after buying a catalog the day before. He joined the Pathfinder Readers Club and bought several titles, including The Changing Face of U.S. Politics, and Nueva Internacional no. 4 with the article "Imperialism's March Toward Fascism and War."

With the 1996 presidential elections heating up, several Pathfinder titles should be of special interest to readers. Out Now! A Participant's Account of the Movement in the U.S. against the Vietnam War by Fred Halstead has an excellent chapter on 1968 Democratic Party convention in Chicago. Aspects of Socialist Election Policy, an Education for Socialists publication, takes up the place of the two-party system in maintaining capitalist rule. It also includes a theses adopted in 1920 by the second congress of the Communist International on the "Communist Attitude to Parliamentary Reformism" and communist participation in bourgeois elections.  
 
 
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