BY TED LEONARD

September 1 marks the beginning of the 10-week-long $125,000 Pathfinder Fund Drive. The fund is aimed at raising resources to ensure that the hundreds of Pathfinder books and pamphlets can be reprinted in a timely way so that they are available to fighters.

The reprint fund takes place as Pathfinder's editorial and printing production staff is taking conscious steps to get books back in action, some of which have been out of stock for some time. Maggie Trowe, director of the fund and business manager of Pathfinder's printshop, explained that so far in 1996, 26 books and 18 pamphlets have been reprinted, compared with 29 books in all of 1995.

Reprints include Socialism on Trial by James P. Cannon, Revolution and Counterrevolution in Spain by Felix Morrow, the History of the Russian Revolution in Russian, Labor's Giant Step by Art Preis, and Leon Trotsky's The Revolution Betrayed. The Politics of Chicano Liberation, which was reprinted last year after being out of stock for several years, sold out and was reprinted again in May. The Communist Manifesto and Leon Trotsky's Marxism and Terrorism were two other titles that sold out and were reprinted this year.

In the past year, teams of Pathfinder supporters have taken the books to fighters around the world: to the picket lines of McDonnell Douglas Machinist union members on strike in St. Louis; to protests by workers and young people in France against the austerity drive of the government; to activists at the "Nation on the Move" march in San Juan, Puerto Rico, this summer; and among Chicano and other Latino youth on La Marcha, the protest against attacks on affirmative action that included walking from Sacramento to San Diego, California.

Across the country and around the world, supporters and distributors of Pathfinder books have been meeting to discuss and adopt goals for their areas. In San Francisco, during a discussion among supporters on the Northern California goal, members of unions met to work up sub-goals of books to sell to their co-workers, reports Jim Gotesky, a member of Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Local 1-326.

Reaching out to the growing number of fighters who buy and read Pathfinder books to make the $125,000 reprint goal fits well into the efforts of Pathfinder supporters to qualitatively raise the number of books sold to workers and fighting youth each month. Pathfinder supporters in 24 cities took time out last month to hold conferences to discuss ways to step up the study and sales of books through a broad spectrum of political activity among unionists, immigrants, students, and others fighting for their rights. They came back again in late August to discuss out how to set ambitious fund goals that can be met in full by November 10.

In Pittsburgh and Miami, supporters are planning programs this fall featuring Pathfinder authors and editors. Olga Rodríguez, editor Politics of Chicano Liberation and an airport worker in the Machinists union, will speak in Pittsburgh. In Atlanta volunteers at the Pathfinder Bookstore will be featuring the fund in a letter to Pathfinder Readers Club members.

Supporters in Stockholm, Sweden, just e-mailed in their goal of $400. And Michael Tucker in New Zealand reports that supporters in Christchurch and Auckland have taken a goal of $4,220.

Supporters in Newark, New Jersey, volunteered to organize the fund drive, including doing all the record-keeping and organizing articles on the effort for the Militant. Newark-area supporters have taken a goal of $8,500 at the same time as they are wrapping up fundraising and volunteer work for construction of their new storefront bookstore. They aim to get pledges from at least 70 people in northern New Jersey.

The fund was previewed at a spirited meeting at the Active Workers and International Socialist Conference in Oberlin, Ohio, in July, where an initial $69,000 was pledged by conference participants.

Currently Pathfinder's printshop is reprinting The History of the Russian Revolution by Leon Trotsky with a new cover. In this 1,400-page book the story of the social, economic, and political dynamics of the first socialist revolution is recounted by one of its central leaders.  
 
 
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