BY GREG McCARTAN

Socialists around the world are campaigning against Washington's military assault on Iraq among unionists on the job, youth on campuses, and at pickets lines and protest actions, and getting out increased numbers of New International no. 7, which features "Washington's assault on Iraq: Opening Guns of World War III," by Jack Barnes.

Washington's threats against Iraq won't go away leading up to election day in the United States. This, and the political repercussions of the growing imperialist disorder in the region, give socialists a special opportunity to get out the truth and win a new generation of those resisting the bipartisan assault at home to oppose imperialism and its wars abroad.

Pathfinder supporters can consider calling up bookstores and libraries to see if they would want to order titles distributed by Pathfinder that explain the developments in the Mideast.

"Two students in Vermont bought copies of New International no. 7 after meeting socialists petitioning to put James Harris and Laura Garza, the Socialist Workers candidates for U.S. president and vice-president on the ballot in the state," reports Mary Nell Bockman.

Socialists in Boston organized a class series, and have set up a session on the NI no. 7. Two high school students purchased copies of the magazine to study as part of the classes.

The petitioning team built a meeting of 30 people against the bombing, out of which several youth expressed interest in joining the Young Socialists. Socialists who are members of industrial unions sold one copy of NI no. 7 to a coworker in the United Autoworkers Union, and a copy of Nouvelle Internation- ale no. 4, containing the same articles in French, to a member of the International Association of Machinists.

Bob Miller from Newark reports that he and a coworker set up a socialist campaign table on the campus of Rutgers college in New Brunswick the evening of the second U.S. missile attack on Iraq. Three Pathfinder titles were sold: the Communist Manifesto, Israel's War against the Palestinian People, and Leon Trotsky on Black Nationalism and Self-Determination. One student asked to join the Young Socialists. Miller's co-worker volunteered to help set up such a table every week.

Three workers at a K-Mart warehouse in North Carolina who are members of the garment and textile workers union UNITE purchased copies of NI no. 7, and two additional copies were sold at a Militant Labor Forum last week.

Another book socialists are promoting as part of this effort is U.S. Hands off the Mideast!, which contains speeches by leaders of the Cuban revolution Fidel Castro and Ricardo Alarcón that make the case against Washington's 1990-91 embargo and war against Iraq.

These are just a few examples of the work by socialists since the U.S. bombing and the kind of response they are getting.

Sales of books and pamphlets distributed by Pathfinder in August to retail outlets, college bookstores, libraries, and wholesalers surpassed the monthly goal of 1,400 by 396 units. This increase is due in large part to orders for Pathfinder titles to be used as texts in college courses. Eight cities surpassed their goal this month.

A wide range of titles were ordered for classroom adoptions last month. These include 7 copies of Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxembourg from a store in Atlanta; 40 New International no. 6, 50 Panama: The Truth about the U.S. Invasion, and 50 American Labor Struggles to a New York college; 30 of To Speak the Truth: Why Washington's `Cold War' against Cuba Doesn't End to a college store in Chicago; 40 copies of Marx and Engels on Colonialism to a college in Ohio; and 233 of Communist Manifesto to a college in upstate New York.

The August results are in keeping with the trend so far this year. Beginning in March of 1996, Pathfinder has been maintaining modestly higher net sales each month over those in 1995. For the January-August period, 1996 net sales were $45,300 higher than in the same period in 1995. The book return rate for Pathfinder in the first eight months of 1995 was 32 percent; in 1996 that has been lowered to 20 percent.

These figures represent the cumulative results of the decision by members of the Socialist Workers Party to place sales of Pathfinder books and pamphlets at the center of the work of party branches and trade union fractions. Part and parcel of how socialists respond to political developments around the world-such as the U.S. attack on Iraq-is by getting literature that explains the world from the point of view of the working class into the hands of workers and youth.

Organizing sales to non-Pathfinder bookstore outlets can become an integral part of the overall sales efforts. As the results from some areas show, there is real potential to increase classroom adoptions of Pathfinder titles, especially at college and universities. Professors contacted in September and October will have time to consider adding a Pathfinder titles and to get in an order for books for winter or spring terms.

Socialists in Chicago, for example, have made an effort to get out a team or two every month to retail stores in the area. The results have been consistent sales, and a growing list of stores to service on a regular basis. In Salt Lake City, Pathfinder supporters regularly visit a university bookstore. This consistent relationship has meant ongoing sales to the store, even if at a modest level. Most recently the store's buyer ordered New International no. 7 and The Politics of Chicano Liberation.

Reviews of Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War and Lenin's Final Fight reprinted in this issue of the Militant will be of real value to Pathfinder supporters to getting bookstores and libraries to order these and related titles.

The highest selling titles so far in 1996 include Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War by Ernesto Che Guevara, released at the start of 1996; the Communist Manifesto which has already outstripped sales for 1995; Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, which has doubled sales so far this year over 1995; A New Probe by the Workers League, an Education for Socialists bulletin released at the end of 1995; and Genocide against the Indians, by George Novack.  
 
 
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