The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.35           October 7, 1996 
 
 
Sales Of `Action Program' In French Take Off
Sell The Books Workers Of The World Need  

BY KATY LEROUGETEL

MONTREAL - Un programme économique pour faire face a la crise économique qui vient (An Action Program to Confront the Coming Economic Crisis), Pathfinder's latest French-language publication, rolled off the presses September 9. This attractive pamphlet, already published in English and Spanish by Pathfinder, sports a color photo on the cover taken during a recent union mobilization in France demanding a shorter work week as a way to create jobs and combat unemployment.

Written in 1988 following the October 1987 stock market crash, the Action Program presents a fighting perspective that can help working people internationally to unite in a common struggle against the worsening effects of the crisis of world capitalism. A 30-hour work week is one of the three main demands put forward in the pamphlet, along with affirmative action measures and cancellation of the third world debt.

With the help of an international team of volunteers, Pathfinder supporters in Paris sold almost 30 copies of the French-language edition in the first ten days since publication, including 17 at the Fete de l'Humanité, a political and cultural fair annually sponsored by the French Communist Party. A woman who bought the booklet returned next day to tell volunteers staffing the Pathfinder table at the fair that she had already read it and "found it very interesting."

Three workers at the GEC Alsthom factory at St-Ouen, near Paris, also purchased copies from a distributor who works in the plant.

An activist for the unemployed visiting the GEC Alsthom factory with a delegation of jobless workers demanding work was given a leaflet advertising a meeting on the pamphlet. He attended the event held in Paris on Friday, September 20. Elisabeth Sanguinetti of a newly-formed Young Socialists chapter in Paris spoke, as did the booklet's editor, Michel Prairie. A similar meeting addressed by Prairie attracted some 25 workers and youth the following night in London, England.

In Montreal, distributors of Pathfinder report over 20 copies sold to date. A member of the Canadian Automobile Workers union, Cuba solidarity activists, and a striking hotel worker on her picket line are among those who have bought the pamphlet. Three unionists attending the annual general meeting of the International Center of Working-Class Solidarity (CISO) also purchased copies. One of them had participated in the Women's March for Bread and Roses in Quebec City last June, which mobilized thousands in defense of women's rights. She was drawn to a photo of the event in the pamphlet and to the sections discussing the need for affirmative action.

`Changing Face' in French
An international team of some two dozens volunteer workers and students -spread over two continents and four countries - will be busy over the coming months, as an expansion of French-language titles is planned.

A reprint of the fifth issue of the magazine of Marxist politics and theory, Nouvelle Internationale, that includes the article "Imperialism's March Towards Fascism and War," is in the works. All 700 copies of the first run, printed in the spring of 1995, have sold out. The Pathfinder Bookstore in Montreal has one left on its shelves, having sold four since the beginning of September.

Preparation has begun of a French-language publication of Trade Unions: Their Past, Present and Future, a collection of articles by Karl Marx, Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky, Socialist Workers Party national secretary Jack Barnes, and SWP leader Farrell Dobbs. These articles focus on the fight to transform the trade unions into weapons of revolutionary struggle.

Volunteers in different cities have enthusiastically begun a more long-term project; translating into French Pathfinder's The Changing Face of U.S. Politics: Working-Class Politics and the Trade Unions by Jack Barnes. This book explains how a communist party of industrial workers can, and is being built in today's world.

Supporters of Pathfinder's French-language publications program in Canada are organizing to raise CAN$15,000 (US$10,800) by November 10, in addition to participating to the $125,000 international Pathfinder fund drive (see page 6). The fund in Canada will help sustain a full-time volunteer who is coordinating the international team working on the various projects of the publishing program in French.

BY MARCELLA FITZGERALD

PARIS, France - The Pathfinder table at the Book Village of the French Communist Party's Fete de l'Humanité (Humanité fair) attracted much political discussion. In all, 133 books and pamphlets were sold worth $1,500. These include 17 copies of the newly published French-language edition of the An Action Program to Confront the Coming Economic Crisis. Denise Méndez bought a copy the first day, read it overnight, and came back on Sunday to discuss it further.

The annual fair attracted more than 200,000 people.

Books on the Cuban revolution were also on demand. There is currently a debate here, centered on the attempt by figures in the French Socialist Party and the Communist Party to divide Ernesto Che Guevara from the Cuban revolution today, and in particular from the leadership team of Fidel Castro. The titles sold included 11 copies of the French-language edition of Socialism and Man in Cuba by Guevara; 11 copies of the French- language edition of Che Guevara: Economics and Politics in the Transition to Socialism by Cuban economist Carlos Tablada; and 4 copies of Nouvelle Internationale no. 5, which includes the article "Defending Cuba Defending Cuba's Socialist Revolution" by Mary-Alice Waters. Fair participants also snapped 7 copies in French of The Second Declaration of Havana, the manifesto of the Cuban revolution.

One young staffer at the France-Cuba stand who came from Orleans wanted to know more about Pathfinder after 9 Pathfinder books on Cuba quickly sold out from their stand.

Four members of the Young Socialists helped staff the Pathfinder booth and also participated in some of the debates held at the fair. They were able to meet other young people interested in the revolutionary perspective laid out by many communist leaders whose works Pathfinder publishes.

A young Yugoslav was interested to join others in classes to study some of these books, and offered to give a class on the fight in Bosnia. Another student, who is just moving to Paris and wants to get more active in politics, left her name and address.

Among those who bought the 16 copies of the New International magazine in various languages were two young Basques. They returned to the table next day to bring information on their struggle for self determination and to exchange experiences with the Young Socialists.

Basic Marxist texts by communist leaders Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, and V.I. Lenin were also popular, particularly among young people. One group of young Algerians bought a copy of each Lenin text available in French in order to help prepare classes for their group.  
 
 
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