BY MAURICE WILLIAMS
Over the next few months, supporters of the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial will be participating in a campaign to sell two new publications by Pathfinder Press: Pombo: A Man of Che's `Guerrilla' by Cuban Brig. Gen. Harry Villegas and the El rostro cambiante de la política en Estados Unidos: La política obrera y los sindicatos, the Spanish- language edition of The Changing Face of U.S. Politics - Working-Class Politics and the Trade Unions by Jack Barnes.

These books, which are both available in English and Spanish, present the same perspective - how ordinary working men and women can build revolutionary organizations capable of leading the toilers to overthrow capitalism and in the process transform themselves through struggle. Promoting these books on the job, at campuses, picket lines, political meetings, and at other events will aid in recruiting young fighters and workers to the communist movement. Readers can use the review of Pombo: A Man of Che's `Guerrilla' in this issue of the Militant to discuss this book and map out a campaign to sell it along with The Changing Face of U.S. Politics. Selling these books along with the Militant, the Spanish-language magazine Perspectiva Mundial, and the array of books by revolutionary and working-class leaders that Pathfinder publishes will be a central part of socialist election campaigns in cities across the country over the next several months.

Increased resistance by working people and others provides opportunities to reach out to those participating in struggles, get these books into their hands, and win them to socialist ideas. From California to Maine, farm workers throughout the United States are pressing for union rights and better working conditions. The farm workers' struggle is being boosted today - as it was in the 1960s and early 1970s - by a rise in Chicano and Latino nationalism and increasingly attracting more youth. At the Decoster Egg Farm in Augusta, Maine, workers are battling to organize a bargaining unit and to eliminate unsanitary conditions on the workplace.

In mid-April the United Farm Workers union organized a rally of 25,000 to support efforts to unionize California's 20,000 strawberry pickers. At that event in Watsonville, socialist workers and members of the Young Socialists sold 123 Pathfinder books and pamphlets, 32 subscriptions to the Militant, and 31 subscriptions to Perspectiva Mundial. In Quincy, Florida, a Militant sales team from Atlanta joined a June 28 rally in solidarity with mushroom workers where they sold nine papers.

"We sold 29 single issues of the Militant, two subscriptions, and 24 Pathfinder titles at the July 4-6 annual convention of the National Organization for Women in Memphis, Tennessee," said Cindy Jaquith, a member of the United Steelworkers from Birmingham, Alabama. Jaquith said some of the books participants at the meeting purchased included five copies of Cosmetics, Fashions, and the Exploitation of Women, four copies of Woman's Evolution: From Matriarchal Clan to Patriarchal Family, two copies of How Can the Jews Survive: A Socialist Answer to Zionism, and one copy of Che Guevara's Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War: 1956-58.

"At the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Conference in Houston held June 20-22, we set up a literature table as part of the conference," said Lea Sherman a member of the International Association of Machinists Local 15. "More than 100 activists from the United States and Europe who are fighting against the death penalty participated in the event. We sold nine books, including two copies of Blacks in America's Wars: The Shift in Attitudes from the Revolutionary War to Vietnam, two copies of Cointelpro: The FBI's Secret War on Political Freedom, and copy each of Fighting Racism in World War II and Malcolm X Talks to Young People, as well as a Militant subscription and eight single issues of the paper."

At two recent marches celebrating the return of Hong Kong to China, socialist workers in New York sold a total of more than 60 Militants and a copy of the Marxist magazine New International. Supporters of the Militant sold 25 Pathfinder books at the June 21 solidarity rally in Detroit where tens of thousands of people marched to support locked out newspaper workers.

"I participated with a sales team in the Coal Employment Project [CEP] conference in Edmonton, Alberta, where we sold five subscriptions to the Militant," wrote Joanne Pritchard from Toronto. "Two of these subscriptions were part of a special offer with a discount on Mother Jones Speaks: Speeches and Writings of a Working-Class Fighter. We also sold five singles of the Militant, two catalogs, and several Pathfinder titles including The Eastern Airlines Strike: Accomplishments of the Rank-and-File Machinists, two copies of Genocide Against the Indians, and An Action Program to Confront the Coming Economic Crisis: A Program for International Working-Class Struggle Today.

The people participating in these kind of events are precisely those who need books like The Changing Face of U.S. Politics and Pombo: A Man of Che's `Guerrilla.'

Just a few of the sales opportunities over the next few weeks include the NAACP convention in Pittsburgh July 13-17; a rally against police brutality in that city July 15; protests against the antiabortion group Operation Rescue in Dayton, Ohio, July 13-19; a United Farm Workers rally in Washington state August 10; and send-off events that are taking place across the country for participants going to Cuba for the World Festival of Youth and Students.  
 
 
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