BY JONATHAN SILBERMAN
MADRID - By the end of the three-day festival hosted by the Communist Party of Spain, the international team staffing the Pathfinder booth had sold more than $1,500 worth of literature. This included 59 copies of Pathfinder's latest Spanish-language title, Che Guevara: economía y política en la transición al socialismo by Cuban economist Carlos Tablada.

Sales of the book were boosted by a roundtable discussion on the legacy of Che Guevara, one of a number of forums, book launchings, and rallies held during the festival. Speakers at the roundtable were the former prime minister of Algeria and leader of the Algerian revolution, Ahmed Ben Bella; Ricardo Gadea, a revolutionary from Peru introduced as Che Guevara's brother-in-law; Marta Harnecker, an exiled Chilean journalist and author of Fidel Castro's Political Strategy: From Moncada to Victory, also published by Pathfinder; Manuel Monereo, head of the Spanish Communist Party's ideological department; and Tablada. Left Unity member of the Spanish parliament Angeles Maestro, who chaired the event, encouraged the 300 people present to pick up a copy of Tablada's book from the Pathfinder table. Eighteen did so on the spot, and four bought the issue of the Marxist magazine Nueva Internacional on "Che Guevara, Cuba, and the Road to Socialism." In all, 14 copies of that issue were sold during the festival.

Many people followed up the event by visiting the Pathfinder stand to get their copy of one or other title.

In opening the roundtable, Ben Bella described what the Cuban revolution had meant to Algeria and of the time Guevara had spent in the country. "We had relations that were the product not of diplomatic niceties but of common bonds in struggle," he said. "At the time we had to keep much secret. Now the secrets are being told, for example of how tanks sent by the Soviet Union explicitly for Cuba's use were passed on to us; how political cadres came with the tanks; and how Che planned internationalist missions in Africa and Latin America from our country."

"Che is remembered for many things" said Ricardo Gadea at the roundtable. "His famous face is on many posters. He is well remembered for his example of commitment, of internationalism and as a guerrilla fighter. But perhaps his greatest contribution was as a leader of the Cuban economy and for his political contribution on building socialism."

Tablada also spoke on this theme. "Che explained that an enterprise doesn't just produce products; it also produces consciousness," he said. "That's why Che insisted that production be organized in a way that helped the development of socialist consciousness, not as had been done in the Soviet Union."

In all, people attending the festival bought 27 copies of New International in Spanish or English. After the issue on Che Guevara, the most popular issue was no. 10, featuring the articles "Imperialism's March toward Fascism and War" by Jack Barnes and "Defending Cuba, Defending Cuba's Socialist Revolution" by Mary-Alice Waters.

Another top-selling title was Junto a Che Guevara, the Spanish-language edition of At the Side of Che Guevara: Two interviews with Harry Villegas (Pombo). Villegas is currently a brigadier general in the Cuban army. His photograph was prominent in a Che Guevara feature in the color magazine of El Pais, one of the main capitalist dailies in Spain, which appeared on the final day of the fiesta. Pathfinder volunteers made a display using the El Pais material and rapidly sold 12 copies of the pamphlet.

Interest was also high in the class struggle in the United States. "This is the first thing I've learned about the American class struggle. Until the UPS strike I knew nothing about trade unions in the United States," was a common sentiment. Most of the 14 people who bought subscriptions to Perspectiva Mundial or the Militant did so to get more information about the class struggle in the United States.

A further reflection of this was the sale of five copies of the Spanish translation of the Changing Face of U.S. Politics: Working-Class Politics and the Trade Unions, four copies of ?Por qué sigue preso Mark Curtis? (Why is Mark Curtis still in prison?), and five of Habla Malcolm X (Malcolm X Speaks).

Some of the visitors to the Pathfinder booth had come by last year, the first time that Pathfinder had participated in the fiesta when gross sales totaled $850. "'Last year I bought a copy of Marx and Engels on Ireland and the Irish Question," said Daniel Garcia. "Have you anything else on Ireland I could get?" He ended up buying New International no. 1, which includes articles by Lenin and Trotsky on the 1916 Easter rising in Ireland. Maria Trapiello picked up the copy of Nueva Internacional no. 3 on the Nicaraguan revolution, which she had thumbed through 12 months earlier. An immigrant from the Dominican Republic living in Madrid renewed her subscription to Perspectiva Mundial.  
 
 
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