BY KAREN RAY
SAN FRANCISCO - Participants at the 40th Constitutional
Convention of the Socialist Workers Party snapped up 59 copies
of the just reprinted pamphlet Coal Miners on Strike.
The pamphlet was first printed in 1981 and is a compilation of articles from the Militant coverage of the 111-day strike by the United Mine Workers of America 1977-78 and the miners' 1981 contract fight. It was reformatted and designed by volunteers after being out of print for many years, because some of the miners who struck Freeman Coal Co. and other workers supporting that fight found it a useful tool for today.
The best sales of Pathfinder books came after a series of classes on the last day of the convention. Following the class by Steve Clark titled "Trade Unions in the Transitional Epoch: Comintern Strategy and the Turn," participants bought 13 copies of the Transitional Program for the Socialist Revolution by Leon Trotsky.
A total of 18 copies of that title, which was offered at a special price of $9.50, were sold, many of them to young people. For some convention participants this will be the first time they have read the book.
Following the class "Farrell Dobbs's Teamster Series and New Trends in Working-Class Politics Today" three people bought sets of the four-book series about the 1930s strikes and organizing drive that transformed the Teamsters union in Minnesota and much of the Midwest into a fighting industrial union movement.
Another big seller at the convention was of 16 copies of Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the Millennium. Most were sold at the closing rally, as nearly everyone attending the convention already had a copy.
Other books sold included five copies of the new edition of El rostro cambiante de la política en Estados Unidos, the improved translation of The Changing Face of U.S. Politics by Jack Barnes.
Six people bought copies of The Truth About Yugoslavia and four picked up the pamphlet Che Guevara and the Imperialist Reality.