"We need funds to take advantage of the new openings to sell Pathfinder books to an increasing number of working people," added the managing editor of Pathfinder. "And we need them now. Every dollar that comes in can be put to good use—right away."
As we approach the halfway point in the drive, 12 percent of the goal—nearly $15,000 —has been received by Pathfinder. With a handful of areas yet to report, goals adopted by supporters of the fund internationally add up to $112,500. This is still short of the goal of raising $125,000 by the fund's November 15 deadline.
Baumann described expanding openings and accomplishments in three areas: new books to be published this fall and winter, several dozen reprints currently in the pipeline, and initial results from the campaign to place Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the Millennium in libraries, bookstores, and a variety of other stores around the world.
For a small publisher, Baumann explained, "Pathfinder has an extremely ambitious publishing and promotion schedule. With the help of volunteer translators, designers, proofreaders, and typesetters, we'll be bringing out five new books in the next few months."
The top priority is answering those who have been asking when Capitalism's World Disorder will be available in Spanish and French. Volunteer translators are working full steam now to ensure that at least the Spanish-language translation will be in print prior to the Havana International Book Fair, in February 2000. The French-language translation will be published about the same time.
The first new book to come out this fall is Making History: Interviews with Four Generals of Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces. It is scheduled for publication in October. These revolutionaries tell the story of the campaigns in which they personally participated during the last four decades to help advance struggles to end class exploitation and for national liberation: from the Sierra Maestra and Bay of Pigs in Cuba, to the Middle East, Nicaragua, and the victory over the apartheid army in southern Africa. Making History will be featured by Pathfinder at the international book fair in Guadalajara, Mexico, in November, one of the largest book fairs in the world. The Spanish edition, which will be brought out at the same time by Editora Política, the publishing house of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, is scheduled to be presented at the fair as well.
Also this fall Pathfinder will bring out Che Guevara Talks to Young People—an entirely new collection of speeches and writings by the Argentine-born leader of the Cuban revolution. To be released by Pathfinder in December, the book will be possible thanks to the collaboration from Havana-based Editora Abril, the publishing house of the Union of Young Communists.
Promotional materials for the new titles will be highlighted at the New York Pathfinder Bookstore's booth during the New York Is Book Country fair, September 26. A display featuring Making History will also be used to encourage book fair attendants to make donations to the Pathfinder Fund.
At the same time, thanks to the work of volunteers in the field, turning Pathfinder's entire arsenal into digital form, and in Pathfinder's print shop, the pace has picked up on the reprint program as well. All 350 Pathfinder titles are being reprinted in new, easier-to-read type, and some with new covers as well.
"Two reprints we want to call special attention to are due out next month, just in time for celebration of the October 1917 revolution by workers and farmers in Russia," Baumann said. Leon Trotsky's History of the Russian Revolution will be reissued, as will Teamster Politics, part of the four-volume series by Farrell Dobbs on the 1930s strikes and organizing drive that transformed the labor movement in a big chunk of the Midwest into a fighting industrial union movement.
Baumann noted that while Pathfinder is out of stock of many more books than it would like to be—some 65 at last count—an indication of the tide beginning to turn came last month. In August the income from filling back orders of recently reprinted books—$5,200—was greater than the loss from orders of out-of-stock titles for the first time in more than a year. Titles sold that month included To Speak the Truth by Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara, Rosa Luxemburg Speaks, and Leon Trotsky's Women and the Family.
And once the books are in electronic form, Baumann added, they can be printed virtually on demand. A recent example was How Far We Slaves Have Come! by Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro. Pathfinder's print shop is going to be able to reprint it within a week to meet a last-minute class room order for more than a hundred copies.
"Right now," Baumann said, "the presses are rolling to bring out the third printing of our best-selling book this year, Capitalism's World Disorder by Socialist Workers Party national secretary Jack Barnes." Since the book was released at the beginning of March, more than 3,000 copies have been sold internationally.
Orders for Capitalism's World Disorder are beginning to come in from "bookstores, large and small, recently visited by Pathfinder sales volunteers following up on the suggestions by co-workers, farmers, students and others."
To expand its base of accounts and the sales of its books and pamphlets, Pathfinder is offering special credit terms in the course of the campaign (see item below).
In the midst of these efforts, Baumann said, a large regional wholesaler based in the South sent in an order for more than 90 titles from the entire range of Pathfinder's arsenal.
The Pathfinder staff itself will be participating in regional sales trips that combine visits to stores, plant gates, college campuses, and farms. Baumann will be joining a team in the western coal fields at the end of the month.
The 40th anniversary of the Cuban revolution will be the theme of several Pathfinder Fund events across the country. Martín Koppel, editor of the Spanish-language Perspectiva Mundial, for instance, will be speaking in Chicago, October 9. The same weekend, Militant staff writer Brian Taylor will be giving a similar presentation organized by the New York and New Jersey SWP and Young Socialists and other supporters of the fund.
"The first few weeks of the fund drive also show that we can expect contributions from co-workers, from youth and others who appreciate the place of Pathfinder in their political education and work," added Baumann. Some may want to contribute by helping to organize a fund-raising activity at their house, he said. "But we need to ask."
To find out more about the fund, to get involved or to make a contribution, contact your nearest Pathfinder bookstore listed on page 12. Please make all checks and money orders out to Pathfinder, earmarked Pathfinder Fund, and send to: Pathfinder, 410 West Street, New York, NY 10014.
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