CHICAGO—Pathfinder Fund supporters held a rally here October 9 featuring Martín Koppel, editor of Perspectiva Mundial, who participated in meetings that led to Pathfinder's soon-to-be-released Making History: Interviews with four generals of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces. His talk linked a range of political questions facing working people today with the experience of workers and farmers holding power in Cuba for 40 years.

Young Socialists member Marcelina Pedraza, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said that studying Pathfinder books, especially combined with classes like those YS and SWP members held during the summer, "really is the way to educate ourselves and also educate others."

Melanie Zimmer, an airline mechanic and member of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA), helped staff the Pathfinder book table at the recent Grito de Lares pro-independence festival in Puerto Rico. She urged those at the meeting to "maybe squeeze out just a little bit more" to ensure that Pathfinder books stay available to the "thousands of mainly young people like those who came to Lares in search of solutions."

David Yard, a member of the United Mine Workers of America in central Illinois, sent a message explaining how miners utilized Pathfinder publications to help defend the UMWA strike against Freeman United Coal last year from a probe by the FBI.

Two people bought copies of Capitalism's World Disorder; and $835 was collected.

—PATTIE THOMPSON

PHILADELPHIA —Pathfinder fund supporters in here took a big step towards reaching their $3,600 goal at an October 16 rally featuring Militant editor Naomi Craine. Among those attending the event were a number of youth who heard about the meeting at a protest earlier in the day against the planned execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Some were also participants in an ecology conference held that weekend at the University of Pennsylvania. Youth from Chicago, New York, and other cities also stopped by the Pathfinder bookstore as a result of getting flyers either at the conference or the demonstration.

Nineteen-year-old Jim McFadden explained the impact Pathfinder books have had on his political development since first encountering them last winter. After Craine's presentation, which focused on the Australian- and U.S.-led imperialist intervention in East Timor, airline worker Nancy Cole explained the Pathfinder Fund. Cole said three of her co-workers had made contributions to the fund that day. She then described how some of them are helping her efforts to get Capitalism's World Disorder and other Pathfinder books into stores and libraries where more workers will have access to them.

Rally participants contributed $531 and pledged an additional $400. More pledges and donations collected that weekend brought the total collected to $1,338.

—PETE SEIDMAN  
 
 
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