Pathfinder Press published this title in mid-1999. It contains speeches by Jack Barnes, the national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party and author of several Pathfinder books. The chapters and the photos in the book cover major political developments which set the scene for the 21st century. The stock market crash of 1987, the new boldness of a vanguard of the reactionary right like Patrick Buchanan, and the precipitate decline in the weight of Stalinism in the workers states and the labor movement are among the key questions covered in the book, captured in the give and take of experience and discussion its pages record. Most important, the book records the sea change in working class politics that is weaving "a new pattern ... in struggle today as working people emerge from a period of retreat."

In the last third of 1999 socialist unionists organized a national campaign with Capitalism's World Disorder. They introduced the book to working people and youth they met at picket lines, farm protests, factory gates, and university campuses. They followed suggestions of books and libraries to visit. Dozens of copies of the book have been placed on the shelves of such outlets, making it accessible to a larger potential readership. Campaign supporters have been able to place and sell other Pathfinder titles, including the newest publication Making History - Interviews with four generals of Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces, as part of this effort.

The accompanying chart, recording sales and placements of Capitalism's World Disorder organized by workers active in a range of unions, shows the progress - and unevenness - of the campaign. The reports below indicate that no Y2K bug brought the campaign to a halt; instead, it is continuing into the new year. At national planning meetings in Pittsburgh on the weekend of January 1 and 2, socialists in the garment and textile unions and in the mines decided they want to continue the effort into the early months of 2000.  
 

Florida teams reach out

They met with a farmer from Plant City, Karl Butts, who is planning to visit Cuba with a group of U.S. farmers, and with an activist from Tampa in Ft. Meyers to discuss speeches by Fidel Castro on the first and second agrarian reform in Cuba. Each bought a copy of the newest Pathfinder title, Making History.

Following the meeting, the volunteers visited the local outlet for a large bookstore chain based in the south. The visit followed one of a couple of weeks earlier, when the store took one copy of Capitalism's World Disorder. The one copy had been sold, and the store's buyer decided to take two more copies and another eight titles in Spanish.

Two other volunteers visited a vegetable farmer in Palm Beach county who is a part of the class action lawsuit by Black farmers against the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for decades of racist discrimination. He bought a six-month subscription to the Militant and said he hoped to attend the January 17 protest called for Atlanta to demand payments of the monies promised in the settlement with the USDA and to continue the fight for the right of Black and all farmers to keep their land.

Before visiting his farm, the two stopped at a bookstore that caters to the Black community. The manager decided to order five books, including two copies of Capitalism's World Disorder.

Socialist workers and a young socialist wrapped up the week by setting up literature tables at the two protests called to demand the release of over 400 Haitian immigrants who were intercepted off the coast of Florida by the U.S. Coast Guard and held in detention before being sent back to Haiti. They sold a dozen copies of the Militant newspaper, one copy of Capitalism's World Disorder and three copies of the Marxist magazine Nouvelle Internationale. Three titles on revolutionary Cuba were also sold.  
 

"It's a great book" says unionist

Since a hard-fought strike against Caterpillar ended in 1995, it has become a tradition for the Blue Shirts to lead their local in organizing solidarity with other workers on strike. Christmas socials in solidarity with other UAW locals are part of that tradition. On this occasion, however, the party was organized not in support of another local, but in solidarity with newer members of their own local who have been forced by Caterpillar onto a permanent and much lower pay scale. This was the issue at the center of the strike.

"I have been reading the Militant every week," said Smith, "but to tell you the truth I skipped over the Cuba part and focused mainly on the labor solidarity articles. Reading the book has clarified what the Cuban revolution is all about. Now when I read the Militant, I read the Cuba articles as well."  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home