Over the October 21–22 weekend five supporters of Pathfinder Press in Paris met with Michel Prairie, director of Pathfinder's rapidly expanding French-language publishing program, and Tony Hunt from the publisher's London office, which is responsible for sales in Europe. Participants in the meeting reviewed the year's work and discussed plans to consolidate and expand the sales effort.

Bookstores make up the majority of the customers. Twenty-six stores in France currently stock some Pathfinder titles. Of these, 15 are new accounts opened in just the last year and three are outside Paris, in Nantes, Rouen, and Bordeaux. Many of the new accounts are with smaller neighborhood shops in working-class areas of the city.

To facilitate orders from outlets like these and to expand the range of stores that carry Pathfinder books, the London office has worked with the Paris supporters to set up a modest local pick-and-pack operation. This enables stores in France placing small initial orders to obtain the books without incurring exchange-rate fees and shipping costs from the United Kingdom. Other stores continue to order directly from Pathfinder, London, through accounts with its commercial distributor in the United Kingdom, and are encouraged to do so by the volunteer sales representatives.

Of the 430 books and pamphlets sold over the last year for which a breakdown is available, the two best-sellers were by or about Cuban-Argentine revolutionary leader Che Guevara: the French edition of Socialism and Man in Cuba, which sold 48 copies, and the French edition of Che Guevara: Economics and Politics in the Transition to Socialism, which sold 42. The third and fourth best sellers were French editions of two titles by Jack Barnes--Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the Millennium at 38 copies, and The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning at 22. Altogether 62 percent of the books sold were in French, 25 percent in English, and 13 percent in Spanish.

Supporters have also succeeded in listing all the French-language Pathfinder titles with Electre, the main database used in the country's book trade. As a result, stores from five cities have placed orders for clients looking for specific Pathfinder titles, and requests have also come in from Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, and Luxemburg. In the last month progress has been made in setting up an account with a major chain of 58 large bookstores in France.  
 
Literature tables at labor actions
Pathfinder supporters also organize tables at important labor actions and demonstrations, and have set up booths at large annual weekend events organized by the French Communist Party newspaper l'Humanité and Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), selling some 200 book and pamphlets.

During his stay in Paris, Prairie joined Pathfinder sales representatives in visits to eight bookshops. The current war campaign in Central Asia by the U.S. government and its allies, including the French rulers, has sparked renewed interest in a number of Pathfinder titles. Three stores placed orders for the French and English editions of New International featuring "Washington's Assault on Iraq: Opening Guns of World War III." Three stores also ordered the French edition of Cuba and the Coming American Revolution, and two ordered copies of To See the Dawn, Baku, 1920--First Congress of the Peoples of the East. One manager requested the latter title for herself. Each of the eight stores already carried a selection of Pathfinder titles and placed new orders totaling 55 books and pamphlets in all. This included 10 each of the two new pamphlets in French by West African revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara, Nous sommes les héritiers des révolutions du monde (We Are the Inheritors of the Revolutions of the World) and L'émancipation des femmes et la lutte de libération de l'Afrique (Women's Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle.)  
 
Expanding publishing program
Pathfinder's French-language publishing program has expanded significantly over the last year. Aside from the six issues of Nouvelle Internationale, the French edition of New International, four of Pathfinder's other 13 French-language titles have been issued in just the last six months. A fifth title presenting Che Guevara's views on economics and politics in the transition to socialism was printed last spring in a new edition including a new introduction.

During the weekend meetings Prairie reported on plans to bring out three new French-language books in the coming year. They are James P. Cannon's History of American Trotskyism--1928–1938, Thomas Sankara Speaks, and a new issue of Nouvelle Internationale. Six supporters in France form part of the international translating team that helps put these titles out.

In Brussels, Belgium, Prairie also met with several volunteers helping with the translation of Pathfinder books into French and with a supporter of Pathfinder who has regularly visited bookstores in Belgium and the Netherlands. Over the last year he has placed some 250 Pathfinder books and pamphlets with 30 bookstores in these two countries.

The Paris group of supporters met again at the beginning of November to draw a balance sheet of the store visits in October and other work, and lay out plans to visit another 11 stores in November.

Derek Jeffers is a member of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) and works at the Peugeot auto assembly plant in Poissy.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home