The Militant - March 17, 2003 -- Vandals attack Des Moines Pathfinder store

Vol. 67/No. 8 March 17, 2003

Vandals attack
Des Moines Pathfinder store

BY EDWIN FRUIT
DES MOINES, Iowa--On the second weekend of February, for the fourth time since 1999, the Pathfinder Bookstore in Des Moines was vandalized. Raw eggs defaced every window and the door of the storefront, located in the working-class area known as Highland Park.

The bookstore is a center for books on working-class politics and hosts the weekly Militant Labor Forum, a free-speech forum on topics of interest to working people. The store also provides office space to the Socialist Workers Party, which has run candidates for public office. Displays in the window include a Black History Month poster highlighting a new book of speeches by Malcolm X, book covers on the Cuban Revolution, and current copies of the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial, socialist publications that have front-page coverage explaining why working people should oppose the imperialist war in the Mideast.

At a February 11 news conference at the bookstore, Edwin Fruit, the owner of the store and Socialist Workers candidate for Congress in Iowa’s third district last fall, denounced the attack and said, "We are not going to be intimidated by these cowardly acts of harassment and intimidation. Those using threats and intimidation against those who have dissenting views take their cue from the policies of the U.S. government. Working people and youth value the political space we have to discuss and debate solutions to the growing social and economic crisis of capitalism’s world disorder today."

The National Lawyers Guild chapter at Drake University in Des Moines sent a statement to the news conference saying, "We call on the city of Des Moines and its people to speak out against this violent act, joining us in our condemnation. In a democracy justice and freedom depend on whether or not the rights of those who choose to dissent are protected.... If those who commit acts of violence do succeed, we will cease to have any resemblance of democracy at all."

El Latino, a local Spanish-language weekly, featured a front-page story on the attack and photos of the bookstore in its February 14–20 edition. Several people from the neighborhood around the bookstore stopped to express their support as volunteers cleaned the windows.

Edwin Fruit is a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1149 in Perry, Iowa.

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