Interest was especially high in Pathfinder’s books on the Cuban Revolution, women’s rights, the imperialist war drive, and the roots of the conflict in the Middle East.

The book fair, held this year May 4-14, is an annual event that takes place at Tehran’s sprawling trade-fair grounds, with mountains rising in the background. Books from Iranian and foreign publishers were on display in almost a dozen different halls. The crowded walkways between the halls were lined with food stands, giving the event a relaxed, festive atmosphere. In one area children participated in arts, crafts, storytelling, and other activities while their parents browsed the book halls.

The fair drew large crowds from Tehran as well as visitors from throughout the country. The Pathfinder sales team met visitors from Gilan province in the north near the Caspian sea, Sanadaj in Kurdistan, and the cities of Isfahan and Shiraz. Schools brought their classes and many families attended. This year the attendance on Friday, May 9, was reported to be one of the largest single-day turnouts in the history of the book fair.

According to Iran News, publishers from 35 countries were represented at the book fair this year, along with nearly 2,000 Iranian publishers. Two large buildings were filled with the stands of local publishers and booksellers carrying titles of general interest—from novels and poetry to books on history, computers, religion, and art. These halls were often packed, and on the weekend they stayed open an extra hour until 8:00 p.m. Other buildings featured scientific and technical books, teaching materials, and books in Arabic.

At a simultaneous press fair, newspapers and magazines set up booths to promote interest in their publications. As part of this, newspapers from other towns and cities, including publications in the languages of oppressed nationalities, were on display. The struggle of the Palestinian people was featured at the fair through an exhibition depicting the resistance in the Jenin refugee camp and the massacre by Israeli forces there.

Books from foreign publishers were available in two halls. In the unsubsidized hall, publishers sold books directly to customers in the national currency, the rial. A number of organizations and embassies also set up booths in this section. Many countries from the Middle East were represented. Publications from France, Germany, and Switzerland were on display at an extensive, central stand. The embassies of Cuba, Mexico, Uruguay, and Venezuela staffed a smaller joint booth. The Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad were represented in this section.

In the other foreign publishers’ hall, sales were subsidized by the government. University students, professors, librarians, publishers, and other book fair visitors with certain qualifications could buy books in rials through a central payment system. The publishers receive the full price in hard currency.

This system for providing access to books that many people could not otherwise afford, like the book fair as a whole, is a gain of the 1979 popular revolution in Iran. This year the government subsidy was significantly less than in previous years, which had an impact on sales for most of the publishers, but the subsidized prices were still less than half of the cover price.  
 
‘What’s your view about the war?’
The best-seller at the Pathfinder booth was Che Guevara Talks to Young People, with 16 copies sold, followed by the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels.

Other best-sellers included Malcolm X Talks to Young People, Israel and the Arab Revolution by Gus Horowitz, and issue no. 7 of New International, a magazine of Marxist politics and theory, which features the article “Opening Guns of World War III: Washington’s Assault on Iraq,” by Jack Barnes. Sixteen copies of different issues of New International were sold.

In all, people attending the book fair bought 236 books and pamphlets from the Pathfinder stand.

“What’s your view about the war?” was a question posed to the Pathfinder sales team early in the 11-day event, about the recent invasion and occupation of Iraq by U.S. and British forces. “Why is Washington accusing Syria of having nuclear weapons?” asked some students. “They are just making these things up.”

Some believed that Washington’s war moves stemmed from the character of the Bush administration. They read with interest passages in Cuba and the Coming American Revolution by Jack Barnes, where the author details the record of Bush’s predecessor, William Clinton, and how it paved the way for Bush.

Another visitor asked why London had supported Washington in Iraq and why peace demonstrations had failed to stop the war. Two young women asked for books on “the relationship between wealth and war” and considered buying Capitalism’s World Disorder by Jack Barnes.

A few visitors to the Pathfinder stand said the recent U.S-led war in Iraq had been necessary to “free” the Iraqi people from the Saddam Hussein regime. They were interested in the explanation offered in “The Opening Guns of World War III” that the war waged by the U.S. rulers and their British allies in 1991 had not been to liberate Kuwait—which had been occupied by Iraqi forces—but to further U.S. and British imperialist interests and deal blows to their rivals in Europe.

One man, an engineer, looked at The Revolutionary Perspective for the United States by James P. Cannon. “That’s a strange title,” he said, explaining that he thought the center of politics in the world was the growing conflict between “Europe and America.” He thought the term “axis of evil” was used by Washington to prepare the ground to attack other countries. One student said, “There’s a lot of economic and political problems in Iran, but if the U.S. comes [to invade] everyone will fight.”

Among Pathfinder’s customers this year were students of technical, scientific, and medical subjects, professionals working in those disciplines, and humanities and literature students, as well as members of the different nationalities within Iran. Others included off-duty soldiers and a deck officer from a cargo ship.  
 
Titles on Cuban Revolution top sellers
Some individuals bought several titles. One student from out of town visited the booth and went away with a catalog. He returned a few days later with a hand-written list and, after talking with the sales team, bought eight books and pamphlets, including Capitalism’s World Disorder, promising to come back for more next year.

Books on the Cuban Revolution, and particularly by Ernesto Che Guevara, a central leader of that revolution, were once again the top sellers for Pathfinder. Many people at first wanted biographies of Guevara or Fidel Castro, or were initially attracted to the heroic “image” of Che. Members of the sales team explained how Pathfinder’s titles contain an accurate record of the history of the Cuban Revolution through the words of its main leaders and participants and an explanation of their political ideas.

One young man, who wanted books on Guevara and Castro and on U.S. policy in the world and the outcome of the Cold War, decided to buy To Speak the Truth by Castro and Guevara, Che Guevara Talks to Young People, and New International no. 10.

Malcolm X titles were also in demand. A couple of visitors came to the stand looking for books on “Black culture” and were pointed to the collections of his speeches. While many have seen movies or documentaries, knowledge of Malcolm X’s ideas and political evolution is sketchy or nonexistent.

Pathfinder’s books on women’s rights were the second-most popular subject. But there was welcome competition from good-quality Farsi translations that exist of two Pathfinder titles: Cosmetics, Fashions and the Exploitation of Women and Problems of Women’s Liberation, published by the Iranian publisher Golazin. Of these Farsi editions, 2,000 copies of Cosmetics, Fashions and the Exploitation of Women and more than 3,000 of Problems of Women’s Liberation have been sold to date.  
 
Growing range of Farsi translations
Many people who currently speak or read little English visited the foreign publishers’ hall. Groups of high-school-age youth were often attracted into the Pathfinder stand by the displays of enlarged copies of covers of Pathfinder titles. Some of these youth were happy to learn that they could obtain Farsi translations of some of Pathfinder’s titles at the stands of two Iranian publishers—Golazin and Talaye Porsoo—in the local section of the fair. Talaye Porsoo has published Farsi translations of 13 Pathfinder titles, three of which sold more than 50 copies at the book fair, the publisher reported.

There appeared to be a broader interest and wider availability of books by and about Karl Marx than in previous years. Several new Farsi-language translations of writings of Marx were on sale, including Grundrisse, written as part of Marx’s preparation of Capital. Translations of the Marxist classics Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg and Fundamental Problems of Marxism by Georgi Plekhanov had also been published within the last year.

At the Pathfinder stand, Introduction to the Logic of Marxism by George Novack, which features a picture of Marx on the cover, was frequently picked up. Other titles by that Marxist writer also sold well, including The Origins of Materialism; How Can the Jews Survive? A socialist answer to Zionism; and Revolutionary Dynamics of Women’s Liberation.

Many customers at the Pathfinder booth were glad to learn about the increased availability of such books in Farsi. Several said they would look for the next publication from Talaye Porsoo, due out in a couple of weeks. That book is U.S. Imperialism Has Lost the Cold War by Jack Barnes, a translation of the lead article from issue no. 11 of New International.  
 
 
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