Dear Friend,

We urge you to contribute generously to the campaign to raise $150,000 for the 2004 Headquarters Building Fund. The fund campaign, which concludes January 31, will make it possible to construct the new, expanded Pathfinder bookstore and distribution center in New York City.

This work began December 13 as part of a Red Weekend of voluntary labor. The new space is located on the 10th floor of a building in the mid-Manhattan Garment District, which is one of the main industrial districts in New York, the center of the UNITE garment workers union—including its national headquarters, and an area where many political organizations are centered.

A construction crew of volunteers is now being assembled to build these facilities in New York City so that they can serve as the flagship Pathfinder bookstore in the United States.

The address—307 West 36th Street, 10th Floor North, New York, NY 10018—will be listed on the data page of each Pathfinder book that comes off the press, just as 47 The Cut, the address of the publisher’s London distributor, has appeared in every Pathfinder book since 1972.

Among these are four new titles that Pathfinder Printing Project volunteers are currently helping produce: Rebelión Teamster, the Spanish-language edition of Teamster Rebellion by Farrell Dobbs; Aldabonazo: Inside the Cuban Revolutionary Underground, 1952-58, by Armando Hart, in Spanish and English editions; and Leur Trotsky et le nôtre, the French-language edition of Their Trotsky and Ours by Jack Barnes. They will come off the presses in January.

Initial work by the construction crew will allow Pathfinder Books to move in by the end of December. The overall work needs to be completed within two months.

Funds for this effort are needed now. To begin with, an estimated $30,000 is needed to purchase materials, of which only $10,000 are on hand.

On December 13 more than 100 volunteers came from cities across the United States and other countries for a Red Weekend of voluntary labor and a public meeting on “The War Party, Working-Class Resistance, and Building the Communist Movement” [see article on page 6].

There, nearly 300 socialist workers from United States and other countries, young socialists, volunteers in the Pathfinder Print Project, and friends of the communist movement got a chance to see the new location. Speakers on the program explained that it fits well the needs and budgets of the movement today. The meeting was a celebration of the hard work and successes that have brought the communist workers movement to this point.

In response to the appeal for funds made at the public meeting in New York, those in attendance made contributions of more than $9,000 and pledges of $87,000. The pledges now add up to $103,000. Contributions of all kinds—big and small—are needed from those who support this effort. Receiving a number of sizable contributions larger than $1,000 will be essential in meeting the $150,000 goal on time.

The new premises will become a political center for those who already use Pathfinder’s books on revolutionary politics as well as those who come looking to find them. It will have a kitchen that will serve as a place where workers and young people who come in after a day’s work or those coming out of the offices at the headquarters during a break in their political work, can sit down, relax and talk politics, often with a pot of chili or chicken stew cooking.

In local areas across the United States and other countries, supporters of this effort are urged to make the broadest possible appeal to fellow workers, farmers, students, and others who value Pathfinder books and the work of the communist movement.

They will get a receptive response from many working people engaged in union-building activities, young people involved in fights for social justice, militant farmers, opponents of Washington’s aggressive policies abroad, and many more.

In every city, sending out mailings to potential contributors, holding public fund-raising events, and other creative initiatives will make it possible to reach the goal.

Local supporters of the 2004 Headquarters Building Fund are asked to keep records of pledges and payments by those in their areas, and to send a note of thanks and an update on progress to contributors when the project is finished. The Militant will report on the fund campaign, and weekly reports on progress in local areas will help the paper follow the campaign.

Checks and money orders should be made out to the 2004 Headquarters Building Fund, c/o Pathfinder Books, P.O. Box 30, New York, NY 10018.

In solidarity,

Martín Koppel
Janice Prescott
2004 Headquarters Building Fund directors  
 
 
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