The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 76/No. 12      March 26, 2012

 
Volunteers expand places
that carry Pathfinder books
 
BY NICK CASTLE  
This spring, volunteers in 17 cities in the U.S. and Canada have projected winning 110 orders for books on working-class revolutionary politics from bookstores and libraries. This is the highest goal ever taken by dozens of volunteers who visit and talk with store owners, buyers and librarians about stocking books by Pathfinder Press. The spring campaign follows a successful fall drive that netted 85 orders with a record 41 of those sales at bookstores.

The 12-week effort runs from Feb. 1 to June 18. Among the titles volunteers will be promoting is Women in Cuba: The Making of a Revolution Within the Revolution by Vilma Espín, Asela de los Santos and Yolanda Ferrer. Just released in both Spanish and English, the book is a firsthand account by women who were part of making the Cuban Revolution and, as editor Mary-Alice Waters states in her introduction, “how their actions transformed them as they fought to transform their world.”

March is Women’s History Month, an opportunity to expand the placement of this and other titles that provide a working-class point of view on the question of women’s liberation.

“It may be -30 degrees here in Calgary, but Pathfinder books are hot!” writes Steve Penner from Vancouver, British Columbia. While Penner was visiting Calgary to ensure the printing and shipping of The Making of a Revolution Within the Revolution went smoothly, he met with two university librarians as well as two independent bookstores and a campus bookstore. “The new book very much helped to whet their interest in the rest of the books I had with me,” he said.

In Los Angeles, a mass emailing throughout Southern California and Arizona that included a promotional leaflet netted nine orders. “I’m passing on an order for Women in Cuba to our acquisitions department today,” wrote one librarian at a major university. “I also forwarded a copy of the Women’s History flyer to the librarian who orders Ethnic and Women’s Studies books for her to look over.”  
 
 
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