Vol. 80/No. 37 October 3, 2016
Supporters seek to expand reach of Pathfinder books
Supporters of the party also help prepare and get the books produced — organizing teams to proofread, format, design and supervise the printing, and to warehouse and ship books once they’re ordered.
A focus of this sales effort will be getting orders for Pathfinder’s latest book, Are They Rich Because They’re Smart? Class, Privilege and Learning under Capitalism. As part of the campaign, volunteers are organizing teams to go into their regions to find new customers.
“We have already contacted four buyers, each promising orders for Are They Rich Because They’re Smart? Three of these buyers run bookstores, a fourth is a university library selector,” Jim Kendrick from Miami told the Militant. “And now we have our first confirmed order in-hand.”
Pathfinder volunteers in Twin Cities, Minnesota, visited a local independent bookstore dedicated to the ideas of social justice and the rights of women that opened a few years ago by a group of women. The group includes refugees driven out of Syria by the government of Bashar al-Assad during assaults on mass protests in the early stages of the civil war. They ordered 18 titles, including the four Pathfinder books in Arabic, which will be sold both in the store and on their online bookshop.
The order also includes Are They Rich Because They’re Smart? and Teamster Rebellion and Teamster Power, two of the four-volume series by SWP leader Farrell Dobbs on the Teamsters union battles in the Upper Midwest during the 1930s, plus several other titles.
“Yes, I will definitely get these books ordered,” the librarian responsible for the American history collection at the university library in Saskatoon, Canada, told a Pathfinder volunteer on a sales visit there. The librarian pointed to several of the Pathfinder titles highlighted on the order form: Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power; 50 Years of Covert Operations in the US; and the entire Teamsters series.
This effort builds on a successful effort in the spring where Pathfinder volunteers throughout North America got 123 new orders — totaling well over 500 books — from bookstores, libraries and from professors for classroom adoption.
“The most effective way to get orders for Pathfinder books is to get out there and visit bookstore buyers and professors in person — what we call ‘shoe leather’ work,’” Nick Castle, a volunteer from Los Angeles, told the Militant. “Over the years we’ve established relationships with many buyers who have seen the quality and importance of Pathfinder books firsthand.
“Buyers already familiar with Pathfinder are quick to add new titles to their library and bookstore shelves,” Castle said. “And we’re always looking for new places for Pathfinder.”
Volunteers tripled the number of visits they made over the last sales campaign, he said.
For more information about Pathfinder books, go to www.pathfinderpress.com or contact SWP branches listed in the directory on page 8.
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