Vol. 81/No. 40 October 30, 2017
Fall campaign set to expand orders for
Pathfinder books
Fall sales will build on the success of the spring/summer effort, where volunteers in 16 cities in North America brought in 99 new orders. A buyer for the largest bookstore chain in Canada told a volunteer in Toronto that Pathfinder titles had sold at a higher rate than average for titles on history and politics. He is considering expanding the number of stores that carry Pathfinder books.
Two long-standing Pathfinder customers in San Francisco re-ordered titles on fascism, the Russian and Cuban revolutions, and the fight against racism in the U.S.
The buyer at a bookstore in a British Columbia island town placed an order that included Pathfinder’s new, popular titles Are They Rich Because They’re Smart? and The Clintons’ Anti-Working-Class Record, both by SWP National Secretary Jack Barnes, and Is Socialist Revolution in the US Possible? by SWP leader Mary-Alice Waters. Volunteers have set a goal of getting 36 orders for these three titles as well as 28 for Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power, also by Barnes.
A highlight of the summer effort to expand the reach of Pathfinder’s revolutionary arsenal was participation in the 2017 conference of the American Library Association in Chicago. A large, attractive booth with a broad array of titles drew hundreds of librarians, who looked through the books, purchased copies and joined political discussions with Pathfinder volunteers. Many got copies of the three new titles, knowing their readers would be interested.
Then Pathfinder volunteers began a systematic campaign to contact all 160 people who signed up at the conference for more information. A call to a university librarian in Utah brought an immediate order for 35 books, mainly titles on the Russian Revolution, with more to come. Calls to ALA participants in the Chicago area have led to a number of follow-up visits. One asked for suggestions for a “starter kit” of five to six Pathfinder titles to add to the library’s collection, saying that it was important to have a wide range of views on current social and political issues. More visits to those we meet at the conference are planned this fall, when many libraries get their budgets.
Volunteers are also planning to get back to bookstores, libraries and professors with Pathfinder’s new books and with Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power. Professors often decide to order Pathfinder titles for class assignment. Volunteers are organizing to participate in the upcoming conferences of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the African Studies Association and the Middle East Studies Association.
Volunteers are also launching an effort to place Pathfinder books in prison libraries. In California and Minneapolis they’ve met with prison librarians and are working to get their first orders. After looking through Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power, a librarian at one California state prison said she was going to make a real effort to get this book. “My guys need this,” she said.
We’ll keep readers posted as the campaign develops.
Related articles:
The ‘Militant’ helps workers ‘know what’s going on’
Paris: Books by SWP leaders sell at protests, book fair
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