BRTIGNY-SUR-ORGE, France — Record numbers of books by Socialist Workers Party leaders and other revolutionaries were sold at Pathfinder Press booth at this year’s Fete de l’Humanite Sept. 13-15. The annual event is organized by the French Communist Party. Hundreds of thousands participated.
The hottest selling title was The Fight Against Jew-Hatred and Pogroms in the Imperialist Epoch: Stakes for the International Working Class, with 57 copies of the just-published French edition sold. One young Algerian woman working in one of the other stands at the festival bought a copy. “I think the Jews, too, have the right to a country, especially after everything they have gone through,” she said, adding it was almost impossible to openly discuss the question in Algeria.
Another young woman, 18 years old, wrote to a Pathfinder volunteer after the event that she had already finished the book. “It’s great!” she said. “I’m going to recommend it. How can I buy more copies to offer to my friends?” Many of those getting the book said they felt uneasy with the near unanimous position of the left in France, which condemns Israel for what has unfolded since Hamas’ Oct. 7 pogrom.
Participants bought 20 copies of The Jewish Question by Abram Leon and dozens of books by Thomas Sankara, a revolutionary leader and president of Burkina Faso 1983-87. Other best-sellers were Labor, Nature, and the Evolution of Humanity: The Long View of History, Are They Rich Because They’re Smart? and Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power, the latter two by SWP National Secretary Jack Barnes. Altogether, 254 Pathfinder books were sold.