DECATUR, Ga. — “This is the best booth here!” more than one participant at the Oct. 4 Decatur Book Festival told volunteers staffing the Pathfinder Books booth from Atlanta.
The one-day event in this Atlanta suburb was attended by thousands of people. The attractive Pathfinder booth, well stocked with books by Socialist Workers Party and other revolutionary leaders, drew a steady stream of visitors, young and old. Many stopped to browse and discuss politics, purchasing 122 books and 18 subscriptions to the Militant. Top sellers were Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power by SWP National Secretary Jack Barnes; Cosmetics, Fashion, and the Exploitation of Women by SWP leaders Evelyn Reed, Joseph Hansen and Mary-Alice Waters; and Are They Rich Because They’re Smart? Class, Privilege, and Learning under Capitalism by Barnes.
Titles on the road to women’s emancipation, Cuba and its socialist revolution, as well as by and about Malcolm X and Thomas Sankara, who led the 1983-87 popular revolution in Burkina Faso, were among the best sellers. Five issues of New International, a magazine of Marxist politics and theory, were also sold.
Rick Berg bought a copy of Lenin’s Final Fight to learn more about the political struggle by V.I. Lenin, the leader of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. He led the fight against Great Russian chauvinism and in defense of the rights of oppressed nationalities, including Ukrainians. Berg had recently returned from bringing four vehicles to Ukraine, which were then converted to ambulances.
Many visitors to the booth also shook hands and spoke with Susan LaMont, Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of Atlanta, who was campaigning at the fair. Many took a copy of the party’s campaign platform home with them.