BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Pathfinder Press had its books on display for the first time at the Bogotá International Book Fair from April 21 to May 4. This major Latin American book event was attended by over 560,000 participants, with more than 2,000 events, ranging from book readings to children to a debate by presidential candidates. India was the country of honor.
Many participants were interested in Pathfinder’s display of books on revolutionary working-class politics from a publisher in the U.S.
Pathfinder shared a section of the booth of Bibliotecólogo, the company that distributes Pathfinder books in Colombia.
“When I saw these books, I was like ‘Oh my god!’ you exist!” Juan Diego Ochoa Chávez, a 17-year-old high school student, told volunteers at the booth.
“The powerful people want to keep the power, and kill off people like Jaime Garzón,” he said. Last year the Colombian government acknowledged the role of its forces in the 1999 assassination of Garzón, who had been a negotiator seeking the release of hostages seized by guerrillas.
Ochoa decided to buy The Jewish Question: A Marxist Interpretation by Abram Leon. The book explains the history and class roots of Jew-hatred and why there is no solution to the Jewish question under capitalism.
Over 230 Pathfinder titles sold
Over 230 Pathfinder books were sold. Top sellers included over 40 copies of titles by Thomas Sankara, the leader of the 1983-87 revolution in Burkina Faso in West Africa. Seventeen copies of Cuba and the War for Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde by Víctor Dreke were sold, as well as 11 copies of Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power by Socialist Workers Party National Secretary Jack Barnes.
Titles on women’s liberation, the Cuban Revolution, and the works of Karl Marx, Frederick Engels and V.I. Lenin were also popular.
“I didn’t know Pathfinder was here,” Aiden Cassiani, a Venezuelan who now lives in Bogotá, told volunteers.
He said he first came across Pathfinder books in 2005 at the World Festival of Youth and Students, an anti-imperialist gathering held in Caracas, Venezuela.
Here he bought Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power. He had read the book before and enjoyed the debate between Russian revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky and Trinidadian-born writer C.L.R. James about which class forces should be looked to to lead the fight for Black liberation and workers power.
Pathfinder’s newest title, Cuba and the War for Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde was presented by Laura Garza, an SWP leader from Los Angeles. It was held in a busy corner opposite the Bibliotecólogo booth April 25. About a dozen people stayed for the program, while many others stopped by and listened to some of the presentation.
The book describes how the people of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde put an end to 500 years of Portuguese colonial exploitation in 1974–75. Led by a political party and an independence movement forged by Amílcar Cabral, their struggle triggered the collapse of Portugal’s colonial empire and brought down the 40-year eroded fascist regime in Portugal itself.
The firsthand account by Dreke, the leader of Cuban combatants, brings to life the decisive military aid provided by Cuba’s revolutionary government. Samir Condía, a 34-year-old bus fabrication worker, asked about the situation Cuba faces today. “Now with all the left-wing governments in Latin America, it must be easier for Cuba, but things are getting more complicated.” He pointed to Washington’s oil blockade of the island.
“The U.S. rulers have tried to overthrow the Cuban government since 1959,” Garza said. “Because they don’t want to have an example for humanity that there’s another way to organize society. They want us to believe that capitalism will always exist.”
“I’ve always looked to people who stood up against oppression,” Javier Orobio said. “I first heard about Guinea-Bissau from a friend who told me about Amílcar Cabral. Cuba aided the most oppressed people and gave them value and dignity.”
Running up to the book fair there had been an uptick in bombings and attacks by guerrilla groups in Colombia, despite the signing of a peace deal between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia 10 years ago.
The book Revolution and the Road to Peace in Colombia by Fidel Castro caught the eye of many of those who stopped by the Bibliotecólogo booth. Castro, drawing on his experience leading working people in Cuba to take political power, describes his efforts in 2008 to end the six-decades-long armed conflict and guerrilla war in Colombia. The book was among Pathfinder’s top sellers.