Placement: Books of the Month

Capitalist crises pose necessity of socialist revolution in the US

Vol. 87/No. 34 - September 11, 2023
New York Stock Exchange, Oct. 19, 1987, onset of U.S. financial crash. Similar crash struck world markets in 2007. Crises are built into the workings of capitalism, driving bosses and their governments to push to salvage their profit system on the backs of working people.

The French edition of  Is Socialist Revolution in the US Possible? by Mary-Alice Waters is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for September. It features talks the Socialist Workers Party leader gave as part of an extended political debate…

Thomas Sankara pointed revolutionary road forward in Africa

Vol. 87/No. 33 - September 4, 2023
Fidel Castro welcomes Thomas Sankara in Havana Sept. 25, 1984. Sankara, a communist, looked to Castro’s Marxist leadership and the voluntary mobilizations of workers and peasants in Cuba’s socialist revolution as he led a popular, democratic revolution in Burkina Faso.

Thomas Sankara Speaks is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for August. Sankara was the outstanding leader of a revolution in Burkina Faso, one of the poorest countries in Africa, from 1983 to 1987. His speeches explain how the…

Cuba’s working people defended their revolution arms in hand

Vol. 87/No. 32 - August 28, 2023
Cuban militia members celebrate successfully defending their socialist revolution against an April 1961 invasion at Playa Girón fomented by the capitalist rulers in Washington.

Cuba and the Coming American Revolution by Jack Barnes, national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party, is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for August. The excerpt is from the chapter “There will be a victorious revolution in the…

Imprisoned for opposing US war drive, Debs ran for president

Vol. 87/No. 31 - August 21, 2023
At rally in Canton, Ohio, June 16, 1918, Eugene V. Debs speaks against first imperialist war and in support of Russian Revolution. U.S. rulers tossed aside Constitution’s protection of free speech for him and others, put him in prison. Debs was leader of rail workers, Socialist Party.

The selection below is from Eugene V. Debs Speaks, one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for August. Debs, a railroad union fighter and pioneer socialist agitator, supported the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. The excerpt is from his speech to…

1930s labor upsurge posed need for class-struggle leadership

Vol. 87/No. 30 - August 14, 2023
“Battle of Deputies Run” as Minneapolis Teamsters beat off cop, goon attacks during 1934 strike. Teamsters and other class-struggle fighters pointed road forward for labor movement.

As 340,000 Teamster-organized workers at UPS discuss a tentative contract, it is timely that one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for August is Teamster Politics by Farrell Dobbs. It is the third in a four-volume series by Dobbs, who…

Atomic bomb slaughter in Hiroshima points to more wars to come

Vol. 87/No. 29 - August 7, 2023
Laura Gray cartoon, “The Only Victor,” after Japanese surrender, accompanied Aug. 18, 1945, Militant headline, “There Is No Peace!” U.S. rulers celebrated A-bomb, prepared for new wars.

Below is an extract from a speech by James P. Cannon, “The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” given shortly after the U.S. rulers’ cold-blooded massacre in the two Japanese cities, Aug. 6 and 9, 1945. To mark the anniversary of…

How workers mobilized to resist the McCarthyite witch hunt

Vol. 87/No. 27 - July 24, 2023
Protest against House Un-American Activities Committee hearing at San Francisco City Hall in 1960, after being hit by cop firehoses. In 1953 HUAC met in the same place targeting unionists as “subversives.” Thousands protested, forcing “government witch hunters to cut and run.”

One of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for July is Labor’s Giant Step — The First Twenty Years of the CIO: 1936-55 by Art Preis. Out of his experiences in the labor battles of the 1930s, Preis became a staff…

The Socialist Workers Party and defense of constitutional rights

Vol. 87/No. 24 - July 3, 2023
FBI raid on SWP Minneapolis headquarters, June 27, 1941, hailed by bosses’ press, was aimed at party, Minneapolis Teamsters leaders as rulers prepared to enter World War II.

As the Democrats ravage constitutional freedoms in their drive to criminalize Donald Trump to stop him from running for president again, we feature FBI on Trial as one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for June. It contains the results…