Placement: Books of the Month

More fiscal disorder coming as crisis of capitalism deepens

Vol. 87/No. 15 - April 17, 2023
Recent bank failures revived fears of another global financial crisis. White House claims promise of billions to corporate depositors won’t harm working people, but we will have to pay.

Capitalism’s World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the Millennium by Jack Barnes, national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party, is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for April. Written on the eve of the 21st century, it covers the fast-breaking…

No to Russification! Yes to self-determination for oppressed peoples!

Vol. 87/No. 14 - April 10, 2023
Latvians in Riga, March 5, 2022, say “We stand with Ukraine! Together against Putin!” shortly after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Defending the right of national self-determination against “Russification” was integral part of 1917 Bolshevik revolution led by V.I. Lenin.

Marking a year of the fight for Ukrainian independence against Moscow’s invasion, the Books of the Month this week features Samizdat, Voices of the Soviet Opposition. It contains clandestine writings circulated in the Soviet Union challenging bureaucratic domination and repression.…

Women wanted to help, to be part of Cuba’s socialist revolution

Vol. 87/No. 12 - March 27, 2023
Graduation of 8,000 “Anitas,” December 1961 in Havana. Young peasant women each received a sewing machine, pledging to teach 10 others how to sew, and to spread the revolution.

To mark International Women’s Day, one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for March is Women in Cuba: The Making of a Revolution Within the Revolution. It is by three leaders of the Federation of Cuban Women, Vilma Espín, Asela…

‘Decisive battles for future of humanity will be fought in the US’

Vol. 87/No. 11 - March 20, 2023
Minneapolis Teamsters meet after winning May 1934 strike battle. Cannon said “sweeping movement” that built industrial unions showed revolutionary potential of U.S. working class.

Speeches to the Party: The Revolutionary Perspective and the Revolutionary Party by James P. Cannon is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for March. Cannon, then national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party, explained the prospects for working-class revolutionary…

1918: Soviet forces liberate Ukraine, inspire fighters worldwide

Vol. 87/No. 9 - March 6, 2023
Red Army troops welcomed in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Dec. 8, 1917. Bolshevik Revolution in October 1917 put Russian workers and peasants in power, ended Russian involvement in World War I, put an end to czar’s “prison house of nations,” forming Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

My Life: An Attempt at an Autobiography by Leon Trotsky is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for February. Under V.I. Lenin, Trotsky was a central leader of the Russian Revolution, including as foreign minister of the young Soviet…

Cuba’s working people made a socialist revolution, set example for all

Vol. 87/No. 8 - February 27, 2023
Fidel Castro greets residents of Colón, Cuba, Jan. 7, 1959, as Rebel Army forces head to Havana after victory, to reach out to the tens of thousands of toilers who wanted to join the revolution.

Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War, 1956-58 by Ernesto Che Guevara is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for February. Guevara, at Fidel Castro’s side, became one of the central leaders of the world-changing 1959 Cuban Revolution. He describes…

Malcolm X: ‘It is impossible for capitalism to survive’

Vol. 87/No. 7 - February 20, 2023
Malcolm X, right, meets with Fidel Castro at Hotel Theresa in Harlem, New York, Sept. 19, 1960. The Cuban Revolution “overturned the system” Malcolm explained in 1963.

One of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for February is By Any Means Necessary by Malcolm X. An outstanding leader of the struggle for Black rights in the U.S. who also emerged as a leader of the international working class,…

1934 Teamsters strike showed the way for workers everywhere

Vol. 87/No. 4 - January 30, 2023
Minneapolis Teamsters defeat attacks by police, bosses’ thugs in “Battle of Deputies Run,” May 21, 1934. Class-struggle leadership mobilized union, support, ensuring strike was victorious.

The Communist League of America 1932-34 by James P. Cannon is one of Pathfinder’s January Books of the Month. Under the inspiration of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, Cannon helped found the Communist Party in the U.S. in 1919.…

The capitalist rulers turn to fascism to smash the working class

Vol. 87/No. 3 - January 16, 2023
Teamsters Local 544 Union Defense Guard in 1938. Showing road for workers toward taking power, unionists across Minneapolis-St. Paul area swelled its ranks to block mobilization of employer-funded strikebreakers, fascist thugs.

The Struggle Against Fascism in Germany by Russian revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for January. The term “fascist” is falsely used by liberals and the middle-class left today as an anti-working-class epithet. Trotsky…

Counterrevolutionary coup led to US invasion of Grenada

Vol. 87/No. 2 - January 9, 2023
Fidel Castro said social program of Maurice Bishop, center, who led 1979-83 workers and farmers government in Grenada, “had support of the immense majority.” Counterrevolutionary coup in October 1983 led by Bernard Coard destroyed the revolution, led to US invasion.

To mark the anniversary of the Jan. 1, 1959, popular triumph in Cuba, the first of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for January is Fidel Castro: Nothing Can Stop the Course of History. It is a wide-ranging interview by Jeffrey…