Volunteers expand Pathfinder bookstore placements
https://themilitant.com/2021/02/27/volunteers-expand-pathfinder-bookstore-placements/
BY GALE SHANGOLD
Vol. 85/No. 9
March 8, 2021
Supporters of the Socialist Workers Party who volunteer to get
Pathfinder books into bookstores, libraries and classrooms across North
America surpassed their goals during the fall 2020 sales effort. Now
they’re looking forward to an even more successful spring sales campaign
building on that achievement.
Pathfinder publishes titles by SWP leaders, as well as books about the
Cuban Revolution and labor battles, and by Malcolm X, Thomas Sankara and
other revolutionaries.
Even though many libraries were shut down and bookstores were not
running at full capacity, volunteers won 104 orders, with 29 of them
coming from new buyers and librarians — more orders than in any past
sales effort.
“In the face of widespread shutdowns, we had to be persistent, but the
persistence paid off,” Nick Castle, a volunteer from Los Angeles, told
the Militant. Volunteers found growing interest in understanding the
roots of today’s capitalist crisis and what working people can do to
find a way out of it.
Many book buyers “wanted Malcolm X and other related titles, responding
to last year’s protests against police brutality,” Castle said.
Volunteers found an interest in a broad range of Pathfinder’s 450-plus
titles. A longtime book distributor in Maryland whose focus has been
titles on Africa and the struggle for Black rights ordered over 200
books, including The Jewish Question: A Marxist Interpretation by Abram
Leon; Red Zone: Cuba and the Battle Against Ebola in West Africa by
Enrique Ubieta; and The Turn to Industry: Forging a Proletarian Party by
SWP National Secretary Jack Barnes.
Volunteers call their efforts “shoe leather work,” since visiting buyers
face to face is the most effective way to introduce Pathfinder’s titles.
“We got the third order from this rural bookstore in the last 10
months,” reports Rosemary Ray, a volunteer from Hamilton, Ontario. “Last
July and August were the busiest months he’s ever had as people got away
from cities and visited small towns.” When Ray visited the buyer, “He
bought seven titles, including The History of the Russian Revolution by
Russian revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky.”
Several prison librarians told Ray they have no budget to buy books. But
at one Ontario prison, “a cart of donated books goes around to prisoners
twice a week. Two librarians responded positively when we asked if they
would put Pathfinder brochures on the cart so prisoners could see what
was available and order online.” Pathfinder offers a 50% discount to
prisoners.
Most public and campus libraries remain closed, but volunteers were able
to get the new edition of The Jewish Question into a number of them.
Scott Breen from Seattle got a significant order from a campus librarian
there, including that title and The Turn to Industry. Seattle volunteers
also got titles adopted by a number of professors for their classes.
A spring sales campaign from Jan. 11 to July 4 has been launched with
goals in the same range — 100 orders, with 20 of them from new
bookstores, libraries or classrooms.
That effort has gotten off to a good start in Washington, D.C., Arrin
Hawkins reports.
“After months of lockdown, layoffs and the presence of 20,000 National
Guardsmen on the streets since the inauguration, we knew many working
people would be searching for books that answer some of the questions
they are asking today,” she said. Volunteers there are visiting stores
they haven’t been to for several years.
Black History Month and Women’s History Month offer opportunities to win
orders.
The Kansas City Star ran an interview during Black History Month with
local bookseller Willa Robinson, who said she was keen to present books
by Malcolm X so people could learn about what he stood for. Robinson
prominently displays titles by Malcolm as well as Malcolm X, Black
Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power by Jack Barnes in her store.
The 2020 effort took persistence and imagination. Its success is a
source of pride for the volunteers. Books by revolutionaries are wanted
and needed more than ever by working people and the sales effort will
make them more widely available.
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