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| Pathfinder Around the World |
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| Woman’s Evolution and The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State now available in Indonesian.
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The first Indonesian edition of Woman’s Evolution by Evelyn Reed has just been published by Kalyanamitra, the Women’s Communication and Education Centre in Jakarta, Indonesia. The book is part of a two-volume set that also includes The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State, by Frederick Engels. The two books present a Marxist explanation of how modern women came to be the oppressed sex with the rise of class divided society several thousand years ago.
The back cover of the book describes Kalyanamitra as a women’s organization that works with others to “establish a social movement capable of liberating women from all forms of violence, ignorance, poverty, and underdevelopment in order to create social and gender justice, and a democratic society in Indonesia.”
In Woman’s Evolution, first published in English more than 35 years ago, Reed provides a scientific examination of how women came to be and will cease being the “second sex”, and offers fresh insights on the struggle against women’s oppression and for the liberation of humanity. Reed refutes the myth that “human nature” is to blame for the wars, greed, and inequalities of class-divided societies. Woman’s Evolution has been translated into Spanish, French, Turkish, Farsi and Swedish. The Indonesian edition includes a preface by Mary-Alice Waters, who serves as Evelyn Reed’s literary executor. For Waters’s preface,
click here.
In The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, first published in 1884, Engels explains how these institutions are the product of specific economic and social conditions. He shows how the oppression of women as a sex begins with the development of private property and how the development of the modern working class creates the material basis to end that oppression.
The two-volume set is available from Pathfinder for $35.
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| Tahrir Book Fair, Cairo: “Pathfinder had all the hot books”
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The Tahrir Book Fair was held March 31–April 4 in Cairo, Egypt. Organized on short notice following the mass popular mobilizations that swept Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak from power, the fair was sponsored by the American University in Cairo (AUC). Thousands attended over the course of 5 days.
Trevor Naylor, one of the fair’s organizers and associate director of the AUC Press and bookstores, explained, “After Mubarak was overthrown, Tahrir Square became a center for theater, poetry readings, and cultural activity, so it is fitting that we also have a book fair. There is a thirst to read about these events and discuss what happens from here.”
Volunteers staffing the Pathfinder booth at the fair found great interest in political books and discussion. Some 242 Pathfinder books in English, French, and Arabic were sold. The biggest seller was Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power in English and French. Many young women were attracted to the women’s liberation titles. Local booksellers also purchased 150 Pathfinder books for their own shops.
Click here for more.
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| Havana Book Fair panel launches ‘Marxist classic on women’s liberation’
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From left, meeting chairperson Sonia Almaguer, director Editorial Nuevo Milenio publishing house; Mary-Alice Waters; Isabel Moya; Julio César González Pagés.
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The first Spanish translation of Cosmetics, Fashions, and the Exploitation of Women was presented by a panel of speakers February 14 at the 2011 Havana International Book Fair. Published by Pathfinder in 1986, the book explains how big business plays on women’s second-class status and social insecurities to market cosmetics and rake in profit. The new Spanish edition was translated by Esther Pérez, editor of Caminos, a magazine put out by the Martin Luther King Center in Havana and is published by Cuban publisher Ciencias Sociales. The book has also been translated into Farsi and widely sold in Iran for many years.
Speakers at the book fair presentation included Isabel Moya, a leader of the Federation of Cuban Women’s (FMC) and director of its publishing house, Editorial de la Mujer; Julio César González Pagés, a professor of history and gender studies at the University of Havana; and Mary-Alice Waters, president of Pathfinder and a leader of the Socialist Workers Party in the United States. Waters is the editor and author of the introduction to the English edition, which also includes articles by Joseph Hansen and Evelyn Reed. She contributed a new preface for the Cuban edition. Pathfinder plans to publish new editions in English, Spanish, and French later this year that will include Waters’s new preface.
Click
here for more.
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| Book about U.S. class struggle presented at Havana Book Fair
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Panel from left: Mary-Alice Waters, Fernando Martínez Heredia, Victor Dreke, Martín Koppel |
HAVANA—A standing-room-only crowd turned out for the February 13 presentation here of the Spanish-language translation of Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power by Jack Barnes. The event was one of the nearly 800 book launches and other cultural events that were part of this year’s 11-day-long Havana International Book Fair
The panel of speakers included Fernando Martínez Heredia, recipient of the 2006 national prize for social sciences and one of the two Cuban writers to whom this year’s book fair is dedicated; Víctor Dreke, one of the generation of revolutionary combatants who brought down the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship in 1959 and currently president of the Cuba-Africa Friendship Association; and Martín Koppel, editor of the Spanish-language translation of the book. Mary-Alice Waters, president of Pathfinder Press, chaired the program.
Koppel pointed to the vanguard place of working people who are Black, as described in the book. This history, he said, “is not taught in U.S. schools.”
Click here for more.
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| Pathfinder’s new book Soldier of the Cuban Revolution presented at Havana Book Fair
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HAVANA—Some 75 people came to hear Gen. Alfonso Zayas speak as part of a panel presentation
here on Soldier of the Cuban Revolution: From the Cane Fields of Oriente to General in the Revolutionary Armed Forces. The book
is an interview with Brig. Gen. Alfonso Zayas, whose life of revolutionary struggle began in 1955 as one of the initial recruits to the
July 26 Revolutionary Movement led by Fidel Castro.
The February 18 event, held at the Casa del ALBA cultural center in the heart of the city, was among the many book presentations that
were part of the Havana International Book Fair. Published by Pathfinder Press in both English and Spanish earlier this year, Soldier
of the Cuban Revolution offers a vivid portrait of the kind of men and women who made the Cuban Revolution, transforming
themselves and all of society in the process.
Speaking at the presentation, in addition to Zayas, were Brig. Gen. Harry Villegas, executive vice president of the Association of
Combatants of the Cuban Revolution (ACRC); Esmel Valera, national vice president of Cuba’s Federation of University Students (FEU);
and Mary-Alice Waters, editor of the book. Iraida Aguirrechu of Editora Política, publishing house of the Central Committee of
the Communist Party of Cuba, chaired the meeting.
Click here for the complete text of the presentation by Mary-Alice Waters.
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| Editor of Pathfinder book speaks at Black History Month events in Montreal, Omaha
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Steve Clark, right, speaks with participants at February 14 Creighton University meeting |
MONTREAL—Observatoire des Amériques (Observatory of the Americas) of the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) and Pathfinder Books presented a panel discussion on the book Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power by Jack Barnes here February 10 as part of Black History Month. It was chaired by Victor Armony, the director of the Observatoire and a sociology professor at UQAM.
Steve Clark, one of the book’s editors said that in one of his last interviews, Malcolm X stated, “I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those that do the oppressing." This is what millions around the world see beginning to unfold today in Tunisia and Egypt, Clark explained: a clash between the workers, farmers, and youth on one side, and the capitalists and large landowners on the other backed by Washington, Ottawa, and other imperialist powers.
Réginald Delva, Haitian-born host and producer at Radio Montreal, said, “ Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power by Jack Barnes is a rehabilitation of Malcolm X for both whites and Blacks. Barnes presents another view of Malcolm X,” as a leader who “didn’t turn the other cheek.” It is a strong point, he added, that Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power talks about all the revolutions, in particular in Cuba and Algeria.
click here for more.
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| Speeches by Malcolm X now available in Greek
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ATHENS, Greece—The launching of the Greek-language translation of Malcolm X Talks to Young People
by the Greek publisher Diethnes Vima was held at the Ghanaian Social Center here January 30. Based on the Pathfinder Press
title, this is the first collection of speeches by Malcolm X in the Greek language. Forty-five people, including immigrants
from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Palestine, Bangladesh, Egypt, and Lebanon attended the meeting.
Samsideen Iddrisu of the Ghanaian community and African Vision opened the event. Focusing on the life of the revolutionary
leader, he said, “Malcolm represented the greatest leadership potential coming out of the Black proletariat.”
Also speaking were Eliselia Díaz Suárez, First Secretary of the Cuban Embassy in Athens, and Kostasz Athanasiou, an
organizer of the volunteer effort to translate the new book. He described Malcolm X as having been formed by the long history
of struggle in the United States for Black rights.
“The Cuban people—and particularly our leaders—have followed closely the history of struggle of black
people against racism and all forms of discrimination all over the world, where Malcolm X played a significant role,”
Suárez said.
Speaking for the publisher, Georges Mehrabian announced that Diethnes Vima will soon publish another Pathfinder title,
Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power by Jack Barnes, in Greek. More meetings to present
Malcolm X Talks to Young People are planned.
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| Keen interest in revolutionary books at world youth conference in South Africa
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Audience at session of World Youth Conference
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PRETORIA, South Africa—Fifteen thousand young people from across Africa and the world
participated in the 17th World Festival of Youth and Students held here December 13–21. This was the first time the
festival has taken place in sub-Saharan Africa. The festival featured programs, rallies, and hours of lively political
discussions on the fight of immigrant workers, women, and oppressed nationalities, as well as on the worldwide campaign to
free the Cuban Five—five Cubans unjustly imprisoned in the United States for monitoring right-wing groups that have
carried out violent assaults against Cuba.
This year’s festival was dedicated to Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela. Over 150 conference participants bought copies
the Pathfinder book How Far We Slaves Have Come! which reprints speeches by both leaders on the occasion of
Mandela’s visit to Cuba in 1991. Thomas Sankara Speaks and other Pathfinder collections of speeches by Thomas
Sankara, leader of the 1983–87 revolution in the West African country of Burkina Faso were in high demand as
participants learned that these books were available at the festival. Other popular titles included Malcolm X, Black
Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power, Is Socialist Revolution in the U.S. Possible?, The Communist
Manifesto, and titles on the fight for women’s emancipation.
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| Thousands visit Pathfinder booth at Venezuela International Book Fair
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Construction workers check out books at Pathfinder booth at Venezuela book fair
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CARACAS, Venezuela—“I’m glad you’re here. We need to share experiences
and learn from these books,” said Jesús Solé, a worker at an agricultural tool company and one of the
visitors to the Pathfinder booth at the Sixth Venezuela International Book Fair here November 12–21. Solé was one
of thousands to visit the booth, where a total of 1,839 books were sold.
Over one hundred publishers and book distributors had exhibits at this year’s book fair. In addition, those attending
the fair enjoyed concerts and dance performances, where groups presented the music, costumes, and dance of the countries
honored by this year’s fair—Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico—as well as poetry readings, films, and
children’s workshops.
Prominently featured at the Pathfinder booth was Malcolm X, la liberación de los negros, y el camino al poder
obrero, the Spanish edition of Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power by Jack Barnes. Ender
Heresa, an Afro-Venezuelan construction worker who came to the booth several times on his break, was one of 277 people who
bought the book here. He was drawn to the many photos in the book of working-class struggles in the United States.
This book was the subject of a panel discussion during the fair on November 20. Speakers included Enrique Arrieta, general
coordinator of the Network of Afro-Venezuelan Organizations; Carolina Alvarez, director of the Book and Reading Platform, a
government agency that organizes book distribution to state-run bookstores and educational institutions, in the nearby state
of Aragua; and John Hawkins, a member of the Socialist Workers Party in the United States who is the party’s candidate
for mayor of Chicago. Click
here for more.
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| Iran Daily Serializes 'Teamster Rebellion'
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The Tehran daily Donyay-e-Eqtesad (The World of Economics) has been serializing the Farsi translation of Teamster Rebellion, which is published in Iran by Talaye Porsoo Publications. Teamster Rebellion, published in English, Spanish, and Swedish by Pathfinder, recounts the story of the militant 1934 strikes in Minneapolis, Minnesota that led to the transformation of the labor movement in the upper Midwest of the United States. Author Farrell Dobbs was a central leader of the strikes.
Sold in newsstands around the country, Donyay-e-Eqtesad introduced the series on August 8: “[Teamster Rebellion is] a chapter in the history of unions in the United States written by Farrell Dobbs, an American communist. The book is published by Talaye Porsoo Publications and is devoted to the struggles of American workers.” Each installment includes a photo from the book.
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Teamster Rebellion in Tehran daily Donyay-e-Eqtesad |
TINN News (Transportation Industry News Network), another Farsi journal, is also serializing the book.
Two publishing houses in Iran—Golâzin and Talaye Porsoo—now publish Farsi translations of thirty-two Pathfinder titles. Over the last decade, more than 60,000 copies have been sold in Iran and to Farsi speakers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries. Both publishers have noted a marked increase in sales of these books over the last two years.
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