BY BRIAN TAYLOR
The issue of the Militant you are reading, as well as the
pamphlet Panama: The Truth about the U.S. Invasion, are the first
jobs in the Pathfinder printshop to come from plates produced
directly from computer files! This state-of-the-art technology is
dramatically reducing labor time and necessary skill level,
cutting costs, and providing a road to maintain Pathfinder's
output of revolutionary literature well into the future.
A $550,000 capital fund is making possible the use of this technology to produce the books, pamphlets, newspapers, and magazines that will quench - on demand -the growing thirst among fighting workers, farmers, and youth for working-class solutions to the accelerating crises of capitalism. In the wake of the four- day bombing campaign against Iraq waged by Washington and London, Panama: The Truth about the U.S. Invasion is quite timely, detailing the U.S. government's murderous action in that military assault a decade ago.
"The truth is that after several years of trying to overthrow Panama's government using everything from sanctions to coup attempts, Washington finally decided that only direct military intervention could ... install a client regime, smash the movement for national sovereignty and social justice, ... ensure the use of U.S. military bases in the country, and strengthen U.S. domination throughout the region," reads a section of the introduction.
The immediate goal of the capital fund is to raise $350,000 by year's end to cover the cost of the newly installed Agfa Galileo computer-to-plate (CTP) system. The printshop will need an additional $200,000 to once and for all wipe out the debt owed to bankers for the web and sheetfed presses housed in the Pathfinder Building. Supporters have sent in $11,000 over the last week, bringing the total amount collected to $292,000. This leaves $58,000 more to raise.
Contributions come from accident settlements, bequests, and other situations where supporters of Pathfinder find themselves the recipients of big sums of capital. Many workers have contributed the entirety of so-called bonuses - "blood money" paid out by the bosses to try to convince workers to accept wage concessions and assaults on health benefits and job conditions.
Going completely digital with Galileo
"The installation of the computer-to-plate machinery and
software is complete. Now our goal is to move into full
production as quickly as possible," explained David Rosenfeld,
the press operator in Pathfinder's printshop responsible for
bringing the new computer-to-plate equipment on line. The
editorial work and graphics design; the scanning, proofreading,
and formatting of Pathfinder's 350 titles organized by volunteers
(see facing page); and the imposition work needed to produce
plates to be run on the presses are all done digitally with the
new system.
Currently, volunteers send a CD-ROM with an entire Pathfinder book on it, ready to go into production. The information on that disk is sent directly to film, already shaving hours of time spent just months ago on camera work and the highly skilled task of stripping up large flats by hand to make plates.
The Galileo eliminates film altogether, and makes it possible to take a disk from volunteers, make minor on-screen adjustments, and send those files directly to the plate burner.
First title rolls out of CTP
"Just a click of a mouse button sent the volunteer's
electronic files for Pathfinder's first CTP-produced pamphlet to
the Galileo platesetter," said Rosenfeld. Before computer-to-
film, several staff members could have stripped an average
Pathfinder book for days, he explained. Currently, with computer-
to-film, it takes 30-40 minutes to produce a plate. But with the
Galileo machine one person can make 10 plates in 40 minutes!
"It took a minimum of six months just to feel comfortable with the strip up," said Lisa Rottach, one of the last shop cadre to be trained in that skilled technique. A separate strip-up department was needed just to perform that task.
Now, in just three to four weeks of training on the CTP equipment, a person can be a qualified digital operator able to do all digital file preparations using the new computer software - formerly the manual work of the now dissolved strip- up department - make the plates, and trouble-shoot most basic problems. In just a few hours a person can be trained to competently make plates.
"The goal is to qualify every press operator as a digital operator," stated Rosenfeld. Then the press operator can walk up to the computer, find the job they want, hit a few buttons, and the machine makes the plate. Rosenfeld was making plates while showing this reporter the machine and conducting this interview.
In order to harness the productive capacities of the new machines, the entire print shop is undergoing a transformation. This includes cross-training on presses and bindery equipment, stepping up production rates, cutting scrap rates and costly plate remakes, paying greater attention to quality control, and increasing the involvement of the entire cadre of the shop in commercial sales to help finance its operations. As part of this, the shop is moving to decrease its size by two volunteers in the next four months, while continuing the program of regularly releasing cadre after a few years and bringing in new volunteers.
Door open to four-color web printing
The ease of this process helped open the door for four-color
printing on the web press - for years relegated to the
impossible. When press operator Ryan Lewis had some downtime on
the press, he and José Aravena started running tests and
experimenting using the setup from a job run beforehand.
"We noticed how tight the registration was holding on that job," Lewis said. "Other shops have the same web press as we do and they run four-color jobs." Aravena and Phyllis O'Conner, another press operator, took the initiative to create a color job and digitally prepare it using some of the new machinery.
After a quick cleaning of the machine, they used spare ink and ran the test. When they ran the job at a slower setup speed the colors "held." "So we ran it faster and when we got to top speed it was still holding tight," recounted Lewis.
The printshop has now bought new ink for the web and is getting new instruction manuals to probe four-color web printing for color photographs in the Militant and other printed materials used by the communist movement, as well as commercial jobs.
Capital fund goal in striking distance
The computer-to-plate machinery must be paid off in January.
The capital fund committee is asking that everyone who made
pledges send them in. And they are organizing to bring in the
remaining $58,000 in contributions that are needed right away.
A meeting of the Socialist Workers Party's National Committee is set to take place in New York City January 1-3. Leadership delegations from the Young Socialists and from communist organizations in other countries will be attending. While taking part in the meeting, they will have an opportunity to tour the Pathfinder Building and see the physical and organizational transformations under way in the shop.
To find out how you can make a capital contribution, write to the Capital Fund Committee, 410 West St. New York, NY 10014.