BY NAOMI CRAINE
Supporters of Pathfinder Press need to step up efforts to
raise the capital needed this month to pay for equipment in
Pathfinder's printing plant. The final payments are due in late
January and mid-February for the new Agfa Galileo computer-to-
plate equipment that was delivered in November. The press
operators in the printing plant are now using the state-of-the
art equipment for the great majority of the work going through
the shop, saving labor and improving the quality of the
Pathfinder books they are producing.
There has been a tremendous response to the $550,000 capital fund launched in October. Of the more than $340,000 pledged since then, over $220,000 has been received. Now the additional $114,000 already pledged needs to be collected rapidly, and another $10,000 raised, to finish paying for the Galileo. The remaining $200,000 of the fund also needs to be raised as soon as possible.
Ten Pathfinder books and pamphlets are currently in production in the printshop, and more are on their way. More than 100 volunteers around the world are scanning, proofreading, formatting, and digitizing the graphics for the 350 titles Pathfinder keeps in print. The socialist workers in the printshop can now take these digital files, output printing plates, and maintain a just-in-time inventory with less labor and a smaller staff.
Some of the books that were prepared digitally by volunteers and coming off the press this month will immediately head out the door. Orders for a total of 250 copies of four titles - By Any Means Necessary by Malcolm X, Malcolm X on Afro- American History, Women and the Cuban Revolution, and Leon Trotsky Speaks - are waiting to be filled. Pathfinder also has orders for more than 70 copies each of two temporarily out-of- print books that the volunteers are making final corrections on: American Labor Struggles: 1877-1934 and Blacks in America's Wars.
"The printing quality is obviously better on the cover of By Any Means Necessary," noted Bill Estrada, who operates the sheetfed presses that print Pathfinder covers and text. "It's because of the work of the volunteers, who readjusted all of the photographs digitally, and also because we're going direct from computer file to plate." Compared to the previous printing, which was done on the same press, the cover photograph of Malcolm X is much sharper, with more detail and more vibrant colors.
"The registration is much better with the plates from the Galileo," Estrada added. "That means we can spend less make- ready time to set up jobs on the presses, and have fewer problems with poor registration." He said the sheetfed crews are now meeting to decide on goals to measure and improve their production rates.
Accelerated capital fundraising activity
The $200,000 Pathfinder supporters are organizing to raise
now, beyond paying for the computer-to-plate system, is
essential to help the printshop cover a serious conjunctural
shortfall in sales to meet operating expenses, as the shop
crosses the bridge in this transformation. A growing number of
workers in the printshop are part of the effort to broaden the
base of commercial work the shop takes in, to reverse a drop
over the last several months in the sales revenue the shop
needs. This is combined with the campaign throughout the shop
to increase productivity and reduce scrap, cut production costs
both on Pathfinder books and other work, and improve margins.
The Capital Fund Committee, a group of seven socialist workers across the United States, has met twice by phone over the last week to take steps to accelerate fund-raising efforts. A meeting of eight supporters took place January 10 in Minneapolis. The meeting began with refreshments and a political discussion on the Clinton impeachment trial and why workers should oppose it, the growing labor resistance and working class-vanguard in formation, and the election of Bonapartist Reform Party governor Jesse Ventura in Minnesota. Then supporters viewed a demonstration of how volunteers scan and proofread Pathfinder books. The meeting resulted in $3,000 in pledges. Other meetings are in the works in Vancouver, British Columbia; Greensboro, North Carolina; and Denver, Colorado.
"Members of the Capital Fund Committee are ready to do some extra traveling over the next weeks to participate in these gatherings and a number of others like them," said Maggie Trowe, a meatpacker in Des Moines, Iowa, who heads that committee.
"We are encouraging those who value Pathfinder's irreplaceable contribution to the advancement of revolutionary struggles to organize meetings in their areas, and to continue to follow through work that has already begun. We should make this the highest priority, and spare no effort to reach out to friends and supporters, whether in our cities, or in the outlying region. We need to act rapidly and energetically on this, to raise what we need to help maintain the printshop at this important juncture and strengthen ties with an important part of our movement."
To find out how you can make a capital contribution, write to the Capital Fund Committee, 410 West St., New York, NY 10014.