The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.9           March 8, 1999 
 
 
New Equipment Slashes The Time Needed To Print `Capitalism's World Disorder'  

BY NAOMI CRAINE
Supporters of Pathfinder Press contributed $19,000 to the Pathfinder Capital Fund over the last week. This brings the total $414,000, toward a goal of $550,000. Of the new contributions $3,300 came from a Northwest Airlines worker who contributed a company bonus. Another contributor pledged $10,000 from an inheritance.

The Capital Fund has made it possible to purchase a $350,000 computer-to-plate system that is essential to cutting the costs and labor time needed to produce books in Pathfinder's printshop.

The first new book produced with computer-to-plate technology, Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the Millennium, is being printed and bound as this issue goes to press. The final text was turned in to the shop by the editors just before midnight Tuesday, February 23. The first signatures went on press at 3:30 p.m. the next day. Under the previous production methods, it would have then taken three to four days of three or four people's labor to get the book on press. As we go to press February 25, workers in the bindery are folding the signatures as they are finished, and two-thirds of the text of the 520-page book is printed.

In addition, the digital work and standardized templates produced by volunteers who are putting all Pathfinder titles in digital form saved hundreds of hours of work and collaboration between Pathfinder and the printshop. Press operator Nell Wheeler was able to print the cover of Capitalism's World Disorder much faster, in part due to the precision of the digitally produced plates. The full-color cover - designed by volunteer Toni Gorton - was printed in just over six hours.

A special feature of the new book is a 36-page photo insert, containing more than 70 pictures illustrating many of the struggles by working people pointed to in the book. The opening photo is of an October 1994 solidarity rally in Decatur, Illinois, to support workers on strike or locked out at Caterpillar, Bridgestone/Firestone, and A.E. Staley. Others images include numberous labor actions by workers around the world, the struggles for Black rights and women's equality, the Cuban revolution, protests against ultrarightist Patrick Buchanan, socialist workers and youth bringing the Militant to picket lines and factory gates.

Pathfinder will be filling orders for the book February 26. Already supporters in Atlanta, Boston, and Houston have ordered about 30 each, 50 in San Francisco, and 75 in New York, to begin discussing and selling this new tool for working people.

The additional $136,000 for the Capital Fund is essential for further capital needs that must be deferred for now, as the funds are needed to meet a conjunctural cash shortfall as printshop workers work to reverse a serious drop in sales, increase productivity, and regenerate the capital.

To make a contribution, write to the Capital Fund Committee, 410 West St., New York, NY 10014.  
 
 
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