BY STEVE CLARK
NEW YORK - "Today the papers were signed and the down payment made to purchase the Agfa Galileo platesetter, the equipment needed to facilitate our efforts to keep Pathfinder books in print, so we can get them into the hands of class struggle-minded workers and youth," Dave Prince told the Militant October 29. Prince is director of the capital fund aimed at raising $550,000.

The initial payment was drawn from capital contributions of $167,450 raised in less than two weeks - between the October 18 celebration in Oakland, California, of the life and political contributions of Paul Montauk, a 60-year cadre of the Socialist Workers Party who died earlier that month, and the days just after a round of national meetings over the October 24-25 weekend of members of the SWP and Young Socialists in six industrial unions.

Prince made a special appeal for this international effort at the Bay Area meeting for Montauk, and then spent the following week on the road raising funds in southern California, Texas, and at the meetings held in Des Moines, Iowa, of socialist workers who are members of the United Auto Workers, United Food and Commercial Workers, and United Steelworkers of America. Meetings were held that same weekend in Los Angeles of socialists in the International Association of Machinists; the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers ; and in the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees.

Members of the Capital Fund committee participated in the meetings in both cities. In addition to Prince, that committee includes Nan Bailey of Seattle, Sam Manuel of Washington, D.C., Norton Sandler of San Francisco, Maggie Trowe of Des Moines, and Jack Willey of Chicago. Sandler presented a report to a joint meeting of the three union fraction meeting in Los Angeles, and Trowe presented a report to those gathered in Des Moines.

Initial $165,000 goal met
"We went into those union fraction meetings with some $110,000 raised," said Prince. "And we set the goal in Des Moines and Los Angeles of bringing the total up to the $165,000 needed to make the initial payment on the platesetter. With some further work at the beginning of this week to follow up leads," he said, "we did it!

"Over the next several weeks," Prince added, "we intend to build on this momentum to raise the $385,000 required to complete this effort. This includes $185,000 more for the platesetter, as well as $200,000 to pay off outstanding loans for the web press used to print the Militant and the two Heidelberg sheetfed presses that turn out Pathfinder books."

Members of the capital fund committee will be setting up meetings across the continent with individuals, and with groups of supporters of the communist movement, to discuss how they can contribute to this international effort. They are looking forward to discussions about the transformation that is currently underway in the production of Pathfinder books and pamphlets, and its place in better preparing the communist movement to respond to accelerating workers resistance worldwide. Maggie Trowe will be coordinating this international effort from Des Moines.

Prince reported that the funds raised over the past 11 days have come from a variety of sources. Contributions totaling $100,000 were donated by three individuals. The remaining $66,500 came from 34 contributions ranging from $1,000 to $10,000. Some $7,200 was raised from a special collection at the meeting for Paul Montauk.

"Many longtime members and supporters of the movement are contributing," Prince said, "some for the first time, and others who have done so before. And significantly," he added, "for the first time in a number of years, capital contributions are coming from some of the newer members of the communist movement, drawing these younger generations into this vital aspect of sustaining the institutions and activity of the revolutionary working-class movement. These funds are used only for long-term capital projects, not day-to-day operating expenses.

"At the meetings of the union fractions, we asked each and every one of the contributors - as well as others who were there - to go back to their cities and make suggestions to the capital fund committee of others in their areas who can be contacted about the fund," Prince said.

Prince explained that each of the six national union fraction meetings discussed and adopted motions reaffirming the tradition in the communist movement that job bonuses from employers are contributed to national campaigns such as the capital fund. "A substantial number of the contributions in the $1,000-plus range came from such bonuses, which are occasional windfalls above and beyond the regular wage income workers depend on for their livelihoods," Prince said.

"Members and supporters of the SWP and Young Socialists make regular weekly and semiannual contributions from their incomes to help sustain the work of the communist movement. But we've had the tradition of donating bonuses in full to special fundraising efforts such as this one.

"At the same time," he told the Militant, "the presentations to the fraction meetings in Des Moines and Los Angeles focused not only on these bonuses but also on the possibilities to raise the much larger sums that come from trusts, bequests, and settlements that many individuals come into once or more times over the course of a lifetime. As always, it will take a combination of both to make this particular fund effort a success between now and the New Year," Prince said. (An article on the six national union fraction meetings will appear in a subsequent issue of the Militant.)

A joint, volunteer effort
The Agfa Galileo is a computer-to-plate (CTP) system that will make it possible to produce Pathfinder books and pamphlets with a substantial reduction in labor time and materials costs. "A smaller printshop," Prince said, "is absolutely essential to achieve an operation of the size Pathfinder can sustain.

"Miners on strike against Freeman United Coal Company in Illinois, workers fighting the lockout by Crown Oil in Texas, farmers resisting foreclosures on their land, supporters of women's rights protesting the recent murder of a doctor who performed abortions in upstate New York, students and other young people being repelled by the brutality of capitalism and attracted to communism - these and other working people and youth need the experience of past working-class battles embodied in Pathfinder books and pamphlets," Prince said. "And their numbers are growing.

"Contributors to the capital fund are part of the effort to make sure the communist movement has the political weapons at hand to meet these expanding opportunities."

Keeping these books in print is a joint effort of the socialist cadre who volunteer in the printshop and some 140 supporters of the Socialist Workers Party and communist leagues in other countries who have volunteered to convert the entire Pathfinder arsenal into electronic files. Volunteers send in fully digitized books, with the formatted text, cover, and graphics on a compact disk.

"The new Galileo platesetter," Prince said, "will make it possible for workers in the printshop to use these files to prepare books for production not only without the exacting and labor-intensive work of stripping up film into large flats to burn plates for the presses. The new system will skip film altogether, going directly from the computer files to the plates. This makes it possible for a smaller staff to produce books - both new titles and reprints - much more quickly, with higher quality, and in short runs to reduce storage costs."

The new equipment will also boost the campaign by the shop to increase its commercial sales, which are needed to maintain its financial viability and to keep up necessary skills for producing Pathfinder books.

"We now expect the Galileo to be delivered the weekend of November 21," Prince said. "For that reason, the special `Red Weekend' initially announced for November 13-15 is being rescheduled for November 20-22. That's when the work will be completed to prepare the special, air-conditioned and humidity- controlled site where the CTP system will be installed."

In addition, Prince said, volunteers are needed right now to begin the essential preliminary electrical work, low voltage wiring, metal work, plumbing, and carpentry to prepare the site. "Tell your readers that if they want to volunteer for one, two, or three weeks during early November - or have any suggestions of someone else who may want to - they should contact the members of the team responsible for talking to potential contributors to the capital fund."

To find out how you can contribute, write to the Capital Fund Campaign, 410 West St., New York, NY 10014.  
 
 
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