The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.19           May 17, 1999 
 
 
Capital Is Needed For Printshop Transformation  

BY PETER THIERJUNG
NEW YORK - Pathfinder's printshop here is preparing the next stage in the transformation needed to keep Pathfinder's entire book list in print. Pathfinder is appealing for $250,000 in capital contributions. The fund got a big boost over the last month with $75,000 in contributions, ranging from $1,000 to $19,000. This is a solid step toward raising the additional $175,000 needed.

A single, renovated pressroom, a long-postponed project, is the next big step in the reorganization of labor in the shop launched last year to reduce the costs of producing and keeping in print the more than 350 titles published by Pathfinder.

The new pressroom will house the three printing presses that produce Pathfinder books, pamphlets, and other socialist publications. The presses are currently separated by a wall that prevents operators of the web press and two sheet-fed presses from functioning as a single crew. Its removal will improve training conditions and help to increase productivity.

Digital workflow
Driving the transformation of the shop's productive capacity is the steady flow of Pathfinder books put in digital form by more than 100 volunteers from around the world.

In the last two months the worker-volunteers at the shop have produced some 15 titles using digital files, including 2,500 copies of Capitalism's World Disorder by Jack Barnes and New International no. 11, as well as its Spanish and French translations. Other titles included El rostro cambiante de la política en los Estados Unidos (the Spanish translation of The Changing Face of U.S. Politics: Working-Class Politics and the Trade Unions); White Music, Black Business; and Women and the Cuban Revolution.

Nine additional titles are scheduled for printing in May, including The Truth about Yugoslavia: Why Working People Should Oppose Intervention, Cuba for Beginners, another 500 copies of Capitalism's World Disorder, and By Any Means Necessary by Malcolm X.

The acquisition last November of a new computer-to-plate machine, combined with the efforts of the international team of volunteers, helped the shop eliminate a labor-intensive prepress department, making this stepped-up production of Pathfinder books possible at lower costs, higher quality, and with a smaller shop staff. Since mid-1998, the shop's staff has been reduced by almost a third.

On May 4, for example, the international volunteers rushed computer files to the shop for The Truth about Yugoslavia: Why Working People Should Oppose Intervention. It will be available ship to bookstores on May 8 for use by workers and youth campaigning against Washington's brutal bombing of Yugoslavia.

New pressroom
"Our architect is now drawing up the initial plans to eliminate the wall in our current pressroom," web operator Ryan Lewis said in an interview. "We toured him through the shop and discussed our aims. He raised a number of possibilities, including ways to improve air quality, dust control, paper storage, lighting, and workflow."

The goal is to bring the pressroom in line with the standards of the shop's modern bindery, constructed in 1992. Workers in the bindery strive to set the tone and pace for production and training throughout the shop.

Workers in the press department are visiting other New York-area printshops to learn how they have dealt with similar issues, Lewis said. "We are also asking the companies that manufactured our presses to send out specialists we can consult with."

In the last three months, workers at the shop have begun to turn around a drop in commercial sales in the second half of last year. April was the best month for commercial sales since June 1998. Increasingly, print buyers are seeking the advantages in terms of costs, quality, and turn-around time they can get from shops that are on the cutting edge of digital printing.

"Increasing commercial sales and raising labor productivity begins to reverse the necessary deferral of capital expenditures to meet operating budget expenses," Dave Prince, a member of the Capital Fund committee, told the Militant. "It means the shop can begin to look to regenerate this capital."

"We're just beginning to understand what it means to make do with less people," said Doug Nelson, 24, the head stitcher operator in the bindery. "We're working it through. What each of us does makes a difference."

The recent increase in the flow of Pathfinder books and commercial work has "accelerated training and an has heightened awareness on the need for quality and greater labor productivity," said web-press operator Róger Calero. "We're training with an eye to greater output per hour and reducing wasted paper and other materials."

To find out how you can make a contribution, write: The Capital Fund Campaign, 410 West Street, New York, NY 10014.

Peter Thierjung is the head of the shop's bindery department and is a member of the Capital Fund committee.

 
 
 
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