BY MICHAEL BAUMANN
The sounds of hammers and drills echoed through the first
floor of Pathfinder's print shop this week, accompanied by the
aroma of floor cleanser, fresh paint, and cement. The initial
team of volunteers, flying in from as far away as Vancouver and
Miami, had begun preparing the book and pamphlet factory for
delivery of the new Agfa Galileo computer-to-plate (CTP)
system.
The machinery, representing the most modern labor-saving equipment available in the printing industry, will arrive in a series of very large crates November 21.
To prepare for the CTP installation, explains Jay Ressler, a steelworker who came in early from Detroit to help out, "we had to tear down parts of three internal walls so the riggers can maneuver the Galileo to its new site. Then we have to put them back up again. My job," he said. "is to try to make the second part as easy as possible."
Ressler, joined by workers from Vancouver, Edmonton, Miami, and Washington, D.C., is part of an advance crew preparing the way for more than 90 volunteers of all ages and skills who will take part in a Red Weekend here November 20-22.
Those with experience in carpentry, plumbing, and electrical work will lead teams of up to a dozen helpers in the many projects involved in bringing the new equipment in.
The main task for the weekend is to clean, paint, wire, light, and install plumbing in a 25 by 35 foot area carved out of the old prepress offices to house the new equipment, which is scheduled to be up and running by mid-December.
In addition, some volunteers will help prepare Pathfinder books for digital reprint, and others will give the Militant a hand in tying up the loose ends in the change over to its new subscription program.
The funds to finance this transformation of the Pathfinder shop come from the same source as the labor - from contributions by workers and others around the world who are convinced of the importance of keeping Pathfinder books in print.
A $550,000 Capital Fund was launched last month, at a meeting celebrating the life of veteran socialist Paul Montauk. The fund, made up of contributions of $1,000 or more, will cover the $350,000 cost of the Galileo system and the $200,000 remaining debt owed on printing presses purchased in 1994.
A total of $192,500 has been raised so far; reports Maggie Trowe, organizer of the "war room" in Des Moines setting up Capital Fund meetings around the country. "In the last week visits to meet with supporters and speak at meetings in Houston, Seattle, Portland, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Newark, and New York resulted in $8,500 in pledges," Trowe reports. An additional $159,500 is needed by the end of the year to pay for the CTP equipment.
Trowe described a meeting held in Pittsburgh to discuss the fund-raising effort, which she took part in with Emily Fitzsimmons, a leader of the Socialist Workers Party there.
A supporter gave a demonstration on his home computer equipment of the process of scanning and proofreading Pathfinder books. Through this work, a network of more than 100 volunteers in cities throughout the world are converting these valuable books into digital form on CD-ROM. In this durable form they are formatted and readied for use on the new computer- to-plate equipment being installed in Pathfinder's print shop.
"It was helpful to get a hands-on presentation of the work the volunteers are doing and the care they give their work," Trowe said.
"The work of the different components of the broader socialist movement complement each other," she added. "Members of the SWP and Young Socialists working on a mobilization against the Ku Klux Klan in Erie, Pennsylvania, this month, solidarity work with the striking workers at RMI Titanium, work by volunteers scanning Pathfinder books to keep them in print, and contributions of $1,000 or more to the Capital Fund - together this adds up to building a revolutionary socialist movement." Fitzsimmons said socialists in Pittsburgh will now organize to talk to a dozen or so supporters who could not attend the meeting.
"We have a lot more work to do to make that end-of-the year goal," says Sam Manuel, a leader of the Socialist Workers Party and a member of the Capital Committee, who recently met with supporters in Texas.
"I had a good discussion with Socialist Workers Party leaders in Houston during my visit," Manuel said. "They agreed that they had to work hard to reach out and meet with every supporter of our movement in Texas and Louisiana to discuss the considerable opening for promoting revolutionary socialist ideas and the possibilities of raising capital to keep the book production going.
"This is a critical moment," Manuel said. "We owe it to our entire movement to make this discussion and appeal as broad as possible."