BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS
OAKLAND, California - At a meeting here Tuesday, February 10, supporters of the communist movement took the first steps to begin organizing volunteers from around the world to digitize the entire back list of Pathfinder Press (see article on page 8). "We are no longer auxiliaries to Pathfinder production," said Tom Tomasko, a member of the International Association of Machinists in the San Francisco Bay Area. Tomasko is one of four volunteers here who have been organizing some 16 people to scan and proofread Pathfinder books for the last two years. "Deciding to use desktop publishing to put the manuscripts into final form, ready to go to printing plates, means our work becomes an essential part of Pathfinder book production," he added.

The other three volunteer organizers - Ruth Cheney, Jerry Gardner, and Bob Roberts - who together with Tomasko comprise a steering committee of the digitizing project in the Bay Area took part in the meeting. "Our steering committee is now responsible for organizing all those around the world who want to help scan, proofread, and format Pathfinder books," said Cheney, who hosted the meeting at her house. This is a much bigger task than organizing supporters in the Bay Area alone, "but we are confident we can do it." The group of volunteers in San Francisco includes many experienced hands who have scanned, proofread, and corrected the text of ten Pathfinder books.

About a month ago Cheney, Gardner, Roberts, and Tomakso used their own resources to purchase new scanners, computer equipment, and software to facilitate their work. Tomasko has mastered scanning techniques to the point that scanned text now averages only one error per five pages prior to proofing, better than the rates anywhere in the Pathfinder Building in New York. And Tomasko is confident there is substantial room for further improvement soon. "This will make it much easier to train people around the world and produce digitized documents faster and more efficiently," he said. Project organizers will raise the necessary funds for travel, telephone calls, equipment, and other needs.

SWP leader Norton Sandler, a member of IAM in San Francisco, who has taken on the responsibility from the party's Political Committee to work with the volunteer organizers here took part in the meeting. In addition, Omari Musa, another party leader in San Francisco, and Samantha Kern, a member of the Young Socialists here, were invited to attend. Also participating were Jack Willey, organizer of the Young Socialists National Executive Committee, based in Chicago; José Aravena, a YS leader who heads the bindery in the print shop that produces Pathfinder books; Juliette Montauk, print shop business manager; Eva Braiman, who volunteers in the prepress department of the shop; Mike Taber, a Pathfinder Press editor; and Paul Mailhot and Argiris Malapanis from the national leadership of the SWP.

Aravena said organizing supporters of the communist movement internationally to take a part of the book production out of the hands of the print shop will enable volunteers in the shop to focus their attention on improving training and productivity on the presses, in the bindery, and in other shop departments. At the same time, Montauk said, Pathfinder's print shop is organizing to rapidly acquire and begin using new equipment that will make it possible to use the digital files volunteers will send in to go direct to printing plates, eliminating the film processing and stripping currently done in the shop.

Jim Miller, who organizes a group of volunteers in Seattle scanning and proofing books, and Mike Shur who organizes party supporters in New York, also took part. Miller said he would present the challenge of taking on this effort to the five Seattle-area volunteers he has been working with over the past year scanning and proofreading Pathfinder books, and that he will work to draw others in that area into the project as well.

"Party supporters who took part in the regional conference in Seattle, other socialist conferences that preceded it, or who have been participating in picket lines protesting Washington's war moves against Iraq are the first to respond and say they want to join this project," Shur said. He is organizing a meeting of supporters to discuss the project in New York on February 14.

At the end of the Bay Area meeting, participants began a work session. Eva Braiman and Mike Taber demonstrated the use of desktop publishing to format books that have been scanned and proofread. The group plunged right into the work by beginning to format The Revolution Betrayed by Leon Trotsky, which volunteers here had scanned and put into digital form last year. They will also work on formatting Sexism and Science by Evelyn Reed. Volunteers had scanned and proofread this title a few months ago. With the current level of sales, the stocks of both books are about two months away from being depleted. "Our work will now be completely tied to the production needs of Pathfinder," Cheney said. The group in San Francisco will prepare and send to all those around the world who want to help on the project guidelines for the work, which will include ways to maintain the exacting standards for accuracy Pathfinder Press is known for.

No one will be accepted into full participation in the project without evidence of the ability to sustain these standards. All output worldwide will be centralized - and quality control organized - through the San Francisco project directors. The San Francisco group will organize training of volunteers around the world, Cheney said, most of which will be done through E-mail. While knowledge of scanning, proofreading, and use of a computer is useful, it is not necessary.

Volunteers will include active supporters of the Socialist Workers Party, friends of the communist movement, and others who support Pathfinder's publishing efforts.

Those who would like to help can contact Ruth Cheney at 102616.3037@compuserve.com, or write to the Pathfinder Digitizing Project, c/o Pathfinder Bookstore, 3284 23rd St., San Francisco, CA 94110. Tel: (415) 282-6255.  
 
 
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