BY DAVE PRINCE
This week, Pathfinder's printshop made the final payment of
$114,000 on the recently installed $350,000 Agfa Galileo
computer-to-plate equipment. This technology is essential to
maintaining the printshop - and Pathfinder's ability to keep
books working people need in print - by making it possible to
sharply cut the costs and increase productivity in producing the
books, while at the same time improving quality.
Achieving this decisive stage in the transformation of the Pathfinder shop was made possible by contributions from 117 people. The contributions, ranging from $1,000 to $50,000, came from windfalls such as bequests, trusts, and accident settlements, as well as other special circumstances.
The Capital Fund committee, made up of eight socialist workers across the United States who are organizing the fund appeal, is now focusing its attention on raising the additional $200,000 toward the $550,000 total goal. The $200,000 is slated toward capital needs that must be deferred for the moment. The funds are essential now to meet operating expenses to cover a serious conjunctural cash short fall, as shop workers work to reverse a drop in sales, cut costs by increasing productivity and reducing scrap on Pathfinder and other work and then regenerate the capital.
So far, $41,000 has been raised toward the $200,000. This includes a big boost to the fund from four socialist auto workers who pledged $6,000 this week from profit sharing payments from the auto bosses - "blood money" from major concessions. John Sarge an auto worker in Detroit, reports, Socialists "working for the auto bosses are discussing how they can use this blood money (more true than ever after the recent explosion at the Ford complex in Dearborn, Michigan,) to expand the reach of the workers movement by raising contributions for Pathfinder's Capital Fund." In addition, two socialist workers in aerospace contributed $1,000, also pooled from "profit sharing" checks. Contributing such bonuses to the needs of the workers movement is a long-standing tradition among communists in the unions.
To find out how you can contribute, write to the Capital Fund Committee, 410 West St., New York, NY 10014.