The same Saturday afternoon socialist workers hosted a simultaneous open house at the renovated Pathfinder bookstore and headquarters of the New York SWP—just two city blocks and about five minutes walk away. Given the proximity, most visitors were able to stop by both open houses.

Both locations are in the heart of New York’s Garment District, where tens of thousands of clothing workers toil in shops, large and small, located in multi-story buildings.

Visitors to the Militant offices were given a step-by-step guided tour of the editorial operation. Staff members walked them through each stage of producing an issue—from downloading articles and other material electronically, writing, editing and copy editing articles, to scanning and preparing photographs, to laying out pages and sending them to the printer via the Internet.

Several guests remarked that aside from being attractive and well organized, the new offices are a better fit for the socialist periodicals and party offices than the former premises at the old Pathfinder Building on the West Side Highway. The new wireless computer network also drew many positive comments.

In preparation for the move, a team of volunteers had worked intensively for almost two months. The crews erected walls, built windows and a kitchen, installed air conditioning ducts and wiring, stripped and varnished the floors, and painted the walls and ceilings, among many other tasks.

A steering committee of Ernie Mailhot from Seattle, Dennis Richter from Charlotte, North Carolina, and Maggie Trowe from Boston led the effort. Many of the volunteers came back for the open house to see the finished product of their labor.

Volunteer crews also gave the nearby New York SWP headquarters and Pathfinder bookstore a dramatic face-lift. They installed storage cupboards and demolished a disused wall cabinet to add much-needed space. They also painted the walls and laid new carpet.

A couple of hours after the open houses, participants attended a public meeting at Hunter College, in New York (see ‘Europe and America: to the victor go the spoils’ in this issue).

At the Hunter College meeting, participants donated $7,500 toward the costs of installing sound baffling, improved lighting, and ceiling fans in the Militant/Perspectiva Mundial office and SWP national office—the finishing touches of the new premises.  
 
 
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