Vol. 73/No. 49      December 21, 2009

In an attempt to deflect any response by working people to their deteriorating living and working conditions, the bosses and their government periodically give out bribes—“blood money”—in the form of bonuses, gifts, and other token gestures, as an attempt to buy workers’ acceptance of their brutal system of exploitation. It is a proud tradition in the communist movement for class-conscious workers to turn these bribes against the bosses by giving them to the movement dedicated to ending the dictatorship of capital once and for all.

Contributions made to the Capital Fund do just that by financing the production of books that contain the program and theory of the communist movement as carried out and developed through a century and a half of the modern class struggle.

“Two weeks ago my coworkers and I were left outside the leather factory we work in only to find out that the boss wasn’t coming in, so we couldn’t work,” said Maura DeLuca in a note attached to a $10 contribution. “Our contract states that if this happens, we must be paid four hours. The boss told us the next day that he will not pay us anything… . The following day the boss went around giving each of us $10 ‘for transportation that day.’ It is a bribe.”

Pattie Thompson sends her contribution of $238 with a note saying that the bribe comes as bosses where she works plan to shut the place down in May.

Two workers at a meatpacking plant in South St. Paul, Minnesota, Frank Forrestal and Tony Lane, sent in a contribution of $55 they get as a “safety bonus”—a way the bosses try to get workers to not report injuries that result from line speedup and other dangerous job conditions.

—BEN JOYCE