Vol. 77/No. 2      January 21, 2013

Over the past two months more than a dozen workers have sent in blood money contributions to build the communist movement. Most have come from so-called holiday bonuses and gift cards handed out by the bosses for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Maggie Trowe and Ellen Brickley from Des Moines, Iowa, each sent in $25 from a Thanksgiving holiday gift card given to workers at a plastics factory.

“This came after a concerted speedup giving operators more than one machine to run,” Trowe wrote in a note with the check. “The temporary workers received nothing, and got laid off for Thanksgiving week.”

John Benson and Janice Lynn, who work at a food processing plant in Atlanta, sent in a check for $83.33 with the comment, “Here are ‘Christmas bonus’ payments for the Capital Fund. Meanwhile, the production lines are running faster and faster.”

Blood money is a term communist workers use to describe one-off payments from bosses—safety, attendance and production bonuses, contract-signing incentives, holiday gifts and the like—used as bribes to press workers to accept speedup, wage cuts, concession contracts and dangerous working conditions.

Class-conscious workers take this blood money and turn it into contributions to the Socialist Workers Party’s Capital Fund, which helps finance long-range projects to build the communist movement.

Eric Simpson in San Francisco sent in a check for $60 from an “On Time Performance” bonus from United Airlines, where he works. He enclosed a flyer for a demonstration in solidarity with Machinists at United’s maintenance base. The flyer explains that contract negotiations have been going on since 2009 and that workers have taken concessions since 1994.

“United pays the bonus based on their system-wide record of flights being on time,” Simpson wrote. “But United hasn’t been ‘on time’ when it comes to the contract.”

To make a contribution to the Capital Fund, write to or call Militant distributors listed on page 8.

—EMMA JOHNSON