Vol. 78/No. 8      March 3, 2014

“Workers in the Chicago area recently dropped off blood money totaling $228.32 at the Socialist Workers Party branch to put it to good use for the working class,” reported Laura Anderson.

Michael Barry, Charlie Brown, John Hawkins, Alyson Kennedy and Anderson donated $10 each, the value of Jewel-Osco cards that bosses at Caterpillar-owned Electro-Motive Diesel in Lagrange, Ill., handed out as a holiday bonus.

By “blood money” Anderson is referring to so-called bonuses and other bribes bosses use to press us to accept wage cuts, speedup, dangerous working conditions and concession contracts. Donations of such bribes form a pillar of the Socialist Workers Party Capital Fund, which finances long-range work of the party.

Betsy Farley, a member of United Steelworkers Local 1010 at the ArcelorMittal Indiana Harbor steel mill in East Chicago, donated $18.32 for a ham she received as a holiday bonus. Ilona Gersh and Leroy Watson, members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers local at Saint Gobain glass container factory, gave $30 each for the hams they received. Harvey McArthur, a CNC lathe operator at a small tool-and-die-making shop in St. Charles, Ill., gave his end-of-the-year bonus of $100.

To make a donation, contact Militant distributors listed on page 6.

— EMMA JOHNSON