Vol. 79/No. 3      February 2, 2015

In recent weeks 11 workers contributed holiday “bonuses” and other bribes from bosses totaling $1,897.15 to the Socialist Workers Party.

Two workers in Chicago sent a total of $50 received as holiday “gifts” from their employer. “This is supposed to make up for the fact that they pay new hires only $9 per hour, $3 less than they paid three years ago,” wrote Alice Kennealy .

Contributions from production, holiday and other so-called bonuses from the bosses — designed to bribe workers to accept concessions, speedup and wage cuts — are referred to as “blood money” by supporters of the communist movement who turn them over to the party’s Capital Fund. These contributions are an important political foundation for the fund, which helps finance the party’s long-range work.

Alice Randall and Juan Hidalgo in Washington, D.C., sent $102 and $90 they received from a settlement in a class-action lawsuit against a former employer, “an aerospace factory where the work schedule was 10-hour shifts,” Randall said, “with five and a half hours before the first break.”

Sam Eagle sent $100 received from the bosses at the machine shop where he works in Toronto. “Every year at Christmas they take us out to lunch — in our work clothes, so we can return to work afterward — at a cheap restaurant and give us each a hundred bucks. Hope you can find a good use for this small contribution.”

Three workers in Philadelphia sent $30 each received from rail car maker Hyundai Rotem in December. “Hyundai’s ‘holiday spirit’ went flat for us and 30 co-workers when we were laid off out of seniority two weeks before a hard-won union contract expires,” wrote Gary Creston.

To contribute, see page 8 for a Militant distributor near you.

— MAGGIE TROWE  
 
 
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