“Enclosed are four checks totaling $900.86 from bonuses retail workers recently received,” wrote Milly Townsend from Albany, New York. “It’s a pleasure for all of us to turn this ‘blood money’ to good use building the Socialist Workers Party!”
“The bosses give us these bribes to discourage us from fighting for a union, higher wages, and safe working conditions. They try to make us think the owners ‘share’ with the workers,” she said. “The fact is the bosses make enormous profits exploiting us and paying us low wages.”
The Socialist Workers Party uses the term “blood money” to describe production, attendance, safety and other so-called bonuses the bosses give workers in an effort to bribe us to keep quiet about problems on the job and to push us to work harder.
By giving this money to the Socialist Workers Party’s Capital Fund, class-conscious workers turn those bribes into the opposite — funds to build the labor movement and strengthen the party’s long-term work.
Joel Britton and Andrea Morell sent in $86.73, their ‘cut’ from a class action suit filed several years ago on behalf of Walmart workers in California over inaccuracies on wage statements on their paychecks there. “We’re sure this blood money will be put to good use by our party,” Britton said.
In the midst of the holiday season, when many bosses try to get workers to acquiesce to another year of exploitation with a paltry bribe, we urge readers to contribute similar Christmas or other such “bonuses” to the SWP. Contact the party branch nearest you listed in the directory.