Upper stratum – Also referred to as the labor aristocracy. This section of the working class is primarily the trade union bureaucracy, skilled craft workers, and highly-paid office workers.
Lower stratum – Unskilled and semi-skilled workers, primarily within large-scale industry, but also including lower-paid clerical and service workers.
Bribery – Political, economic and social sops received by the upper stratum out of the superprofits the bourgeoisie takes from the plunder and superexploitation of oppressed nations and colonies both inside and outside the US. This bribery of the upper stratum permanent, even though portions of the bribe are withdrawn in times of economic crisis, In turn, the upper stratum serves as agents of the bourgeoisie within the working class.
Privileges – Political, economic and social benefits received by the majority of the US proletariat. These privileges are small compared to the bribe received by the upper stratum; further, they are temporary, and during periods of economic crisis they are withdrawn. Within the US proletariat there are important national differences as well. The workers of the oppressor Anglo-American Nation have certain privileges denied oppressed nations and peoples within the US. This formulation of ’privileges to the entire working class’ represents a change for the MLC. We previously stated, in our resolution “On Bribery” that the entire working class in the US was “relatively and temporarily bribed”. We don’t consider this a change in our position, but rather a change in wording that better reflects the actual split in the working class and underscores the extent of the bribe to the upper stratum. By our previous use of the word ’bribery’ to describe both the permanent bribe of a small section of the class, and the temporary privileges for the majority, the split was actually glossed over.