This morning I was writing an overview of the strike including, I hope, (if I finish) a criticism of the force of "limited perspectives", especially concerning closing down the industry. I hope to explain why this strike should matter to the average working guy and gal.... But also why fan-support around star-writers and actors needs to be taken advantage of. This support is good but it needs to be used better. There is a need to educate people as much as possible on what picket lines should mean if you have the power.... "Don't cross". They must explain why they don't have the power now, to simply shut everything down... and why the workers in IATSE are so important and the awful role of Thomas Short Pres of IATSE, in betraying his own workers and siding with the bosses... it is no accident that this is exactly what the IATSE leadership did in the immediate post war period and did so to the detriment of all Hollywood unions. .... The WGA needs to take advantage of the fact of the huge picket lines and explain even to their own people the importance of things like not accepting the no strike clause, of standing up for union solidarity. There are reasons to be suspicious of star-power --- it is that it brittle and based on personalities and it is only worth if it can be used to educate people on the basic principles of solidarity and the need for union power.
The missives Dwayne has sent to the list are especially relevant because it comes from people on the front line of the strike. But they also show the limited perspective of people who are not used to organizing a strike and don't see that their battle is not only their battle. They don't seem to see the importance both as example and as union leaders of their very special industry that their strike has taken on And they don't seem to see the significance of their small accomplishments compared to their own union in the past and to other small unions in the present period.
1) The two-edge sword of star-power: They should remember back to the last strike. Fans did not come out to the picket line in mass numbers. They just weren't there at all, and it is a credit to the new kind of organizing that they are there. It doesn't matter that only a small percentage of fans are coming out to the picket lines. That they are showing up in numbers means that there is public support.
The bosses are scared of these picket lines. They love small picket lines but hate big ones, because big picket lines represent a real threat of actually closing down "production". Big picket lines are a publicity embarrassment. Big picket lines represent that other people might get the idea that they should unionize also. So the limited star power of people like Moore and Whedon, looks like something different to bosses or who are used to picket lines with 10 or 12 people. If these picket lines... and the associated internet organizing.... can be used for educational purposes at least then they are successful to some small extent. Of course it would be best if they were real picket lines that nobody would cross. And as long as the picket lines keep to the traditional star/fan dichotomy and don't teach people about the need for working people of all types to stay together then the star-power will eventually fall back on itself.
By contrast the writers on the line should think about what the typical strike picket lines have looked like in the past 25 years. Anemic is the word for them. They should at minimum be proud of their accomplishment of doing something that other unions haven't done in a long time, built significant public support for picket lines. So I don't see that the comparison to internet campaigns to keep a tv show on air is a relevant comparison. The relevant comparison is with other unions who have tried to get the public to turn up at their picket lines. If twenty non union members had shown up to most union picket lines we have been on, then that would have been considered an a great success. But that 300 people show up for a picket line! Do they even realize what they have done?
2) For the first time a wide audience has been educated in what the big corporations are doing to create new forms of "property" -- called intellectual property. Most of the public is blithely unaware of the fact that immortal and undead corporations are trying to transform basic rights to create and make art work for artists into a new form of "property" that they and they alone own. For the first time I have seen people who knew nothing about the new corporate intellectual property regime talking about how corporations are trying to disinvest individuals and "own" the works of our culture. This is what education around the issue of residuals has done. A writer who writes a story on his own, owns the writes to that story. But a writer who writes a story while employed by a corporation gives up all rights to that story, and it has suddenly become the "property" of the corporation for almost the whole of a century. When I went to the picket line at Viacom I heard the UAW people who were there on the picket line talk about this for the first time, and realizing in shock that these writers were being treated like the old blues musicians. (This was there analogy. All of the UAW people there were African-American and this was an analogy that they gave to some of the writers when they were talking about the subject.) The writers themselves don't seem to realize that even this small impact on this issue is a huge impact. People have simply heard about this issue for the first time.
3) The problem of a "good example." The writers strike has had some effect on media companies already. They are deeply afraid that there other workers might organize. This is why the permalancers won. The permalancers who I met at the Viacom picket told me that they would not have won back their health care benefits if the writers hadn't been on strike. Viacom headquarters were deeply afraid that all of their clericals and creative people would organize into unions.
As I said previously, for reasons that are largely accidental, the WGA has been made the wedge of the union movement, and it is possible that their victory or defeat will be for the "noughts" what the defeat of PATCO was for the 80s. This is both something to worry about and a reason for the rest of us to work all that much harder for an opening for a WGA victory.
4) For the first time many people, because of all of the organizing of the writers, have in front of their mind the relation between multinational corporations, the consolidation of communication media, and problems of who controls the creation of popular culture. It is true that the average guy or gal who watches "Bionic Woman" might just talk about greedy writers, but for the first time I have seen on fansites, people talking about the fact that writers, directors, and actors are the people who create the shows they love and they should be the ones who should be in charge of that creation. Whether it is fans of "Battlestar" or "Heroes", this is one of the first time that this conversation is happening.
Again for all of these reasons, that is why I say that this strike is important, perhaps more important than even the rank and file writers that I ahve talked to know.
On Dec 19, 2007 9:49 AM, Emily Compton < emilybcompton at gmail.com> wrote: Dwayne Monroe on the WGA strike. Read it, think, and weep.
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dwayne Monroe < dwayne.monroe at gmail.com> Date: Dec 19, 2007 8:53 AM Subject: [lbo-talk] Team Monroe, LA Division, Weighs in on Whedon's Fan Faith To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
First of all, everyone should read (or re-read) Jerry Monaco's awesome overview of the WGA strike which is available at:
< http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20071210/023514.html>
And second, here are emails I received from two of my friends - LA-based writers - thinking aloud about Whedon's optimism re: fans -
JD writes:
That's nice, but I think there are also fans who are saying "OK, there's nothing new on TV so I think I'll read this book I've been putting off, or watch this DVD I haven't watched yet, or play this videogame I haven't finished yet." There's a lot more competing for eyes these days. [Many people] enjoy and watch a lot of television, but while they'll miss some shows the overall feeling I'm getting right now is one of relief. Relief that there's nothing you "have" to watch so you can kick back and play Halo 3 and catch up on some movies you've been meaning to watch.
That said, I don't think there's going to be any kind of mass viewer exodus from TV but some shows are going to get hurt. Look what happened to Lost's ratings when they took that extended hiatus in the middle of the season. It dropped out of the public eye and when it came back, not everyone was there waiting. I don't think everyone's going to be there waiting after this strike, too. I'm kind of surprised Whedon didn't learn the lesson of the Browncoat Battle for Serenity. Judging by the internet hubbub, you would have thought the
Browncoats were going to be rallying and organizing thousands of people to go see Serenity in the theaters. Then the movie was released and instead of a packed backlot filled with cowboys firing sixshooters in the air, we got tumbleweeds blowing past as a couple dejected cowboys sat drinking themselves into a stupor in the saloon, one of the few buildings on the set that wasn't just a facade. The Internet battle cry never materialized into anything. It too was just a facade.
C-ster writes:
The public support thing is a frustrating issue.
It's true that Joss barely ever runs into anyone who doesn't want to earn his favor. They're either friends or sycophants or family. And if some buster does recognize him on the street, do you think he's really going to say something negative? It's not like he's a familiar face. Only a true fanboy would be able to differentiate him from a million other doughy, redheaded white boys.
But you certainly hope people can see how this really is an issue of monstrous communication companies trying to break the wills of mostly ordinary people, struggling just to pay their bills and pursue something they love.
I think it's hard for most working folks to relate with the whole residual issue. When construction workers build a stadium, they don't expect a penny for every ticket sold. But then again, how many construction workers have to go to hundreds of meetings and spend thousands of man-hours... without the promise of ever making a penny? How many have ever spent a year working on an idea for a house, only to open up Hollywood Housing Reporter and find out a more famous construction worker just sold that exact same house days earlier -- making all their work completely obsolete? Residuals are the nugget of gold that makes all the creative panhandling possible.
If I could have people think one thing, it would be, "Why are these faceless corporations willing to pay more for ad campaigns than it would cost to accept these terms for the next five years? Is this any different than my own company creating higher quarterly revenues by cutting my health-care and downsizing?"
Of course, smart money is on, "I've already seen this episode of Bionic Woman. Fucking writer faggots!"
We'll see. Gotta remain hopeful.
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