For anyone who is interested I have written a series of posts intended to give a deeper context to the writers' strike:
The latest is called _The Social Economy of a Hollywood Strike_. http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/77096.html
In it I try to give a broader view of the writers' strike. I explain why the WGA strike is important but for the Labor Movement in Southern California and in the U.S. as a whole. I also try to explain the point of view of the multinational corporations in this strike and in so doing attempt to account for why the AMPTP has so far refused to negotiate in good faith with the WGA.
The post begins:
"The importance of the writers' strike to the multinational corporations can be summed up in a few sentences: The corporations that dominate the entertainment industry are fighting a battle for control of labor and creative products. In this battle they are the vanguard of a fight in which many other corporations also have a stake. All corporations in the so-called "post-industrial" economy look at the battle of the "The Hollywood Industry" as their battle. What makes this fight crucial for the owners and managers, is that what is on the line is not only the corporate interests of Viacom and Sony, but, to a large extent, Microsoft and Monsanto.
"The implications of the WGA-AMPTP strike for the union movement in the United States deserves a longer explanation. It must take into account the changing economy in Hollywood and through-out the U.S. The significance of the writers' strike goes far beyond the workers in the entertainment industry. Sometimes I think the writers on strike and the workers in the industry do not themselves know the importance of this battle to the labor movement as a whole and to all creative people in our society. Unfortunately, my brothers and sisters in the union movement have also not recognized the full implications of this strike for the future of our movement.
First, of course, the writer's strike is important to the union movement in Southern California. It should be obvious to all people who know the history of the labor movement that the Southern California union movement often follows in the wake of the successes or failures of the Hollywood unions. This has been the case since the 1930s. At first, this was so, because the organization of the Hollywood unions was the big break for the union movement in an area of the country that was open shop, anti-union, and a locus for brutal union busting by the metropolitan authorities. Later, Hollywood workers' organizations were often a model for union success or for union failure in other industries. But one of the biggest reasons that Hollywood union success can spur on success in the Southern California region is because the Hollywood labor force includes among their members representatives from all important crafts in the economy as a whole -- carpenters, electricians, painters, designers and skilled workers of all sorts. Thus, for example, if painters organized a union with-in the studios in the 1930s this organization often spread to other painters in Southern California outside of the studios. If carpenters get a raise in the Hollywood unions this puts pressure on employers of carpenters through-out the region to raise wages."
Other posts I have written related to the writers' strike are"
The WGA and the Attempt to Organize the Unorganized: Anti-union misconceptions http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/76311.html
Here I talk about the demand by the WGA to organize animation and reality writers.
Who are the Producers? Part 1 - Social Reflections on the Writers' Strike http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/75793.html I explain why the producers of the AMPTP produce nothing....
Ghosts of Strikes Past: Class Struggle, Strike Breaking & Blacklisting In Hollywood http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/76272.html
This is a reflection on the book "Class Struggle In Hollywood, 1930 – 1950: Moguls, Mobsters, Stars, Reds, & Trade Unionists" by Gerald Horne with some comments on the current situation.
Auteurs and Managers: Class Struggle, Blacklists, Business Models, and Film Theory http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/77018.html
This is my reflection of how the _auteur_ theory is part of the ideology of domination of managers over creators.
Jerry Monaco