VICTORY TO THE WRITERS GUILD!

COMMENTARY


The effects of ‘globalization’ of the international capitalist markets take many forms. We are all familiar with its industrial aspect-the runaway shops and outsourcing to locations where labor is cheaper, regulation skimpier and profits greater. The American Midwest ‘rust bowl’ pays sad homage to that fact. Globalization, however, has another track, as well. That is the dramatic increase in the means of communication, the way things are communicated and who does and does not have access to those communications. That is what underlies the current strike by the several thousand television screen writers who are looking for a fairer share of the revenues resulting from the multifarious uses of their intellectual property.

This is not the 'proletarian' battle we think of from reading Marx or labor history but it is part of the class struggle nevertheless. Nor does it matter on the cultural level whether one thinks well or ill of their commercial efforts. Despite a few well known and well paid exceptions, the bulk of the Guild lives hand to mouth and royalties are a way to protect against hard times of no or rejected work. These ‘grunt’ writers who produce a product that benefits the corporations they are writing for are looking for a little better pay day for their efforts and more security in the fast changing marketplace of the selling of ideas. And they deserve it. Respect the picket lines. Victory to the Writers Guild.