I’ve been a member of the WGA for 29 years. I’m not a Marxian slave either. I’m a Freeper, for Gawd’s sake. It’s not ideology. There’s no left or Marxism in it whatsoever. It’s a business negotiation. It’s the free market. We have a service, they want to pay us X for it, we want X+whatever for it, they’re saying no, and we’re doing what everybody knows is the only way to win in any bargaining situation: walk out of the store. If the shopkeeper calls you back in, you win. If not, you lose. That’s the risk we’re all taking. No Karl Marx anywhere to be found in the whole equation.
Thank you for taking the time to respond.
I have been a member of the WGA longer than both of you.
karnage wrote "Politics is the art of the possible"
Yes, and ethics is the art of the principled.
Surely the protagonists of your screenplays choose ethics over expediency when faced with a moral dilemma.
You both wrote: I am not a Marxian slave.
Respectfully, I disagree and here is why.
We all know the history of the WGA. It was founded in a jurisdictional dispute between the Screenwriters Guild (today's WGA) and the ScreenPlaywriters Guild.
At the time, the USA and Hollywood was enthralled with Marxist ideology (The Blue Eagle National Recovery Act...the Harry Bridges-Herb Sorrell CSO, etc.)
Cut to the chase. The FDR administration (Department of Marxian Labor) and the Supreme Court (NLRB vs Jones and Laughlin 1937) settled in favor of the Screenwriters model.
The ScreenPlaywriters lost. And with that loss, you and I lost the ability to negotiate as freemen for the copyright of our intellectual property.
That was 1937. Stalin was killing zeks by the millions in the gulag.
70 years later, the only Marxian writers union left in the world is the WGA in Hollywood.
What's up with that?
I can prove it to you.
I dare you to attempt to negotiate as a freeman for the copyright ownership of your next screenplay.
I dare you to even attempt to get a contract where you retain ownership of your intellectual property.
Just try it, boys.
Both the MPAA (the studios) and the WGA will crush you like a wasp.
You will be expelled from the WGA, lose your P & H, and put on a list at the studios never to do business in this town again as a screenwriter.
By the way, that's called a "black list".
You will be mocked, roughed up, belittled, and dehumanized.
Like a zek in the gulag.
You will be called terrible names, socially ostracized, your children will cry; finally your steadfast wife will get depressed and threaten to leave you.
Sounds like Marxian thug politics to me.
What would your protagonist do at this point in your narrative?
CLOSE ON PROTAGONIST: His hands clasped tightly around his head (Brando in Streetcar)
This is why Hollywood scripts suck.
Screenwriters who write these stores are Marxian slaves.
When a writer cowers in real life, his fictional life becomes crap.
I am a Freeper, too. But more than that, I am a Freeman
I have lived through this horror-show many times before.
Do I have to worry about my livelihood now that I have written freely on Free Republic?
The Berlin Wall came down 18 years ago.
Why do some of us still fear for the well being of our families?
What the hell was the Cold War all about, brothers?
Marxism repeats itself, firstly as tragedy, secondly as farce.
On the picket line next week, speak the 3 taboo words of Hollywood and see what happens next:
Right To Work.
God bless you both. Show courage.
Respectfully, "beachcomber"
P.S. Do I have to worry now about my livelihood?
Do I?