Screen Actors Guild negotiations continue in secret: The need for socialist politics in the film and television industry

A media blackout on the negotiations is in effect. SAGs web site has carried versions of the following brief announcement over the past several days:

Los Angeles, June 28, 2008The Screen Actors Guild national negotiating committee met with the employers at the AMPTP headquarters in Sherman Oaks [California] today. We have concluded for the day and will resume on Sunday. We have no further comment.

There is no reason to have any confidence in such a process and, in fact, every likelihood that SAG members, like members of the Directors Guild (DGA), Writers Guild (WGA) and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) before them, will be presented with a rotten compromise that satisfies none of their underlying needs.

SAG leaders have criticized AFTRAs recent capitulation to the AMPTP and argue that they are willing to hold out for something better. AFTRA, which is smaller than SAG, but shares with it approximately 44,000 members, recently agreed to a contract essentially on the terms set by the conglomerates. The latter, massive media transnationals, are determined to cut costs and earn billions in new media at the expense of writers, directors and other industry workers.