Re: RAT Mistuh Bretz, He said...

[Ty Furman <tyf@pobox.upenn.edu>]

I happen to know that Innovative Artists is supporting the strike and
not submitting actors.

Ty in Philly

Audie McCall wrote:

> Apparently the following message from Matthew Bretz
> got posted to the BCT list, but not the RAT list.
> Allow me to rectify this egregious ommision.
>
> (And in the future, Mr. Bretz, keep in mind that every
> RAT across the globe deserves access to your
> brilliant, conscise, hotty radical thoughts.)
>
> Contrary to over a century's worth of idiotic
> interpretation of the 14th Ammendment, corporations
> are NOT people and do NOT share their rights.  Power
> to the people.  Power to SAG, power to the guy who
> works craft service.
>
> But enough of my bombast, here's wut Matty sayed:
>
> Did anyone else hear the producer's rep on Which Way
> LA yesterday and suddenly feel like Eugene V. Debs?
> Man, these guys are greedy,  selfish and unabashed. I
> miss my goat.
>
> But I must say that I find the agents position
> unconscionable. If our agents backed our strike by not
> submitting actors period, it would be over in a week.
> Does it seem outrageous to anyone else that we make
> their money and they are selling us out by bolstering
> non-union  rosters and sending out scabs to work in
> our place?
>
> I have great deal of sympathy for the non-union actor
> who is now  offered a job and takes it because it
> means food on the table. I don't  condone it and I
> think that union actors should be thinking about why a
> non-union actor should want to support the strike. How
> are we about raising the living standards of all
> actors? And what are we willing  to do for non-union
> actors to get them to feel positively about joining
> the union and developing worker solidarity in the arts
> community before  and after the strike? Remember, in
> any other industry the union recruits! A union's power
> is directly proportional to its ability to represent
> all workers in the industry. It is a "club". But it is
> a club in which  we focus on the fact that we are not
> competeing with one another for  jobs. We are
> competing with producers who will not hesitate to play
> us off  of one another to serve the consolidation of
> capital in their hands, not ours.
>
> At any rate, a limited strike will have limited
> results. We have to find a way to shut the commercial
> industry down and that requires the cooperation of
> agents, not to mention coworkers like non-union
> actors, writers, directors, grips, gaffers. How do we
> develope a common interest in order to spread the
> strike?
>
> SAG actors --Would you walk out for an extras strike?
> A craft service strike? Until you can answer yes to
> this, I fear we cannot expect  much soldarity.
>
> Matthew
>
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--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We work in the dark - we do what we can -
we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion,
and our passion is our task.
The rest is the madness of art.
** Henry James
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ty A. Furman