Ramblings from Apalapachia...

Strike of the Ballerinas

DUUUUUUDE! Get it South Korea!

That's the article directly. Please give it a read.

If South Korean actors and writers strike against Netflix, Netflix would be COMPLETELY fucked.

If this spreads to animators it would halt the entire anime industry and severely affect the Korean and Japanese economies.

So let's get this ball rolling and fix some wage theft.

It's crazy that these strikes are happening given that all the writers and actors are asking for is less than 0.3% of the revenue these studios make.

This is what gets me. The writers and actors aren’t asking for much but these CEOs are digging their heels in

It's because it sets a precedent that the CEOs are terrified to set. That they will acquiesce to worker demands if the workers are resolute enough.

Because in an ideal world for these rich fucks, the workers give up, and the CEOs win, and its reinforced in the collective public mindset that all a strike does is "disrupt the economy, deprive people of valuable products, and waste people's time". The goal is to maintain the assertion that Strikes Don't Work. I don't think they genuinely give a shit about 0.15% of their revenue. What they care about is the OPTICS.

They cannot back down, for the exact same reason that WORKERS cannot back down. Because if the workers win, it shows people just that bit more that The Poors have power and ultimately we can make the rich do what we want if we put our fucking minds to it. And that, to the rich, is bad news bears to the highest degree.

It feels appropriate

(via @Coelasquid on Twitter)

Fun Fact: The last time both WGA and SAG (now SAG-AFTRA) were on strike together, it was in 1960. They were striking over residuals for television productions and airing of films on television.

See, the studios and networks didn't think they should pay for television. "It's too new of a technology! It's unproven! We don't know if it'll ever be profitable! Listen, why don't we just put this off for now and come back to it later..."

Damned if that doesn't sound really fucking familiar...

Wow that was FAST. Check out this YouTube ad I just got trying to hire scabs immediately.

The fact that they're advertising it as hourly pay is so telling that they're hoping to just hire random people off the street. They're trying to prey on desperate actors who don't know that $180/hr for a fucking GODZILLA movie is the hugest rip off anyone could possibly pull. No rights, royalties or residuals but hey at least you'll get paid fucking nothing!

Godzilla vs king Kong 2 is a Toho co and Warner Bros production btw. Just so you know what corporations are sanctioning this pathetic shit

personally i love strikes. love unions. love protests. big fan all around!!

Now that SAG is officially on strike alongside the WGA, remember:

No individual actor or writer is at fault if a project gets delayed or cancelled.

It’s all on the studios, networks, and streamers.

Some of you might remember a couple of years ago when Scarlett Johansson sued Disney because she was making significantly less money for Black Widow than was guaranteed in her contract because so many more people watched it on streaming than in theaters, how there was a massive misinformation campaign from Disney that a ton of people on this website (and Twitter and other social media) bought into: that she was a greedy bitch who didn't respect people who needed to stay at home during the pandemic (I believe the word "ableist" was thrown around with aplomb) as opposed to someone who just wanted to be paid what she was owed, what Disney had initially guaranteed her when they signed the contract, and whose issue obviously wasn't with streaming itself but with how little streaming was allowed to get away with paying her and other actors.

Anyway we're going to see a lot of that from studios now, especially now that actors have joined the strike and it's easier to sell them as rich and greedy than writers, because of this cultural stereotype we have of all Hollywood actors as celebrities. Don't fall for it. SAG-AFTRA represents people like Tom Cruise and ScarJo but it also represents the kind of people who played a Borg in two episodes of Star Trek: Voyager in 1997 or who had one line in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel as an enthusiastic audience member. Most actors are not crazy wealthy, and in fact, if you're a big TV fan (especially older TV and genre TV) that likely includes some actor names that you know, who played supporting roles in your fav shows, or who were even a star in something decades ago but haven't done anything major since. The AFTRA side also represents people like radio broadcasters. But even beside that, all workers deserve to be fairly compensated for the work they do, and the threat of replacing them with AI, or real actors being required to sign contracts to allow their likenesses to be used by AI forever without paying them, is an existential threat to acting as a profession in general. The actors are in the right. The writers are in the right. The studios are in the wrong. The studios have exploited new technology to get away with horrifying labor practices for years and their feet need to be put to the fire. Circulate the articles about how poorly the Orange is the New Black cast was compensated for making one of the defining shows of the early streaming boom, and of the studios saying they want to force writers to starve and lose their homes. Don't get distracted by propaganda aping progressive-sounding language about wealthy celebrities. Focus on the real enemy, the real greedy, rich assholes who care more about money than people and art: the studios.

"Matt Damon has revealed that the “Oppenheimer” cast talked about their strike strategy before hitting the movie’s red carpet premiere in London on Thursday.

“We talked about it,” Damon told Variety on the carpet. “Look, if it’s called now, everyone’s going to walk obviously in solidarity … Once the strike is officially called, [we’re walking]. That’s why we moved this [red carpet] up because we know the second it’s called, we’re going home.”

Damon added: “We gave the strike authorization. We voted 98% to 2% to do that because we know our leadership has our best interest at heart.”

“It’s really about working actors,” he continued. “It’s $26,000 to qualify for health coverage and a lot of people are on the margins and residual payments are getting them across that threshold. This isn’t an academic exercise. This is real life and death stuff. Hopefully we get to a resolution quickly. No one wants a work stoppage, but we’ve got to get a fair deal.”