media and culture
News and articles about work, policy and workers' struggles in the media and culture industries around the world, and analysis and reviews of art, culture and the media.
Declan Curry - most prominent BBC news scab
Business presenter Declan Curry was the only presenter to cross picket lines on BBC1's breakfast show during the 2005 strike.
The Guardian reported that he said "I don't support the strike at all. The management have made a very strong case in my view as to why these cuts are necessary."
He hoped that "fellow workers" would respect his decision.
libcom heard reports that he was bombarded with emails denouncing his actions, with at least one journalist emailing him Jack London's The Scab:
France: One-day strike at Nice-Matin
Staff at the newspaper group Nice-Matin went on strike on Saturday, demanding assurances about the future of the newspaper and of their jobs.
No editions of the paper Nice-Matin or its sister titles Var-Matin and Corse-Matin were produced this Saturday. Staff took action due to a proposed sale of the group by its parent company, Lagardère, the proposed buyer, the Le Monde group, plans to merge these regional titles (and others) and printing operations.
Projectile: The interview
Freedom newspaper caught up with a member of the collective organising Projectile, the annual anarchist film festival in Newcastle.
...
Freedom: You've done two previous festivals, how do you think this one will compare?
Muehsam, Erich, 1878-1934
A short biography of Erich Muehsam, German poet, playwright, bohemian and anarchist revolutionary.
Erich Muehsam was born in Berlin in 1878 into a fairly well-to-do Jewish family. Soon after his family moved to Luebeck in north Germany where his father worked as a pharmacist (in fact the pharmacy is still there).
Duke, James Herriott, 1939-1992
A short biography of Australian anarchist poet, James Herriott Duke, who also lived in the UK.
Remembering Jim Duke
"I started performing poems as a timid person with a stutter but the spirit of the times soon converted me into a bellowing bull." Jim Duke
“The voice played like a human saxophone.” Nicholas Zurbrugg
Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924
A short biography of the anarchist-influenced writer whose name spawned an adjective for the absurdities of bureaucratic power.
“Our laws are not generally known; they are kept secret by the small group of nobles who rule us … for the laws were made to the advantage of the nobles from the very beginning, they themselves stand above the laws” (Kafka, The Problem of Our Laws)
Denmark: hundreds wildcat at public broadcaster
Hundreds of employees at Denmark's public broadcaster walked out in a wildcat strike yesterday against plans to cut over 10% of the workforce.
Denmark's public broadcaster announced on Tuesday that it will cut 300 jobs — from a workforce of 2,600 — as part of a cost-cutting package prompted by overruns in the construction of its new headquarters. It is not clear how many workers were involved in the action.
1986-1987: Wapping printers strike
A short history of a strike by printers in the London borough of Wapping which began in the winter of 1986 and ended just over a year later. The strike marked one of the last major confrontations of the 1980s between workers and employers.
The strike of newspaper workers that began on January 24, 1986, marked the beginning of a bitter year long dispute between the print workers of Wapping, a borough of East London, and their employers, the publishing company News International.
Acín Aquilué, Ramón, 1888-1936
A short biography of Spanish anarchist and artist Ramón Acín Aquilué who was shot by fascists at the start of the Civil War in 1936.
“We have as our flag the love of culture, the cult of fraternity and liberty”
TV bosses bank scripts due to writers strike threat
TV studio execs in the US might try to nip the potential threat of a writers strike by tucking away scripts or even shooting extra episodes of hit dramas and sitcoms.
Carl DiOrio and Nellie Andreeva reported on Backstage.com that the fledgling plan represents what a key management insider described as "phase one" of studio strike preparations. It's considered more important for TV execs than those in film to get a jump on planning for a possible writers walkout - the current WGA contract expires Oct.
