Writer Johnny Sharp succinctly sums up the satiation… "Even if the battle is ultimately lost, in an age when unions are routinely discredited everywhere we have at least shown Bauer and the rest of the media that we can collectively bargain and withdraw our labour if we feel strongly about something. That alone has been worth fighting for.”
Dave Marsh also points out that, even though victory was not achieved, the good fight was fought, and could be emulated by a lot of creative people who are currently being royally fucked by media bosses both in Europe and USA. (I hope Dave doesn’t mind me quoting him.) “I can tell you from long experience that what has happened with music writers in the UK is all but unthinkable amongst any kind of writers over on this side of the pond. I don't know that that is something to be proud of, given how generally worthless we've become, but it is at least an indication that you have a lot more left to lose than you think. And that means, also, that you have a much better chance of gain than many will believe.”
Many of those who refused to sign the Bauer contracts are now effectively blacklisted and I personally will never work for any Bauer publication again. And I hope you won’t read any of them. The irony in all this is the more content providers are screwed, the worse the content becomes, the worse the content becomes the more the sales drop, and the magazine ultimately fails. But that’s modern capitalism for you. The corporate contempt for workers is almost equalled by their contempt for consumers.
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The secret word is United
Nice to think some of them groovy old school radical musicians might boycott Mojo. But fuck, I should live so long.
ReplyDeleteI, too,, followed this by e-mail. At the end, there was a flurry of notices from people who, with great sorrow, found it impossible to sign the Bauer contract. I wasn't familiar with all of them, but jeez, most of the people who made Mojo worth reading, whether writers or editors, were on the list. A number who did sign the contracts did so because they had families and mortgages to support, and I can't feel badly about that, but Bauer has sustained an incredible loss. Which is a good thing.
ReplyDeleteGee, now I don't have to guess what I'll do when my subscription runs out. If I want puff piece blather I can just browse the trades here.
ReplyDeleteWhy does everything just get worse?
ReplyDeleteBut if we boycott Mojo, where can we go for our exclusive Bruce Springsteen interviews?
ReplyDeleteJesus Christ, the word verification is 'coons', I shit ye not.
No Springsteen interview? No new Nick Drake retrospective? How will we live with another 10000 words on the fucking Beatles?
ReplyDelete