La grève des scénaristes d’Hollywood et sa portée politique implicite, – qui devient explicite

Le site WSWS.org a suivi avec une attention toute prolétarienne la grève des scénaristes d’Hollywood. Cette grève est maintenant dans sa septième semaine et ne laisse espérer aucune issue avant longtemps. Elle commence à affecter gravement le fonctionnement de l’“industrie du divertissement” (“entertainment industry”, terme qui comprend aussi bien le cinéma que la télévision et les activités complémentaires de cette sorte).

Alors que cette grève est née de revendications salariales classiques, elle commence à laisser apparaître une dimension politique intéressante. Outre son aspect de rapport financier colossal pour le capitalisme US, l’“entertainment industry” est un des piliers du système pour la mise permanente en condition des esprits de la population. Depuis l’origine des USA, par les différents moyens de communication à mesure de leur évolution technologique, il s’est agi d’une organisation de propagande organisée de manière structurelle, si profondément et d’une façon apparemment si apolitique, avec un aspect si consensuel et si auto-suggéré de la part de ses “fabriquants”, qu’on peut la considérer comme une activité fondamentalement virtualiste pour construire et entretenir l’image du système. La grève des scénaristes est en train d’être appréciée de plus en plus comme une attaque contre ce modèle, c’est-à-dire comme une attaque contre les structures du capitalisme US en tant que système de société.

Dans un long texte mis en ligne aujourd’hui, WSWS.org détaille les divers affrontements, pressions, etc., entre les capitalistes du système, qui possèdent les grands groupes de communications, et les scénaristes et ceux qui leur sont associés. Puis le texte observe:

«Two days later, a studio executive told Variety, speaking of the guild leaders, “For them, this is not a writers strike. It’s about changing society. ... We are so frustrated. We’re dealing with people who don’t care about this community. They care about making social change in America.”

»In regard to the WGA leadership, which is respectable and well-heeled and which continues to pledge its commitment to the best interests of ‘the industry as a whole,’ including of course the profits of the giant firms, this is a fantasy. However, the entertainment moguls are not wrong in seeing the strike as objectively posing questions about the structure of their industry and American society as a whole.

»Both decent living standards for writers and everyone else in the entertainment industry and an artistically and intellectually satisfying popular culture are incompatible with the current corporate stranglehold. How can the writers advance their cause without challenging the present set-up and contributing to the emergence of a mass anti-capitalist social movement in the US?»

Le texte reproduit également plusieurs entretiens avec différents grévistes, des scénaristes mais aussi d’autres membres du domaine qui soutiennent la grève. On reproduit ici un entretien avec un acteur, Gary Watts, qui soutient le mouvement des scénaristes, participe à leurs manifestations, à leurs piquets de grèves, etc. On voit que l’entretien est clairement politique, portant sur la situation politique fondamentale des USA; on voit surtout comment, à partir d’un raisonnement assez sommaire qui est celui de l’origine de la grève et de la situation générale des USA hors les 5% détenant la majorité de la fortune de ce pays, la pensée en arrive inévitablement à une expression politique révolutionnaire.

«We spoke to actor Gary Watts, present at the rally to show his support for the striking writers.

»Watts explained his views: “The AMPTP want something for nothing out of the backbone of the American working class and it’s just not going to happen any longer. I mean it’s time that we take back America, it’s time that we have a middle class, preserve what’s left of the middle class and it’s time that the writers, the Screen Actors Guild and everyone else get their fair share. We’re only asking for what’s fair.

» “We look at this entertainment industry, it’s made up of multibillion-dollar corporations in a multibillion-dollar industry. You see the box office results, but we have to remember that most of those results printed in newspapers are only domestic; they’re not even talking about foreign moneys that are made out of this. So we’re looking at something on a scale that is unprecedented and if we don’t put a stop to it now, then America and the working class is in serious, serious trouble.

» “As we speak right now on this line December 18, the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] is holding a hearing about more media consolidation. That would be just devastating to the American people as a whole—not just America, but globally it would have an impact on the dissemination of information. So there are some serious issues at hand here.

» “I’m very disappointed with the Democratic Party at this point in time because they have shown very few differences with the Republican Party when it comes to standing up and fighting for the American working class. We’re going to have to have a viable third party in this country. The Democrats and the Republicans have got to this situation. ‘So what are you going to do, vote for a Republican?’ That’s what the Democrats will say. The Republicans will say, ‘What are you going to do, vote for a Democrat?’ If it’s only the lesser of two evils, why vote for anybody at all? It’s time for us to have a viable independent third party not beholden to anybody but the American people.

» “Even though we live in a capitalist society, what you really see during time of need is that the American people come together and act in a socialist manner, such as taking care of their neighbors, taking care of their friends, helping everybody out. I think basically the socialism that I’m looking at is part of the fabric of American society—or used to be anyway—it used to be the ‘we’ instead of the ‘me.’ And I believe that’s the social conscience that the old America used to have.

» “I mean, ‘by the people, for the people,’ going back to the essence of what America was founded on, going back to the essence of the Constitution of the United States. I think America as a whole—in the political arena especially—has wandered away from the true intent of the forming of this country. We have to go back to the basics. We the people need to go back to that kind of essence.

»“Both parties will come together on issues that affect them. Democrats and Republicans will do anything that they possibly can to ensure that there is no independent party or any independent opposition, anything that threatens the two-party system. They will join together to ensure that that doesn’t happen.”»

Mis en ligne le 21 décembre 2007 à 09H47