CTB expresses solidarity to the strike of Hollywood artists

The Brazilian Workers Center Trade Union (CTB) expresses its support and solidarity with the strike of Hollywood artists, which are both a warning and an example for the working class worldwide.

The unit of the professionals who make up the categories of actors and writers multiply the strength of the stoppage, which faces an existential threat to the artists, as actress Fran Descent, president of the actors’ union noted.

In the strike, one of the most wicked contradictions of capitalism, caused by the fact that productivity gains driven by the introduction of new technologies in the production process are appropriate exclusively by company’s owners.

In this way, capitalist profits are growing while the worker who creates wealth is alienated from the product of his work and forced to accept depreciation of wages and rights.

This phenomenon, which on a social scale results in a concentration of scandalous income, is notorious in Hollywood and is aggravated by the emergence of so -called Artificial Intelligence (AI), used by entrepreneurs to reduce remuneration, on the pretext of cutting costs.

As usual, capitalists claim financial difficulties. But this is not what the balance sheets say. Netflix registered net income of US $ 1.48 billion in the 2nd quarter of 2023 and an 8% growth in the number of platform signatures, according to the balance sheet released by the company.

This socially perverse and painful logic must be changed from the appropriation of benefits from the application of science and new technologies to economic activities, in order to distribute productivity gains to the whole of society and, in particular, the working class.

Such a change will only be possible through the struggle of the working class. Hollywood strike is a vigorous statement of US workers in this direction and can contribute to illuminating social conscience and struggle around the world.

With the conviction that it represents the feeling of the Brazilian working class as a whole, CTB reiterates full support and solidarity with the strike.

São Paulo, July 21, 2023

Adilson Araújo, president of CTB Trade Union (Center for Workers of Brazil)

Photograph: Getty-Images-via-AFP