Striking screenwriters refuse to surrender

It started when 12,000 television and movie writers, represented by the Writers Guild of America, walked out in November, shutting down a dozen sitcoms and almost all late-night entertainment shows.

At a time when corporations like to portray unions as out for the count, the writers, drawing widespread public support, have struck a blow for solidarity reminiscent of the militant unity that built industrial unions decades ago.

Recent polls by Survey USA and Variety indicate that the 66 percent support for the strike cuts across all sections of the public, and that the majority blame the corporate media for the deteriorating quality of television and movie writing.

“Writers are the Rodney Dangerfields of the TV and movie industries. They get no respect,” columnist Clarence Page wrote recently. “The rest of us walk out of theaters … wondering why some more of the big money that we see up on the screen wasn’t spent on developing better scripts.”

Many issues are on the table in this strike, the guild’s first since its five-month walkout in 1988.