Growing pains...

There's a worrying trend towards hysteria in Aotearoa at the moment. Is it part of our growing pains as a nation or are we becoming ever more polarised, or both? The current debacle with The Hobbit is a case in point. The blacklist was the wrong action, at the wrong time, against the wrong foe. The Actors Equity Union here (as much as they actually still have a say - outside of their cohorts in Aus) needed to take the moral high ground right from the start. It's hard to do that while making threats. They've succeeded (in the perception of a large number of the public here) in casting Warner Bros executives as the good guys. That took some doing. The basic issue (beyond the specifics of The Hobbit case) is a common one. The idea and ability of employer and contractor making a reasoned, balanced individual agreement depends entirely on the disparity in power between the two. Hence the collective power of unions, being the employee's support structure. If the Actors' Union(s) wanted to enter into a dialogue (which is reasonable, surely, considering the amount of money going back up the channel to the studio) then starting a blacklist failed as a means to set up that dialogue. This allowed Sir Peter Jackson and Warners (both commercial operators subject to commercial reality) to play the aggrieved benefactor card, which is an effective piece of Hollywood schtick and sent most of the media and resultant publicity in one direction only. The hysteria has been extraordinary, and shows that Aotearoa is still dependent on too few money-making channels.

The blacklist isolated the union actors, when collectivity and public backing was critical.

The publicity given to tech people who were 'happy to work on the project' shows how we need to be careful that we think about and know what we're seeing. Of course they're happy to, they need the work. I'd likely do the same. That doesn't automatically or necessary mean tacit acceptance of all issues regarding conditions. Or that Warner's and Jackson's positions are entirely lilywhite. Remember the disparity in power.

There's been much manipulation of public sentiment and opinion here. The government fell too easily into treating this as some bad Hollywood western, with good guys and varmints. They could've taken a public stand to protect all NZer's, including the union actors, and presented a reasoned argument about commercial reality. They didn't. The NZ economy does need The Hobbit and future projects to be filmed here, there's no need to demonize anyone to make that clear.

No one comes out of this clean. Let's hope that when this shambles passes, that parties can get back to talking together like reasonable adults again and we can get on with enjoying Jackson's movies. Even with a major disparity in power (which after all, we live with all the time, how we enjoy but attempt not to get killed by the sun's rays, for instance) we can still find room to manouvre and look for win-win agreements.

But only through talking.