The AFM Observer

The Paranoid Style in AFM Politics

45 years ago the American political historian Richard J. Hofstadter wrote a very influential essay in Harper's magazine called The Paranoid Style in American Politics:

The paranoid spokesman sees the fate of conspiracy in apocalyptic terms — he traffics in the birth and death of whole worlds, whole political orders, whole systems of human values. He is always manning the barricades of civilization... he does not see social conflict as something to be mediated and compromised, in the manner of the working politician. Since what is at stake is always a conflict between absolute good and absolute evil, what is necessary is not compromise but the will to fight things out to a finish. Since the enemy is thought of as being totally evil and totally unappeasable, he must be totally eliminated — if not from the world, at least from the theatre of operations to which the paranoid directs his attention..

The enemy is clearly delineated: he is a perfect model of malice, a kind of amoral superman—sinister, ubiquitous, powerful, cruel, sensual, luxury-loving. Unlike the rest of us, the enemy is not caught in the toils of the vast mechanism of history, himself a victim of his past, his desires, his limitations. He wills, indeed he manufactures, the mechanism of history, or tries to deflect the normal course of history in an evil way. ...Very often the enemy is held to possess some especially effective source of power: he controls the press; he has unlimited funds; he has a new secret for influencing the mind (brainwashing); he has a special technique for seduction (the Catholic confessional).

Hofstadter never heard of the cOMMITTEe, but he would have recognized their place in his theory from their most recent email blast:

WELCOME BACK SBCGLOBAL / BELLSOUTH / ATT SUBSCRIBERS!

WHERE HAVE WE BEEN? We've been here the whole time, sending out our mailings on a weekly basis. Unfortunately SBCGlobal, ATT and Bellsouth has been blocking our mailings to you for almost a year and you've missed A LOT!

It could have been from their software but more than likely the usual suspects have been filing complaints that got SBCGlobal, etc. to block you from information the powers that be might not want you to know!

RMA not only controls LA, Nashville, and NY - they control the phone companies as well! Added proof could be that my email software (Eudora) also thought their email was spam and sent it to the "Junk" folder on my computer. Steve Jobs hearts Phil Ayling, I guess.

Less exciting, but still revealing, was their citation of reporting on the 802 elections:

Members being apathetic about their locals and the future of the federation has handed the NEW YORK LOCAL over to RMA sympathizers. According to a vocal anti-AFM Website, the winner of the recent 802 election, Tino Gagliardi, "represents a faction of those unhappy with Tom's presidency, and in particular his dealings with recording musicians."

It took me a surprising length of time to stop wondering if a new blog had popped up and figure out that they were talking about me. Of course, the misquotation didn't help; what I actually wrote was:

This is the second large local in a row (after Nashville) in which allies of Tom Lee were defeated by those who were unhappy with Tom's presidency, and in particular his dealings with recording musicians.

Not quite the same thing, but then I've come to expect the cOMMITTEe to act as if they're a dotted-quarter short of a 4/4 bar. They also confuse democratic dissent with treason, as the description of this as an "anti-AFM" blog shows. My record of support for the AFM over the years is clear and public, as what I wrote on this blog almost a year ago demonstrates:

...should the musicians of the Madison Symphony vote to join the AFM? I'd sure vote to do so if I played in the Madison Symphony. The reasons for doing so are compelling...

The AFM, like every other human enterprise – families, churches, orchestras, businesses, governments – is imperfect. These days its imperfections are very much on display. But there’s no other union I’d rather belong to than this one. For all its weirdnesses, it's done a good job providing services to its symphonic musicians in a way that gives a great deal of control to those musicians. I am very confident that it will continue to do so.

But the confusion is telling. One of the most distressing aspects of Tom Lee's presidency has been its eerie echoing of the presidency of George W. Bush: starting unnecessary wars, the elevation of politics over policy, the pathological emphasis on loyalty above performance ("heck of a job, Terri") and in particular the identification of the incumbent with the state itself.

Any Obamas out there?

Whack-a-mole

Tom Lee seems to still be unhappy about reports regarding the TV-Videotape negotiations, at least judging by the following email sent yesterday to ICSOM officers and delegates (which also included the November 1 email blast I wrote about here):

I understand that at various times the RMA, RMALA, and some former AFM Local officers are distributing their writings to a wide variety of individuals. Many of these writings contain misinformation and conspicuously leave out pertinent facts that are important to the issue referenced. Unfortunately, the authors of the articles in the RMA and RMALA newsletters refuse to sign their names and, accordingly, accept no responsibility for supplying false or misleading information. Everyone receiving these writings is entitled to know the facts related to whatever the particular issue may be. The enclosed is to fulfill that purpose. I regret that you may be exposed to this kind of negative activity. We can only hope that more responsible members of the recording community will step forward and insist on accountability from their leaders.

The accusation that the authors of the RMA and RMALA articles are somehow dodging "responsibility for supplying false or misleading information" is particularly interesting. I assume, when I read something in the International Musician, that it reflects the position or thinking of the AFM, whether signed or not. That's because it's the official publication of the AFM. The newsletters of the RMA and RMALA are likewise the official publications of those organizations. There's no doubt about what articles in those publications represent; they represent the official thinking and positions of those organizations, unless explicitly stated to the contrary. That's how representative democracy works.

I'm sure that Tom hopes that "more responsible members of the recording community will step forward and insist on accountability from their leaders." He's certainly been trying to find people from that community who will do his bidding, albeit without much success to date. And there's no question but that he regrets that AFM members "may be exposed to this kind of negative activity" - especially when the negative activities in question are accurate descriptions of what he's been up to regarding the recording community.

But to claim that articles in official publications are attempts to dodge accountability because they don't have individual officers' names attached to them is just silly.

Local 802 election results

I'm informed that Tino Gagliardi, the Members' Party candidate, has defeated Ethan Fein, the Concerned Musicians candidate, for the presidency of Local 802, and that John O'Connor(Members' Party) has defeated incumbent Bill Dennison (Concerned Musicians) for Recording Vice-president.

While Fein was an incumbent Executive Board member and not the incumbent president, he and the incumbent president, Mary Landolfi, had essentially switched positions on the ballot. It's certainly fair to say that the incumbent Concerned Musicians party lost this election.

This is the second large local in a row (after Nashville) in which allies of Tom Lee were defeated by those who were unhappy with Tom's presidency, and in particular his dealings with recording musicians. This will have the likely effect of switching a good number of votes from Tom to whoever runs against him this summer. 802 doesn't get to vote its entire membership in elections for AFM officers, due to the AFM's undemocratic limitation on the number of votes large locals can cast in elections. But having three of the largest AFM locals controlled by officers who don't think much of Tom is not going to help him get re-elected.

Update: apparently the Members' Party had almost a clean sweep: in addition to the above positions, MP candidates won all but one of the remaining 20 or so various positions up for election.

Busted - again

The cOMMITTEe received an email from Tom Lee about Phil Ayling and the recent TV/Videotape negotiations in New York which rather mis-stated what really happened:

I have just one clarification on the TV/Videotape negotiation RMA debacle. Phil Ayling notified me that he was the RMA rank and file and would be coming to the negotiation. I placed his name on the security list under that assumption. The fact is that he didn’t show up. Instead, he used the RMA newsletter to blast me with his usual smear stuff.

Compare this to the letter that Roger Blanc, president of the New York Chapter of the RMA, recently sent to Tom:

To the best of our understanding, no names of RMA members were placed on the CBS building security list until the second day of the negotiations, and only then subsequently to the RMA issuing a letter of public protest. Neither was any invitation ever extended by the AFM to RMA Videotape rank and file representative Phil Ayling so that he might undertake to make the trip to New York and attend the negotiations in his official capacity.

Tom's email doesn't say that Phil was sent an invitation (he wasn't). Nor does it say just when Phil's name was placed on the security list. Nor does it mention Tom's email to Phil, which told him there was no guarantee that he would be allowed into the meetings.

If Roger Blanc's letter has the facts correct, then it's pretty clear that Tom is trying to convince people that Phil was expected (and welcome) to come and then chose not to, when the facts are that Phil actually would have been turned away by the CBS building security guards on the first day of the negotiations.

In other words, Tom would be trying to propagate what experts in the English language would call a "lie." This would mean that the AFM has a president who is a "liar."

That would not be good.

Nothing to see here; move along please

An announcement that contains all of the good news and none of the bad:

From the Office of the AFM President
Dear Local Officer,
I am pleased to announce that at 3 am on Friday morning, November 6, after five rounds of negotiations over the course of nearly nine months, the Federation and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) reached a tentative agreement on new Theatrical and Television Motion Picture Agreements that will run through February 2013. The Agreements grant the Federation jurisdiction over productions made for New Media, significantly increase contribution rates into the Film Musicians Secondary Market Fund for traditional product exhibited in New Media, provide a new income stream when music is used in New Media other than in New Media productions, protect musicians’ health benefits at a time of increasing pressure on those benefits, and increase wages over the term of the Agreements. At the same time, we were able to resist successfully significant AMPTP efforts to undercut many longstanding protections contained in the Agreements. The details of the new Agreements will be sent to members eligible to vote in a ratification package within the coming weeks.

For the record, I've heard nothing at all about the contents of this settlement. But I can't believe that the AFM didn't make some concessions to get whatever improvements might exist in this agreement. And, given how thoroughly the representatives the the rank-and-file elected were marginalized in the run-up to this negotiation, and how thoroughly they've been demonized by Tom and the rest of the IEB, I wonder just how much input the boots on the ground had in the final result.

But no doubt all will be revealed in due course, warts and all. For, if there's one thing that even newbie negotiations quickly learn, there are always warts in a collective bargaining agreement.

Oops

I'll bet this was an email blast that Tom really, really hated having to send out:

Dear Local Officer,

I would like to correct an error in the e-mail that you received from me on November 1st.  That e-mail incorrectly stated that Dave Pomeroy is the RMA Nashville President.  It should have stated instead that he is President of Local 257 (Nashville, TN) and a member of the RMA International Board.  

No word yet on whether Pomeroy being a member of the RMA board neutralizes the truthiness of his representation of the rank-and-file conferred by being a Local officer. No doubt that was destroyed by his part in RMA's sinking to a new low with their appalling claim that the IEB generally does what Tom wants it to.

There are an endless number of ways to be a bad person in this union, it appears.

Busted

On Sunday, November 1, Tom Lee sent an email blast to Local officers, complaining about what RMA had been saying about him:

The Recording Musicians Association International (RMA) leadership recently disseminated an e-mail blast that contained the following misleading allegations about the TV/Videotape negotiations that are currently in progress:  

"Local officers pleaded with President Lee to allow the RMA to attend the negotiations, but they were rebuffed.  And in response to a written inquiry by RMA President Phil Ayling, President Lee confirmed that he would not allow your Player Conference representatives at the table or in caucus."

 The undeniable truth is that the AFM did not refuse Phil Ayling a seat at the bargaining table at the TV/Videotape negotiations.  Such allegations are extremely irresponsible and are part of a larger, reckless campaign by a handful of individuals to convince members that the AFM does not support recording musicians. 

 The enclosed attachments will demonstrate that the AFM, when officially notified, took steps to ensure that Phil Ayling and other RMA members would be seated at the negotiations.   When you read the attachments you will see that none of the emails that I sent contained words that stated or implied that "President Lee confirmed that he would not allow your Player Conference representatives at the table or in caucus."

As one would expect with Tom, all of his communications with the RMA were carefully worded (and no doubt vetted by B&K at considerable expenditure of members' dues) to achieve the desired end (the exclusion of the RMA in general and Phil Ayling in particular) without unarguably violating any bylaws. But it is very hard to read the communications sent by Tom without concluding that his goal was to exclude anyone from the negotiations except those he wanted there.