By Joe Langabeer, Enfield South LP and BECTU member
An article in The Guardian entitled, ‘’Stressed, sick and skint’ described how coronavirus is hitting Arts workers. It gives an account of the situation experienced by those who work in the artistic industry and it explores the damning effects of halting the economy on self-employed workers and those who work in technical and administrative capacities.
At the time of writing, the government has introduced a package for self-employed workers, to accompany the ‘furlough scheme,’ thanks to which companies will be able to pay up to 80% of their employees’ pay, providing they are willing to apply for it. On the surface, this seems to be a beneficial manoeuvre for employees and self-employed workers. However, the consequences of free-market actions in relation to the Arts could have disastrous consequences for years to come.
Thought-provoking art
Firstly, to present a historical analysis, it is important to note that before Thatcherism, artists were relatively well-funded by government bodies like Arts Council England, who would fund political and thought-provoking art that challenged the aesthetical relevance of the artistic industry. Theodor W. Adorno, who had championed such a challenge, wrote in Aesthetic Theory that “art represents the masses, by confronting them as that which they could be, rather than conforming to them in their degraded state.”
To give Adorno a full account would take a much longer article has, but his statement is particularly relevant when considering the larger context of artistic aesthetical value. Most of the prominent works that flourished in the 1970s were developed by small companies dedicated to the discussion of Marxist literature and socialist political development. They extended their activism to demonstrations and protests as well as producing art that was politically involved.
Theatre companies funded by the state
Among them, we would mention in particular the Red Ladder Theatre Company and 7:84. These were funded directly by the state, which allowed a wide variety of theatre to flourish. Thatcherism and the expansion of free market ideology led to cuts in the Arts Council’s funding and paved the way for the commercialisation of the Arts.
A specific example of this is found in Cameron Mackintosh’s ‘McTheatre’ franchising, which majorly contributed to the successful dominance of the commercialised sector of the theatre industry. The Arts Council admitted to being afraid of funding projects that were associated with political ideas as it would have been subjected to more cuts.
This has all been documented in Thatcher’s Theatre, an analysis of theatre during Thatcher’s era. New Labour restored some of these financial aids but did not reverse the ideological thought that came from Thatcherism and allowed the market to remain entrenched throughout the artistic industry.
Gig-economy-type conditions
How does this apply to the coronavirus situation? The artistic industries have been left with little subsidised funding for them to thrive in the 21st century. This has allowed the commercialised sector to exploit the workforces, forcing them to accept gig-economy-type conditions: zero-hour contracts on a product-by-product basis, minimum wages and insecure work conditions for freelancers and contract workers.
Venues and companies associated with the commercialised sector have started to present the idea that working for them is a ‘privilege’ in order to produce in workers more of a ‘voluntary’ approach. The coronavirus pandemic, as it stands, has led companies to threaten immediate redundancies and deliver to freelance workers broken promises. An insecure workforce has been relentlessly exploited by the industry, and now it is up to the workforces and their unions to start organising and fighting this exploitation by the current capitalist structure.
Stagnation in the arts industry
There is another equally important point to focus on. The current market-driven ideology within the Arts has led to passivity in regards to any efforts to aesthetically challenge the Arts. An essay written by Louis Althusser, who was a French Marxist philosopher, entitled Ideology and Ideological state apparatuses examines how the dominant class uses the its ideology to pacify the masses.
This phenomenon, combined with the dominance of capitalism within the arts and the extensive cutting of Thatcher’s government, has led to a stagnation of the artistic industry. This has meant the aesthetics of the artistic industry are not challenged. For this to change, a case must be argued for a total nationalised ownership of theatres, and the creation of consistent state-funded sources, so that it could allow the production of work that challenge current artistic aesthetics. Coronavirus has shown the weakness of capitalism and the degree of its exploitation of all workers, but not least of its artistic workforce. The workers in the artistic world must come together to demand better conditions and the overhaul of the systematic failures of capitalism that have been plaguing the values of Art for too long.
March 30, 2020
