Community Video Report (Autumn 1974)

10: workers Video project helps US, Welsh miners .['m_ sure everyone in this room was shocked by the situation handed to us on videotape. . .they’re back in the situation we were twenty-six years ago. . .when they're up against small owners—which we had all over our coalfields around here—owning our homes, owning our means of production, owning our food, owning our furniture shops. ..we are in a_ struggle ourselves. Although we are one hundred percent NUM or union membership, although we are nationalized, it is still necessary for us in 1974 to have a national strike so we can gain or improve our standard of living. I'll tell you one thing, if we had to face things like that—guns and violence and jail—I don't know if we'd be out of the picket line. . . by John Gaventa These were but some of the comments made by Welsh miners in Britain after watching a videotape of striking miners at the Brookside mines in Harlan County, Kentucky. The time was February 1974, and the Welsh miners themselves were on strike, in an effort to gain an increase in wages—then less than half those of most Kentucky miners. But what impressed these Welsh miners was not the wages of the American miners, but the conditions they were up against—poor safety, anti-unionism, company thugs, “kangaroo” courts. And the determination of the men, women and children of Harlan in their struggle to win basic union rights reminded these Welshmen of their own similar struggles years before. This was only one impression of many that grew from a project that I’ve been carrying out, away for a while from Appalachia, studying and researching in England. The idea of the project was simple: to use a videotape por. tapack to allow Appalachians to com municate with and learn from people in similar situations—people who were involved in or had already faced similar battles to those we face in the mountains at home. This par ticular project was on working conditions, un ‘ion organization, and union democracy among the British miners. Last November I had taken some videotape in Harlan, including interviews with union organizers—Mike Trobovich and others— speaking at the memorable rally in Evarts, and women from the picket line describing their harassment by scabs and the “justice” they received from an “operator-judge. ” Now, back in Britain, the miners’ strike provided an opportunity to show that tape and to spark some dialogue on the contrasting conditions of British and American coal mining communities. We had learned in projects in east Tennessee that videotape can help mountain people overcome their isolation and communicate directly with each other from hollow to hollow. And we've learned, too, that that direct, alternative communication is essential because the commercial media—controlled by corporate interests and aimed at middle class audiences is rarely going to tell the story that must be told of the Appalachian people. The lessons from the mountains easily apply to the way the media views and treats working people in similar situations outside of the mountains. For instance, in Britain the miners felt that the television was not giving them a fair representation—“It is just a public relations exercise with the television and the mass media when they say the public is against us,” said Terry Thomas, a miner at the Brynlliw Colliery. In the United States, the media protrayed the striking British miners as power-hungry radicals, threatening to bring the country to its knees, while little attention was drawn to the facts that they were the lowest paid miners in all of Europe and that even the public opinion polls showed them to have the support of a majority of the British public. Such instances of communication between mining communities of different countries reinforce the points we already have learned in Appalachia. We cannot depend upon the outside commercial media; there is a need for an alternative media, controlled by and provided for our own communities; and such media, when used effectively, can be a strong force in the development of consciousness, organization, and dialogue within our own communi ties and between other communities. It was with these ideas in mind, anyway, that I took a video portapack to the valleys of South Wales during the British coal miners’ strike of 1974. I took some thirty reels of tape in union halls, working men’s clubs, homes, and mine canteens. They were of meetings, interviews, reactions to American tapes, singing and rallies. There were the usual frustrating technical problems, complicated by differences in British electricity and by incompatibility of British substitutes when my gear blew out. But one hour-long edited program, Strike ’74, is now back in Appalachia, and other programs may be produced from the material soon. A few comments should be made about three particularly interesting aspects of this process. Video and Feedback. Whenever possible, the videotapes—be they interviews, meetings, choir practices, rugby matches—were shown back to the participants. The feedback sparked responses of further conversations and reflections of pride or of self-criticism. Everyone enjoys viewing themselves, but the impact is something special upon people who are normally denied the chance to watch themselves—or anybody like themselves favorably or realistically portrayed on the television screen. One particularly dramatic example of this feedback process occurred one night early in the strike in a miners’ club in the town of Clydach. I did a series of interviews about the events leading up to the strike. “It all started in 1926,” said one long-time union man, and he continued by describing in detail for thirty minutes the history of the South Wales miners since. The video was then taken into the main room, set on a table, and played back in its rough form. A friend wrote down for me what . he observed happening: “It is difficult to account for the sudden grip the video screen had on all the people there drinking beer, listening to music, talking or reading. The clutch of the set was immediate and real. No one moved to turn off this playback as they did a BBC program ina miners’ lodge up the road. Virtually no one inthe room discussed any other topic. = An unusually long attention span seemed to prevail. Video and Organizing. Two features more than any others stand out about the miners and their organization in Britain. The first is their internal union democracy; officials are elected, members participate in making decisions and formulating policies; leaders are held responsible for how they represent the men. The second impressive feature is the solidarity among the miners and with other workers. When the men went on strike, virtually all coal production in the country came to a stop. And, more effectively, the truckers, railwaymen, and dockers refused to transport any of the stockpiled coal, while many workmen of other industries refused to use it until the strike was settled. Such organization is difficult to attain or maintain in any situation. Ina small way, we found that video could help. When leaders of the Brynlliw mine went to meet with the leaders of a local steelworkers’ union, they asked us to come alongand record the meeting. The tape of their presentation could then be used for the miners back in the local union to see how they were being represented by their leaders. In fact, some fifty of the men spent an entire Sunday afternoon watching the two hours of tape, criticizing or applauding their spokesmen, and thinking of how the presentation could be even more effective the next time. Video and Exchange. While the video thus helped in the organizing situation, perhaps of most interest was the sharing of video tapes from other miners, in this case, striking miners at Brookside. The tapes were shown at several sessions in local miners’ clubs or centers to groups of about forty. The effects of the showings were profound; the miners watched with interest, sympathy, and shock. They then were asked what they would have to say to the American miner, particularly in view of the new leadership of the United Mine Workers. the conditions faced in places like Harlan, and the current negotiations for renewal of the contract which expires in November. Phe, “résporses ‘were videotaped: i itm 25 9 Ls te fost tuel [See MINERS, page 1] Kodak Advice Could Really Help Workers By Larry Kirkman The Ad for Kodak. I saw it on the Mary Tyler Moore show. How does the jingle go? “Have you ever thought about taking your Kodak to work?” They show a scene of a tightrope walker. It’s all very bubbly, like the family picnic and Christmas ads that used to sell Brownies. Everyone has an Instamatic, a cassette audio tape recorder, or a super 8 outfit at home. Many people have more advanced 35mm _ photography equipment or higher quality audio decks and microphones. And through schools, libraries, public access to cable, and private groups, small format television prodcution is becoming more and more accessible. All this equipment is produced for consumer entertainment, to be kept in the closet for holidays. But Kodak’s correct: Beyond the stacks of tourist albums, wedding portraits, and baby pictures, people are beginning to think about taking their Kodaks to work. It’s Kodak who is walking the tightrope, trying to get us to export the same cheerful conservative uses of this equipment to our workplaces. I suppose to record the office party, softball team victory, or all the other successful collaborations that management subsidizes, pictures of one big happy family here at Dupont Chemical, Hughes Aircraft, Pacific Telephone and the Post Office. Not everyone’s having as much fun as that circus act. In fact things are probably pretty lousy down at the circus too. Those happy family scenes around the fireplace and Christmas tree weren't the complete story of home life either. Last summer when a Detroit truck plant went out on strike, a team of workers was down there, when the sun came up, with a portapak and microphones, videotaping the behavior of the company, the police. and most important the behavior of sell out union officials who were trying to talk them back to the line. Union reps with bullhorns shouting at the pickets, “the plant is open for work,” when the parking lot was empty. Later during the strike, this tape was shown at the union hall and helped to consolidate the rank and file in their determination to stay out. Is this what Kodak means by “have you ever thought about taking your camera to work?” Well, for a minute, forget video and all its difficulties—hard to get, too expensive, too much practice involved. Think about working up to it. Think about using a pocket instamatic—cheap, anyone can use it, fits into your shirt pocket. Carl Reiner advertising them: it’s so light you forget which pocket it’s in and confuse it with your cigarette lighter. What can you do with your pocket camera at work. You can take pictures of every accident as soon as it happens. You could photo silkscreen posters from these and use them to publicize a body count, to testify against the company in court, or to organize a strike, or bring in a union. Working conditions of all sorts, such as health hazards, crowding, equipment in disrepair, all sorts of specifics can be " BOXNEMIIW “LAANI : Wol4 recorded to be used as a basis for publicity, legal battles, or contract negotiations. I taiked to an auto worker who wanted to get pictures of his assembly line to use with a pamphlet on the failure of a wildcat strike. He knew the company wasn’t going to allow him to take the pictures, or they world fabricate a reason to fire him, and he had good reasons not to expecf any support from the union, so he rigged up a 35 mm camera througha hole in his lunch box, got light readings with a separate light meter, secretly set his camera, and with a remote control button he got all the pictures he needed. I keep thinking of another ad, I see in shop windows for Xerox: “We can copy anything.” The meaning of that ad wasn’t really clear until Ellsberg copied the Pentagon Papers. “Anything” became the key word in the battle against secret diplomacy. How about the cheap audio recorder? You can learn French, record your favorite songs...but there are other ways to use these gadgets that get smaller and less expensive everyday. I talked with a woman who isa telephone installer. She used to be a clerk when the com-1 pany offered her the same work at a $50 a week reduction, with a different job classification of course, or she could move into installing where the E.E.O.C. was forcing them to hire women. The company was killing two birds with one stone. It had all been worked out with the union beforehand. The grievance meetings she filed for were a farce. Audio tape could be used to make all such meetings public. It would become more difficult for a shop steward to sell you out, or management would have to think twice before putting the individual screws on someone. Or, your visit with the company doctor who thinks you should forget about your back and gives you some pain killers. You could record or threaten to record a foreman when he’s making a pass at a woman worker, or callinga black worker a “dumb nigger.” The simple presence of recording equipment would lead to the elimination of a lot of conditions and behavior — at least they wouldn’t continue so blatantly. A still photograph will show a machine that regularly chops off fingers. Audio cassettes work for grievance meetings or sessions with the company doctors. But it takes film or video to document the more subtle, total, everyday misery of drudgery, of being treated like children, of speed ups, of monotonous degradations. There’s a use of workers recording their work that goes beyond publicity or legal documents—it’s that they get a new view of it. Studs Terkel who tape-recorded hundreds of people for his book Working, always played the interview back for them and besides additional material, he often got this response— “I never knew I felt that way.” When their coworkers read their feelings in the book, they must say it too — “I never knew she was so smart, or he was so angry, or that’s just what I think.” There’s alot that could be brought out with the tools we already have in our hands, if we were able to speak up from work, not only to management, or the press, or government commissions, but to each other. We are at a time when the right to freedom of the press can become more than the property of corporations like NBC or the Washington Post. The “right” to freedom of speech could become a battle ground for working people against the employers, schools, and government bureaucracies that exploit and abuse them. It’s a battle. The right to record working conditions will have to take its place beside demands for better wages, working conditions, cost of living, health benefits, etc. because it is a way of organizing and implementing those demands.