compiled by Jeff Burman

Enron Reveals a Corrupt Market System

Late last year, approximately 250 laid-off Enron employees became eligible for severance they never received. Shortly after that, Enron wired $55 million in retention bonuses to senior executives, then filed for bankruptcy. After the bonuses were paid, Enron laid off an additional 4,500 employees, and their severance payments were frozen in the bankruptcy system. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Enron's undoing was not just a spectacular display of greed by a select few, nor was it simply the result of cozy relationships between industry and government. Instead, it was a calculated exercise in exploiting a system made corruptible by a deregulation program created in the interests of big business.

Perhaps the best thing to emerge from the ashes of Enron is an object lesson about what might happen if Social Security were privatized and individuals were free to invest as they saw fit. "Because of the way our retirement system has become increasingly interwoven with the capital markets, practically every American fortunate enough to be able to save for retirement in any form was hurt by the collapse of Enron," said AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Richard Trumka. "Filings by major commercial money managers with tens of billions of dollars of worker retirement money under management such as Alliance, Janus and Fidelity suggest each has losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars."

AFL-CIO affiliate unions have over $400 billion in benefit funds and hold an estimated 3.1 million Enron shares. The Motion Picture Industry Health & Pension Plan, with $3 billion in assets, had less than 1 percent of its assets in Enron investments. The Editors Guild has no direct investments in the former energy giant, but its mutual funds may have included minimal investments in Enron.

AFL-CIO Press Release 12/12/01 | Labor Educator 1/28/02

Two Cheers for Campaign Finance Reform

Another dramatic outgrowth of the Enron implosion is the revival of campaign finance reform. "Many of the elected officials now asked to sit in judgment of Enron, including members of Congress, the attorney general and the president, have been accepting and even asking for campaign contributions from Enron for years," said Senator Russell Feingold (D-Wisconsin), co-author of the Senate's campaign finance reform bill. All told, some 212 of the 248 Senators and House members on the 11 Congressional committees investigating the Enron scandal have received political contributions from Enron or its auditing firm, Arthur Andersen.

At press time, President Bush signed the recently-approved overhaul of federal campaign finance law. The result of a seven-year effort to ban the large, unlimited donations to political parties known as soft money, the bill was approved in the Senate by a 60 to 40 vote. But many have forgotten what the McCain/Feingold (S.27) and Shays/-Meehan (HR.380) bills would do to the efforts of organized labor. The AFL-CIO has long opposed these bills, since they would prevent both trade unions and corporations from engaging in public advocacy for or against a candidate for federal office via "broadcast, cable, or satellite," "within 60 days of a general election or 30 days of a primary or nominating convention." Wealthy individuals, however, would be allowed to contribute as much as $95,000 in aggregate, to all federal candidates, parties, and PACs over a two-year election cycle, with various smaller limits for campaigns and party contributions ($2,000 per campaign, $25,000 to a national party, $10,000 to a state party). The effect would be to increase the influence of wealthy individuals and the media during crucial pre-election periods.

Campaign finance reform's restrictions of free speech may be struck down by the courts. The Supreme Court (in Buckley v. Valeo and Roth v. United States) made clear that political communications are entitled to the highest degree of protection afforded by the First Amendment.

Counterpunch Magazine 1/27/02 | AFL-CIO Press Release 6/14/01 | Complete Text of S.27

AMPAS and the Blacklist

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recently hosted an exhibit on the Hollywood Blacklist. On display were photographs, documentary footage, interviews and film clips by blacklisted writers and directors, and documents from the time, including the infamous lists of names. In a recent issue of SAG's magazine Screen Actor, the installation's

The Motion Picture Academy recently presented an exhibit examining the Hollywood blacklist and it's effects on the community. The period began with contempt convictions against the "Hollywood Ten," who refused to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee and went to jail as a result. They are pictured with their families, protesting the sentence. Included in the picture: Lester Cole, Alvah Bessie, Dalton Trumbo, Albert Maltz, Ring Lardner, Jr. and Herbert Biberman. Courtesy Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research and Wisconsin Historical Society.

curator, historian Larry Ceplair, wrote, "From 1947 to 1961, your ability to work in Hollywood's motion picture industry strictly depended on whether or not your name appeared on a list of suspected Communist activists or sympathizers. The blacklist. Based on the growing threat of Communism at that time -- real or perceived -- the era was a full-scale assault on individuals and groups who had promoted political change and social reform ...

"Dozens of citizens were jailed, hundreds moved to other countries, and thousands lost their jobs. Several of the accused died from the stress and strain of having their personal beliefs and opinions ominously questioned by their own government and the labor unions to which they belonged. Those who were not personally or professionally persecuted became self-censoring and timid in order to keep their paychecks and avoid being publicly condemned and denounced. As a result, a pall of mediocrity settled over cultural and artistic production in America.

"Union organizing was considered radical political activity in much of America during the decade of the Great Depression (1929-1939). It was no coincidence that the vast majority of those blacklisted in Hollywood had been in the forefront of the struggle to organize and gain union recognition...Like the producers, the Guilds convinced themselves that by purging left wingers and sacrificing 'unfriendly' witnesses, they could convince HUAC that Hollywood was cleaning its own house. To further this image, the Guilds, producers, and the IATSE's Roy Brewer formed the Motion Picture Industry Council (MPIC)." One of the council's goals was "to 'clear' repentant Communists for employment."

"Despite any mistakes they committed along the way, those blacklisted did much less harm to the U.S. than the blacklisters, who introduced fear and police-state tactics into our society and political system. Despite any criticism we might make of their uncritical attitude toward Stalin and the Soviet Union, the blacklisted deserve our thanks because for 50 years, they alone have fought to keep before the conscience and consciousness of the American people the price of thought control."

The exhibit drew guests from within and without the industry. Among them was IATSE President Tom Short, who issued an official statement. "The IATSE deeply regrets the blacklisting days of Hollywood...those activities are not a reflection of the attitudes or opinions of the IATSE."

The Screen Actor 1/1/98 | AMPAS | IATSE Press Release 3/12/02

---

 
 Jeff Burman is a Guild Board member
representing assistant editors.
He can be reached via email