Support the BBC strike! - Monday 23rd May

BBC strike action
(report from 12.05.2005)



Journalists and technicians at the BBC have voted to take strike action after the corporation announced 3,780 job cuts in a £350m cost cutting programme.

Bectu and NUJ members voted overwhelmingly in favour of a 12 or 24-hour walkout sometime in May or June. While management was said to be "disappointed" at the decision, Bectu excitingly promised "black screens and dead air".

News and live broadcasts are expected to be badly hit by any industrial action with the BBC itself worriedly reporting that "it could hit events such as the FA Cup Final, on 21 May."

Jeremy Dear, NUJ General Secretary, is reported to have said, "The cuts package will do irreparable damage to quality and standards and has been soundly rejected by staff."

So, as the Beeb plummets towards programming more porn, voyeurism, sadism, racism and jingoism, we should be concerned. Or should we?

The BBC's competitor, the corporate media, provides an ever more degrading version of news and entertainment output which, between the cleavages, the laughs and the half truths, channels a conservative (in the sense of conserving existing power interests) consumer ideology of greedy self-interest and hate. This agenda is no different from the BBC except that, with no public service remit, corporate media product has found depths to which BBC managers can only aspire.

While it is impossible to applaud the onward march of the free-market at the BBC, the idea that it has “quality and standards” worth saving, especially in reporting news, is an old lie.

The BBC represents that essential point in any modern national propaganda machine, namely, the benign-seeming, 'impartial' and trustworthy voice of reason in a confusing world. It has performed this job for over 80 years and generations of people have been brought up to believe it is true. In fact, the BBC functions as the ultra-conservative and demonstrably biased (deceiving) voice of successive Labour and Conservative governments.

BBC news may be ‘impartial’ about which of these parties it supports (because, like NewsCorporation, it really supports both), but it is very partial about criticism of the existing power base and any alternatives people might have to it. In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, interviews with people critical of going to war were fewer on the BBC than on any other major broadcaster, including right-wing US channels. That makes for not many.*

In presenting itself as the embodiment of decent values and as an alternative to the degradation of the openly right-wing, pimping media, the values carried by BBC output become a conceptual standard past which few people venture. It is precisely this unquestioning faith in the flawed fundamentals of our national culture which allowed the Iraq war to happen.



*  http://pilger.carlton.com/print/133161

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Those striking at the BBC are not striking to defend its decline into consumer oriented programming or a conservative agenda. On the contrary, the National Union of Journalists consistently campaigns to improve news output and, as an organisation, campaigns on a range of labour and human rights issues -  http://www.nuj.org.uk/inner.php?docid=652. Cuts will destroy the remains of public service broadcasting in Europe and lead to privatisation of programme making - stop the corporate take-over and supporter the strikers to create a better BBC.

>>Those striking at the BBC are not striking to defend its decline into consumer oriented programming or a conservative agenda.

no, they are just the people who produce it.

>>On the contrary, the National Union of Journalists consistently campaigns to improve news output

you have failed. not only that, as primary news producers in the run up to the iraq war you are accomplices in war crimes. that sounds kind of extreme or hysterical but it's not untrue. it's just a rare opinion - and the rarity of that kind of opinion is something the NUJ has helped to create. your union represents not just the bbc but the whole gamut of uk media - an industry staffed by ideologically uniform free market grunts.

>>Cuts will destroy the remains of public service broadcasting in Europe and lead to privatisation of programme making

private media in europe (berlusconi's empire for example) is appalling. but, as said above, there is nothing intrinsically virtuous about public service broadcasting. once again, just for the hard of hearing: bbc news propaganda helps the government. it is utterly +conservative+. check out bbc news online.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Lucky you to have these nice well paid jobs in the first place. State fucking propaganda machine or Murdochs corporate propaganda machine. What a choice! Or DIY.... nb re Freedom of speech. Ever tried to broadcast? Re freedom of speech and broadband/cable technology rollout - yup it is controlled to limit broadcatsers. Wouldn't want everyone to have equal access. As for the fiuasco re bias and war. Do me a favour. You were just as gung ho as ITV with twats like Ned Sherrin particularly memorable. Yes you had a few champaign socialis boys club in their for a while amongst the spooks and ex-army peeps and dodgy war criminal governors. You fuckers haven't done a lot to stop this country descending into fascism. There seems to be 2 sides now - fash and anti fash ( don't forget the collabarators ). Jobs for jobs sake. Art for arts sake. What a greedy overfed country this is. By the way loved your biased reports on the dockers and miners strikes as well you fucks as well as other protests against fascism and the arms trade! Stick your licence fee and your programmes up your arse.

This strike is about massive overmanning at the BBC not the crap pushed out by the NUJ. When I worked there (left a year ago) it remined me of the worst of Fleet Street before Murdoch, six or seven people doing the job of one. NUJ shop stewards doing all they can to avoid progress.

Well done BBC

A victorious strike and a stronger voice for the workers in the BBC will be a blow against corporate power and its pro-war pro-capitalist ideologues everywhere!

This strike shows that not even the bbc journalists at the heart of capitalisms propaganda machine believe the 'news' that we are all the free and happy citizen-consumers of Bush and Bliar's new world order.

Good for them!

Oh I'd rather be a Picket than a Scab!

SOLIDARITY FOREVER!

Fuck da Trolls!

This is such an old trick.

What the BBC are *really* trying to do here is convert the historically impartial News department into something more managable - shall we say more obedient? subordinate? So 4000 employees are "swapped" for 4000 other "well vetted" external people.

It does this under the guise of cutting staff. But in reality, in five years time, the staff population will be pretty much the same as it is today. The only difference is that you have a News corporation which have the integrity of something like ABC News.

Hmmm, I notice that www.bbcwatch.com hasn't been updated since Greg Dyke left? Oooh. I wonder why that is?

>>>On the contrary, the National Union of Journalists consistently campaigns to improve news output

> you have failed. not only that, as primary news producers in the run up to the iraq war > you are accomplices in war crimes.

Me? I don't work for the BBC, do some research - just google my name.

> that sounds kind of extreme or hysterical but it's not untrue. it's just a rare
> opinion - and the rarity of that kind of opinion is something the NUJ has helped to
> create.

Right so - we didn't have one of our most senior lay officials speak at the biggest anti-war demo in London then, did we not? The union hasn't consistently voted for anti-war positions and engaged in widespread anti-war activism then, has it not? But don't let the facts get in the way of your ideological position, that might make you different from the people you criticise.

> your union represents not just the bbc but the whole gamut of uk media - an
> industry staffed by ideologically uniform free market grunts.

My union doesn't represent the "uk media", the NUJ represents workers wherever in the media they work. My union represents workers fighting against racism within the Daily Express, my union has just broken AOL's anti-labour position by achieving recognition, my union has also campaigned on behalf of indymedia and on behalf of individual indymedia contributors. But, hey, who cares about solidarity when you can be a ranting ideologue.

 http://the-sellout-of-the-bbc.freelinuxhost.com/

An excellent site examing the political machination and dirty hands involved in the BBC pie.

AO