The Minister of Culture Makes His Recommendations
On Tuesday morning, 18 Feb 2020, the French Minister of Culture made his proposals based on the 23 recommendations from The Racine Report.
On Tuesday morning, 18 Feb 2020, I learned that politics is the same the whole world over. Politicians love reports and committees and panels and research. The don’t much like making big changes.
And so it goes with the Minister of Culture in France.
No, he did not suggest that the comic creators of France unionize. He didn’t immediately make a bold call for action and change and lots of new things.
Nope, his proposals address the lower hanging fruit and then suggest more government infrastructure to continue looking into the problems outlined by the Racine Report for another year or two.
The can has well and thoroughly been kicked further down the street.
C’est la guerre.
The Minister’s Proposals
You can read the whole report as a 10 page PDF on the Ministry of Culture’s web page, where it’s currently the lead story.
First, he’s “solving” the problem with Social Security for creatives, AGESSA:
• I deplore these shortcomings, which generate personal difficulties for the artist-authors.
• I ask Agessa to set up a support unit to deal with individual situations on a case-by-case basis.
• I want requests to be dealt with quickly, efficiently and kindly.
• I would like to be regularly informed to ensure that the answers given to the artist-authors are appropriate.
And, then, after that, there is new governmental bureaucracy to be added for vague purposes in the ‘hopes’ of fixing things down the line once the is enough information. We all know how government works, particularly on this level in any country: stats lead to new committees to collect more stats to decide what to do later.
I hope that the inter-ministerial dialogue will lead, in the medium term, to the creation of a common communication interface for artist-authors, providing all the useful information throughout their careers. [Recommendation n ° 14]
If we just talk more, we might learn something from each other. Eventually. In the “medium term.”
I’m starting to see why the artist-authors I follow are so annoyed by this report.
I wish that the question of the devices of smoothing is quickly discussed in an inter-ministerial framework in order to take into account the specificity of the artist-authors’ income. [Recommendation 2]
This is one of the low-hanging fruits I mentioned in my original article, and it sounds like they’re actually planning relatively quick action on it. That’s nice.
I wish to provide the ministry with a complete barometer on the social situation of artist-authors. It should allow us to identify the factors of inequality among artist-authors according to social, geographic or gender origin. [Recommendations 11 and 19]
Stats collecting. The Racine Report already pointed out the problem and included statistics to back it up, but never pass up the chance for more stats!
• Without reliable statistical, economic and sociological monitoring, the public authorities are depriving themselves of the means to grasp all of the problems raised by the situation of artist-authors.
Rationalization for same, after a report that already offers stats for the inequalities these new stats are supposed to set out to prove.
• Quickly identify the problems that are not sufficiently addressed in the studies we have today and consequently launch additional studies.
Hand waving catch-all. This is rather impressive. They’re covering all their bases while doing nothing and promising that someday they might. Maybe. You never know.
• A study on the question of sharing value in the photography sector will, for example, be launched.
At least there’s one specific study named — but it’s just another study that will lead to another report that will result in more studies and commissions and nothing getting done.
The Union Question
The biggest, most radical change that could have come from this proposal would have been collective bargaining of artist-authors with the publishers. The Racine Report recommended it as a solution to the problem.
The Minister saw the situation differently.
“ But I do not support the idea of compulsory funding by collective management organizations. A reflection will therefore have to be undertaken to find satisfactory and lasting solutions. I call on all actors to be responsible on this subject. ”
ActuaLitte.com: “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: the Post-Racine Disillusionment”
Better luck in the next administration, perhaps?
Typical Politician Stuff
Just to cover some other things that sound good on their surface but are most likely meaningless wastes of time;
I call on the actors of the different creative sectors to come together and find the ways and means to access satisfactory solutions. (“You guys figure it out. Leave me out of it.”)
I will send a letter to the public establishments of the Ministry of Culture and to the Regional Directorates of Cultural Affairs (DRAC) to remind them of the necessary respect for this principle which is not optional. (“Look out, he’s going to deliver such a tongue lashing!”)
I will soon appoint an adviser to my cabinet responsible for the implementation of all the projects presented today. (“Define ‘soon.’ And, oh good, another government employee who’ll likely have their hands full and won’t be able to get anything done.”)
I’ve talked before about the cultural differences between the United States and France. It’s nice to see that we share politicians in common — people who love research and try to call that an accomplishment instead of actually doing something. Some things are just universal, I guess.
Is There Hope?
As much as I have ripped on this series of proposals, they do, indeed, address many of the low hanging fruits I mentioned in my article about The Racine Report. It would be truly heinous if even that little couldn’t get done.
And many of the steps outlined in this proposal lead in the general direction that it sounds like the artist-authors want to go in. It’s just being filtered through traditional political protocols in which nothing is actually accomplished. The are more reports coming. There are new people joining the government to keep an eye on things. The Ministry of Culture has reserved the right to mediate between creatives and publishers/distributors. It has outlined vaguely specific plans to increase the visibility of creators and, further, to help pay for their time and travel, etc.
Maybe there’s hope yet?
“C’est la guerre” is about right. This means possibly more protests down the line, definitely more discontent among the professionals.
In France, Ministers are easily replaceable, at the whim of the President Franck Riester could be gone tomorrow, so expecting him to do anything that would make him look bad, or simply make his head stick out, was a lost cause.
The AGESSA proposition is funny in itself. Asking the administration to be humane, to do case-by-case and be swift is the exact opposite of what the mandate of French administration is. French civil servants are by definition irresponsible, immovable and forbidden to show any sort of bias. Draw your own conclusion.
And this is coming from a country that had actual socialist governments over the years, not like Bernie, who’s mildly right-wing moderate, despite what Fox News says.
Unionizing here is the tricky part. First off, doing that in France is very different from the US. Over there you have something like the Writers Guild and if you’re not part of it you’re not allowed to work (correct me if I’m wrong). In here, unions are a multiple choice offer, overseeing a variety of professions, and being part of one is an individual decision. Every company, including publishers, has labour elections every few years for representatives that are picked up from union candidates lists, then participate in a consultative basis to business decisions involving labour. This election mode is not dissimilar to your electoral college.
As a consequence, France is one of the least unionized country in Europe, way below Germany for example. Used to be big about a century ago when labour was akin to slavery, but many battles have been won and now individualism is definitely prevailing, unless you’re a civil servant, where unionizing remains a staple, for now.
So asking independant workers to unionize more is a big finger-flipping response from the minister, even though, if you really look at it, it would be one way to really make things better (taking control of their own publishing and distribution would be another). But history doesn’t go backwards so it’s very unlikely to happen. Hence the Yellow Vests sorta-movement that has been out on the streets of France (and some of Belgium now) every weekend for the past year or so, claiming to be the silent majority, refusing to elect delegates, refusing alliances with existing unions or parties. You get the gist. We’re stubborn that way.
So basically you’re right, we’re back to square one, the minister made it feel like he’s done something, and nothing really changed.
Fact is, there is no way most creators will ever boycott the Angoulême festival, it’s the most visible and profitable event of the year, the biggest comic book convention in the world by a mile, so missing it would be career suicide for some author in an already precarious position. So basically they’re screwed.
this is just more drama. Be seeing you next episode.
Now he’s in quarantine at home, talk about bad karma 🙂
Wow. I hadn’t heard that. That’s crazy. Politicians have to stop shaking so many hands at comic festivals!