Correction: Adbusters isn’t merchandising the Occupy Wall Street poster after all

Just got an email from the editorial people Adbusters magazine about my post yesterday. The exchange is below. I will keep you updated if and when I hear back from them. As for the scoundrels who really are merchandising that poster, well, they should be chastised and forced to go away somewhere cold and unpleasant.

From: darren fleet

Message Body:
Hi Ted, this is Darren Fleet, senior editor here at Adbusters.

The email you received inviting you to purchase the Adbusters OWS poster did not come from Adbusters Media Foundation. Rather it came from the group calling itself the “Occupy Solidarity Network.” They run the occupywallst.org web site. Please do not confuse them with us, and also please correct your article accordingly.

Like you, we here at Adbusters were also shocked when we received the poster sales pitch from this group. We sent them the following message via email this morning:

“Priscilla, Justine, Micah,

Are you all seriously doing this? Selling the Adbusters OWS poster? Really? Do you understand how much this undermines the entire message of the movement? Think about all the people who put their asses on the line, risked jail and police brutality, gave their time, energy and reputations … and you’re selling the poster? You’re turning the movement into a parody of itself and proving all of the critics right.

Please stop selling this poster!

Kalle, Darren and all of us here at
Adbusters”

My reply:

Hi, that is good to hear. My apologies for the confusion and I will correct my blog entry.

The people selling the poster used exactly the same greetings that communiqués by Adbusters, and they seem to have used your mailing list as well, so naturally I thought it came from you guys. I’m really glad to hear that you guys aren’t trying to merchandise the Occupy Wall Street poster.

I would, however, also like to hear your take about asking for spec work from workers, namely the request for free writing about people’s experiences with psychiatric treatment and trauma. As you know, workers are under siege. Writers are workers. Workers should always be paid, especially if the people hiring them are drawing a salary.

It’s one thing if an operation is run completely by volunteers and its suppliers provide all of the material for free. Is that the case for Adbusters? I would be very surprised to hear that office space, telephones, printing, and so on are donated, but if that is the case I will happily correct myself on that as well. If you can pay for printers, you should pay for writers.

I look forward to hearing from them.

Very truly yours,
Ted

Updated at 1:48 EST Dec. 11, 2013:

I received the following reply from Darren:

Thanks Ted,

That specific group has poached our language and style a couple of times now, so the initial confusion is understandable. For us here at Adbusters, that OWS poster is sacred . . . it’s the one thing that nobody should ever sell. It belongs to everyone, not just one group, the Occupy Solidarity Network, who now claims to speak on behalf of the entire Occupy movement.

Regarding unpaid writers, we appreciate your concern and questions. Indeed, people are becoming more and more traumatized throughout the world. Financial capitalism is taking a heavy toll. Our intention is not to capitalize on anyone’s misgivings, but rather to give their suffering a voice. But sometimes that means accepting unpaid work. We run on a shoestring budget here at Adbusters. We’re a small not-for-profit organization with less than ten paid staff (that includes art, office, editorial and distribution worldwide), operating out of the basement of a house in Vancouver. We also have a dedicated core of volunteers, interns, subscribers, and the occasional benevolent donor, without whom we wouldn’t be able to operate at all.

When we can pay we do. Though for the specific call for submissions you received, the one for short incisive insights into mental breakdown and recovery, we did not create a budget. When it comes to this specific subject, often recognition, and the chance to at long last have your voice heard, is enough of a reward. Most of the people who send in their stories are not professional writers, they just want to get something off their chests. Also the call went out through our Culture Jammer network, folks who are long time friends of the magazine, and perhaps more inclined than others to volunteer a submission and to have their ideas be part of a larger collaboration. That said, you’re right, we should have been more sensitive and especially in reply to your initial query.

To which I replied:

Hi Darren,

I’ve blogged the correction and also pushed it out through the same social networks where the original post went out. (A pet peeve of mine is people who broadcast something mistaken and then correct it smaller and with less distribution.)

That Occupy Solidarity Network is contemptible. Anything I can do to help get the word out about those assholes, let me know.

I strongly urge you to reconsider your policy about unpaid writing. I understand and am aware of shoestring budgets, especially on the Left and especially in print publishing. However, popular opinion is now moving against, and away from, any kind of unpaid labor for writing, whether it be internships, or spec work, or writing subject to kill fees, or writing for exposure, etc. Work is work and work should be paid for.

Not being able to afford to pay writers is not an excuse. I would love to have an editorial assistant for marketing and other tasks in my studio, and I have been offered the opportunity to “hire” unpaid interns who would receive academic credit for their labor, but I have always turned them down because I can’t afford them. I hope to one day earn enough to hire an assistant at a living wage — ironically, I would be able to do so if magazines like yours were willing to hire more writers and cartoonists like me.

I can’t afford a new car so I don’t buy one. The same rules should govern writers — if you can’t afford writing, you can’t afford to put out a magazine.

Also, as I know you know, “non-profit” is merely a tax status. It is entirely legal for non-profits to pay high salaries to their staffers, and many of them do.

It is easy to do the right thing when times are good and cash flow is strong, but times like these require no less of us.

Sorry to be preachy; it’s something I feel really strongly about, and a lot of progressives agree with me.

Best,
Ted