Overview

Originally published on artistsandcultureworkers.org

The organisation, Art Workers Solidarity , invited groups to attend an international two day symposium to discuss organising in the art sector. It was an event framed around state repression of culture, described as part of a growing ‘authoritarian turn’ to be resisted. The broad aim was to create a space for dialogue and solidarity between unionised and self-organised art workers.

The event was attended by individuals and organisation representatives from across Europe. Groups with international delegates were Ungere Kunstneres Samfund (Norway), Scottish Artists Union , and ‘Buradan Nereye?’ (Turkey). Amongst the German organisations present were collectives for dancers, academic workers, and a representative from Oyoun.

The weekend had a very welcoming and inclusive feeling, with nearly all 100 attendees finding occasion to speak at least once across the workshop and forum sessions. Since there were more Berlin residents than international delegates in the room, conversation tended to focus organically around the German context.

Discussing The Situation for Art Workers in Berlin

State funding and state censorship

Compared to other European states, Germany offers a lot of funding for arts and cultural projects. This, along with its unusually vehement official commitment to zionism and the state of Israel, has caused severe problems for artists who believe in a free Palestine and want to work in Germany. The term for this official ideology is, ‘Staatsräson’, and its implementation through mass media campaigns and pro-Israel lobbying has given rise to the perception amongst culture workers here that Germany is taking an authoritarian turn. Some artists fear they may have been blacklisted, many more appear to have compromised their political integrity in order to preserve their livelihoods.

At the symposium, articles and publications were shared with attendees.

One of the articles shared with the symposium, written by ‘Arts and Culture Alliance Berlin’, presented a strongly researched report and analysis of how state censorship has been functioning in Germany as of late. Of note are some of the lessons that could be applicable in the British context if our political situation is taking a similar authoritarian turn: Conceding to zionist pressure has not prevented cuts to state funding for culture, and has also had the effect of breaking down the solidarity that would have allowed the sector a more unified voice to fight back against cuts, all the while weakening international resistance to Israel’s genocide.

Support for Palestine within Germany has been far more limited than elsewhere in Europe. It was the perception of most symposium attendees that support for Palestine is not a majority position across civil society broadly, or even amongst Berlin’s art scene. This is a clear difference from the British context, where there is high popular support for Palestine that puts the public largely at odds with the government’s position. And in our arts sector, the proportion of those opposing the government’s position is greater still.

The German Staatsräson appears to have produced a rather deep-seated pessimism around the possibility of winning mass support for Palestine. Organisers are looking to more radical options that will give expression to their political convictions. Symposium attendees stressed the need for greater education as a precursor to the political transformation required.

The Berufsverband Bildender Künstler*innen (bbk)

A recurring topic of discussion was the ‘bbk’, a professional association of visual artists in Berlin, (not so dissimilar in structure and purpose to the Norwegian UKS). In some respects this organisation is like a trade union, with democratic member decision-making structures, elected leadership roles, and subscription fees that members pay to support the organisation in its work. To be a member of BBK costs £150 p/y, (which is nearly quadruple to cost of a yearly Artists Union England membership). However, most of the BBK’s funding is provided directly by the state.

**It remains an open question whether bbk presents a vehicle for the political needs articulated by those attending this symposium. Specifically, the need for an organisation that can meaningfully resist the state’s cultural repression. Attendees expressed frustration with the frequently undemocratic maneuverings of the bbk’s current bureaucracy. **

The BBK owns two separate companies that facilitate some provision of important productive infrastructure for working artists, such as studios. It also lobbies on behalf of artists in Berlin. While it is undoubtedly more democratic than the commercial art market or state institutions with corporate leadership structures, there is the question of how BBK’s independence is compromised through a high level of dependence on and integration with the state.

Another point of contention for attendees was that, while many within Berlin’s artist community do not speak German as a first language, eligibility to participate on the bbk’s elected leadership requires quite a high threshold for German language skills.

Syndicalism?

But what would life be like without the bbk? Many hold that nothing less than the formation of a new, grassroots, artists’ association or trade union is necessary. Some attendees, banded together under the name ‘Syndikat Kunst und Kultur’ (SKK), invited the symposium to discuss a concrete proposal along these lines.

The precedent here would be ‘syndicalist’ or ‘base’ trade unions, as opposed to long-established, mainstream trade unions that have been demonstrated insufficient for certain urgent political needs. The British parallel could be seen in the difference between base unions that predominantly organise precarious workers, such as the IWGB or UVW, and mainstream unions like BECTU or PCS.

As articulated specifically by SKK, a syndicalist union in art would facilitate member-to-member mutual aid; directly sharing resources like funding, work space, and legal support. One suggestion was for any individual member in receipt of an arts grant to share a certain percentage of that grant with the organisation.

If SKK could grow into a sizable organisation, the union would have a necessarily antagonistic relationship to any larger union (like BBK) that organises out of a similar industrial base of workers. A political space decisively to the left of BBK could potentially allow dissatisfied BBK members a means of disciplining their union’s leadership through threat of quitting to join the competitor. This power would be premised on the potential success of SKK, which is far from proven as of yet.

In Britain we have seen a glimpse of this dynamic playing out when BECTU members at the Royal Academy resigned from their union and collectively re-formed into an IWGB branch. Although the implications of this are still being worked through, and the dispute was led by art museum staff rather than freelance artists, it would appear that competition from the IWGB may be having a galvanizing effect on efforts to make BECTU take a firmer approach with the industry.

In theory, a syndicalist union can push the mainstream union movement further left, as was one of the key aims stated throughout this symposium. The discussion here looks like one that will have to be taken forward amongst the artists and culture workers of Berlin.

Targets

When it comes to selecting boycott targets for art workers, the situation appears a little confused at the moment. While there was a very strong, awe inspiring, protest at Nan Goldin’s Neue Nationalgalerie exhibition, and numerous artist-led pro-Palestine protest blocs at demos across the city, no long-term BDS type campaign operating specifically in culture has emerged. This likely reflects the more restrictive social, political and cultural conditions that organisers in Germany have been fighting to overturn.

Attendees did, however, speak about ongoing campaigns from the wider BDS movement targeting Allianz Bank, which it was noted does sponsor cultural projects in Germany.

In the British arts context, we have had successful campaigns targeting Baillie Gifford the investment manager firm sponsoring literary festivals, and at art institutions, Outset Contemporary Art Fund and the Zabludowicz Trust. Bloomberg was also dropped as the sponsor of the New Contemporaries programme in the visual arts. Over 200 small arts organisations in Scotland have signed the PACBI pledge.

Strikes and the Future

Finally, there was a discussion on how artists might relate to the tactic of strikes. Attendees presented a wide range of possible understandings for the term ‘strike’ and offered a similar number of ways to define ‘artists’. Questions of power and organisation were considered, but it was evident from the discussion that there is no consensus yet for understanding the issue. This was true for all delegates, internationally, nobody seems to have really figured out this problem yet.

At the end of the meeting, we committed to setting up a regular international forum, aiming to meet in-person every six months to discuss progress in our respective national contexts. The assembled delegates agreed that they would work towards materially supporting one another’s campaigns, with the hope of eventually running shared campaigns across borders.

The organisations and individuals based in Berlin and Germany will go on to maintain a collective presence in the sector through Art Worker Solidarity. Artists and Culture Workers LDN will remain in contact with the international organisations in between the biannual in-person meetings that we hope to organise.