It feels like we’re at a pivotal moment in the history of the WGA strike.

The Directors’ Guild is in the midst of negotiations with the AMPTP and there’s widespread speculation that a deal with be cut sooner rather than later.  Once that happens, the strike will enter a new, and to my mind, crucial phase as the details of that pact are made public and the AMPTP then turns to the WGA and says, “Okay, this was good enough for the directors and it’s good enough for you too.” 

Anything can happen at that moment. 

At one end of the spectrum, lies the possibility that the DGA has a deal in place that so closely achieves the WGA position that the writers essentially declare victory and go home.  Negotiations resume quickly, the remaining writer-specific provisions are dealt with promptly, a new contract is submitted to the membership for ratification and the strike ends.

At the other end of the spectrum lies the darker possibility that the DGA comes back with a deal that is so far removed from the WGA position that the writers summarily and angrily reject it.  Resentment hardens and the writers settle in for an even longer struggle with the certain knowledge that the Screen Actors’ Guild will support them come June and the industry really shuts down.

And somewhere in between those extremes lies the less clear-cut (and unfortunately more probable) outcome where the DGA deal is a murky grab-bag of agreements, some of which are close to what the WGA wants, but others are nowhere near writers’ goals.  Then we’re in uncharted territory, the path forward fraught with danger.  The single biggest danger in that eventuality, to me, is the risk that the writers then begin to tear themselves apart with vitriolic statements over the relative merits of the DGA compact as people begin to stake out positions of absolutism over whether taking the DGA deal is “selling out” or refusing it is “mindless suicide.” 

The rumblings of both positions are already out there on the periphery of the strike.  You can hear them hovering around the edges of casual conversations whenever writers gather and in the hearsay and rumors that fly around the internet of secret cabals being formed or witch-hunts in the offing.  None of this is surprising, of course.  It’s a strike, after all.  People’s lives are being affected, their homes at risk, their children’s futures uncertain -- the stakes are enormous.  It would be unreasonable to think that with a membership in the thousands that there would not be crazies on both sides ready to ratchet up the rhetoric at the slightest provocation for no reason other than to raise the decibel level and get people charged up and angry.  This is the kind of high-stakes, high-intensity situation that tends to bring out the best and the worst in any group and the WGA is no exception.

I, myself, initially felt the urge to condemn Jay Leno or Conan O’Brien for coming back on the air as undercutting the strike.  But on reflection, I realized and acknowledged the very difficult position they found themselves in and even felt that if Jay really wants to take on the entire burden of putting “The Tonight Show” on the air himself that he was certainly having to carry a heavy load to do so.  Also, his very public statements of support for his writers did count for me and I decided not to add my voice to those calling for his head.  Do I think he’s crossing the line by writing his own monolog?  Yes.  Do I think he should be pilloried for it?  No.

Likewise, I was somewhat shocked when Bill Maher, whose show I love and whose politics are somewhat close to my own on many subjects, made a statement on his premiere last week attacking the Guild leadership and making veiled references to witch hunts and being attacked for not supporting the strike strongly enough.  As I thought about it, I realized that just as there are currents and eddies that I feel that pull and push at showrunners that are far from the public view, there must also be forces at work on someone like Maher that I can only imagine.  The forces willing to demonize anyone, at any time for making some of the very difficult choices all of us have had to make during the strike are always lurking there in the background, ready to attack at a moment’s notice.  And I’m not just talking about pro-strike people attacking those perceived to be “weak sisters” on the strike, there’s also a contingent out there ready to attack the Guild leadership as out for themselves or after political office or caught up in some kind of power grab.  I’m talking about the people grumbling about going for “financial core” status or accusing the membership of being deluded sheep following their leaders over the cliff.

The fact is, this strike was authorized by a 90% vote in favor of going out.  Ninety percent.  That’s not even close.  Everyone went into this with their eyes wide open and everyone knew this was going to be difficult and onerous, both financially and personally.  We all walked out together and together is the only way we can walk back in.

My hope is that once the DGA deal is made public, that we engage in the inevitable debate that will follow with a civility and decorum that puts the lie to the idea that writers are their own worst enemies.  We need to have a spirited debate over the terms we’re willing to accept, yes, but it’s important that we not let things descend into vicious attacks or set up armed camps.  Honorable men and women can disagree on the true value of a percentage of internet advertising without it becoming a test of who is the “toughest” or who has “drunk the kool-aid.”

When the deal is announced and the terms of the DGA settlement are there for one and all to see, I urge my fellow scribes to resist the urge to demonize those who disagree with you over its acceptability.  Remember that we’re all writers and we’re all in this together and that there’s really only one entity out there which has an actual interest in preventing us from securing a fair and reasonable contract, and that’s the AMPTP.