Last week I received a message from a kind colleague: "Can I add you to the "Musicians for Democracy" group?" Although I am against WhatsApp groups, I am in favor of democracy, so I said "yes".
The guy who started the group, an excellent bass player and an overall nice guy, had only good intentions.
He certainly did not expect that in less than 12 hours the group would be the source of all his suffering in the world.
When I joined it already had about 800 members.
900 of them had something to say: some wanted to point out that they were in favor of democracy, but against petitions.
Or for petitions, but against signing them.
If he had called me before, I could have warned him that people have a lot of opinions about things and they constantly insist on sharing them.
My love, know that I see you and that I am here, if you want to talk.
24 hours later news was published that Miri Mesika asked the group why there are no more Mizrahit singers, and was answered that they still don't have their phone numbers.
From my acquaintance with the working souls - an innocent question and an innocent answer.
What to do when the guy plays in a rock band and doesn't have Eden Hasson's personal phone number?
But from the news, from the title and from the framing it was implied that the group "Musicians for Democracy" was founded by the Illuminati, extreme left organizations and lizard people, with the aim of not giving a stage and an opening here to Mizrahi singers, because or even though they are the most successful in Israel.
I admit that the last part is not completely understandable to me, but who needs a rationale when you have a title with the words "Miri Mesika", "Mizrahim" and "the corporation"?
So far - world as usual.
People say things in closed forums, journalists get leaks and screenshots and publish them.
That is not what we gathered for.
And it's true, I should already be vaccinated, but what broke my heart was the intelligent who decided to leak to a journalist and create a new problem, out of nowhere - a problem that not only sabotages someone's sincere efforts to do something in the world, but also conflicts and opens old wounds, some of which have already healed.
It wouldn't happen to the players.
Have you ever read an interview with an actor in which he lashes out at a colleague?
I do not.
It happens to musicians and it will continue to happen.
Unlike the players, we don't have a history of common struggles or a real tradition of siding with the weak among us.
No one cares what happens when an artist loses the ability to work, when a certain promoter systematically exploits artists or when the corona shuts down the industry for three years.
I know.
They tell you a committee, and you think a school strike, canceled trains or containers stuck in Ashdod port.
But until the 1980s and the capitalism imported from the USA, establishing a labor union in any organization, institution or company was (and still is) the required way to balance the equation: a strong employer against weak employees. A healthy society is a society where even the weak can demand and receive the rights they deserve . As of today, the musicians do not have an active union that represents enough of the musicians actively. If there was one, I would not have had to spend several good years in courts and in the Knesset to get justice. There was someone who demanded it for me.
To date there have been several attempts to establish a union, attempts that failed for a variety of reasons, first of all - it is difficult to convince the powerful to make an effort for the weak.
Promises of many kinds have been floated into the air, such as government support, budgets and funds, but a labor union can and should not only strive to achieve together what cannot be achieved alone, in fact, its existence gives its members an invaluable lesson: mutual guarantee.
The day the musicians in Israel understand what the players in Israel, HOT or McDonald's workers understood, we will not only be able to insist and receive adequate wages for work, act against discrimination and promote our interests in regulations and legislation - we will also be able to trust each other.
This will be the real change.
were we wrong
We will fix it!
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