2015/03/11 by Clayton Rosati, Rosati, Clayton
Social Sciences · #Digital Economy and Work Transformation #NYC #Political theory and Gramsci #Youth Education and Societal Dynamics #digital content #fetish #fiction #freelance workers #labor struggles #media conglomerates #permalance #workers
paper · doi:10.14288/acme.v9i1.861
openalex publication_date 2015/03/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/01
New York City was abuzz with labor struggles in December 2007. The most prominent were that of the Writers Guild of America (East), picketing as part of their nation-wide strike for a fair share of online and digital content “residuals.” NYC-based shows like Letterman’s the Late Show, the Daily Show, and Saturday Night Live languished for months without their creative workers. In December, though, another smaller intersecting struggle also erupted at one of the world’s largest media conglomerates, when Viacom’s vulnerable and (until then) unorganized ‘freelance’ workers (known in-house as “permalance”) walked off the job. The following comic and introduction present preliminary observations and themes from research conducted during this tumultuous time.