SPA, also due to its international responsibilities as chair of the European Committee of Societies of Authors of CISAC, the Directorate of the European Group of Societies of Authors, based in Brussels and the Directorate of Writers and Directors Worldwide, expresses a justified and legitimate concern to the legislative action and all the political intervention of President Donald Trump, considering that it is already introducing serious factors of division, hatred and suspicion that, in addition to affecting global geostrategic balances, will cause incalculable losses in the cultural and artistic world.
The voices of the representatives of this sector have been vehemently and indignantly heard, demonstrating to international public opinion that cultural creators and artists are now the first line of resistance to the far-right thinking of which Donald Trump became an aggressive symbol and flag.
Writers, musicians, film and television artists, notably Meryl Streep’s intervention, have been denouncing the abuses and assaults perpetrated by the White House.
Large museums, media entrepreneurs, film and television producers, film and theatre festival organizers, and a large number of journalists have denounced the gravity of the situation caused by the measures proclaimed by Trump to stop the free movement of authors and artists, which, as is well known, will affect the very ceremony of the Academy Awards in Los Angeles, recalling that the United States are a nation created by emigrants and that they were and are, with their recognized talent, the ones who also built the prestige of America.
In a global society, avoiding the free movement of citizens and people of creation and the arts, in addition to being a worrying sign of totalitarianism, will open the door to other forms of discrimination that will not fail to be reflected in the world of collective copyright management, threatening or destroying the achievements by copyright societies, including the United States ones, after many decades of dialogue and intense work. The quality of these positions was highlighted at the CISAC international meetings held in Washington and in 2009 and in 2012 and in which SPA was present and intervened.
SPA, in the full and legitimate exercise of its functions, will not fail to take a position on these situations, namely in Moscow, at the beginning of April, where José Jorge Letria will preside at the annual general meeting of the CISAC European Committee, sharing the same views with the Lusophone partners, namely Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique and East Timor.
SPA considers that America and the world are living moments of understandable apprehension and fear that can open doors to brutal forms of discrimination and injustice and even to conflicts whose size and scope are unforeseeable at the moment.
The Portuguese authors will do everything to the best of their ability to resist this violent and divisive model of governance, also due to the fact that some members of this community live and work in the United States and since democracy can not cope with situations that affect it and may destroy it.
Lisbon, February 1, 2017
