Yesterday, author Twitter blew up over the issue of payments to writers.

According to Publishing Weekly, “the Internet Archive unilaterally granted itself emergency powers to lend a corpus of over 1.4 million ebooks without any restrictions, contrary to its own stated policies. They are calling it a ‘National Emergency Library.’”

In response, many authors are outraged. On Saturday, Alexander Chee tweeted, “As a reminder, there is no author bailout, booksellers bailout, or publisher bailout. The Internet Archive’s “emergency” copyrights grab endangers many already in terrible danger.”

According to the Authors Guild, they are “appalled by the Internet Archive’s (IA) announcement that it is now making millions of in-copyright books freely available online without restriction on its Open Library site under the guise of a National Emergency Library. IA has no rights whatsoever to these books, much less to give them away indiscriminately without consent of the publisher or author. We are shocked that the Internet Archive would use the Covid-19 epidemic as an excuse to push copyright law further out to the edges, and in doing so, harm authors, many of whom are already struggling.”

According to author Meg Waite Clayton, this is particularly outrageous because the man behind this copyright grab is wealthy enough to have underwritten the cost, but he chose not to. She tweeted to Kahle: “With all due respect, @brewster_kahle, the average writer makes $20,000/year. You, who have made literally hundreds of millions of dollars, are illegally stealing that for your own nonprofit. Maybe use some of your millions do this properly rather than stealing from writers?‬”

According to the National Writers Union, “The Internet Archive isn’t distributing the physical books that were donated. Instead, it’s ‘re-published’ them by scanning them and creating new bootleg e-book editions. It has done so without permission or payment to authors or publishers…”

According to Chee, “this is not freedom, this is piracy.”

But others are supporting the move, claiming that during this time of lockdown and shelter-in-place, making books available serves the public good.

In response to Chee, a twitter user named Christopher Stevenson, who works for the DC Public Library tweeted back:

“A solid majority of authors work for free. Alexander Chee is one of the uber-lucky ones that gets to profit from his writing.”

Chee defended himself, “This is so disingenuous and insulting to my life’s work, but here we go. In 2000 I signed a contract for my debut novel, 6000$. Was paid 4000$ before house went bankrupt owing me 28,000$ in royalties, a paperback advance & a Japanese foreign rights sale. Took 7 years to write.”

The combined likes and retweets of Chee’s tweet were in the thousands. Many replied to him, mostly piling on Stevenson. Many were critical of him calling Chee “lucky” (as opposed to talented or hard-working) and questioning his “most writers” assertion.

But the common thread was about the overall poor economic conditions for writers. While this twitter exchange focused on authors of books, I would add that there are many different types of writers and different ways that the society extracts our labor without compensating us. I have worked as a writer in many different genres, from spoken word to playwriting to journalism, and most recently, I have several traditionally published novels. But as a Black female author, I can testify that throughout my career, I have been approached in a never-ending set of circumstances to offer my labor as an author for free.

But to return to the original argument, it’s tough to see economic compensation for writers being pitted against public access to the arts in hard times.

But this is a false dichotomy.

In this moment of pandemic, fear and scarcity can grip us, leading us to hoard toilet paper and turn allies into combatants. But in its most hopeful version, the pandemic has exposed the interconnectedness of all of our health, and the need for Medicare for All. Also, with these trillion-dollar corporate bailouts on the table, coronavirus has also exposed the reality that money is available whenever those in power have the will. This means that the Green New Deal is just as economically feasible.

As writers, we stand to gain much from the Green New Deal, as it echoes the original New Deal, which generated art for the public good and provided unprecedented public support for artists as workers. In Naomi Klein’s book, On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal, she has a chapter on the New Deal’s legacy in the arts:

“The New Dealers saw artists as workers like any other. People who—in the depths of the depression—deserved direct government assistance to practice their trade…Through…the WPA …tens of thousands of painters, musicians, photographers, playwrights, filmmakers, actors, authors, and a huge array of craftspeople found meaningful work. With unprecedented support going to African American and Indigenous artists.…while challenging the prevalent idea that art belonged exclusively to the wealthy.”

Klein not only talks about the history of the New Deal supporting artists, but also how the memory of the New Deal can help us envision the scope of change that is needed to address the climate emergency:

“By evoking FDR’s real-world industrial and social transformations from nearly a century ago in order to imagine our world a half century from now, all of our time horizons are being stretched….We are part of a long and complex collective story, one in which human beings are…a work in progress, capable of deep change. By looking decades backward and forward simultaneously, we are no longer alone as we confront our weighty historical moment. We are surrounded by both ancestors whispering that we can do what our moment demands just as they did, and by future generations shouting that they deserve nothing less.’”

One of the things capitalism does is falsely pit people with shared interests against each other. Writers want to write well and be fairly compensated. Readers want to read and enjoy their work. Many wealthy, developed nations invest much more in the arts than the US does. People are arguing that in this time of emergency, the public deserves access to the arts. Which is fine, but in our current system, the wealthy who have the resources to create that access need to also underwrite that access. Or better yet, we could shift our whole orientation and tax the ultra-rich to create public funding for the public good. If there are trillions available to bail out corporations (who then lay off workers anyway), there are trillions to invest in the Green New Deal, a bold initiative that will fix our economy and respond effectively to the climate crisis.

If you haven’t already done so, watch the Green New Deal video Klein co-produced for The Intercept, “A Message from the Future.” with Molly Crabapple and AOC. And if you have already watched it, watch it again, particularly if you’re struggling to find hope in this moment of pandemic.

Before we were overwhelmed by coronavirus, we were focused on 2020 as a pivotal year for our nation and our planet. Despite the pandemic overwhelm, it’s still true. This is the critical year. I want to remind everyone that there is still a Green New Deal candidate running for the Democratic nomination for President. Bernie Sanders’ campaign was thought to be over just before the pandemic hit. And now, it’s as if everything he stood for is being proven true. Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden seems unable to figure out a livestream (or perhaps he’s hiding) and was recently hit with a very credible rape accusation. Donald Tr*mp is holding so-called press conferences where he babbles stream-of-consciousness nonsense, and sends people to die. Meanwhile, only one Presidential candidate looks—well—presidential. Bernie Sanders. He still has a path to the white house. Which means the Green New Deal has a path. I encourage every writer who has struggled economically or is currently struggling to consider the Green New Deal as a piece of legislation that our guild of workers desperately needs.

What can you do to make it happen? Support Sanders. Vote for him if you can. Call your friends and family in states that can vote for him (especially Wisconsin). If you don’t know people in states with upcoming primaries, make calls for him. Or for the “lucky” writers among us, donate some of your earnings to his campaign.

Because the Green New Deal could change the economic reality for artists, and we need to let go of the false dichotomy that pits the public good against writers’ ability thrive.