“Brand New Day, Same Small Check!” Disney Hotel Workers March at D23

ANAHEIM, California—“I can’t eat fairy dust!” read one of many signs carried by Unite HERE Local 11 workers rallying in front of Disney’s annual D23 convention on August 14th & 15th. The union statement on the action read, “Disney is refusing fair wages to hundreds of room attendants, cooks, dishwashers, and more across its Disneyland hotel properties.” The ‘No Magic in Our Paychecks’ rally brought hundreds of workers and allied community members, even though this was not a declared strike, in a picket line outside the convention hall before marching down Harbor Boulevard in the direction of Disneyland Park. 

The annual D23 conference is a grand unveiling of the entire upcoming slate of Disney cinematic properties for the upcoming year: Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, etc., all announced with fanfare and cheers from fans, even for the CEO (don’t laugh!). It’s normally an event where the company’s cultural impact is preeminent, especially in terms of generating and forming news cycles. D23 is where the corporatization of art is on full display and where the company actively attempts to launder its infamous history. The convention is one aspect of the active Disney “myth” making that tries to build a fandom of the company itself, which explains the applause for corporate executives as much as for the artists and workers who make their beloved ‘content.’

Thousands of fans, media personnel, and Disney corporate shareholders marched into the convention hall to celebrate the commodification of artistic expression, and were met with banging drums and chants from hundreds of aggrieved ralliers from the Disneyland hotels and parks. It’s an attempt at direct intervention from workers into that Disney myth-making that is so crucial for it to maintain itself as one of the biggest entertainment conglomerates in the world. There’s also a significant racial factor, as many of the workers and cast members at Disneyland are immigrant and Latino, dealing with not only prejudice at their workplaces but also direct ICE military occupation in the area, making travel to and from work potentially dangerous. Recent ICE operations have drastically shifted to their Santa Ana offices, which puts the communities around Disneyland at greater risk. 

Stories of workers being forced into double-shifts, not being able to afford rent and groceries, were common from speaking to ralliers throughout the day. The lack of affordability was central to every discussion and speech with and by the workers throughout the day. All this is happening while “For the full year, [Disney’s] revenue rose 3% to top $94 billion, while adjusted EPS jumped 19%. Net profit reached $10 billion, up 36%. Free cash flow climbed 18% to just over $10 billion.” Disney is a key corporation in the US’ capitalist society; the way it ‘creates’ social behavior, deals directly with the military-industrial complex, and just the overall size of the corporation culturally means it's imperative to cut into its cultural hegemony. 

At the same time, since D23 is now most famous for film announcements—this year revealing releases of IPs such as the new X-Men franchise, Coco 2, and Avengers Doomsday—it has to be factored with the broader film industry trend. The entire film industry is on track for its best year since before COVID-19 with over $10 billion in profit. The recent Spider-Man film, co-owned by Disney (and Sony) has made $1.8 billion at the worldwide box office and is on track to hit $2 billion. It’s clear that Disney is still a surging behemoth, perpetually looking for more intellectual properties to consume, package, and sell, all at the expense of its myriad workers. 

Workers at the “happiest place on Earth” are building capacity to resist further economic exploitation in the face of rapidly increasing corporate profits. Much to the chagrin of many investors attending the meeting, some of whom got caught up yelling at the picketing masses, Unite HERE 11 workers marched around the convention center entrance, flyering incoming fans in an attempt to garner popular support for those who “make the magic happen.”

After a rally program, a mass of these workers then made their way to Harbor Boulevard, intending to march northward from the convention center to Disneyland Park, but they had only made it halfway to the first major intersection when Anaheim Police brought in their riot cops, batons out, and ready to prevent the workers from picketing the very Park and resort hotels they make function every day. The crowd was told through police airhorns that we were “illegally” blocking the street and organizers relented to turn back around to the convention center before risking a physical clash where children and the elderly were present. 

Countless Disney fans were witnesses to both the picketing and the march. While some more solidarity-minded fans happily took flyers and cheered the workers on, some questioned the workers with flyers as to why the workers needed to organize. Children asking their parents “why is there a minimum wage” and other incidents were common, as most people come to Disney to escape material reality, only to be forced to address the ugly underneath the fantastical facade of art.

This exploitative dynamic at the House of Mouse is not reserved just for hotel workers, nor is it a recent phenomenon. In 1941, animators at Disney went on strike against Walt Disney himself–forming the radical but eclectic Conference of Studio Unions (CSU). In that era, the Communist Party USA was vibrant in the Southland of California. As historian Gerald Horne writes:

“Hollywood was a pillar of the Communist Party in Los Angeles—a district probably second only to New York City in Red strength. Why? The reasons were many but chief among them was the fact that the labor policies of studios—like Disney—were so draconian and their profits were so significant that workers felt compelled to organize. Furthermore, the party and the unions received critical assistance—and otherwise—from moneyed screenwriters and leftist stars and directors. This advantage was shared by few workers outside of Hollywood.”

Figures such as Dave Hilberman and William Foldal, cartoonists, and CPUSA members, were alleged to have ‘‘led the strike at Disney Studios.’’ Walt Disney himself was a vicious anti-communist and anti-labor capitalist with ties to “organized crime,” a “domestic spy for the US government" and a personal fan of fascist dictators Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. The creation of the “Happiest Place on Earth” was orchestrated by a fascist. 

No wonder that today, Disney is still caught attempting to bust visual effects artists' unionizing efforts, firing thousands of workers while being caught using generative AI, and, as the hotel workers chanted, trying to make the workers survive on pure “fairy dust.” As Horne details, though, CSU’s chauvinism towards oppressed nationalities and lack of tactical awareness hampered the growing labor (and connected Communist) organizing before we even factor in the Red Scare and the Hollywood blacklist. 

This is hardly Unite HERE’s first foray into large scale actions against some of the largest corporations and organizations in Los Angeles. In 2023, Unite HERE Local 11 launched a strike in the area that included 10,000 workers (out of their 32,000 members). They launched sit-ins at LAX that led to hundreds of arrests. Union support and militancy in the Greater Los Angeles area have grown in recent years. Gerald Horne in Armed Struggle notes: “By mid-2023 one analyst adjudged accurately that ‘Southern California unions and the working people they represent have become the vanguard of the American labor movement.’” The analyst Nelson Lichtenstein added, “About half of the big strikes in the U.S. [in 2023], have taken place in California with the most consequential centered in Los Angeles.” 

The labor militancy and intense community-based anti-ICE resistance show California workers and oppressed groups are willing to fight back against MAGA fascism and capitalist exploitation. The need to cohere these forces into a broad and independent, mass political movement is vital to transcend the phase of class struggle we are in presently. Disney, Hollywood, and California have a radical history, and contemporary societal shifts and developments show a mass return to that radical political tradition. It is of high importance that this trend continue and be cultivated by working-class forces.