by PATRICK LEJTENYI

It was, popular mythology tells us, one of the contributing factors to the American Revolution, and it might just lead to a revolution here. A growing number of the province’s musicians, especially those working the small club circuit, have been fuming lately over an issue that is close to both their hearts and their always-slim wallets: the meddlesome and constantly dues-hungry Quebec Musicians’ Guild.

One of the many things bothering them boils down to the three words that inspired noted patriot Patrick Henry to thumb his nose at the King of England way back in 1765: taxation without representation. As it stands, musicians have to pay three per cent of their profits from individual performances as well as annual dues of between $180 to $195 to the guild. The guild says it works to establish proper working conditions, minimum pay scales, pensions and legal representation. The problem is, many musicians don’t want any part of it, and counter that they never see the money again anyway.

"We’re self-employed, autonomous musicians," says Simon Jodoin, lead singer, guitarist and "propagandist" for local folk band Mort de Rire and member of the 500-strong l’Association des musiciens autonomes du Québec (L’AMAQ). "We made our own way, and we don’t want forced representation. Our goal is to gather together all the musicians who don’t want to be represented by the guild."

To that end, the group organized a big, free volunteer show at the Medley and in Quebec City last Friday night, under the banner "Tous contre la Guilde." It attracted hundreds of supporters both within and without the musician community.

But the new guild president, Gérard Masse, elected last Sunday after soundly defeating the unpopular and remote incumbent Émile Subirana, says the guild is an important defender of the rights of all musicians. "The guild isn’t the problem," he says, "it’s just a bureaucracy. The problem is with the guild’s directors." He says he’s willing to listen to what L’AMAQ has to say, despite the bad blood.

"It’s a case-by-case basis, but there should always be a very strict minimum for artists to be paid every performance," adds his vice-president Denis Filiatreault. "It could be $40 a night, with some of it going to the pension."

Risky business

But that’s not the point, Jodoin says. Besides the always-sticky money issue is the fundamental question of free enterprise. "We want to be free to negotiate what we want," Jodoin says. "We take all the risks, we rent out the venues, we pay for our instruments and we organize the shows. We make our own deals. So who is the guild to set any kind of minimum wage?"

Another problem he has with the guild is the scope of its mandate. Technically, every musician, from a lofty head cellist with the MSO to a spoon-tapper in a cabane à sucre falls under their rubric. By taking in that many diverse types of musicians, he says, the guild is placed in the impossible situation of trying to please, and work for, everyone at the same time.

"The professional environments [among the province’s musicians] are all totally different," he says. One set of rules governing all musicians, he believes, simply won’t properly encompass the range of musical diversity. "There are too many regulations as is. What will happen if you try to regulate every little hippie playing his guitar in the metro? Will you start treating the transit system as a venue?"

Jodoin admits that it is ironic that an avowed left-winger like him should wind up sounding like an Ayn Rand acolyte. But because his dues are used for so-called benefits he never sees - including a fund for striking symphony musicians, and the $50 paid to guild members to counter-demonstrate outside the Quai des Brumes bar on St-Denis in December when the fledgling L’AMAQ were having a meeting - he feels that the guild is not legitimately working in his interests.

"Look, I generally like unions," he says. "But unions for their own sake? It goes against our vocation." :