Amid a crisis that threatens the future of the Pacifica Radio Network, more than 80 prominent progressives have rallied in support of the six dissidents on the Pacifica Foundation’s board. These board members want Pacifica‘s national leadership to reverse course on its takeover of WBAI, and to “build democratic decision-making structures throughout Pacifica.”
A statement supporting the dissenting board members (below) was signed by the Local Advisory Board chairs of four of Pacifica‘s five stations and by former Pacifica staffers and board members, as well as by political figures, community leaders, journalists, artists and academics. These include Dennis Brutus, Noam Chomsky, Martín Espada, Frances Farenthold, June Jordan, Tom Morello, Tim Robbins, Edward Said, Studs Terkel, Urvashi Vaid and many more.
WE PROTEST PACIFICA’S NATIONAL LEADERSHIP ACTIONS AND SUPPORT THE DISSENTING BOARD MEMBERS
In an action reminiscent of its closing of Berkeley’s KPFA in 1999, the Pacifica Foundation‘s national leadership is now moving against New York’s WBAI. The station’s managers have been fired, door locks changed in the middle of the night, staffers banned from the station and protesters arrested. Security guards have been brought in to enforce the changes imposed without warning or explanation by Pacifica‘s Washington, D.C.-based executive director, backed by its board leadership.
Another target of the action, Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman, hangs on to her job amid harassment on air and off by Pacifica‘s national leaders and recently installed station management in New York. Meanwhile, WBAI‘s newly appointed morning show host has spoken on-air in support of the Pacifica board selling off WBAI.
For most of its 50-year history, Pacifica has been a public resource for the progressive community. Recently, a self-selected, unaccountable and secretive board majority has acted as if it owns Pacifica and has ruled by fiat. In the wake of this latest crisis, six courageous members of Pacifica‘s national board issued the following public dissent on January 18 in hopes of getting the Pacifica network back on path.
“We are deeply troubled by the recent developments at WBAI radio in New York City, one of the five stations of the Pacifica Foundation. It is not too late to remedy the situation, and we are working toward that end….
“—The National Board must take steps to ensure the immediate reinstatement of the three people fired at WBAI: Station Manager Valerie Van Isler, Program Director Bernard White and Producer Sharan Louise Harper. According to the information we have, the Pacifica Foundation‘s internal procedures were not followed, there was not compliance with union contracts, and none were informed of the cause of their firings. All three of these people should be reinstated as full time employees without further delay. Existing internal processes which address job performance, or any other concerns, must be followed.
” —The continuing ‘banning’ of long time volunteers and freelance reporters, the decision to not allow the Local Advisory Board to meet at the station, and the use of security personnel are all having a chilling effect at the station. Action must be taken now to lift the bans, to ensure that the LAB can meet at the station and to remove security people from the station….
” —As members of the National Board, we believe it is critically important to review the internal processes within the Pacifica Foundation. We must build democratic decision making structures throughout Pacifica and re-commit ourselves to work for the principles of free-speech, community-based, corporate-free radio, as first articulated by Pacifica Foundation‘s founder, Lewis Hill.
Pete Bramson [S.F. Bay area]
Leslie Cagan [New York]
Rabbi Aaron Kriegel [Los Angeles]
Beth Lyons [New York]
Tomas Moran [S.F. Bay area]
Rob Robinson [Washington D.C]”
We support the efforts of the dissenting Pacifica board members, especially their call to “build democratic decision making structures throughout Pacifica and re-commit ourselves to work for the principles of free-speech, community-based, corporate-free radio, as first articulated by Pacifica Foundation’s founder, Lewis Hill.”
(Affiliations for ID only)
Joanne Bobb, WBAI Local Advisory Board chair
Sherry Gendelman, KPFA LAB chair
David Adelson, KPFK LAB chair
Sam Husseini, WPFW LAB chair
Michael Albert, Z Magazine
Salaam Al-Marayati, Muslim Public Affairs Council
Aris Anagnos, human rights activist
Glenn Austin, Americans for Radio Diversity
Dean Baker, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Ben H. Bagdikian, Media Monopoly
David Barsamian, Alternative Radio
Frances M. Beal, Black Radical Congress
Joel Beinin, Middle East history, Stanford
Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies
Larry Bensky, former Pacifica national correspondent
Elaine Bernard, Harvard Trade Union Program
Patrick Bond, former Pacifica reporter
Lydia Brazon, Humanitarian Law Project
Gray Brechin, author
Michael Bronski, gay activist/scholar
Dennis Brutus, Africana Studies professor
Andrea Buffa, Media Alliance
Linda Burnham, Women of Color Resource Center
Jeff Cohen, FAIR
Noam Chomsky, MIT
Jose B. Cuellar, La Raza Studies professor
Mike Davis, author
Hari Dillon, Vanguard Foundation
Brian Dominick, community organizer
Doug Dowd, economist
Martin Espada, poet
Frances “Sissy” Farenthold, attorney/professor
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, City Lights Books
Laura Flanders, radioforchange.com
Sheryl Flowers, former KPFA host
Ted Glick, Independent Progressive Politics Network
Tami Gold, filmmaker
Dorothy Guellec, health commentator
Robin Hahnel, economics professor
Betsy Hartmann, population and development professor
Don Hazen, AlterNet.org
Edward S. Herman, author
Jim Hightower, commentator
Janine Jackson, FAIR
Diana Johnstone, journalist
Van Jones, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
June Jordan, poet
Robin D.G. Kelley, history/Africana studies professor
Margaret Ratner Kunstler, William Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice
Matthew Lasar, Pacifica: The Rise of an Alternative Network
Aurora Levins Morales, historian, Oakland Museum
David T. Lopez, civil rights attorney
Barbara Lubin, Middle East Children’s Alliance
Robert McChesney, communications professor
Eric Mann, Labor/Community Strategy Center
Elizabeth Martinez, Institute for Multiracial Justice
Mark Crispin Miller, Project On Media Ownership
Gwendolyn Mink, politics professor
Russell Mokhiber, Corporate Crime Reporter
Tom Morello, Rage Against the Machine
Carlos Munoz, Jr., Ethnic Studies, UC Berkeley
Robert Naiman, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Gus Newport, former Berkeley mayor
Kwazi Nkrumah, National Green Justice Council
Michael Parenti, author
Cynthia Peters, East Timor Action Network
Peter Phillips, Project Censored
Katha Pollitt, columnist, the Nation
Margaret Randall, author/poet
Tim Robbins, actor/director
Marta Russell, author
Edward Said, Columbia University
Angela Sanbrano, CARECEN
Luis Sanchez, Innercity Struggle
Lydia Sargent, Z Magazine
Carol Sobel, civil liberties attorney
Stephen R. Shalom, professor
Norman Solomon, columnist/media critic
Southern California Americans for Democratic Action
Makani Themba-Nixon, community organizer
Studs Terkel, journalist
Deborah Toler, Africa trade specialist
Urvashi Vaid, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
Alice Walker, author
Mark Weisbrot, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Robert Weissman, Essential Action
Tim Wise, AWARE
Howard Zinn, historian
