Haïti Progrès
February 21-27 2001
JOIN THE FINANCIAL BOYCOTT OF PACIFICA!
Over the past 50 years, the Pacifica radio network has become the most influential and listened to outlet for progressive news, analysis, and opinion in the United States. But today, a reactionary clique has commandeered Pacifica's leadership and is angling to sell off the network, station by station, to corporate America.
The latest move in this right-wing offensive was the "Christmas coup"
at WBAI, Pacifica's New York affiliate. Now WBAI is in the midst of a fund-raising
drive. But Pacifica's listeners and purged staffers have launched the "Pacifica
Campaign" to redirect listener dollars to the fight to restore community
control of the network. The words of Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez
and of death-row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal explain
why you should support this vital campaign.
Juan Gonzalez's Letter of Resignation from Democracy Now! Jan. 31, 2001
This is to notify you that I am resigning as co-host of Democracy Now! effective immediately.
I take this action with much regret since, as you know, I have worked alongside host Amy Goodman from the show's inception nearly five years ago and am proud of the groundbreaking work we have done to establish a national radical news magazine. Even more important, I have listened to Pacifica programs for more than 30 years and understand the critical role the network has played in reporting important stories the corporate media ignored, thus helping to shape progressive thought and popular movements throughout the country.
But the current management situation at Pacifica has become intolerable, and despite my hope that the majority of the Pacifica Foundation board of directors would come to its senses, the situation has only gotten worse. The last straw was the Christmas coup at WBAI last month.
Quite simply, the Pacifica board has been hijacked by a small clique that has more in common with corporate vultures than with working-class Americans. That clique has illegally changed the Foundation's by-laws, and during the past two years it has methodically sought to squash dissent throughout the network -- first at KPFA, then at PNN news, then at Democracy Now!, and now at WBAI. This group does not respect free speech. It does not respect labor or civil rights. It does not even practice due process for its own managers. And it is now seeking to radically alter Pacifica's by-laws to pave the way for the selling of one or more stations.
Furthermore, this clique insults Pacifica's loyal and sophisticated listeners by asking them to finance its shenanigans with their donations.Starting today, I will be joining other Pacifica listeners in a national corporate campaign that will not rest until every board member who has orchestrated this hijacking resigns and a new board is in place -- one that is democratically accountable to the network's listeners, community and staff.
Our campaign will call for listeners across the country to withhold donations to Pacifica in a mass referendum against your policies. Instead, we will urge them to contribute their money to a variety of groups around the country that are battling the Pacifica board -- including the legal fund for court suits which are currently challenging the board's legitimacy.
Mr. Murdock, Mr. Acosta, Mr. Palmer, you will soon find out that Pacifica
is listener-sponsored radio.
WBAI: THE COUP
ON WALL ST.
by Mumia Abu-Jamal
"Information is the raw material for new ideas; if you get misinformation,
you get some pretty fu---d-up ideas." -- Eldridge Cleaver, former Minister
of Information, Black Panther Party
With late-night lock changes, and a phalanx of security guards prowling the halls, the coup of WBAI-FM, the flagship station of the Pacifica Network,has begun.
Popular veterans of the listener-supported station, like program manager Bernard White and WBAI union shop steward Sharan Harper, (both producers of the morning "Wake Up Call" show) received letters of termination at their homes several hours before their shifts were to begin. WBAI general manager, Valerie Van Isler, who, like White, was a 20-year vet of the station, was similarly fired by Pacifica, ostensibly for failing to accept a position at network headquarters in Washington, D.C. While these firings were attempts to remove, and thereby install, management personnel, it was also an opening salvo in a pitched battle designed to silence radical dissent, and open the airwaves to the corporatization of WBAI.
If you want WBAI to become a nice, sweet, safe alternative, like NPR, then do nothing. It will happen. If, however, you want to continue to hear about the struggles of the peoples of the world for liberty, for life, for dignity, as in East Timor; or of the noble life and death struggle of the Zapatistas in the mountains of Mexico; or of cases like the slaughter of African immigrant Amadou Diallo; or of the continuing human rights violations occurring every day in the nation's burgeoning prison-industrial complex, then you must fight for it, as you would fight for your very life, or anything dear to you.
The great Frederick Douglass perhaps put it best when he said, "Without struggle there is no progress." If the various communities of New York and northern New Jersey don't struggle for their vision of WBAI-FM, it will be gone. It's as simple as that.
What's happening at 'BAI was attempted a year ago at KPFA-FM in San Francisco. The people of the Bay Area rallied in unprecedented strength--over 10,000 folks at one protest -- and backed the Pacifica board down. Listeners to 'BAI must do no less! In theory at least, the airwaves belong to the people.
For the last 40 years, the staff and local management of WBAI have tried
to make that theory in America a reality. If you are thrilled by the no-holds-barred
radio reporting of "Democracy Now's Amy Goodman, who is constantly threatened
and harassed by the Pacifica board for her radical reporting, then fight
for her. For in fighting for her, you fight for the finest traditions of
WBAI, and against the corporationists who want to turn a national resource
into just another commodity. To keep it raw; to keep it real, you've got
to fight for it.
Pacificacampaign.org
800-797-6229 * 212-871-9322
Join the Campaign! SEND YOUR SUPPORT!
Tax-deductible contributions can be made to:
Institute for Media Analysis - Pacifica Campaign 51 MacDougal St. Box 80,
NY, NY 10012
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