FREE PACIFIC RADIO!
Our Mission: We believe in fearless free speech and we want it back on the air at Pacifica Radio. We believe the decisions about our stations should be made by the representatives of all the communities which have a stake in Pacifica Radio and should occur in an open, accountable, community-oriented process--something now lacking at Pacifica.
Although KPFA is back on the air without the gag rule, the battle continues. The Pacifica executive committee members and the national board who created the crisis at KPFA are still in office and we have yet to receive a written statement guaranteeing no sale of the station.
An historic conflict now underway will determine the future of the only progressive radio network in the United States, the Pacifica Network. With radio stations in Berkeley, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Houston, and New York, Pacifica is in a unique position to bring progressive social, political, and cultural programming to millions of people. But, under the direction of Board Chair Dr. Mary Frances Berry and Executive Director Lynn Chadwick, Pacifica has abandoned and betrayed its mission. It has censored journalists at several of its stations, used armed guards to close down KPFA in Berkeley, threatened to sell the Berkeley or New York stations, and eliminated the voices of numerous people of color and political dissidents from its airwaves. Join us to demand free speech at Pacifica and the resignations of Pacifica's leadership.
For more information, see <www.savepacifica.ne> or <www.radio4all.org/freepacifica>. Hotline for KPFA info! (510) 883-0538. Friends of KPFA hotline! (415) 546-6334 ext. 352 .
KPFA PEOPLE OF COLOR COALITION STATEMENT
The Pacifica National Foundation has provoked a crisis throughout the network, most specifically at KPFA, by locking out the staff and community, hiring anti-union consultants, employing armed goons and utilizing a corporate public relations firm to deceive the media and the community.
We, KPFA's staff of color, find it ludicrous that Pacifica intends to monitor our station's progress toward greater "diversity" as a condition for its continued operation. Over the last several years, Pacifica has dismantled at its five stations much programming aimed at communities of color, the poor, gays, and women. In particular, Pacifica eliminated KPFA's Third World and Women's Departments altogether! And it has threatened to end the KPFA Apprenticeship Program, which has opened doors for people of color and women into broadcasting and raised the level of professionalism at the station. Now it's on us and the community to reverse the damage, to keep KPFA independent and in the hands of the community, and help it serve our communities even better in the future.
We Reject: Race baiting by Pacifica's out-of-touch bureaucrats who are trying to steal our station and have tried to silence community voices by force. Pacifica National Board Chair and US Civil Rights Commission Chair Mary Frances Berry has never even bothered to answer the letters of protest from African American and Asian/Pacific Islander programmers at KPFA!
WE DEMAND
1. No sale of KPFA or other Pacifica assets without staff/listener input.
2. The resignation of Pacifica Executive Director Lynn Chadwick, Interim KPFA Manager Garland Ganter and the entire Pacifica National Board, and the reconstitution of the board through DEMOCRATIC elections.
3. The immediate opening of Pacifica's books, particularly on all hostile security and consulting.
4. An unconditional end to the lockout, the dropping of all charges against those arrested defending the station, and the reversal of all disciplinary action against any Pacifica staff for alleged violation of the so-called gag-rule.
5. Transformation: The strengthening of the Apprenticeship Program. The restoration of the "Third World" and Women's Departments and the reconstitution of KPFA's Program Council to ensure representation of people of color and unpaid staff.
KPFA People of Color Coalition
<nalexander@igc.org> <maktan@hotmail.com> 510.601.9544 · 415.241.1583