| MUMIA ABU JAMAL SPEAKS OUT ABOUT PACIFICA |
| “About the newest events occurring at Pacifica stations… centralization is essentially one thing and one thing only: CONTROL. Centralization is how the system reproduces itself, by quieting the voice of those people it deems deviant, those people it deems dissident, those people it deems other than human, other than people. … Centralization is about control. And de-centralization is about liberation, freedom, and liberating voices, personalities, identities that have been under the thumb of repression. So I know what side I’m on. I hope you’re on that side.” ~ Mumia Abu Jamal, December 7, 2020 |
| ATTEMPTED COURT SEIZURE On Tuesday, December 8, four KPFA plaintiffs – Pacifica National Board (PNB) member Andrea Turner-Dyson, Local Station Board (LSB) Chair Christina Huggins, LSB member Donald Goldmacher, and former LSB member and secretary, Craig Alderson – sued to put Pacifica into receivership. Their complaint featured provably false claims about Pacifica’s relationship with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the status of our audits, and includes events that occurred while many of the “New Day Pacifica”(NDP) / “Pacifica Restructuring Project” actors were part of management and/or governance majorities.The Los Angeles court attack was sprung just days after the PNB agreed on a timeframe for a 2021 Bylaw Replacement Referendum from NDP. Although most 4th graders could have convincingly argued that NDP’s “new” proposal was too similar to the resoundingly rejected 2020 Referendum to warrant the expenditure of the organization’s limited funds, the Board acceded to the NDP demand / threat rather than going to court, after which the NDP backers immediately took Pacifica to court! So much for limiting legal expenses… Apparently, there is no pleasing these folks. While the judge rejected the plaintiffs’ request for immediate control, we are not safe. Not safe from frivolous lawsuits or from repeated referenda, or generally, from what seems a plan to drive the organization into bankruptcy one way or another. |
| Want to SAVE Pacifica dollars and protect democracy? Squash the “New Day” petition and choose real dialogue! UN-SIGN the “New Day” Petition: UNSIGN PETITION if you already signed it. |
| We’re fighting back against continuing attempts to take down Pacifica!Join us: Email pacificafightback-subscribe@lists.riseup.net to get on our low volume list. |
| Listen to a deconstruction of the “New Day” Bylaw Replacement plan on the WBAI archives: BATTLE FOR COMMUNITY RADIO |
| A “NEW DAY”… REALLY? Last October, as “Pacifica Restructuring Project”, Houston’s Bill Crosier and Adrienne LaViolette came to New York, met their crony, then-Interim Executive Director John C. Vernile, joined men with guns, and traumatized and locked out WBAI staff. On the West Coast that day, Crosier and other members of the PNB sued Pacifica to force a vote on their proposal to eliminate staff, affiliates, and poor people from Pacifica governance, to literally strip out Pacifica’s commitment to diversity, peace, and justice, and install a handpicked unaccountable Board with predetermined replacements. The rogues spent more than $80,000 of Pacifica’s money on guards and lawyers, etc. to carry out and defend their unauthorized seizure, which was ruled illegal and overturned by a court in New York, but not before it cost WBAI untold amounts by shutting off their on-air fund-drive, and piping in content from KPFA and KPFK. Cost? Another $150,000.So aside from threats to sue and actual lawsuits, what does “New Day Pacifica” bring us? Their latest effort to fundamentally and irreversibly change Pacifica’s Bylaws to cancel member input and take all power into their faction would: Keep Local Station Boards, but as toothless advisory bodies with no oversight of local management, budget or programming policies. Name themselves national board officers until 2024, with no opposition allowed to run against them. Add three to-be-appointed “experts” to the diminished national board. Halve affiliate stations’ representation and force them into a third -party organization. Create multiple single-person categories of Board membership, thereby converting formerly ranked voting into winner-take-all elections, eliminating minority voices. Reduce staff representation by 60%, permanently divide paid & unpaid staff who do similar work into separate classes of membership, and discriminate against the more numerous unpaid staff. WHEN THEY SHOW YOU WHO THEY ARE… BELIEVE THEM! These Pacifica Restructuring Project (PRP) / New Day Pacifica (NDP) folks seem incapable of forthright conduct. What does that, in combination with their particular Bylaw replacement ideas, say about who they are?To make us spend Pacifica money on another referendum instead of providing for our stations during COVID-restricted broadcasting, they need 5% of Pacifica members to sign their petition. If you have signed, please undo that by writing to them, the National Election Supervisor, and to us, here: UNSIGN PETITION |
| Members are entitled to communicate with other members. That’s why you get email from us and from them. But they are using the Foundation’s list to solicit funds for themselves, in competition with our stations and the Foundation. PLEASE PAY CLOSE ATTENTION Please do not support “NDP” with your dollars.Support genuine dialogue, and do not reward threats and sneak attacks.While some Pacifica listeners struggle to feed families and stay housed, well-to-do mainstream political party clubs are being recruited to throw some spare change into station membership so as to vote to replace the Bylaws.Help our stations now and ensure that you are in position to vote in the referendum, if needed: Establish or renew your $25 membership now… |
| Unlike the splitters and breakers at NDP, we are not using the membership lists to solicit funds on our own behalf or to help break Pacifica up to monetize its parts — we are seeking your help to keep Pacifica alive, whole and impactful to the maximum of its potential! |
| Fight back, Pacifica people! Fight like life depends on it because for some, it does. Examine what the not-quite-past U.S. elections highlight about this country. For many, this is not a revelation. It is where we’ve been living. Diversity and power-sharing are strengths. Build a more inclusive Pacifica. Build a deliberately anti-racist Pacifica. Stay safe and stay strong! |