Mark Mericle 415-457-9176 arlettepbu@aol.com
Kris Welch
C.S.Soong
Philip Maldari.(alternate)
3 UNPAID STAFF:
Robbie Osmond
Wendell Harper
Akila (sorry, I didn't get Akila's last name.)
alternates Mary Berg and Nan Schweiger
1 MANAGER STAFF: Jim Bennett.
1 from KPFA LOCAL AREA BOARD: Jay Imani.
1 from COALITION FOR A DEMOCRATIC PACIFICA: Kahlil Jacobs-Fantauzzi (also a
LAB member.415-546-6334 x353; 510-682-6868; kjfkpfa@hotmail.com
alternates #1: Lester (sorry, last name unknown), #2: Ann Fagan-Ginger
1 from COMMITTEE FOR FREE SPEECH RADIO: Barbara Lubin; alternate David
Richardson.
1 from an AD HOC COMMITTEE: Sherry Gendelman (also a LAB member); alternate
Matthew Lasar.
(I apologize if I didn't get the correct spelling of someone's name. Also I don't have every alternate's name.)
The staff elected their representatives and the four community members were elected by: 1 from the KPFA Local Area Board (itself not elected); 1 from the Coalition for a democratic Pacifica; 1 from the Committee for Free Speech Radio; and 1 from an "ad hoc" committee.
There are two paths from here. First to embrace the Committee of 11, give them our heartiest support and then go to work creating democratically elected Shadow Local Advisory Boards and a National Board of Directors in exile. Second, to build on the Committee of 11; to use and improve its evolving structure to make it into a de facto democratically elected Shadow LAB.
I can support either path, I just want us to start down one or the other. I have experienced what happens when the window of opportunity opens and closes and we weren't prepared to jump. What follows below is specifically related to how to start on the second path. I do not mean to destroy or denigrate the hard work that people have done. If a broad consensus develops for the first approach, for whatever reasons, nearly all that follows is still applicable, and what is not can be easily jettisoned.
EQUAL REPRESENTATION:
The first obvious defect in the arrangement of the Committee of 11 is that there are 7 members of staff and only 4 "community" members. In his essay "The Theory of Listener-Sponsored Radio" (Found in the Free Pacifica Document Archives at http://www.radio4all.org/fp/lewhill.htm ) written in 1951, Lewis Hill spoke of the "creative tension between broadcaster and audience that constantly reaffirms their mutual relevance. Listener sponsorship will require this mutual stimulus if it is to exist at all." This presupposes that the two sides of this creative tension are equal parties. As Peter Franck pointed out in his Teach-in presentation, this is a flaw in the structure that has been with us from the beginning
So, the FIRST ADJUSTMENT to the Committee of 11 is that the representation of staff and listeners must be equal: 7 each, making a Committee of 14.
LISTENER REPRESENTATION:
I am satisfied that the staff can elect their members to the committee without listeners intervening. The ratio of 3:3:1 seems fair and reasonable. The make-up of the listener representatives is another matter. Can staff support letting listeners decide how listener representatives are elected?
We were informed at the Teach-in that the four community members were elected by their respective constituent committees. This is an excellent beginning. These people are to be commended and respected for their pioneering efforts to democratize Pacifica and their success at getting a place on our side of the table if it ever appears. But I must ask, Who selected these committees to be the representatives of the listeners? Why wasn't a call sent out that listener representatives for a committee to negotiate were needed and would be elected?
Is it enough to say that we should have been attending the activist committees? Those of us who live outside the immediate Bay Area, who are never the less well within the broadcast area, and are also listener sponsors were not informed by anybody that such elections were being conducted by the 3 activist committees and the non-elected LAB
So the SECOND ADJUSTMENT to the "Committee of 14" is that the 7 listener members should be elected by the listeners..
LAB MEMBER REPRESENTATION:
In fact, three of the "community" members are already members of the current KPFA LAB. This is good from the point of view that they are privy to more of the insider actions and information than the general listener is. Also, they seem to have gotten up in arms and are pursuing the law suit and this negotiation with apparent fervor. Many of the LAB members have been fighting with the National Board for years At times they have been marginalized by both staff and management. However, the fact is that no general listener election placed anyone on the LAB. We just have to recognize that LAB membership isn't democratically based, even if some members are unsung heroes..
So the THIRD ADJUSTMENT derived from the second is that, even LAB members, guided by the ideal of democracy at Pacifica, have to be elected by the listeners to a seat on the "Committee of 14" along with any other freely nominated listener.
NATIONAL ORGANIZATION:
The problems with Pacifica's Board of Directors' policy and management of stations are network wide and endemic. We must make the negotiated solution to our national Pacifica problem into a coordinated effort with the sister stations. KPFK is under severe gag orders. KPFT is under spider-like venomous encapsulation of Garland Ganter. Which by the way is in direct violation of Article II of the Articles of Incorporation. WBAI is gaged and national programming such as Democracy Now is gagged. And on July 13, 1999, the Board chained and padlocked KPFA in their escalating war on the listeners.
A negotiating committee from any particular station is legitimate to deal with that station's problems with Pacifica management. For instance, it is appropriate for the KPFA negotiating committee to negotiate about the presence of armed private police in the halls of the station. However, it is not appropriate for one station, even flagship KPFA, to assume the responsibility for negotiating a settlement of the national Pacifica problem. To democratize Pacifica the democracy movement must be across and include all stations in Pacifica. The staff component of the negotiating committee from KPFT must be made up from the staff who were present before the venom was injected, including staff who were fired in the immediately preceding period.
So the FOURTH ADJUSTMENT is that each station needs to develop its own democratically elected negotiating committee composed of both staff and listeners working in "creative tension." AND a NATIONAL NEGOIATING COMMITTEE composed of representatives (again in equal creative tension between staff and listeners) from each station's negotiating committee must be formed. This will wake people up that listeners have to work across station boundaries to develop a national Pacifica awareness.
Gregory Wonderwheel: wildrose@pon.net