SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION (SOCAL-ADA) PASSES STRONG RESOLUTION REGARDING CRISIS INSIDE PACIFICA RADIO NETWORK Los Angeles----In a nearly unanimous vote, the Board of Directors of So. California Americans For Democratic Action (SoCalADA) passed a seven-point resolution Monday night declaring support for the six "dissident" Pacifica National Board members who are protesting the attack on "free-speech, community-based, corporate-free radio." The resolution makes Southern California ADA a signatory to the "Pacifica Petition," circulated by Fair and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) and published in the current issue of Nation magazine. The petition is signed by over 70 prominent American progressives and supports the Board's dissidents. The resolution commends both Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez for their outstanding contribution to Pacifica broadcasting. Goodman was just fired from the WBAI morning show, "Wake-Up Call," and Gonzalez recently resigned on the air from the award-winning "Democracy Now!" to protest current Board policies and behavior. Other provisions of the resolution, reprinted in full at the end of this post, dealt with the threat of "sell-offs" of network affiliate stations and the moving of network assets outside of California, where Pacifica is incorporated. The present Board majority has proposed a series of bylaws changes which concentrate power, without accountability, over the network's assets. The ADA resolution calls on the California Attorney General to facilitate the full disclosure of current Pacifica finances. Following the vote, an ADA Board member commented, "This puts our organization squarely with the progressive forces which are struggling at the national level--and around the country-- to preserve Pacifica radio and return it to the original mandate and vision of its early history." Pacifica was founded fifty years ago as an alternative, free-speech, listener-sponsored network. -----(reported from Los Angeles by Don White)-------------------------- SCADA Resolution on Pacifica 2-12-01 WHEREAS, Pacifica Radio is the largest and most important non-state, non-corporate controlled independent broadcast outlet in the U.S., if not the world. Pacifica has an historic mission to promote peace and justice and was built by generations of visionaries and activists. It is among the most important media resources for the entire progressive community. The Pacifica National Board (PNB) has, in recent years, undertaken to amend its by-laws to empower itself to entirely select its own membership. It is presently facing three lawsuits challenging the legality of this undertaken change and the status of many current PNB members. The Pacifica administration (Executive Director, National Program Director, Station Managers, and other top staff) has for years systematically removed from the network without due process large numbers of volunteers and staff people, including many on the grounds that they notified the listenership of matters of importance regarding the status and policies of the Pacifica Foundation. Recent actions of the PNB and the Pacifica Administration - particularly the lockout at KPFA in 1999 and the recent abrupt removal of key station staff from WBAI without following long-standing station procedures for such removals, as well as the imposition of security guards, the changing of station locks, and the threat of installation of surveillance equipment at WBAI - have provoked widespread objection, outrage and unrest among the station's supporters, workers, and the progressive community at large. The PNB is presently contemplating substantial revision of the Foundation By-laws at a time when the legitimacy of its board, the legality of the By-laws and procedures it is presently operating under, and the reconfiguration of the network that it has undertaken are being questioned in both the legal arena and the court of public opinion. The contemplated By-law revisions contain a large number of substantive changes that run counter to Pacifica's tradition of shared governance and instead concentrate power, without accountability, in the hands of the dominant faction of the PNB, which stands to gain extraordinary powers over the use and disposition of Pacifica assets at the expense of other Pacifica constituencies by their passage. The objectionable features of the proposed by-laws include but are not limited to the following: 1. Allow hired Pacifica executives to be members of the board; 2. Allow key decisions to be made by as few as three board members; 3. Permit the sale of Pacifica assets (i.e. stations like KPFA and WBAI, estimated to be worth at least $250 million to commercial broadcasters) by a vote of the executive committee only, as long as the sale does not include "all or substantially all of the assets or property of the Foundation"; 4. Fail to reflect the board resolution affirming the commitment not to sell any of the Pacifica radio stations; 5. Allow directors to be hired by Pacifica to perform professional services; 6. Allow non-board members to be officers of the Pacifica Foundation board; 7. Reduce Pacifica board meeting notice time from seven days to virtually minutes; 8. Reduce the notice required for Pacifica board meetings, from mail or delivery to fax, e-mail or phone message; 9. Allow Pacifica board meetings to be conducted entirely by telephone, eliminating public observation; 10. Impose no independent requirement to give public notice of Pacifica board or committee meetings; 11. Allow the Pacifica board to delegate full unreviewed corporate and contractual authority to board committees; 12. Allow the national Pacifica board to appoint 1/3 of local advisory boards members; 13. Deny membership on any Local Advisory Board to any Pacifica "volunteer"; 14. Deny Local Advisory Board membership to all Pacifica or station staff; 15. Ban elected local advisory board members (as at KPFA) from serving on the national board; 16. Reduce the minimum vote for removal of a board member from two-thirds to 51 percent; 17. Eliminate a board member's right to due process in the event his or her removal from the board is sought. Six members of the currently seated 17 Pacifica National Board members have written a public statement condemning the actions of the Pacifica national leadership. In their letter, these 'dissident' board members assert, "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�" (Statement available on the Web at http://www.fair.org/press-releases/pacifica-petition.html) This statement by the 'dissident' Pacifica National Board members has been circulated within the progressive community by Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR), has been published as a paid advertisement in The Nation magazine, and has been endorsed by a wide spectrum of progressive leaders including Aris Anagnos, Dennis Brutus, Noam Chomsky, Martín Espada, Frances Farenthold, June Jordan, Eric Mann, Tim Robbins, Edward Said, Angela Sanbrano, Carol Sobel, Studs Terkel, Urvashi Vaid and many more. Juan Gonzalez, a distinguished broadcaster, print journalist and a founding member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, has recently resigned as co-host of Democracy Now! due to his conviction that the Pacifica administration is hostile to the founding purposes of Pacifica. His letter of resignation stated: "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." Be it therefore resolved that SCADA will: 1) Become a signatory to the "Pacifica Petition" circulated by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). 2) Commend Juan Gonzalez for his record of groundbreaking reportage and his five years of distinguished service to the Pacifica Foundation on the Pacifica radio program Democracy Now!. 3) Commend Amy Goodman for her past and continued excellent journalism on the Pacifica program Democracy Now!. 4) Fully oppose the sale of any Pacifica stations or radio frequencies, and use every means at our disposal to fight any attempted sale. 5) Call upon SCADA members and officers to lobby California legislators to contact the Attorney General of California and urge that he do all within his power to prevent the alienation of assets of Pacifica to another state (i.e. re-incorporation of Pacifica Foundation in another jurisdiction), and to assist in any manner possible the disclosure of Pacifica's detailed financial records as soon as possible. 6) Instruct the Civil Rights committee to contact the New York Area (NYC, Long Island, Upstate NY, and New Jersey), Washington DC, and National ADA boards to request that they inform SCADA of their position on the WBAI/Pacifica Crisis and provide those boards with informational material being provided to the SCADA board by the committee to assist in their consideration of the matter. 7) Publish an article on the Pacifica crisis, to be written by Ralph Fertig with the assistance of the SCADA Civil Rights Committee, in the next issue of 'Liberally Speaking'. The article will focus on the crisis in Pacifica at the National level. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-~> eGroups is now Yahoo! 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