What does the CL Majority on the KPFA LSB Have in Common With the Republican Congress?

At the April, 2011 LSB meeting I was absent due to a family emergency. The Concerned Listener majority on the LSB passed a motion to censure Tracy Rosenberg for conduct outside of an LSB meeting. The procedural rules that our LSB must follow require any discipline for conduct outside a meeting requires reasonable notice for a hearing/trial where the person charged will be able to produce witnesses and present evidence in her defense. Tracy was not provided with this due process and was ambushed at the meeting.

At the May 2011 LSB meeting I made a Point of Order challenging their censure of Tracy. The first response was Conn Hallinan giving me the finger. After some delay their Chair Margy Wilkinson allowed me to speak. I laid out the rules, even quoting some, and explained that they needed to withdraw the censure and give Tracy a hearing/trial with fair notice so she could prepare her defense. Their Chair ruled that my Point of Order was overruled since a censure is NOT discipline. I was shocked but on reflection not surprised that their chair would do this.

When I was chair of the LSB I went out of my way to be fair to all. LSB meetings should be a level playing field for discussion and debate on how to make things at the station better.

On the vote to uphold the chair's ruling the CLers, in their sectarian tradition, voted in lock step and supported the chair's illogical and self-serving denial of due process. Shortly there after out came the Petition to Recall Tracy Rosenberg which included that Tracy had been censured by the KPFA LSB. I guess the CLers didn't want to delay their recall petition since they knew they would have ignored any actual evidence that Tracy may present as they did the evidence I presented on the due process for Tracy issue.

Perhaps the saddest thing about this was that NONE of the CLers seemed to have any problem (conscience) with this obviously wrong ruling!

What kind of progressive doesn't believe in due process? How are we going to build a movement for a more just society when some among the movement use the same corporate tactics, win at all cost, that they claim to be against? The answer is that we won't succeed unless we demonstrate to the 99% that we have principles like due process, truth being our guide, and fair play in all our disputes. How we win in internal movement disputes is often just as important as winning and sometime more important.

We are what we do, not what we say we believe in. Fighting for justice and fair play in Oakland, Washington DC or anywhere in the world has limited value for building a more just world if we don't practice what we preach with each other!!

P.S. As some of you know I have some political differences with Tracy Rosenberg regarding KPFA, Pacifica and progressive principles and I am still against the recall because it is dishonest and wrong.