BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 X-WR-CALNAME:www.indybay.org PRODID:-//indybay/ical// v1.0//EN BEGIN:VEVENT UID:Indybay-18301219 SEQUENCE:18310389 CREATED:20060827T233000Z DESCRIPTION:9/4 Picket At KFPA To Protest "Banning" Of Labor Program Proposals From KFPA Labor Collecti\nby End The "Banning" Of Labor Programming\n \nMonday September 4, 2006 1:00 PM\n1929 Martin Luther King Drive/University Berkeley CA\n\nOn March 8, 2006, the KPFA Program Council with the support of management voted to ban labor programming proposals from the KFPA Labor Collective for one year. They did this without a hearing allowing for a democratic process before the banning. Even the Taft-Hartley only bans the right to strike for 80 days. The KPFA Labor Collective has been producing labor programming at KPFA on Labor Day, May Day, Workers Memorial Day for more than three years. It’s web site is at http://www.kpfalaborcollective.org\nThe collective which has members from SEIU 1000, NALC 214, SEIU 616, IBT 70, IUOE 39, SEUI UHW, and other locals has gained support from the entire labor movement for more regular labor programming at KFPA. Hundreds of trade unionists have signed petitions for more regular labor programming and support for a weekly one hour labor show called "Workweek". The San Francisco Labor Council, the Contra Costa Labor Council, SEIU 790, SEIU 616 and other locals have also endorsed the proposal for more labor programming. At present, KPFA only has 20 minutes a week of regular labor programming.\nThe banning of even presenting labor programming proposals to the KFPA Program Council is unacceptable and inexcusable for a station that calls itself "Free Speech Radio". We call all supporters of "Free Speech Radio" to join the picket line and speak out to protest the banning of labor programming proposals to KPFA.\nYou can send letters to KPFA Local Station Board at 1929 MLK, Berkeley CA 94704 or go to http://www.kpfa.org to send email to Local Station Board. Also email the manager at ism [at] kpfa.org with copy to KPFA LC We will also be urging supporters to attend the upcoming KPFA Local Station Board meeting on September 16, 2006 at 1:00 PM at Freight and Salvage Club which is located at 1111 Addison/San Pablo to support the removal of the ban.\n\nThis protest/picket is endorsed by\nTransport Workers Solidarity Committee\nJack Heyman ILWU,\nKPFA Labor Collective\nPeace And Freedom Party of California\n\nkpfalaborcollective [at] yahoo.com http://www.kpfalaborcollective.org\n\nDefend Labor Programming At KFPA\nProgram Council/Management Bans\nLabor Programming By KPFA Labor Collective\n\nOn March 8, 2006, Women's Day, the KPFA Program Council with only two votes opposed voted to ban any labor programming proposals from the KPFA Labor Collective for one year. They say they took this action because of " deteriorating relationships with the station staff" and "ongoing disruption\nof the unpaid staff structure" at KPFA. This banning of programming by the KPFA Program Council and the KPFA Management including the new manager Lemlem Rijio is an attack on all working people and the labor movement. Their justification is the same arguments used by employers against unions in the workplace. At the same time, this banning will mean that the many hours of special labor programming at KFPA on May Day, Labor Day and Workers Memorial Day, MLK Day will no longer be broadcast.\nWe believe that all working people and listeners of KPFA need to speak out against this action and support the rescinding of it at the upcoming KFPA Local Station Board Meeting on Saturday April 22, 2006 which will be held in San Jose.\nThe action was taken without a hearing of the charges against the labor collective and it was outside the purview of the Programming Council to take disciplinary action. Its purpose is to consider and to act on programming proposals and programs.\n\nIf you agree with this statement, please sign our petition protesting the\nbanning of programming proposals from the KPFA Labor Collective. Also please\nsend a letter to KPFA LSB at 1929 MLK Drive, Berkeley, CA or call\nListener Comment line at 510-848-6767 ext. 622. email programming [at] kpfa.org\nActing General Manager Lemlem Rijio at with a\ncopy to Pacifica Executive Director Greg Guma contact [at] pacifica.org and\ncopies for the KPFA Labor Collective at kpfalaborcollective [at] yahoo.com\n\nIn Solidarity,\nFor The KPFA Labor Collective\nSteve Zeltzer\nChair\nKPFA Labor Collective\n\n\nOpen Statement To Local Station Board On Program\n"Moratorium" Passed By KFPA Program Council\n\nDear LSB Board Members,\n\nOn March 8, 2006, the Program Council majority voted to put a one year "moratorium" on all programming proposals from the KPFA Labor Collective. They say they took this action because of "deteriorating relationships with staff and volunteers" and "ongoing disruption of the unpaid staff structure". This action took place without the ability of the KPFA Labor Collective to respond to these accusations in person. Also, members of the KPFA Program Council who are running for representatives for the Program Council from the UPSO were themselves voting for retaliation and discrimination against members of the KPFA Labor Collective who were also running for the Program Council positions.\nThis disciplinary action by the Program Council not for programming quality or content but because of accusations of alleged "disruption" and bad behavior puts the Program Council in the position of not only determining programming based on the program but on the behavior of programmers. We do not believe that the Program Council can be allowed to make these decisions and this was especially egregious since they did not have a fair, democratic transparent process in making this determination. We call on the LSB to set aside these actions to to pass a policy statement that it is not in the preview of the Program Council to make determinations and take actions due to the behavior of programmers. We also would like to point out that false allegations were made by some members of the Program Council and the LSB that some of our members had been "banned" by KQED. This false rumor was made in order to get KPFA Business Manager Lois Withers to take action to "ban" the collective. When Ms. Withers realized that these statements were not accurate she withdrew the accusations.\nThe lack of consistency and checks and balances by the Program Council must be rectified and your quick action is critical to stopping these injustices from continuing. In the labor movement, a proper grievance procedure allows for due process before action is taken. Our collective has also won important support from broad sections of the trade union movement for more labor programming at KFPA and for support of a weekly one hour labor show produced by the KPFA Labor Collective called "Workweek". Our labor shows have programmed on Labor Day, May Day, Workers Memorial Day and MLK Day. The attempted exclusion of our labor programming is a setback for KPFA responsibility to cover the voices of all people including working people in Northern California.\nWe think exposure of these methods at KPFA against the KPFA Labor Collective and others who may have different points of view on how KPFA and the Program Council is necessary. These methods and practices are harmful for the development of KPFA, it’s staff, volunteers and for the advancement of it’s goals.\nIn Solidarity,\nKPFA Labor Collective\nThe founding of the KPFA Labor Collective\n\nKPFA Labor Collective was created by KPFA.\nAfter many requests and pressure from labor community and labor activists to have a regular labor program on KPFA, KPFA decided to have a town hall meeting in July 2003, inviting many labor activists to have a dialogue between KPFA and labor community.\nAbout 40 to 50 activists attended this meeting including David Bacon. Almost all of them expressed the need to have a regular labor program on KPFA. Susan Stone, the head of the Art and Literature department, conducted the meeting, and the outcome was that we continue the discussion toward possible formation of a collective in KPFA. For the next 6 months, 15 ~20 people met every month at the KPFA station to discuss the formation of a group.\nFebruary 2004, the group formed the KPFA Labor Collective (LC), and elected 3 officers. The officers’ term was set for 6 months, and Steve Zeltzer was elected as a chair. Susan Stone remained as the station liaison between LC and the Program Council (PC). Later Kris Welch took over the position when Susan quit as a full time staff. Since KPFA LC doesn’t have a regular program, we have been submitting many one-time specials for special\noccasions, and we were able to put some of the proposals on air, however, we experienced many problems through the process of submitting those proposals. At the last March 7th PC meeting, PC voted not to accept any proposal from LC including one-time or on-going programs for one year, because "Due to deteriorating relationships with station staff and volunteers, and ongoing disruption of the unpaid staff structure, a cooling off period is being imposed." LC only attended PC meeting a couple of times to explain the proposal of "Work Week", a proposal for a weekly program. We had no problems at all with them during those meetings. However, we were banned from submitting any proposal for one year because of they claimed that the staff doesn’t want to work with LC. We believe that this is a discriminatory action of the PC toward LC. PC doesn’t punish their own members who threw a chair during one of heated meeting, but us who had no problem with them.\nWhy?\nWe believe this so called "ongoing disruption of the unpaid staff structure (UPSO)" started after a member of LC Sureya Sayadi was elected as one of the 5 members UPSO Council. She started experiencing problems within the council like many decisions were made without her involving, and lack of transparency and democracy in UPSO like how they decide things or the list of the membership were kept under control of Bonnie Simons who is not an elected person or even officially appointed by the council, and even a elected council member like Sureya couldn’t get the full membership list including e-mails list.\nThe election for the Program Council reps from UPSO became a major problem for them. 3 of the Labor Collective members ran for the election, and the election supposed to be held on last November 15th which was about 6 months delay from the scheduled time of the spring 05. However, according to Kris Welch who we met on Feb. 28th said that "insiders" were afraid of LC might taking over the UPSO. They requested to re-submit a membership by October 15th, '05 then challenge those of Labor Collective and Middle East Radio Project members. It has been 5 Month after the Oct. 15, and we still don’t know who is a member and who is not. LC wanted to have the election as soon as possible, because not only the election was due last spring, but also some of the unpaid reps were voting to oppose other unpaid group’s program proposals. We started voicing some of the problems at UPSO meetings, and they took it as "disruption."\nHowever, the "disruption" and their hostile attitude toward us at UPSO is not only the problem, we also experienced problems through simply submitting proposals including;\n1. Some proposals were never submitted to the PC by Kris Welch.\n2. We often don’t find out whether we got the airtime or how many hours\nuntil just 2 to 3 days before the requested time.\n3. We were told by Vini (acting program co-coordinator) that we will have\nairtime, then suddenly 2 to 3 days before, we were told No, we don’t have.\n4. William Walker helped one time as a board op for a live show, and while\nthe hosts were talking to a remote reporter, he suddenly switched to music,\nand said a word "shit" on the air, then up and down the stairs shouting. The\nhosts at this time were 2 women and they got freighted. The filed a\ngrievance, but it was never processed.\nWe also have submitted a 1-hour weekly labor program to the Program Council for 2 times after the collective was formed and one before that. However, all the proposals had been denied. The last pilot we made with the proposal was denied by saying that although the program was good, however, there were some glitches, and the PC recommended LC to take training classes for the next 6 months before we can re-submit another proposal. This we took their advise, and Dev volunteer to give us classes on board operation.\nKPFA Labor Collective is supported by:\n1. The Labor Collective collected over 500 signatures to support a weekly labor program. These petitions were submitted to the PC in spring of ‘05.\n2. Resolutions were past to support a weekly labor program by the Labor Collective by: San Francisco Labor Council, Contra Costa Labor Council, SEIU Local 616, and SEIU Local 790. The copies of the resolution were given to the PC. Apparently, these were ignored saying the PC doesn’t want to get a pressure from outsider.\nPast programming\n8/1/04\nLabor Day 04 – 10-3PM\nMLK 05 – denied\nBlack History Month – denied\nWomen’s Day 05 – denied\nAnti-war 3/19\nWorkers Memorial Day 4/28, 05\nMay Day 05\nJuneteenth and UHW 6/19/05\nAFL-CIO convention report 8/6/05\nLabor Day 05\n9/24/05 Anti-War – Kris didn’t put it in to PC – Grievance in\nElection and Labor with KPFK joint program 10/29/05\nMLK – denied\nBlack History Month – denied\nWomen’s Day - denied\nTraining Classes we have done: (Total 13 classes)\nEditing with Sound Forge – Jan., Feb., March 04 (by staff -5 classes),\n8/7/05, 9/23/05(by Grace – 2 classes)\nPhone interview recording – by Mehmet - 8/21/05, 6/10/05 (2 classes)\nMike interview and recording – by Mea Kim – 7/24/05 (1 class)\nBoard Operation – by Dev - 10/27/05, November 05, January 06 (3\nclasses)\nDate: March 8, 2006\n\nTo: The KPFA Labor Collective\n\nFrom: The KFPA Program Council\n\nThis letter is to notify the collective that as of today, March 8, 2006, the\nKPFA Program Council and Programming Department will not be accepting\nproposals for one-time or on-going programming from the collective. This\nmoratorium will last for one year from the date of this letter.\n\nDue to the deteriorating relationships with the station staff and\nvolunteers, and ongoing disruption of the unpaid staff structure, a cooling\noff period is being imposed.\n\nWe take this action regretfully, but are convinced that allowing further\ndisruption to the unpaid staff organization is not in the best interests of\nthe hundreds of community programmers who currently access KPFA, and the\nhundreds more who will in the future.\n\nThe Program Council has made every attempt to work with the Labor\nCollective, accepting a total of 13 proposals in a 14 month period, and\napproving six sessions of multiple hour broadcasts (far more than has been\nallocated to any other community groups), but we have now concluded that the\nresources we have to offer cannot satisfy the collective.\n\nAlthough we do intend to expand our labor-related programming, we cannot\ncontinue to sanction acrimonious behavior towards our other volunteer\nprogrammers and our employees, whatever the cause.\n\nRegretfully,\n\nThe KPFA Program Council\n\nKPFAPC/twr\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------------\n----------------------------------------------------------------------------\n-\n\nDate: March 11, 2006\nTo: The KPFA LSB\nFrom: Joe Wanzala & Sepideh Khosrowjah, KPFA LSB Program Council\nRepresentatives\n\nThe March 7, 2006 memorandum to the KPFA Labor Collective from the Program\nCouncil majority concludes: "We simply cannot continue with the status quo".\nWe would agree with this statement if it referred to the current allocation\nof resources at the station. Indeed, the conflict which has resulted in the\naction by the council is a symptom of this larger problem of resource\nallocation. Thus, we write this statement to dissent from the decision of\nour colleagues on the KPFA Program Council to declare a moratorium on\nreviewing special programming proposals from the Labor Collective.\n\nThe supposed basis for the decision was the alleged conduct of certain\nmembers of the Labor Collective in their dealings with the Program Council\nand KPFA staff. Most of the testimony brought before the council was based\non experiences that some Council members had with the Collective in the\nUnpaid Staff Organization ("UPSO"), which LSB and community representatives\non the council cannot fairly evaluate. There was also a lot of pressure\nbrought to bear on the Council by paid staff members who stated that they\nwere not prepared to work with the Collective.\n\nMissing from the equation is the frustration felt by members of the\nCollective who feel that their program proposals do not receive fair and\ntimely review. For the Council majority to say that the Collective has been\ngranted more airtime than other community groups is misleading. In fact\nthere are no other community groups that have submitted anywhere near as\nmany proposals. The reason why the Collective has submitted so many\nproposals is because their objective is to do regular programming on KPFA\nbecause they feel that KPFA does not have enough time dedicated to labor\nprogramming.\n\nIt is our opinion that the expressed concerns about the behavior of the\nLabor Collective mask a real problem at the station - a failure to re-assess\nKPFA's entire programming grid to create more space for new programming and\nreduce the tensions and frustrations associated with access to airtime which\nis an artificially scare resource at KPFA. There is a backlog of program\nproposals before the Program Council, and certainly aspiring programmers\nalready within the station who have already paid their dues. There needs to\nbe a re-structuring of the programming grid so that the work of the Program\nCouncil can become more meaningful. As it is we are merely trying to share\na loaf of bread among multitudes, while great quantities of grain are being\nhoarded.\n\nTo the extent the allegations against the Labor Collective are true; they do\nnot have a monopoly on bad behavior at the station. Many instances of such\nbehavior remain unaddressed by the relevant authorities - making this action\nby the Program Council appear discriminatory and hypocritical. The program\ncouncil itself experienced a well-publicized incident of bad behavior by one\nof its members and there was no effort by Program Council members to\nsanction its own member for bad conduct. The situation was addressed by the\nthen General Manager and even then only in response to pleas from the\ncommunity - not from the Council. Furthermore, it is not clear to us that\nthe\nCouncil has the authority to make such a decision. We on program council\nare reminded on a regular basis that personnel matters - such as this - do\nnot fall within our purview. Instead, members of the Program Council should\nhave lodged a complaint with KPFA's management - recommending a course of\naction if necessary.\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------------\n----------------------------------------------------------------------------\n-\n\n\nInternal Machinations, Community Radio And Programming At KPFA\n\nThe lack of accountability, transparency and a very divergent view of\ncommunity radio is part and parcel of the continuing crisis at KPFA radio.\nAn example of this, is the continuing machinations of the majority of the\nUnpaid Programmers Staff Organization UPSO Council at KPFA.\nThis organization, which is supposed to represent the majority of\nprogrammers at KPFA is presently led by the same forces that opposed\nchanging the time of Democracy Now so it would be more accessible to working\npeople and also have opposed more working class programming on KPFA radio.\nThe UPSO representatives on the KPFA Program Council have voted against a\nregular labor radio show on KPFA proposed by the KPFA labor collective and\nhave also recently opposed having labor programming on MLK day that was\nbeing planned by the Collective.\nThe recent machinations of this grouping is now being played out in an\neffort to "control" the election of new representatives on the programming\ncouncil.\nThe same grouping including Bonnie Simmons, Mary Berg, Shahram Aghamir,\nSally Phillips, Serge Morel have also supported the "re-registration" of all\nUPSO members to make sure that there was "accountability" in the election\nprocess. Elections were supposed to take place last October. After winning a\nhotly contested vote to have a total re-registration of UPSO members, they\nthen voted that they would vet who was a member or not a member by asking\nthe managers and CWA union representatives at the station to find out who\nwas "questionable" as a member of UPSO. At the latest UPSO general\nmeeting on January 11, 2005, it was announced by council member Serge Morel\nthat they had about 22 people that they had questions about whether they\nwere proper members of UPSO. He also announced that they would not release\nthis information to the UPSO general membership due to confidentiality\nconcerns about these members. In other words, they apparently still do not\nhave a list of who is a member of the CWA unit at the station and also\nmanagement is in charge of raising questions about who or is not a member\nof UPSO and this information will be kept a secret from the UPSO members who\ncome to a general meeting of UPSO. The election committee has also been kept\nout of the loop and one member of the UPSO council who disagrees with these\nmethods has also be prevented from getting this information. If fact, the\nreport by Morel supposedly given on the election to the UPSO general\nmembership meeting was not even discussed with all the members of the UPSO\ncouncil.\nThis was supported again, by the same grouping that was for supposed\n"accountability" in the election. It was agreed at a previous meeting that\nballots for the UPSO program council election would go out on November of\nlast year and would be counted at the end of the month. This was voted on by\nthe Council and then completely ignored.\nThe prevailing view of the leadership of paid staff is that the community\nshould not really run programming at KPFA but it should be left to the\n"professionals". Max Pringle, who was at one time a representative on the\npaid staff complained publicly at one of the Local Station Board Meetings\nthat he was "getting tired" of hearing from community listeners about what\nprogramming should be on KPFA. The programming council which is supposed to\nbe in charge of programming has in fact kowtowed to the staff and management\nabout what and when programming will be on.\nThe preemption for example of the Alito hearing was not discussed at the\nprogram council and was simply announced by management. The procedure of\nmaking programming proposals to the program council for deliberation is an\nobstacle course designed to allow the staff and management to do what they\nwant to do.\nIn relation to the KPFA Labor Collective this has been a constant trend at\nKPFA. At the anti-war demonstration in October of last year the labor\ncollective proposed covering the labor rally held before the main rally.\nThis had been done at the previous march.\nThe same forces who really control programming at KPFA stalled any decision\non covering the rally and then told the KPFA Labor Collective that they\ncould not cover the labor rally because they had other programming\nscheduled. The Programming Council refuses to challenge these methods.\nIt also turned out that Chris Welch and staff decided unilaterally with\nmanagement to dump the proposals that had been presented to the program\ncouncil and "take" control of programming for the day. The result was the\nthere was no coverage of the labor rally and that the station was unable to\ncover the rally and speakers in any coherent way. Programmer Larry Bensky\nwho with Chris Welch who took over programming that day declared that he was\n"unaware" that there were any other programming proposals.\nThis was done without agreement or discussion at the program council. The\nsame UPSO council members who support these methods are also the same ones\nwho have opposed regular labor programming at the station.\nUnfortunately, David Bacon another labor programmer at the station has also\nopposed more regular labor programming. When SEIU 790 San Francisco Council\npassed a resolution to support a one hour regular labor show produced by the\nKPFA Labor Collective and to contribute funds for more labor programming,\nBacon told his friends at SEIU that he had "problems" with the resolution.\nHe refused to meet with the members of SEIU 790 about his "problems" with\ntheir resolution of support for more labor programming. In the past Bacon\nhas said that he will only work with people who do not want to change the\npresent morning show scheduling.\nThe lack of transparency and accountability of the programming at KFPA has\nled in part to many others leaving the station.\nAt the Tookie Williams execution, proposals had been made by Black\nprogrammers at KPFA who regularly cover repression and issues in the Black\ncommunity to cover the execution. Instead without consulting these\nprogrammers, the staff decided who would make the decisions and Amelia\nGonzalez who is a manager and in charge of Literature, Arts and Public\naffairs decided to co-host the program at San Quentin.\nThis led to JR of Block Report Radio and another Black programmer at KPFA\nprotesting at the December 2005 KPFA LSB meeting. The lack of coverage by\nthe KPFA news department of an attack on Black and Arab Americans at a\nprotest at DeAnza College by the station was also never dealt with by the\nprogram council. Despite the fact that every news station in the bay area\ncovered the protest live against ex-secretary Powell, the KPFA News\nDepartment could not arrange live coverage. Apparently, the News Department\nwhich has a large budget was unable to send a reporter to DeAnza or even had\na correspondent in the distant South Bay that could provide live coverage.\nThis is an ongoing problem. Many KPFA listener areas like Sonoma, the South\nBay and Fresno have no regular correspondents on KPFA news so that their\nregional news and information can be covered by KFPA.\nIn fact ,regular programs like the morning news show and others do not have\nto sign a "contract" and have a regular evaluation like other shows at the\nstation.\nThe end result of this lack of transparency and accountability is that labor\nand community programming which should be on the air is shutout by the\npresent.\nAs a result of these policies working people in Northern California will not\nbe able to hear labor programming about segregation in the schools,\ndiscrimination against Black workers and the trafficking of women in the\nglobal economy on MLK's birthday.\n\n\nSpending Too Much Time On Programming Proposals From KPFA Labor Collective\n\n> From: Tracy Rosenberg\n> email: tracyrose [at] gmail.com\n\n\n> Date: March 11, 2006\n>\n> To: The KPFA LSB\n>\n> From: Tracy Rosenberg, Community Representative to\n> the Program Council and Facilitator\n>\n> I am sending this statement in response to the 3-11\n> memo from Joe Wanzala and Sepideh Khowsrajah. Two\n> brief disclaimers before I begin. This statement\n> reflects my point of view and my point of view only,\n> although I hope it accurately describes some of the\n> thoughts of the 13 person majority on the Program\n> Council that supported the action. And secondly,\n> that I appreciate the civility and intelligence of\n> Joe and Sepideh's letter of dissent. As facilitator,\n> it is my role to act in accordance with the majority\n> vote of the body, and as with all groups, sometimes\n> there is consensus and sometimes there is not. I\n> fully support their right to civil disagreement, and\n> am writing this not to rebut, but simply to provide\n> some perspective on the differing point of view.\n>\n> Joe and Sepideh's intial point is that there is a\n> problem of resource allocation at KPFA.\n> I believe this point is obvious and beyond dissent.\n> Over and over again, on a multitude of issues, it is\n> clear that there are difficulties for community\n> groups coming into KPFA with the desire to create\n> programming to go on air. There are problems with\n> technical training time, equipment usage, board op\n> availiability, broadcast availability, and live\n> recording capabilities. All of the unpaid\n> programmers (and to some extent, the paid ones as\n> well) must exist in an environment that is very\n> frustrating at times. It is not within anyone's\n> power, at the moment, to snap their fingers and make\n> the problems go away. One of the responsibilities of\n> programmers in our community is to work within this\n> framework, with it's challenges, in a constructive\n> manner. The only alternative is to make a difficult\n> environment more difficult for everyone involved.\n> This serves to reduce KPFA's efficacy, not improve\n> it.\n>\n> Joe and Sepideh also refer to "testimony" brought\n> before the Program Council. The Program Council is\n> not a court, we did not hold a hearing, and we do\n> not hear testimony. We are a collaborative working\n> group who look at KPFA's on-air programming and\n> proposals for new programming options. As the Labor\n> Collective has submitted over a dozen proposals for\n> one-time programming, in addition to a proposal for\n> a weekly public affairs show, they have put\n> themselves in front of the program council for\n> discussion on a constant basis for the last year. I\n> believe it is accurate to state that one or more of\n> their proposals has been an agenda item on every\n> single of the Program Council's last 40 weekly\n> meetings. The Program Council has also objected in\n> writing directly to the Labor Collective on language\n> that we found rude and confrontational towards us,\n> on a previous occasion. I believe that all of the\n> Program Council members have a wealth of direct\n> experience in their program council cap!\n> abilities to inform their decison-making.\n>\n> Joe and Sepideh mention that what is missing from\n> the equation is the frustration felt by the Labor\n> Collective. As I have said above, I do not think\n> this frustration is felt only and exclusively by the\n> Labor Collective. The program council has made a\n> determined effort to ensure that all proposals are\n> granted a fair and timely review, and in the past\n> year, has excavated and processed 16 on-going\n> proposals, some dating from 2004 (including the\n> Kevin Cartwright/Kitty Epstein education show which\n> will be beginning a 13 week pilot run on Friday\n> afternoons alternating with Pushing Limits). As\n> stated, we also processed and approved a half a\n> dozen one-time programming proposals from the Labor\n> Collective this past year, including an April 2005\n> rally from Sacramento in 2005, a national call-in\n> show prior to the State Special Election, and\n> multi-hour blocks of programming time on May Day and\n> Labor Day of 2005, as well as delivering requested\n> training of Labor Collective members in supp!\n> ort of their on-going proposal, a service that has\n> not been made available to other community groups\n> who may wish to do regular programming on KPFA.\n>\n> For the collective to inundate the Program Council\n> with an ever-increasing quantity of one-time\n> proposals (this year proposals have been submitted\n> for two hours on Jan 16th, two hours on Feb 20th,\n> two hours on March 8th, two hours on March 18th, and\n> four hours on April 16th, with an expected proposal\n> for May 1) is a monopolization of the one-time\n> proposal process to serve only one group's objective\n> to do regular programming on KPFA.\n>\n> It is my firm belief, that whatever the pent-up\n> demand might be (and there are only half a dozen\n> approved proposals on the waiting list) that the\n> work the Program Council is doing to evaluate in\n> writing existing on-going programming and place it\n> under contract to the station, is an essential first\n> step to any assessment of the program grid. I do not\n> see how you can assess without asssessing. That it\n> is time-consuming is not surprising given that the\n> work has not been done for 7-plus years.\n>\n> On the final point: The program council is not\n> addressing personnel matters, we are addressing\n> programming matters: namely the proposals that we\n> will accept for review and the ones that we will\n> not. Our role is not to execute disciplinary action,\n> but merely to approve the proposals that we believe\n> are strong radio programming, and that we believe\n> contribute to the strength of KPFA's on-air sound. I\n> believe that when one group's usage of the proposal\n> process is demonstrated over the course of a year to\n> disrupt station operations, to cause increased\n> tension, anger and frustration inside our community\n> (as the numerous complaints filed with station\n> management attest), and monopolize the program\n> council's time to the injury of other community and\n> station groups who also deserve attention, that\n> these are programming matters that affect the\n> station's efficacy and the strength of it's on-air\n> sound. I believe these are the fundamental reasons\n> for the program council's decision.\n>\n> Respectfully,\n>\n> Tracy Rosenberg\n> Facilitator\n> KPFA Program Council\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/08/27/18301219.php SUMMARY:Picket At KPFA To Protest Banning Of Labor Programming Proposals LOCATION:1929 Martin Luther King Dr/University Berkeley URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/08/27/18301219.php DTSTART:20060904T200000Z DTEND:20060904T210000Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR