KPFA Activists Disrupt EBG Legal Seminar

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:
February 1, 2001 Andrea Buffa, Media Alliance,
(415) 546-6334 x309

KPFA RADIO ACTIVISTS DISRUPT LEGAL SEMINAR BY
EPSTEIN BECKER & GREEN LAW FIRM

Last week ten free speech activists were arrested at the law firm’s
offices in San Francisco. They want EBG attorney John Murdock to resign
from the board of the Pacifica Radio Network.

San Francisco, CA—KPFA activists took their campaign against Pacifica
Foundation board member and Epstein Becker & Green attorney John
Murdock to an Epstein Becker & Green employment seminar this morning.
Ten protesters disrupted the seminar, an "EBG Employment Law and Human
Resource Breakfast Briefing," which was held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel
in San Francisco and attended by 40 people.

Last week, in an act of nonviolent civil disobedience, eight free
speech activists entered the San Francisco offices of EBG and refused
to leave until they were arrested for trespassing. This morning,
protesters entered the room where the EBG seminar was being held and
demanded the resignation of John Murdock, whom they believe is
orchestrating a corporate takeover of Pacifica Radio—the only
progressive radio network in the United States. The protesters left
the hotel before police arrived on the scene.

"Epstein Becker & Green will not be able to conduct business as usual
until John Murdock steps down from the Pacifica Board," said Rebeka
Rodriguez, who participated in the action today.

The protests against Epstein Becker & Green are part of a campaign
to pressure certain Pacifica Foundation board members to resign
from their posts. Murdock and other Pacifica leaders supported a
hostile take-over at WBAI radio in New York, in which the management
fired and banned several journalists from the station, changed the
locks to the station in the middle of the night, and have now imposed
a gag rule on the staff. The crackdown at WBAI, which took place
during the Christmas holidays, mirrors almost exactly Pacifica’s
1999 attack on KPFA in Berkeley, which resulted in a lockout of
journalists there, and a demonstration of 10,000 listeners to get
KPFA back on the air.

The corporate campaign against Murdock and other Pacifica board
members received a boost yesterday, when award-winning journalist
Juan Gonzalez resigned on-air from Pacifica and called for a campaign
to oust the Pacifica network leadership. "I've come to the conclusion
that the Pacifica board has been hijacked by a small clique that has
more in common with modern-day corporate vultures than with working-
class America," Gonzalez said in a dramatic announcement on Pacifica’s
national radio show Democracy Now.

Pacifica activists believe that the threat to the Pacifica Radio
Network will be lifted only when the current Board of Directors is
reconstituted by removing members like Murdock of Epstein Becker &
Green. EBG specializes in "maintaining a union-free workplace" and
is representing the Pacifica Foundation in lawsuits that have been
filed against the board by concerned listeners. Since Murdock joined
the Pacifica Board, he has taken a leadership role. He recently
proposed new bylaws for Pacifica that would allow a small number
of directors to sell KPFA or WBAI.

The WBAI staff union, UE Local 404, has called for a protest against
Epstein Becker & Green at its New York City office on February 21 at
4:30 p.m. Los Angeles activists will protest at the EBG office in
Century City on February 7 at 11:30 a.m.