"Concerned Listeners" Staffers Plays Games and Limit Programming On Anniversary Of BPP

What does this have to do with "Concerned Listeners"? Concerned Listeners for KPFA is a broad coalition of activists from around the Bay Area, they are not staff members of KPFA and are not at all involved in the programming decisions of staff. This article is deceptively being tied to something negative that they have nothing to do with, through yet another misleading headline on this website, which is an abuse of IndyBay to be sure, in order to sway an upcoming kpfa station board election. No where in this article or the linked article does it mention what this programming issue has to do with Concerned Listeners for KPFA, and yet the headline would have you think they are responsible for an injustice. Very deceptive! Concerned Listeners is a very respectful and honest group of people who would never stoop to this kind of false trickery. Check them out at http://concernedlisteners.org/

This writer (minister of information?) states that he's received an hour of Sunday programming and just needs to produce a prerecorded program to be on the air. What's the problem? We get TMI about who is black or white, who's entrenched or jerking around.

If you weren't afraid to be a real producer, you'd have it done by now with an mp3 link for us all to hear and offer feedback. Try to focus all of that random anger into a brilliant KPFA documentary instead of blowing-off steam on this half-assed little blog. You can do it -- and you should do it.

Is this the same JR of Booty Crack fame?

There are 2 good slates worth considering but they can only win if you vote:
1. Voice for Justice at
http://voicesforjusticeradio.googlepages.com/
and their related, very informative website,
http://www.kpfalaborcommunity.net/

Their candidates are:
Steve Zeltzer
Carl Bryant
CC Campbell-Rock
Sureya Sayadi
Their program is at:
http://kpfavoicesforjustice.googlepages.com/program
Their endorsers are at:
http://kpfavoicesforjustice.googlepages.com/endorsers
and are:
Cynthia McKinney, former Georgia congressperson
Dr. Ahimsa Sumchai, medical doctor and current candidate for mayor of San Francisco
Cindy Sheehan, peace activist
Sandra Everette, CTA member and member of San Mateo Greens
Gregory Richardson, Video producer, CTC
Joan Mathis, Video producer, CTC
Jack Heyman, ILWU Local 10 executive board member
Idriss Stelley Foundation
Willie and Mary Ratcliff, publisher of San Francisco Bayview
Ralph Schoenman, producer of Taking Aim and author
Riva Enteen, past chair of KPFA Local Station Board

2. The People's Radio slate is the other good set of candidates, with their program, candidates and issues listed at:
http://www.peoplesradio.net/
Their candidates are at
http://www.peoplesradio.net/election2007.htm
and are:
Richard Phelps
David Heller
Attila Nagy
Bob English
Gerald Sanders
Mara Rivera
Stan Woods
Their endorsers are:
Dr. Peter Phillips – Project Censored director
Michael Parenti – Author & lecturer
William Mandel - 37 year KPFA foreign affairs commentator/talk show host, author
Peter Camejo – 3 time gubernatorial candidate & Green Party member
The Green Party of Alameda County endorses each of our candidates individually
The Peace & Freedom Party of Alameda County
The Peace & Freedom Party of San Francisco County
The Petaluma Progressives
The Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance
Richard Gage - AIA, Architect, Founder of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth

Jack Heyman – ILWU Local 10 Executive Board member rank & file organizer
Jack Ford – Teamsters Local 921 SF Chronicle Truck Drivers former president
Liana Molina – Woodfin Hotels Boycott coordinator
Eva Royal - Cesar Chavez Holiday Committee Chair, former UFW Bay Area Regional Manager/organizer
Alan Benjamin - Delegate to the SF Labor Council for Office and Professional Employees International Union #3

LaVarn Williams – KPFA Local Station Board, Pacific National Board director & Treasurer
Bonnie Faulkner - Host of Guns & Butter, KPFA
Miguel "Gavilan" Molina - Host of Flashpoints, La Honda Bajita
Francisco Herrera – musician, KPFA Flashpoints contributor
David Janda - KBBF, member of Voces Cruzando Fronteras, photogapher
Ernest Rivera – SomArts Cultural Center board president

"Concerned" apparently has failed to read his own literature and the website of "Concerned Listeners". CL was formed in part by the management of KFPA including Lemlem Rijio and Sasha Lilley. Sasha's mother is a leader of the Wellstone Democratic Party Club where funds were raised for this grouping. The mangement and many of the paid full time staff are actively backing CL in the elections. Is it any accident that they have prevented the statements and material of the candidates from being on the KPFA web site for weeks and prevented any mention of the election during the fund drive. These same candidates have the termerity to complain that the election is not being properly conducted by those who have challenged the management. Who do you think is running the station "concerned"? Many many volunteer programmers at KFPA have come to LSB meetings to complain about the harassment and double standards that Managers Lemlem Rijio and Sasah Lilley have used in running the station. Programmer JR is not the only unpaid staff member to point out that this same management have different rules for different people.
Most of the CL supporters who were elected in the last election on the LSB have backed management or abstained when the LSB voted 13 to 1 to call for Lemlem Rijio to withdraw the de-recognition of the Unpaid Staff Organization. These workers are the majority of producers at the station. CL leaders Conn Hallinan and others took control of the LSB in the last LSB election and gave themselves every top position. Their chair CL supporter and programmer Bonnie Simmons has refused to make sure that semi-annual community meetings take place which are required by the LS bylaws and they are unable to even post the minutes of the LSB meetings which is also requried by the bylaws. They promised to put the station on a responsible footing and they have ignored their own bylaws and they have the power and votes most of the time on the LSB.
Finally your claim that these are "good" people who are running and endorsing the CL slate is suspect. When the election's procedures are directly threatened by the intervention of the Interim Executive Director Daniel M. Siegel, not one of these candidates or their endorsers have stood up and publicly said this was wrong. Instead "dynamite" Hallinan is angry that he has to get specific about what is going on at the station. Either they are naive or duplicitous in their support of the CL. It could be they just want to make sure they get their "airtime" from the management who really are behind CL.

This entire article is bogus. Sunday October 28th there was 2 and a half hours of solid Malcolm X programming from 7:30 to 10pm on KPFA. Concerned Listeners has nothing to do with the weekly programming decisions made at the station. I don't know whether kpfa managers were involved in Concerned Listeners formation over a year ago but even if they were there is no explanation of why they would be involved in this week's programming decisions, it is simply false and the headline is very deceptive and the article's assertion is bogus. This is a hit piece and an attempt to use false information to foment division at KPFA. If you don't want this sort of negative campaigning and want people to work together for positive change then you will vote for Concerned Listeners in 2007: http://concernedlisteners.org/

I'm amazed that the person who calls the Zeltzer and Phelps slates "alternates" believes votes are really that stupid. They are not "alternate" -- they are simply the same old antagonists, screamers and hotheads they've always been, trying to confuse voters by running different names up the flagpole. And Wanzala's I-team, with the possible exception of Tracy Rosenberg, is the third wing of the Same Old Same Old from the KPFA station board. Zeltzer's Labor Collective (neither "labor" nor "collective") so disrupted UPSO it really does need to be reformed with safeguards against JUC style vote-packing. Phelps is too self-interested -- after he's applied for the GM job and lost it, he's making an obvious play for Dan Siegel's job as Pacifica counsel.

They complain about the "entrenched" when the fact of the matter is that they and their OWN cronies would give their left you-know-whats to be entrenched -- after they purge everyone else who doesn't fit their political ideology. In that way, you bet your sweet bippy they are just like the JUC. All, race, 9/11, and genocide denial, all the time.

If you want people who will disrupt and marginalize the station (more than they already have), lie to you (more than they already have), and act in self-interest (more than they already have), vote for these folks. By all means. You WILL get what you ask for.

So what?
The issue is about commemorating the Black Panther Party; why does "cuffy" think that several hours of Malcolm X programming could be substituted? In fact, that same time slot could have been offered for the Black Panther special . . .

thanks for pointing that out I apparently misread sorry.

sorry it was 2 and a half hours of programming on Black Panther contributions, not Malcolm X.. here it is: http://kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=23006

It is interesting the this Al Istner, aka a supporter and probably staffer at KPFA would charge the KPFA Labor Collective with "violence" and "disruption" at the station. In fact, the members of the KPFA labor collective fought against the physical violence and threats at the station. When we were introducing our one hour program proposal to a Program Council meeting, chairs were being thrown inside the meeting. We filed grievances against staffers for harassment and even disrupting our progammming by using foul language "shit" on the air. This was done by former KPFA management supported employee William Walker. If we had used such language we would have been immediately thrown off the air but for favored staff employees and management loyalists like Walker this was ok. In fact other present staffers have also physically threatened other staff at KPFA such as KPFA staffer Vinni Beachem. Grievances were filed and disappeared in the KPFA so called management's hoppers. The resolution that we helped pass called for a safe and violence free work environment for those working at KPFA. We were eventually able to get it passed not only by the UPSO but also by the LSB. Interestingly enough after we passed this resolution the overt physical violence and threats used by management supported staffers stopped.
Of course, when we brought this up staffers like Mary Berg said worse things had happened to her and Matthew Lazard, one of the lauded "historians" and one of the present Concerned Listener supporters at one of the last KFPA community meetings said that "at least nobody was killed at the station." One of the reasons for this intimidation and violence at the station was to create an atmosphere in which new community members who wanted to do programming would be run off. That is a big reason for the hostility against new programmers , many of the management supported staffers do not want new programmers or programming at the station. They see KPFA becoming more like an NPR station with full paid people. That is why KPFA's budge of more than $4.5 million needs constant fundraising time slots of over 60 days a year.
When we brought up the issue of violence at the station at the UPSO meetings, most council members including Bonnie Simmons, Sally Philipps, and Mary Berg tried to shut the council meeting down. Bonnie Simmons, the current Concerned Listeners supported Chair of the KPFA Local Station Board decided that all the unpaid staff members would have to be recertified before there could be a scheduled election and then she and others met with management to discuss how to dissolve the Unpaid Staff Organization. I think Brian B-T another Concerned Listener staff organizer was also in the meeting. Sureya Sayadi who was also in the meeting was shocked to see members and leaders of the Unpaid staff organization meeting with the KPFA management including the then station manager on how to bust the UPSO. Their supporters then who were then controlling the UPSO council decided the best way to bust the organization was to refuse to call meetings. No meetings were called for over one year and when UPSO members tried to call meetings Manager Lemlem Rijio ordered that these UPSO members could not use the station facilities.
Some UPSO members who had previously gone along with these tactics decided they themselves were getting discriminated against by management and they needed UPSO in order to defend themselves. Guess who was now backing the KPFA management to prevent the UPSO from functioning but KPFA board chair Bonnie Simmons and elected LSB staffer Brian E-T. These same people abstained on the Local Station Board resolution opposing the de-recognition of the unpaid staff and Brian even had a petition signed by some unpaid staff members supporting management that he passed out to show that there were some unpaid staffers who really agreed with management's decisions.
Behind all the bluster about a fair and democratic process at KPFA are entrenched management supported loyalists who will do anything to keep their longtime slots that many have had for over 20 years. They see their time slots as their own personal property and any staffer or community supporter of KPFA who supports a new programming grid or any real change at KPFA is trying to micro manage KPFA. This is why the same people are now re-writing history for the new Concerned Listener candidates to say that the program council was only an "advisory" organization. They know better but what does the truth matter when you want to rewrite history to benefit your agenda.

Big mistake to assume that only staff or CL candidates would have a problem with your tactics. They were very well known considering Tracy Rosenberg and the Program Council overwhelming decided to bar you from disrupting THEIR meetings. I've heard that a majority of UPSO members refused to come to meetings if you and your "collective" were going to be in attendance.

But how ODD...nobody said anything about "violence" but you go off on a lengthy screed that pretty much admits you've been not only accused of attempting to pack UPSO and PC meetings with phony "staff" but of threatening actual VIOLENCE, too.

I was in the LSB audience a couple of times last year, and you did issue what sounded to my ears like veiled threats about how if your group didn't get its way that people couldn't help but "act on their frustrations." I took that to mean that if you didn't get your way, violence was inevitable. One meeting I was at, your slate-mate Suraya stood on a chair and SCREAMED at people. You folks scare me.

Besides, your history of division in the Bay Area as well as at KPFA is legendary. I've heard from original members of the Labor Collective you split that and declared yourself Supreme Leader, and were involved in a schism with the Middle East collective as well -- especially interesting because I don't think you have roots at all in the Middle East.

It is indeed strange to hear a secret staffer suggesting that people be banned at KFPA for yelling. If this was dealt with equitably many many staffers would have been long gone at KFPA. As you well know and don't dispute there are different rules for different people and this is why the majority of unpaid staffers are not very happy about trying to produce work at KFPA. In fact members of the KFPA Labor Collective had filed grievances against staffers for the very behavior you are speaking about. Guess what, the management refused to take any action. Your cover-up of the physical violence at the station just goes to show that you apparently think that is business as usual. Tracy Rosenberg said that she wanted the KFPA Labor Collective banned from submitting programming proposals because it was taking to much time to go through them. Others did not want to have discussions at the UPSO about the role of your colleagues Mary Berg, Bonnie Simmons and others who were supposedly representing the unpaid staff on the LSB and also those representing the USPO on the Program Council. In fact the KPFA Labor Collective was not banned from the station as you should know but from submitting programming proposals to the program council. After much delay the LSB voted that this action was not within the power of the program council to ban people from submitting proposals. You probably disagreed and we know that BET and other present supporters of the "Concerned Listeners" who were on the LSB opposed this resolution. I and other members of the KPFA Labor Collective felt our representatives to the Program Council should make reports to UPSO as they were requried by the bylaws.
If you listen to the testimony of the programmers who have come to the LSB you would hear them testify that that they have been harassed and treated in a discriminatory manner. Since you seem to have no problem with this behavior it might be you are one of those engaged in this behavior.

Who cares there was no Black Panther Party program? There are probably a lot of programs that don't get an airing. This guy just sounds like someone who wants a program and has an axe to grind. Has he conducted a poll? Does he know whether anyone wanted to hear anything like that. BTW aren't there a whole lot of issues we should be hearing on KPFA now, instead of focusing on some now defunct group from the 60s? Kind of a symptom of today's left, too much looking backward, not enough looking forward. That could be why we keep losing. Just a thought.