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KPFA's Board Chair Puts Kabosh On "Concerned Listeners" Fundraiser-Benefit Fiasco Exposed
The KPFA board chair Andrea Turner has decided to cancel a "Concerned Listeners" benefit scheduled for Feb 6 at Berkeley La Pena Cultural Center after the KPFA Unpaid Staff Organization called for a picket to protest their support for management's police attack on programmer Nadra Foster and other union busting tactics.
KPFA local station Board chair and member of the Mukani Mawethu musical group Andrea Turner has been forced to cancel a Feb 6th benefit for the "Concerned Listeners" grouping at KPFA. The "Concerned Listeners" of whom Turner is a member have backed the management action to call police on Black community programmer Nadra Foster who was beaten and arrested at the station. They have also supported the action by KPFA manager Lemlem Rijio and the management team to de-recognize the unpaid staff organization. In the Foster incident, Foster, a single mother still faces police charges and possible jail time for this police action called by the KFPA and Pacifica management team. Former Pacifica Executive Director Nicole Sawaya and KFPA pro-management supporter Chris Welch were actively encouraging and helping the police during the assault on Foster.
These union busting tactics which have also been backed by Pacifica lawyer Dan Siegel who wrote that he was "surprised" by the action of the Berkeley police but defended Rijio and the Pacifica management for calling the police. These incidents have also provoked rage and anger by the KPFA unpaid staff organization who passed a statement of no confidence in Rijio.
One of the reasons for the cancellation is that the Mukani Mawethu South African musical group if they had participated would have had to cross a picket line not only of KPFA programmers but Black community members who have been angered by this vicious attack on Foster. Turner who is a longtime manager at the City of Oakland and one of the leaders of the Mukani Mawethu musical group would have not only been embarassed but members of her group would have blamed her for getting them in the middle of a bitter dispute at the station. Having a Black community muscial group crossing a picket line of KPFA programmers and Black community supporters protesting the beating of Nadra Foster would have been very problematic since they proclaim that they are for freedom in South Africa.
This cancellation of the benefit has exposed the rifts in the "Concerned Listeners" grouping and they may face future picketing of other events that they are planning on having including possible benefits at the Hallinan's house.
*CONCERNED LISTENERS BENEFIT FOR HALLINAN MILLIONAIRES AT LA PENA ON
FEBRUARY 6TH*
*Only 2 weeks after the UPSO-sponsored benefit for Nadra Foster, the
programmer defending herself from the cops KPFA called on her… Concerned
Listeners have the audacity to present a benefit for themselves!
Will the labor luminaries cross an UPSO picket line?
*
Featuring:
1) VUKANI MAWETHU is a nonprofit multiracial choir which sings the freedom
songs of Southern Africa, and also gospel, spirituals, labor and civil
rights songs linking peoples in the U.S., South Africa, and around the
world. Formed in 1986 by the late great James Madhlope Phillips, an ANC
union and cultural organizer, we are united by our strong opposition to
racism and apartheid and by our love of the rhythms and melodies which have
grown out of century-long struggles for freedom. *(510) 444-5009*
2) JON FROMER is an award-winning singer/songwriter whose music is a special
blend of folk, blues and country that has been at the center of movements
for peace and social change in the San Francisco Bay Area for decades. Every
November, Jon helps lead and organize the music for the annual mass
demonstrations of more than 20,000 protesters outside the School of The
Americas at Ft. Benning, Georgia. *(415) 383-2593*
3) PAT WYNNE is a performer, music teacher and vocal coach as well as a long
time labor activist and organizer. Pat teaches parttime in Labor Studies
and Music at City College of San Francisco and at Laney College in Oakland
where she conducts the Labor Chorus. *415-648-3457 *
CALL THESE FOLKS NOW!
These union busting tactics which have also been backed by Pacifica lawyer Dan Siegel who wrote that he was "surprised" by the action of the Berkeley police but defended Rijio and the Pacifica management for calling the police. These incidents have also provoked rage and anger by the KPFA unpaid staff organization who passed a statement of no confidence in Rijio.
One of the reasons for the cancellation is that the Mukani Mawethu South African musical group if they had participated would have had to cross a picket line not only of KPFA programmers but Black community members who have been angered by this vicious attack on Foster. Turner who is a longtime manager at the City of Oakland and one of the leaders of the Mukani Mawethu musical group would have not only been embarassed but members of her group would have blamed her for getting them in the middle of a bitter dispute at the station. Having a Black community muscial group crossing a picket line of KPFA programmers and Black community supporters protesting the beating of Nadra Foster would have been very problematic since they proclaim that they are for freedom in South Africa.
This cancellation of the benefit has exposed the rifts in the "Concerned Listeners" grouping and they may face future picketing of other events that they are planning on having including possible benefits at the Hallinan's house.
*CONCERNED LISTENERS BENEFIT FOR HALLINAN MILLIONAIRES AT LA PENA ON
FEBRUARY 6TH*
*Only 2 weeks after the UPSO-sponsored benefit for Nadra Foster, the
programmer defending herself from the cops KPFA called on her… Concerned
Listeners have the audacity to present a benefit for themselves!
Will the labor luminaries cross an UPSO picket line?
*
Featuring:
1) VUKANI MAWETHU is a nonprofit multiracial choir which sings the freedom
songs of Southern Africa, and also gospel, spirituals, labor and civil
rights songs linking peoples in the U.S., South Africa, and around the
world. Formed in 1986 by the late great James Madhlope Phillips, an ANC
union and cultural organizer, we are united by our strong opposition to
racism and apartheid and by our love of the rhythms and melodies which have
grown out of century-long struggles for freedom. *(510) 444-5009*
2) JON FROMER is an award-winning singer/songwriter whose music is a special
blend of folk, blues and country that has been at the center of movements
for peace and social change in the San Francisco Bay Area for decades. Every
November, Jon helps lead and organize the music for the annual mass
demonstrations of more than 20,000 protesters outside the School of The
Americas at Ft. Benning, Georgia. *(415) 383-2593*
3) PAT WYNNE is a performer, music teacher and vocal coach as well as a long
time labor activist and organizer. Pat teaches parttime in Labor Studies
and Music at City College of San Francisco and at Laney College in Oakland
where she conducts the Labor Chorus. *415-648-3457 *
CALL THESE FOLKS NOW!
Add Your Comments
Comments
(Hide Comments)
How many different one-man "committees" do you operate?
Just wondering.
You seem to have a problem with others' right to not only free speech but association.
I take it you still haven't gotten a show?
Just wondering.
You seem to have a problem with others' right to not only free speech but association.
I take it you still haven't gotten a show?
From: "Mary and Jon Fromer"
Date: December 30, 2008 9:39:24 AM PST
To: tracyrose [at] xxxxxx.com
Subject: Concerned Listeners benefit concert
Dear Tracy,
You sent out my home phone number (which isn't listed) to many people urging them to call me to demand that I don't perform my music in a benefit for Concerned Listeners for KPFA. I've been told it was also posted on IndyBay. Besides wondering where you got my number, it's notable that not one single person called me, not even you, the person urging people to call. I would have welcomed the discussion and the opportunity to tell people why I chose to do this benefit and why I support CL and the extraordinary activists who are on the KPFA board. But before I get to that, I'd like to clear up a couple of misconceptions in your appeal.
You speak of the "audacity" of CL announcing this benefit two weeks after a benefit for Nadra Foster.
First of all, anyone who has tried to book La Pena for a Friday night knows that the decision to hold this benefit on this date was made many months ago. I was outraged and lodged a protest immediately after I heard about Nadra's arrest, criticizing management for calling the police and condemning the brutality of the cops that arrested her. Concerned Listeners did the same. Concerned Listeners is not responsible for what happened, but you insinuate that this benefit has something to do with it.
There are real reasons why I chose to do this benefit concert of political song. I was in the streets in 1999 to save KPFA because it has been a lifeline to me as an activist and that lifeline was the result of the work and skill of the people who worked there. But ever since we took to the streets and took back the station, there has been a constant and relentless attack on the people who work at the station, the same people I went into the streets to defend. I have witnessed the most divisive sectarianism and power games by some board members and their supporters in the community who think their particular views should be the only views presented, rather than a spectrum of left thought and information on KPFA. As a union activist and shop steward, I fight for and treasure a range of radical and progressive information on the station and respect the craft and professionalism of the workers who bring it to me.
I also have the highest respect for the Concerned Listeners board members, many of whom I have stood side by side in the struggle with for decades. You belittle the Hallinan brothers when you sum them up as the "millionaire Hallinans", but I have known them since I was a kid and the FBI and the McCarthyites were after their parents and my parents. I've seen them on a thousand picketlines and marches, from the civil rights movement and the fight to free Angela to the opposition to apartheid and the support of hundreds of union organizing drives. Their lives have been a map of the movement in the Bay Area. Other Concerned Listener members like Warren Mar and Susan McDonaugh are leading left labor leaders and educators who deserve great respect. And Andrea Turner, one of the key organizers and directors of Vukani Mawethu, is one of my dearest friends and comrades. She is beautiful and inspirational. As chair of the KPFA board and she has defended the cultural programming at the station that has also been under attack. I know these people. I love these people and I will do a benefit for them, sharing music that brings people together for human rights and workers rights.
But this benefit has been postponed. Groups like Vukani Mawethu, Pat's Wynne's chorus, the Rockin' Solidarity Labor Chorus, and the coalition I work with, the Freedom Song Network, have survived the sectarianism of the left over the last few decades by participating in actions and events where the members find common ground. Because two or three people were made uncomfortable by your posting, the performers felt that unity was more precious than this particular event. You have sowed just enough division for us to find another way and place to raise money for a cause we believe in. You may think it's a victory. I say it's a sad day when the left devours itself and can't respect differences within its ranks. And it's always sad when some good music gets quashed.
With due respect, I'd appreciate it if you would send this out to the people and list you sent your original email to. Whether or not they agree with it, at least they will have heard my side of the story. Thanks.
Peace, Jon Fromer
Date: December 30, 2008 9:39:24 AM PST
To: tracyrose [at] xxxxxx.com
Subject: Concerned Listeners benefit concert
Dear Tracy,
You sent out my home phone number (which isn't listed) to many people urging them to call me to demand that I don't perform my music in a benefit for Concerned Listeners for KPFA. I've been told it was also posted on IndyBay. Besides wondering where you got my number, it's notable that not one single person called me, not even you, the person urging people to call. I would have welcomed the discussion and the opportunity to tell people why I chose to do this benefit and why I support CL and the extraordinary activists who are on the KPFA board. But before I get to that, I'd like to clear up a couple of misconceptions in your appeal.
You speak of the "audacity" of CL announcing this benefit two weeks after a benefit for Nadra Foster.
First of all, anyone who has tried to book La Pena for a Friday night knows that the decision to hold this benefit on this date was made many months ago. I was outraged and lodged a protest immediately after I heard about Nadra's arrest, criticizing management for calling the police and condemning the brutality of the cops that arrested her. Concerned Listeners did the same. Concerned Listeners is not responsible for what happened, but you insinuate that this benefit has something to do with it.
There are real reasons why I chose to do this benefit concert of political song. I was in the streets in 1999 to save KPFA because it has been a lifeline to me as an activist and that lifeline was the result of the work and skill of the people who worked there. But ever since we took to the streets and took back the station, there has been a constant and relentless attack on the people who work at the station, the same people I went into the streets to defend. I have witnessed the most divisive sectarianism and power games by some board members and their supporters in the community who think their particular views should be the only views presented, rather than a spectrum of left thought and information on KPFA. As a union activist and shop steward, I fight for and treasure a range of radical and progressive information on the station and respect the craft and professionalism of the workers who bring it to me.
I also have the highest respect for the Concerned Listeners board members, many of whom I have stood side by side in the struggle with for decades. You belittle the Hallinan brothers when you sum them up as the "millionaire Hallinans", but I have known them since I was a kid and the FBI and the McCarthyites were after their parents and my parents. I've seen them on a thousand picketlines and marches, from the civil rights movement and the fight to free Angela to the opposition to apartheid and the support of hundreds of union organizing drives. Their lives have been a map of the movement in the Bay Area. Other Concerned Listener members like Warren Mar and Susan McDonaugh are leading left labor leaders and educators who deserve great respect. And Andrea Turner, one of the key organizers and directors of Vukani Mawethu, is one of my dearest friends and comrades. She is beautiful and inspirational. As chair of the KPFA board and she has defended the cultural programming at the station that has also been under attack. I know these people. I love these people and I will do a benefit for them, sharing music that brings people together for human rights and workers rights.
But this benefit has been postponed. Groups like Vukani Mawethu, Pat's Wynne's chorus, the Rockin' Solidarity Labor Chorus, and the coalition I work with, the Freedom Song Network, have survived the sectarianism of the left over the last few decades by participating in actions and events where the members find common ground. Because two or three people were made uncomfortable by your posting, the performers felt that unity was more precious than this particular event. You have sowed just enough division for us to find another way and place to raise money for a cause we believe in. You may think it's a victory. I say it's a sad day when the left devours itself and can't respect differences within its ranks. And it's always sad when some good music gets quashed.
With due respect, I'd appreciate it if you would send this out to the people and list you sent your original email to. Whether or not they agree with it, at least they will have heard my side of the story. Thanks.
Peace, Jon Fromer
Rumor also has it the nefarious clique of "Concerned Listeners" was fundraising to help KPFA purchase equipment to get its signal into Sacramento. Somebody should ask, nay DEMAND, that Jon admit this dastardly purpose.
If true, Tracy Rosenberg and the rest of those 'in struggle' against Jon Fromer and his allies should pat themselves on the back for keeping the signal out of Sacramento, where it's possible Sacramentans wouldn't be properly outraged at this gesture.
Nice going, Tracy and the rest of the not-very-independents!
If true, Tracy Rosenberg and the rest of those 'in struggle' against Jon Fromer and his allies should pat themselves on the back for keeping the signal out of Sacramento, where it's possible Sacramentans wouldn't be properly outraged at this gesture.
Nice going, Tracy and the rest of the not-very-independents!
KPFA Concerned Listener supporter Jon Fromer says that his group Concerned Listeners has protested the actions of KPFA and Pacifica management to call the police on Nadra Foster. There is no evidence of such a statement. Rosenberg also challenges Fromer if he is really in support of beaten KPFA unpaid programmer Nadra Foster to sing at the benefit for her on January 22.
Concerned Listeners benefit concert
Date: December 30, 2008 12:44:39 PM PST
To: mjfromer [at] gmail.com
Hi Jon,
I don't have any secret information for your phone number. It is publicly
listed on the web at http://www.jonfromer.com.
http://www.jonfromer.com/contact.html
No other comment besides an agreement that it *is* sad when good music gets
quashed.
Would you or maybe Vukani like to perform at the benefit to raise money for
Nadra's legal expenses on January 22nd? That would be a lovely gesture.
Funds are much needed.
I am sorry to say that whatever their other accomplishments as individuals
in other arenas, the record of Concerned Listeners on the KPFA board has
been an unfortunate one.
Take care,
Tracy Rosenberg
KPFA Local Station Board
Concerned Listeners benefit concert
Date: December 30, 2008 12:44:39 PM PST
To: mjfromer [at] gmail.com
Hi Jon,
I don't have any secret information for your phone number. It is publicly
listed on the web at http://www.jonfromer.com.
http://www.jonfromer.com/contact.html
No other comment besides an agreement that it *is* sad when good music gets
quashed.
Would you or maybe Vukani like to perform at the benefit to raise money for
Nadra's legal expenses on January 22nd? That would be a lovely gesture.
Funds are much needed.
I am sorry to say that whatever their other accomplishments as individuals
in other arenas, the record of Concerned Listeners on the KPFA board has
been an unfortunate one.
Take care,
Tracy Rosenberg
KPFA Local Station Board
You have me a bit confused here. Jon Fromer says the now-canceled benefit announcement was "for" Concerned Listeners and he was happy to raise money for his friends.
Then on this thread, someone says the funds were "for" KPFA itself - to expand signal strength in Sacramento (via a repeater signal? I don't think a repeater is even available) - a capital project that is unlikely to be funded by a $15 per head benefit at La Pena. And I thought KPFA was tight on money and considering layoffs, not engaging in new capital projects.
Which is it? What was the intended purpose for the funds?
I understand who and what the Foster benefit is "for". This second now-canceled event was very unclear.
Then on this thread, someone says the funds were "for" KPFA itself - to expand signal strength in Sacramento (via a repeater signal? I don't think a repeater is even available) - a capital project that is unlikely to be funded by a $15 per head benefit at La Pena. And I thought KPFA was tight on money and considering layoffs, not engaging in new capital projects.
Which is it? What was the intended purpose for the funds?
I understand who and what the Foster benefit is "for". This second now-canceled event was very unclear.
And I'm a little doubtful of this one. There are no new repeater signals available in the Sacramento area and I believe the new FCC licensed station pretty much wipes out KPFA's existing (weak) signal. What "equipment" is going to remedy that problem? Can you please clarify what $1500 (the likely proceeds from a $15/head benefit at La Pena) would have done to get a signal to Sacramento?
Is the 'Sacramento' frequency referred to the license once held by the Nevada City Community Broadcast Group, now owned by Pacifica Foundation? According to FCC records, there's already a working transmitter at that location...
You can't broadcast on 93.1 in Sacramento. There's a (moved) Clear Channel station from Modesto licensed to broadcast at that frequency.
103.7 in Auburn is a tiny translator station (Call letters: K279AE). You couldn't broadcast out too far as there is a full-power Christian station at 103.9 in Auburn - only second adjacent.
KVMR in Truckee (which is still operated by the Nevada City Broadcast group) is a former Pacifica affiliate, but they now independently contract with Democracy Now and play no other Pacifica programming. Their signal serves Nevada City, Truckee and Tahoe, not Sacramento.
103.7 in Auburn is a tiny translator station (Call letters: K279AE). You couldn't broadcast out too far as there is a full-power Christian station at 103.9 in Auburn - only second adjacent.
KVMR in Truckee (which is still operated by the Nevada City Broadcast group) is a former Pacifica affiliate, but they now independently contract with Democracy Now and play no other Pacifica programming. Their signal serves Nevada City, Truckee and Tahoe, not Sacramento.
FCC link: 93.1 FM - Auburn, CA
Again: Clear Channels' KHJQ is licensed at 93.1 FM in Sacramento for a range of 30-45 miles in each direction.
http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/locate?select=city&city=Sacramento&state=CA&x=16&y=1
93.1 in Auburn has a signal range of 4.8 miles in each direction from its location in Auburn. It's like an LPFM station and weaker than some of those and has an adjacent much stronger signal that will wipe it out at the fringes.
http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/locate?select=city&city=Auburn&state=CA&x=17&y=9
No way to get the signal heard anywhere near Sacramento with this setup.
http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/locate?select=city&city=Sacramento&state=CA&x=16&y=1
93.1 in Auburn has a signal range of 4.8 miles in each direction from its location in Auburn. It's like an LPFM station and weaker than some of those and has an adjacent much stronger signal that will wipe it out at the fringes.
http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/locate?select=city&city=Auburn&state=CA&x=17&y=9
No way to get the signal heard anywhere near Sacramento with this setup.
The Concerned Listener supporter who put out the bs that they were raising money for a transmitter in Sacramento can't get their facts straight but thats nothing unusual. The facts are that when another station in the Sacramento area filed a license for a station that would interfere with KPFA's signal in the Sacramento area interim station manager Jim Bennett who was one of the supporters of the entrenched staff at KPFA failed to file an appeal to block this danger to KPFA's signal. Pacifica's lawyers could have held up the license and sought to get support from Sacramento listeners to protect the signal. Instead they sat on their hands and spent their time trying to block programming changes at KPFA wanted by the listeners.
Concerned listeners an their incompetent management team at KPFA are now working overtime to get a loan on Pacifica property to pay the operating costs of the foundation rather than cutting costs and getting on new programming that can increase the listener audience and financial support. So much for protecting Pacifica and KPFA.
Concerned listeners an their incompetent management team at KPFA are now working overtime to get a loan on Pacifica property to pay the operating costs of the foundation rather than cutting costs and getting on new programming that can increase the listener audience and financial support. So much for protecting Pacifica and KPFA.
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