Save KPFA Candidates Support Unionized Staff against the Austerity Slate ICR

KPFA and the entire Pacifica system are facing a serious crisis. In addition to the global economic downturn, we are saddled with an expensive and over-sized Pacifica bureaucracy that consumes precious resources that should be invested in producing quality radio but which are spent on endless turf battles.

• one fourth of KPFA listeners’ donations goes to the Pacifica bureaucracy.

• the local station board, whose elections costs tens of thousands of dollars, currently spends all its time consumed in internal battles to control the station, while raising no money and contributing little or nothing to building the station.

KPFA won’t survive unless the Progressive community realizes the seriousness of the crisis and takes action to support the station. The present majority on the LSB is tied to Pacifica bureaucracy. It resists any attempt to cut Pacifica’s costs, while supporting drastic down-sizing at KPFA. An all-volunteer station would simply be a play-thing for a narrow, ever changing slice of the left. KPFA’s mission is to be a voice for the entire progressive community – we need to find that larger audience and to produce quality radio more than ever.

SaveKPFA seeks to rally progressive support for the station. As in 1999, we have to resist the Pacifica Board imposing its own agenda on KPFA. We have to construct a board majority that focuses on building the station, raising funds and producing events. We are committed to seeking common ground with others who share our concerns about the state of the station. We need to save this precious resource.

SaveKPFA STANDS FOR:

CHANGE Plugging KPFA into the 21st century with access to the internet and new media technology and supporting innovative programming;

DIALOGUE KPFA must be a forum for dialogue and debate

DIVERSITY Upholding KPFA’s mission of social justice and artistic diversity – for labor, young people, people of color, musicians and artists, old radicals and new.

LOCAL CONTROL We represent KPFA’s listeners. We will defend KPFA’s finances and programming.

PROFESSIONALISM by paid and unpaid staff that creates high-quality radio without diluting KPFA’s message.

RESPONSIBILITY A board that builds the station and raises money, not one that attacks it and spends money. We believe in a collaborative relationship with staff and station management. We are clear that the board should not manage the station.


SaveKPFA SLATE:

Mal Burnstein, retired civil rights lawyer, former chair of the KPFA local board and a founder of the progressive caucus of the California Democratic Party.

Terry Doran, retired Berkeley High School teacher and teacher union activist, twice elected to the Berkeley School Board (1998,2002), serving two years as president.

Donald Goldmacher, long-time social justice activist, community psychiatrist and award-winning documentary filmmaker..

Suzi Goldmacher, lesbian feminist activist, community organizer and retired member of the California Nurses Association.

Matthew Hallinan, a life-long political activist.

Mark Hernandez, member of the KFCF Board of Directors in Fresno, has served on the various KPFA Local Boards off and on since 1999.

Jack Kurzweil retired from San Jose State, where he was President of the faculty union, active with the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, and in organizing opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tanya Russell, employment and civil rights Attorney, has been a social worker, factory worker and a community activist.

Dave Saldana, award-winning journalist, civil rights attorney, human rights advocate.

Margy Wilkinson, a UC Berkeley union activist for 40 years and currently active in Grandmothers Against the War.


ENDORSED BY:
KPFA Workers

Mitch Jeserich, “Letters to Washington”, Producer & Host
Brian Edwards-Tiekert, “Morning Show”, Producer and Host
Mark Mericle, Co-Director “KPFA News”
Aileen Alfandary, Co-Director “KPFA News”
Bonnie Simmons, Host, “The Bonnie Simmons Show”, former KPFA LSB, Pacifica National Board
Philip Maldari, “Sunday Show”, Producer & Host
Kris Welch, “Living Room” & “Saturday Morning Talkies”, Producer & Host
Miguel Guerrero, Web Producer & Producer “Rock and Rebellion”
Jan Etre, Crafts Fair Coordinator
Laura Prives, “Morning Show”, Executive Producer
Sasha Lilley, “Against the Grain”, Producer & Host
Max Pringle, News Reporter
John Hamilton, News Producer & Anchor
Rose Ketabchi, “Free Speech Radio News”, Technical Producer, KPFA News Co-Anchor
Scott Pham, “Free Speech Radio News”, Technical Producer
Derk Richardson, Host of the “Hear and Now”
David Gans, Host of “Dead To The World”
Bob Baldock, KPFA Events Coordinator
Richard Wolinsky, Bookwaves on “Cover to Cover”, Producer and Host
Vanessa Tait, labor journalist, “KPFA News Co-Anchor
Lewis Sawyer, KPFA Receptionist and producer Early Morning Music
Esther Manilla, Morning Show and Fund Drive producer
Eddie Yuen, “Against the Grain”, co-editor of Confronting Capitalism
Sally Phillips, KPFA Producer, Host, Engineer

Community

Jello Biafra, artist/musician/entrepreneur
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Native American historian
Andrej Grubacic, radical historian and sociologist
Norman Soloman, media critic, author, “WarMade Easy”
Ignacio Chapela, Professor, Director of Laboratory of Microbial Ecology, UCB
Conn Hallinan, foreign policy analyst, Foreign Policy In Focus, Institute for Policy Study, columnist, LSB member
Aaron Glantz, “Free Speech Radio News, co-anchor, “Winter Soldier” broadcasts
Mattie Harper, Democracy Now former producer
Ramsey Kanaan, founder, AK Press and co-founder/publisher, PM Press

Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch investigative journalist, author of Halliburton’s Army
Dr. Carlos Muñoz, Jr., Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Ethnic Studies, UC Berkeley
Rychard Withers, Executive Director, Fresno Free College Foundation, General Manager KFCF
Jon Fromer, singer/songwriter, NABET/CWA local 51 shop steward
Lynne Hollander Savio, Chair., Mario Savio Memorial Lecture & Young Activist Award
Scoop Nisker, radio commentator and author
Rashidah Grinage, founder, People United for a Better Life in Oakland (PUEBLO)
Marty Bennett, Co-Chair of the Sonoma County Living Wage Coalition
Shelley Kessler, Sec. Treas., San Mateo Labor Council
Michael Eisenscher, Coordinator, Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace and Justice
Peter Olney, International Organizing Director, ILWU
Sal Rosselli, president, National Union of Healthcare Workers

For full list of endorsers go to: http://www.savekpfa.org/

DISCLAIMER: This is not an official Pacifica Foundation website nor an official website of any of the five Pacifica Radio Stations (KPFA Radio, KPFK Radio, KPFT Radio, WBAI Radio, WPFW Radio). Opinions and facts alleged on this site belong to the author(s) of the website only and should NOT be assumed to be true or to reflect the editorial stance or policy of the Pacifica Foundation, or any of the five Pacifica Radio Stations (KPFA Radio, KPFK Radio, KPFT Radio, WBAI Radio, WPFW Radio), or the opinions of its management, Pacifica National Board, station staff.or other listener members.