Clearly Pacifica has been lurching from one crisis to the next for years. I have been intimately involved since the early 90s with the group 'Take Back KPFA'. Sasha's perpective suffers from her being a relative newcomer to the scene and not having had firsthand experience of the history she references.
Ironically, the people at WBAI that you talk about, those making spurious charges of 'racism' and so forth are people I have been doing battle with for years (and whose West Cost allies of the so-called 'Unity Caucus' are allied with Sasha & Co on the question of the role of the LSBs), and who are aligned with the Sasha Lilley faction here in their efforts to undermine the authority of the Pacifica bylaws. While on the KPFA LAB, I worked very intensely with dozens of thoughful and committed people at all four Pacifica stations to fashion these bylaws. The main people opposed to bylaws that empowered the listeners in a meaningful way are by and large the same people trying to undermine it now. Then their is the other group - the signers of the Lilley letter, who remained aloof from the process, never even showed up to a station board meeting ignored or took for granted our efforts to save the station (indeed the network) from the corporate raiders and now are coming forward essentially to say - thank you very much for your help, now go away.
The fact that the Pacifica situation is complex, and that it is hard to find a dispassionate voice, does not make it unique, rather it is quite typical of any organizational or political situation. It is really a question of whether one cares enough to study the situation closely enough to gain an understanding, while being open minded enough to simultaneously consider other perspectives.
Drink deep, or taste not, the waters of Pacifica.
Joe W.
>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] KPFA Staff Open Letter to the Local Station Board
>Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2004 19:47:17 -0400
>
>The atmosphere around WBAI is also turning poisonous. It would require
>immersing myself far more than I want to in station politics to sort it all
>out, but there's a highly racialized battle going on between members of the
>local station board, complaining about "black racism" on the airwaves, and
>the existing station leadership, which is allied with forces alleging a
>conspiracy to purge the "Africans" at WBAI. It's very sad and destructive,
>and as was the case during the Pacifica civil wars of several years ago,
>it's very difficult to take sides. Pacifica is a very precious resource -
>five radio licenses in New York, Washington, Berkeley, Los Angeles, and
>Houston - and it's not being managed very well. I'm tempted to say that if
>you listen, or might listen, or care about left institutions in the U.S.,
>you should pay attention, but there's really no good disinterested source
>of information on the problem. And it's a big problem.
>
>Joseph Wanzala would dissent. He sent a 30k post on the topic earlier
>today, which I rejected for length. If he can get it down to a more
>manageable level, he's welcome to air his side of things. As readers might
>guess, I'm with Sasha Lilley on this.
>
>Doug
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