During the slow motion take over of KPFA that began in 1992 and reached its climax in the attempted sale of KPFA and the lock-out of station staff in 1999 we, community members and members of Take Back KPFA and the Coalition for a democratic Pacifica (CdP) waited, first patiently and then with more and more anxiety for a letter or statement from staff, alerting the community to the hijacking of KPFA and Pacifica.
That letter was never written. Had not three courageous programmers finally gone public KPFA listeners might never have known and the logo of another network might be disgracing the building on MLK Jr. Way today.
As somebody who picketed the Pacifica National office in Berkeley dozens of times in those seven years, who attended protest rallies when staff was kicked out, who was present at countless KPFA Local Board meetings where the restructuring of Pacifica became apparent to anybody taking the trouble to go and listen, I was amazed - as were many other Pacifica activists - at the passive, fearful silence, not to mention instances of outright support for those changes, coming especially from the long - time paid KPFA staff.
Since 1992, and for seven long years we put flyers into staff mail boxes, issued press releases to the media and copied them to staff; even setting up a micro power radio station outside of KPFA and tuning the receivers inside KPFA to the pirate frequency. We wrote messages in chalk on the sidewalk for you to see when you came out - and saw you leave through the back door. We called you personally on the phone, asked friends of yours to intervene and help rescue KPFA and Pacifica before it was too late. But save for the one exceptional action by three staff members, none of you who were there did anything for almost seven years - until the summer of 1999.
When Dennis Bernstein and two others called attention to the 1997 union contract that was signed as a sweetheart deal with KPFA mamagement, they were denounced by staff. Much later, when Nicole Sawaya was fired and her firing protested by Larry Bensky, Robbie Osman, and Dennis Bernstein, no unified support for Nicole came from staff who returned to the station without her.
>From 1992 to early 1999, respected programmers went on the air,
supported the purges of 1995, when 165 community programmers were
dismissed all at once, and maligned Take Back KPFA and the CdP.
The New Pacifica is just 6 months old. When the National and Local Boards were seated in February of this year the time of hijacks and take-overs finally ended. This should have been a time to celebrate.
NOW, all of a sudden, in July 2004, you are writing a letter claiming that the newly elected board -or at least some of the members ? are your enemy. Others have dealt with some of the complaints. I am addressing those of you who signed the letter.
I am troubled by the signatures of unpaid staff whom I know, respect, and like. Why would you have signed a document that is largely based on incidents you did not take part in or witness? I asked some of the parties accused and their recollections differ considerably from the statements in the staff letter.
I am addressing the question of the presence of "saboteurs from former Pacifica Executive Director Pat Scott’s regime" on KPFA staff because I think these parts of the letter are addressed at me.
It is easy to blame Pat Scott for everything. Bertolt Brecht wrote in his poem on history: (Julius) "Caesar conquered Gaul. Did he not at least have a cook with him?" Pat Scott could not have done what she and those who followed her did, if she had not had a lot of help. And having knowledge and not acting on it is a serious matter. There are issues of integrity, ethics, and responsibility involved. I am, of course, excluding all those who signed this letter who played no part in this. I am addressing those among paid staff of the period of 1992 to 1999, many of whom are still there, who were the supporters of the take-over.
The time line below gives the most important events in that slow motion take-over of KPFA and Pacifica, during which anyone present should have been aware of fundamental change taking place in the structure of the station, the bylaws, the governance, and the national office. It was a very serious matter, involving the plunder of millions of dollars of listener money over those many years. The time line shows how benefits accrued to those who collaborated, and lists the many missed opportunities to protect KPFA and Pacifica from the takeover. For the most part names have been withheld by me to still protect the guilty.
We, who worked for years in the Save KPFA and Pacifica movement, have never addressed that most important question:
Why did staff inside KPFA not prevent the 10-year corporate raid?
Many of current paid staff were inside the station between 1992 and 2002. You saw what was going on from day to day. Some of you held positions directly assisting the hijackers. And if you did not see it you saw us picketing the station, pleading with you to act. However, instead of ringing the alarm you ignored us and persecuted the lone whistle blowers inside the station.