[lbo-talk] KPFA (was MALIK RAHIM: Yesterday's Radicals Devolve....)

[Joseph Wanzala]

People should of course be aware that Doug Henwood as a WBAI programmer has 
a stake in what happens at KPFA (since both stations are partof the Pacifica 
network and whose fates are linked since the local board informs policy 
decisons at the national level) and is an indirect participant in the 
ongoing drama at KPFA. He is a confederate of 'Against the Grain' 
producer/host Sasha Lilley who herself is one of the key dramatis personae 
and is a regular guest on KPFA's Morning Show.  Anyone familiar with the 
history of Pacifica in particular and left (or right-wing for that matter) 
organizations in general or has been engaged with any political organization 
knows that conflicts that are in fact based on real ideological differences 
play themselves out in a way that may seem 'crazy' or 'insane' to the 
unsympathetic outside (and invariably unintelligent) eye. I invite anyone to 
go to a San Francisco School Board meeting and then attend a KPFA Board 
meeting and then resport back on which one is more 'crazy' and fail to see 
that the apparent 'crazyness is a distraction from the underlying issues. I 
think eveyone on this list should understand that political organizations 
have conflicts and it the responsibility of intellectuals to understand the 
nature of the conflict, not dismiss it as 'insane'. As such, efforts by Doug 
and others to cast this as 'insanity' only seek to mask what  is in fact a 
political conflict between people with differing visions of what KPFA 
(Pacifica) is or should be. Of course, we on the board always exclaim to 
each other in exasperation 'this is crazy!' about one thing or the other,  
but this is just a superficial reaction to what is going on the surface.  
What is needed is for people to educate themselves about the underlying 
dynamics at the station. We cannot deny the importance of Pacifica to 
left/progressive politics. Pacifica has been in in conflict, only people who 
do not really want to understand what is going on, or dissuade others from 
doing so, would dismiss what is happening as 'insane'.


>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] MALIK RAHIM: Yesterday's Radicals Devolve....
>Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 00:00:03 -0400
>
>Chuck0 wrote:
>
>>  One of you crossposts some rant from Indymedia or another list, which is 
>>alrady taking it out of context, and that piece of verbiage is even more 
>>removed from some actual incident.
>
>We have Joseph Wanzala to thank for the original post. Joseph is deeply 
>involved with the KPFA local board. Yet another reason for sane people to 
>go to that meeting he posted about earlier:
>
>At 7:10 PM -0700 10/3/05, Joseph Wanzala wrote:
>>A meeting of the KPFA Community Advisory Board will take place on
>>October 10th, 2005 at KPFA, 1929 Martin Luther King Jr. Way at 7.00
>>pm. The public is invited to attend.
>
>
>Doug
>___________________________________
>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk

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