Coalition for a democratic Pacifica

Coalition for a democratic Pacifica
Draft Statement of Purpose 
by Iain A. Boal
December 29, 1999 
______________________________________


"Give me the liberty to know,
  to utter and to argue freely
  according to conscience,
  above all liberties." 

      -- John Milton, Areopagitica 
"Riots are the language
 of the unheard." 

             -- Martin Luther King Jr.
______________________________________ 
PREAMBLE

The actions of the Pacifica Foundation Executive and Board of Directors in the winter and spring of 1999, which extinguished the last shreds of formal accountability and democratic input from local stations and listener-sponsors, and placed the existence of KPFA in peril, were met by a broad, spontaneous, movement of resistance across Northern California and in the streets of Berkeley. In April, the KPFA local advisory board adopted a joint motion by board members Jay Imani and Kahlil Jacobs-Fantauzzi that a meeting be convened to which representatives of groups known to be active in the crisis would be invited, in order to give organizational form to the concerting of opposition. At that meeting a coalition was founded whose goal is the democratization of Pacifica as a whole.

Whereas the Coalition for a democratic Pacifica:
is aware that the betrayal of the legacy of Lewis Hill, Eleanor McKinney, Richard Moore and the founding Pacificans began within KPFA itself, years before the crisis of March 1999, and acknowledges the earlier efforts of Save KPFA and Take Back KPFA to prevent the corporate-liberal rationalization of Pacifica.

honors the generations of broadcasters and workers, paid and unpaid, not least those fired en masse in 1995, who, in the face of increasingly autocratic management, of the stifling of dissent and of widespead accommodation within the network, made signal contribution to the art and craft of radio, and to the political and cultural life of the Bay Area and beyond.

reaffirms its commitment to the principles elaborated by the revolutionary pacifists, anarcho-syndicalists, poets, and feminists who founded Pacifica just fifty years ago -- that is to say, to vigorous free speech, to diversity of voices, opinions and audience, and to the radical deepening of democracy through peaceable dialogue and non-violent action.

recognizes the need to defend the autonomy of the local stations, while at the same time working with listener-substribers and staff at sister stations to revitalize the network and affiliates, and by using the new means of audio dissemination, to create a federation of community radio stations and listener-sponsors in the US and around the world.

understands that the commitment to inclusive representation, at both ends of the radio apparatus, demands radical change in the telecommunications industry, in order to encourage the diversification, as opposed to homogeneity and the monopolizing of the media, now virtually given over to stenographers of power and to private profit. The airwaves, which naturally recognize no borders, must be taken back as a commons from the new enclosers.

Accordingly, the Coalition for a democratic Pacifica is dedicated to the transformation of the current Pacifica Foundation in order:

to render the governance of Pacifica radically democratic in structure, process and content, thus necessarily involving all stakeholders viz. the paid staff, the unpaid staff, broadcasters and volunteers, community activists, the subscribers who pay for Pacifica, and historically underserved constituencies such as women, people of color, labor, Native Americans, gays and lesbians, the poor, elders, youth and children.

to make the operations and finances of Pacifica open, transparent, and accountable to the stations’ constituencies at all times.

to enshrine in the corporation’s charter the principle of inalienability of essential assets, including the radio frequencies.

to become once more a beacon of the radio arts, especially the quadrivium pioneered by Pacificans, namely, new music and drama, literature, public affairs, and young people’s programming.

to restore the Folio and find a place for regular and substantial reports to, from, and between listeners and subscribers, and broaden by all reasonable means active participation in the stations by the diverse listener communities.

So, to that purpose, the Coalition for a democratic Pacifica is committed:

to act as an information clearing house, virtual bulletin board and active resource for groups and individuals in the wider Pacifica community.

to advocate for subscribers, listeners and potential listeners.

to organize an ongoing series of forums, teach-ins and public events to foster the process of democratization.

to prepare for emergency actions for the duration of the crisis.

to support such litigation as leads to discovery of the true state of Pacifica’s affairs and to the saving of KPFA.

to produce a counter-strategic plan for a transformed Pacifica.

to brief and to consult with Coalition delegates to the Program Council and other executive, deliberative and advisory bodies.

to meet from time to time as necessary.

to encourage the further formation of chapters of the Coalition at sister stations.

To contact the Coalition for a democratic Pacifica:
phone: 510/594-4000 ext.202
email: johnsher@LanMinds.Com
website: http://www.cfdp.org
_________________________________
Iain A. Boal works at UC Berkeley as a social historian of science and technology, with a special interest in the history of telecommunications. He is the co-editor of Resisting the Virtual Life: The Culture and Politics of Information (City Lights Press), and active in the Coalition for a democratic Pacifica.

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