WBAI COLUMN

Part I: Divided We Fall

By CdPNY

(960 words)

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In case you thought your donations to WBAI and the Pacifica Foundation weren't being used, think again.

Broadcast radio analysts who have been following the efforts of the Pacifica Foundation to destroy WBAI-FM are quietly telling anyone who will listen about the sophisticated propaganda campaign apparently launched by Garland Ganter, his wife Molly O'Brien, and other Pacifica Foundation employees. The campaign appears intended to invoke law enforcement repression upon legitimate social protest, and seems to mimic the efforts of militarized police forces in the U.S., Canada, and Europe to criminalize constitutionally-protected dissent.

People at the scene of the altercation suggest that both Ms. O'Brien and Mr. Ganter seemed to be participating in a planned series of actions during and following the altercation. Mr. Johnston stated that he was brought to the ground forcibly by Mr. Ganter, who was in turn "responding" to Ms. O'Brien's cries of alarm. Mr. Johnston, who has vehemently protested his innocence, has alleged that both Ms. O'Brien and Mr. Ganter have falsely accused him of crimes against them. Following the minimal police interviews of witnesses at the scene, Houston police quickly arrested Mr. Johnston despite his descriptions of both Mr. Ganter's alleged assault and Ms. O'Brien's alleged false claims.

Shortly after Mr. Johnston's arrest, the sophistication of Pacifica's new public relations firm made itself apparent. Pacifica Foundation Board Chairman David Acosta and Pacifica Executive Director Bessie Wash used their access to Pacifica's airwaves to make repeated public statements personally attacking Mr. Johnston, and to label constitutionally protected protests as "violent."

People concerned about the future of the Pacifica network must pay extremely close attention to the propaganda tactics rolled out in recent weeks. It's our contention that these tactics are intended to criminalize the civil and legal struggle to roll back the illegal bylaw amendments enacted since 1986. It's our contention that the Pacifica Foundation will stop at nothing in their illegal efforts to seize control of the network, including leveling false charges against innocent people, a tactic used with great effectiveness by the police to silence legitimate protest in Seattle, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.

We've been active in the struggle to stop the illegal actions of Pacifica's Board of Directors since 1996. We've run the website wbai.net <http://www.wbai.net> for five years. We're now involved in a legal struggle against the Pacifica Foundation to protect our right to use the website to engage in constitutionally protected free speech.

And so we come to the heart of the matter: the financial boycott of the Pacifica Foundation's fundraising efforts. Events in Berkeley in1999 and now in New York City in 2000 have convinced us that it's more important than ever to stop the flow of money to the illegal tenants on the Board of Directors. It is clear that the money donated by listeners in good faith is funding an extremely sophisticated national propaganda campaign intended to demonize anyone who dares criticize the actions of the Board of Directors of the Foundation.

The only way to stop these people is to cut off their life force, to stop the flow of listener dollars into their coffers. Their ongoing efforts to use race and access to WBAI's microphones to destroy solidarity among producers at WBAI is deeply discouraging, and has led us to reevaluate our previous position regarding the financial boycott. We can no longer support the notion of giving any money to WBAI or to the Pacifica Foundation.

Instead, we urge anyone reading this report to research the legal fights now in process against the sophistry of the Board and their minions. We urge you to consider donating money to the legal fights, and to support us in our struggle to remove the illegally constituted Board of Directors. We urge you to lend us your helping hand to remove these people who would destroy the jewel that is Pacifica, that has been Pacifica, that is the Pacifica that we, the listeners, have built with our hard-earned dollars. Consistent with this struggle, we actively support the democratization of all Local Advisory Boards for the five Pacifica stations, as well as the Board of Directors. Instituting democratic processes at both the local and national levels will ensure that neither insiders nor outsiders can dominate the Pacifica network in the future as they've done in the past.

Don't do it for us; do it for Jeremy Scahill, who was assaulted by men outside Slobodan Milosevic's home in Yugoslavia as Scahill reported on the armed seige of Milosevic's home during a live broadcast on Flashpoints on KPFA. Lend us a helping hand, not for us, but for the hundreds of East Timorese who were killed as Amy Goodman and Alan Nairn bore witness to their slaughter by Indonesian troops armed and trained by the United States, an event broadcast by WBAI in a soul-scorching report that still makes us cry when we hear it, 10 years after the fact. Lend us your support, not for us, but for the courageous Zapatistas who marched from their homes in the highlands of Chiapas to the center of Mexican government in Mexico City, where they spoke of laying down their weapons after six years of armed struggle against seemingly impossible odds.

Lend us your support to turn back this assault on the Pacifica network, and we know you'll be repaid with the sort of radio broadcasting that would make Lew Hill proud to be a Pacifist.

The struggle continues, but divided we will fall.

Please help us stand, united, against the terrible threat posed by the illegally constituted Board of Directors. We will win, with your support, and we will restore this network to its founding purpose. Democratize the Pacifica network at the local and national levels -- now!

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