AUTHORIZED BY THE AD-HOC NATIONAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
March 4, 2001; Houston, Texas

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information, contact Ursula Ruedenberg, 646-230-9588; Rafael Renteria, renteria22@aol.com; Bob Lederer, ledererbob@usa.net

ACTIVISTS CONVERGE IN HOUSTON TO DEMAND RESIGNATION OF RULING MAJORITY ON PACIFICA RADIO'S NATIONAL BOARD

Listener groups from five cities forge foundation for nationwide organizing

HOUSTON, March 6 - More than 200 listeners and staff members of noncommercial Pacifica Radio converged from around the country this weekend for four days of actions, teach-ins and discussions to protest the network's corporate-dominated board of directors while they met in Houston, Texas. In the most dramatic protest, on March 4th nearly the entire audience turned their backs on the board, chanted "Resign Now!" and "Democracy Now!" for 20 minutes and then walked out, forcing a recess. Later that day, about 100 activists from the five Pacifica station areas forged the foundation for a nationally coordinated movement to free Pacifica.

The focus of the protests was an alarming pattern in recent years of repression, censorship and subversion of local autonomy and programming by the Pacifica National Board and its hired top management. Activists emphasized the major destructive role played by key board members who are affiliated with corporate interests, including John Murdock, an HMO attorney with the union-busting firm of Epstein, Becker and Green, Micheal Palmer, a broker with the commercial real estate firm of CB Richard Ellis, Ken Ford, a manager with the National Association of Home Builders, and Bertram Lee, the former Denver Nuggets owner who buys and sells TV and radio stations. Another target has been board chair David Acosta, a Houston accountant who has spearheaded many of the board's recent actions, including the recent assault on New York City station WBAI. The protesters issued a joint statement, read at the board meeting by banned WBAI producer Janice K. Bryant, denouncing a list of specific actions of the board, and stating, "Pacifica's National Board and the bureaucracy it has spawned have violated the trust of hundreds of thousands of loyal listener-sponsors across the country...Our differences are irreconcilable. The only thing we will negotiate with you are the terms of your departure."

Actions in Houston included the following:

  • Activists picketed and held a press conference on Friday, March 2, in front of the office of David Acosta, where listeners, staff and dissident Pacifica board member Leslie Cagan denounced repression at the network and called for Acosta's and other board members' resignations.

  • On Saturday morning and afternoon, picketers protested in front of the Doubletree Hotel where the board meeting was held.

  • When the board unexpectedly closed its meeting to the public on Saturday morning, a group of 25 protesters inside the hotel advanced towards the room where the meeting was in progress, demanding entry, but were turned back by police. Meanwhile, two WBAI listeners slipped into the meeting, confronted the board about its secrecy, refused to leave and were expelled by police.

  • On Saturday afternoon, after the board opened its proceedings and added on a public comment session, protesters packed the room, festooned with placards denouncing the board, and delivered countless testimonies of outrage and demands for board members' resignations, including a joint statement of protest by local advisory board members from the network's stations. Many other people-including some local board members-- were denied entry by hotel security, citing fire regulations.

  • On Sunday, at the insistence of dissident board members, the board added to its agenda a discussion and public comment session on the recent firings, bannings, lockouts and censorship at WBAI. Pacifica Executive Director Bessie Wash evaded answering specific questions about her decisions on those matters. Wash and WBAI Interim Station Manager Utrice Leid left the meeting as a parade of listeners, staff and Local Advisory Board members made passionate denunciations of the "Christmas coup" by Pacifica management at the station. Then, protesters brought the meeting to a halt for 20 minutes, chanting "Resign now" and "Democracy now" and singing "Sha-na-na-na, hey, hey, good-bye" as police escorted them out of the hotel.

  • On Friday and Saturday evenings, teach-ins organized by the Houston Committee for People's Radio were each attended by about 400 people, most of them Houstonians. Among the speakers were Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, Pacifica's popular award-winning grassroots national news magazine, currently under attack by Pacifica management; Juan Gonzalez, Goodman's former co-host, an award-winning columnist at the New York Daily News and recent co-founder of the Pacifica Campaign, which seeks to drive out the corporate-dominated board; Northern California Pacifica listener-activist Carol Spooner, lead plaintiff in a suit against the Pacifica board; former staff and managers of KPFT, Houston's Pacifica station; fired and banned staff from Pacifica stations, and other prominent media historians and activists.

  • On Monday, March 5, a group of activists picketed and leafleted in front of the CB Richard Ellis building, the workplace of Pacifica Board member Michael Palmer, and then went into the office and left a message demanding his resignation.

    While in Houston, the activists also convened a national meeting where they crafted initiatives for the rapidly growing national movement for democratization of the Pacifica Radio Network. Adopted resolutions:

  • Authorized the establishment of a national steering committee composed of elected representatives from each of the free-Pacifica listener groups across the country.

  • Authorized a committee to develop a week of national actions against the board, possibly in conjunction with May Day; called for demonstrations at the next board meeting, wherever and whenever it occurs; and encouraged listener groups to cooperate with the Pacifica Campaign initiated by Juan Gonzalez in its listener-sponsor boycott and direct action campaign against board members.

  • Set up a committee to help local activists re-establish Pacifica's original mission at each station.

  • Established a committee to develop a blueprint for national Pacifica programs that would fulfill the network's original mission.

    In another important development, on Saturday, members of Local Advisory Boards at the Pacifica stations, joined by concerned listeners, met to develop a common agenda and unified positions on the Pacifica crisis. They issued a statement calling for the resignation of illegally-seated national board members, the reversal of all firings and bannings, the lifting of all "gag rules" (which bar on-air discussion of Pacifica's policies), and the democratization of the network. The group also established a communications network to develop closer coordination of their work on Pacifica issues.

    Also on Saturday, the Pacifica Campaign to Stop the Corporate Takeover, initiated by Juan Gonzalez, held its first national meeting to introduce its strategies to activists from around the country, invite their input and involvement, and report its successes thus far.

    The Pacifica network, broadcasting on five stations in Houston, Washington DC, New York City, Berkeley, and Los Angeles, and many affiliate stations, has traditionally been a bastion of free speech independent community radio, funded by listeners, with a history of 50 years of dynamic, progressive coverage of national and local issues.

     

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