BERKELEY, CALIF.
15,000 defend peoples' radio at KPFA
By
Tahnee Stair
Berkeley, Calif.
Fifteen thousand people marched through the streets of
Berkeley, Calif., July 31, chanting: "Whose station? Our
station!" The protesters were demonstrating in support of KPFA
community radio and the locked-out workers at the station.
Buses came from many Northern California cities, bringing
people to participate in the show of unity. Marchers demanded
that the Pacifica Foundation, which owns KPFA, stop the drive
to privatize the 50-year-old, listener-sponsored, progressive
radio station.
Days before the march, Pacifica management had announced to
the media that they would end the three-week worker lockout,
lift an ongoing gag rule around the struggle, and turn control
of programming over to the Communications Workers union.
Despite this announcement, huge crowds came out to support the
struggle for "free speech radio."
Although mediation was under way, Pacifica Foundation
managers simply made an announcement of their terms to the
media--not to the workers or community/ union steering
committee. The foundation also gave no assurances about future
ownership of the station.
The announcement was clearly aimed at defusing the growing
mobilization for the mass march. It failed.
Since April, resistance to Pacific's policy of transforming
KPFA into a National-Public-Radio-type mouthpiece for
ruling-class interests has sharply increased. Listeners don't
want to make the station more acceptable to major
corporations--for donations--and to conservative audiences.
Popular KPFA staffers were fired. The Pacifica board
insisted no one at its stations--which include WBAI in New
York--report on the internal struggle.
When talk-show host Dennis Bernstein refused to accept this
gag rule in early July, management hired goons from IPSA
Security to drag him from the station.
News that the Pacifica board of directors was discussing
selling the station was leaked to the media. A fight-back
movement immediately began to grow throughout the Bay Area. It
culminated in the mass march.
Rally speakers and performers included: spoken word and rap
artist Michael Franti from Spearhead; the All Nations Drum;
Barbara Lubin of Friends of Free Speech Radio and the Middle
East Children's Alliance; Underground Railroad; Rachel Jackson
of STORM (Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary
Movement); Andrea Buffa of Media Alliance; KPFA interns Akilah
Monifa, Waymon, J. Imani and others; well-known Hip Hop DJ
Davey D; San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and Berkeley Mayor
Shirley Dean; and KPFA programmers Miguel Molina, Chuy Varela,
Dennis Bernstein, Larry Bensky and Susan Stone.
San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Tom Ammiano led
the lesbian/gay/bi/trans contingent.
Fired station manager Nicole Sawaya was greeted with a
standing ovation and thunderous applause when she addressed the
crowd.
Labor participation was very strong. Farm Workers Vice
President Dolores Huerta and California Federation of Labor
President Tom Rankin led the union presence. Leaders of the
International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Service Employees
Local 250 hospital workers, California Nurses Association,
Communication Workers Local 9415 representing KPFA workers, and
both the Alameda and San Francisco Central Labor Councils
expressed solidarity with the struggle to save KPFA.
Rosa Peñate and Richard Becker spoke for the
International Action Center. Peñate explained that the
real aim of the Pacifica board and the forces behind them is
"the destruction of progressive media which can mobilize the
people for action. We are not fooled and we are not going away.
The International Action Center joins with the many other
organizations and individuals in the Bay Area and beyond in
defending KPFA."
Other speakers and co-chairs included Dorsey Nunn of Legal
Services for Prisoners with Children, Jeff Mackler of Socialist
Action, Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, Medea Benjamin
of Global Exchange, CBeyond, a high school students'
organization, and Vic Bedoian, executive director of KFCF radio
in Fresno.
A rally and cultural festival in defense of KPFA will be
held Aug. 14 at 12 noon at Mosswood Park in Oakland. For more
information on the ongoing struggle for KPFA, readers can call
the International Action Center at (415) 821-6545.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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