Wednesday 18 August 1999
And Mary Frances Berry, Chair
Dear Dr. Berry and Members of the Pacifica Board,
The present crisis at KPFA and throughout the network regrettably compels us to write the following. Under your direction, a unique institution meant to serve as an island of free speech in a sea of commercialized broadcasting has abandoned and betrayed that mission.
Your administration's actions in locking out union workers, community volunteers, and the hundreds of people who regularly use KPFA to speak out on social, political, and artistic causes has proven intolerable to the community which supports and depends on the station.
Your administration's use of armed guards and anti-labor consultants, its' insistence on the arrest and prosecution of more than one hundred non-violent staff and protesters, its' imposition of a "gag-order" to silence those who speak their conscience or even to report on the crisis is antithetical to the network's mission. Under your direction, Pacifica has violated U.S. citizen's rights to free speech, peaceful public assembly, and freedom of the press.
You have made your board self-appointing and impervious to outside input. You have kept its' deliberations and financial records secret. You have squandered the contributions of KPFA's donors on security and public relations firms. While claiming that this conflict ids about "diversity" you have ignored three written requests signed by all people of color at KPFA to abandon your reclaim divisive tactics
Intentionally or not you have done what decades of right-wing attacks failed to accomplished: you have weakened Pacifica to the point of collapse.
We the undersigned academics, elected officials, labor leaders, artists, writers, and activists find these actions and events both reprehensible and omnibus in the light of the rapid monopolization of mass media. We demand that all staff fired in the present crisis be reinstated, That censorship throughout the Pacifica network be lifted, that donor funds be accounted for, and that democratic governance be instituted in a network founded fifty years ago to encourage open discussion and active participation by those it serves. In addition we demand that the Board Chair Mary Frances Berry, Executive Director Lynn Chadwick, and those members of the Pacifica Board who have led us into this crisis resign immediately.
Adrienne Rich
Alice Walker
Andrea Buffa
Angela Davis
Authur Kinoy
Barbara Erenreich
Barbara Lubin
Ben Bagdikian
Brian Williams
Charles Kernaghan
Chuck Mack
Carlos Munoz jr.
Danial Ellsberg
Danny Glover
Dave Dellinger
Don Rojas
Dennis Brutus
Dolores Huerta
Doze Green
Dorothy Thigpen
Elihu Harris
Elizabeth Martinez
Father Roy Bourgeois
Frances M. Beal
Gus Newport
Hari Dillon
Helen Caldiccott
Howard Zinn
Jerry Brown
Joan Baez
Jose Cuellar
Josephine Moreno
Juan Gonzales
Kathlees Cleaver
Laurance Ferlenghetti
Linda Burnham
Margret Ratner Kunstler
Melissa Nelson
Michael Albert
Michael Tarif Warren
Michael Moore
Michael franti
Noam Chomsky
Norman Solomon
Pam Africa
Peter Frank
Pete Segar
RamonaAfrica
Rashidah Ismailli Abubakr
Richie Perez
Sal Roselli
St. Clair Bourne
Theresa Bonpane
Tillie Olsen
TomAmmniano
Tom Rankin
Van Jones
Vinnie Burrows
William Harrel