Dear All --

Over the past 20 months many people have asked me if they should continue to support KPFA, or the other Pacifica stations, during the fund drives. I have always dodged the question & said people should do what their conscience dictates.

This is what my conscience dictates --

There has been some talk that KPFA should be the "exception" to the national Pacifica Boycott recently called by Juan Gonzales when he resigned from Democracy Now! Many reasons are given, some more persuasive than others. I've listened and not been persuaded.

I believe we KPFA listeners and listeners' groups should actively join the boycott and do everything we can to make an impact on the KPFA fund drive this coming May.

My reasons -- not necessarily in order of precedence:
1) We are at war with the current Pacifica board majority -- which is unfit to preserve and carry on the Pacifica mission. On principle, we should not send them a dime until they resign or are removed by the court.

2) Sending them money helps them both to fight us in court and to trivialize our outrage as not very serious.

3) This current call for a boycott came out of New York -- if we leave WBAI in isolation in calling for this boycott, then we weaken our national coalition building by failing our brothers and sisters when they call for our solidarity. Someone pointed out to me yesterday, "A pack of wolves can kill off a pack of tigers -- this is because wolves fight as a pack, while tigers fight one by one." We cannot let them kill us off one by one.

4) The battle at KPFA was lost until the second front was opened at WBAI (except for our ongoing legal battle, which I believe we will win, and I believe the boycott will hasten that day). There was complacency and inaction by most inside the station (with a few notable exceptions) who thought they had "won" by virtue of being on the air, and who were blithely ignorant of the fact that Pacifica would/will return to finish them off as soon as they are free to do so. They have had the air for 20 months -- since KPFA went back on the air in August 1999 -- and have squandered the opportunity to inform and educate the vast majority of the listening audience about the principles and history of this fight and the necessity of public mobilization in the fight against the Pacifica board. It's time to light a fire under the KPFA staff again -- they must do their part in this fight.

5) That there will be a short term price to pay at KPFA -- belt tightening, perhaps even layoffs -- is just one of the many sacrifices required of many people in order to win this battle. Several hundred people have been fired and/or banned from Pacifica stations over the past six years in a battle of attrition. When we win then there will be plenty of money flooding back into KPFA and Pacifica to begin a renaissance. If we lose, those jobs will all be lost by the sale of KPFA -- or if there is no sale, then KPFA will continue on as a fraud -- not a station carrying on the Pacifica mission and the vision of Lew Hill -- not a station worthy of our support.

6) We must use every tool at our disposal to win this fight -- we cannot afford to lose Pacifica to the quasi-governmental/CPB/corporate propagandists. This is about the continued existence of the most powerful media voice of dissent in this country. We cannot lose this fight. We must mobilize every person and every front to win NOW.

Carol Spooner
Committee to Remove the Pacifica Board
(sponsoring the "listeners lawsuit")
http://home.pon.net/wildrose/remove.htm