A little quiz for you: when was this statement made, and by whom? Answer below *
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“We need to remember the process that began in 1993 by the Pacifica National Board to ‘professionalize’ Pacifica and to replace member contributions with foundation grants.
We framed the struggle with the old board as [us] wanting to enlarge our audience by deepening our analysis of the US imperium, including the role of the Democratic Party in eliminating our social network and maintaining an aggressive foreign policy, versus the PNB wishing to eliminate overtly radical voices from the network to appeal to a broader non-progressive audience.
All of this occurred during the period when Reagan was shifting the political landscape of the US to its present right-wing landslide.
Opposition to Pacifica’s realigning itself to this rightward shift increased, particularly after the firing of dozens of programmers from KPFA in 1995. As opposition to the PNB increased, it voted in 1999 to eliminate even the Local Station Boards from electing representatives to the PNB. This would allow the self-nominating Board the power to do whatever it wished without institutional opposition, including selling Pacifica stations.
As this self-appointed board began firing those who questioned its decisions, opposition increased to the point where the PNB locked out and arrested staff and listeners from KPFA, beginning a nationwide struggle to reclaim the network.
The thousands of staff and listeners of the network won a legal and political struggle to reverse many of the changes that were made to our little but significantly important network, and just in time.
As the Democrats drove their party more and more in a conservative direction, a voice for the powerless was needed more than ever”. .
* Answer: 2006, Les Radke’s report as National Election Supervisor
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