Pete Farruggio, former professor of bilingual education, organizer of successful anti-Klan actions throughout California, and was an ILWU Local 6 Executive Board member
Candidate Statement: I’m with Rescue Pacifica – rescuepacifica.net.
I was a truck driver and a cabby in New York City, a warehouseman and bilingual teacher in the Bay Area, and a professor of bilingual education in the Texas borderlands.
I have 40+ years experience in struggles against war, imperialism, racism and for workers’ rights. I was a member of a militant caucus in the ILWU that fought to organize various local, national, and international solidarity actions, and I served for several years on the ILWU Local 6 Executive Board. I have led numerous movements to organize Black and Brown parents to improve our local public schools and was a co-chair of the School Site Council of Oakland’s largest elementary school, where we fought with the district bureaucracy for more funds for Black and Latino children.
I was a convener of the mass rally in April 1980 that stopped the American Nazi Party from celebrating Hitler’s birthday on the steps of SF City Hall, and helped to organize successful anti-Klan actions throughout California
Why Am I Running?
I want to help KPFA expand our listener base and paying membership by revamping our programming to serve the interests and needs of young people and the various communities of color in the Bay Area.
I understand that to accomplish this we must break the stranglehold on station management currently exerted by an entrenched clique of paid staff, who resists democratic participation in programming decisions.
To revive the founding Pacifica principles, anti-imperialism and independence from the mainstream, we must pull KPFA out of the Democratic Party orbit. No more Russiagate, nor favorable coverage of CIA color revolutions.
Use independent journalists instead of wire services to counter lying mainstream media propaganda. Co-produce local stories with community groups, much of it in Spanish and other languages.
Expand listener dialogue with hosts and guests via phone, text, email, etc
Our whole operation must be about community engagement
More on the scene reporting about local events of importance to our working class communities in the Bay Area
Enhance online digital programs and promote them to attract younger listeners
Excessive pledge drives turn off potential members.
Increase paying membership by offering programs vital to their lives. Reinvigorate the Pacifica spirit of fighting for the common people against war and exploitation.
To revive this spirit, we must revamp our programming away from mainstream media propaganda with multilingual broadcasting that involves local groups and individuals who are struggling against the system, for example union organizing drives, rent strikes, fights against gentrification and absentee landlords, resistance to school closings and privatization, actions to stop police brutality and to defend undocumented immigrants, etc
Our listenership is aging and shrinking because most of our current programs are boring and irrelevant to the lives of working class people and youth.
Attracting large numbers of new and younger members from our diverse Bay Area communities is a better way to build fiscal security than interminable annoying pledge drives
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