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News & Views from Around the Station
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December 26, 2011

In This Issue
From the General Manager
Coming Events for January
Sunrise Ceremony Broadcast From Alcatraz
KPFA Deepens Coverage of the Occupy Movement
The Community Advisory Board Listener Survey
Unpaid Staff Organization Actions
Volunteer at KPFA
KPFA Links
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
From the General Manager
 

I want to thank everyone who supported KPFA this past year including those who pledged in our mini fund drive in December.  In four days we raised more than $150,000.  
 

It's been a tumultuous, exciting, and important year.  From Fukushima to Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street and the West Coast Port shutdown, KPFA has been on it, bringing you penetrating and insightful analysis, interviews, debate, and information not available elsewhere.
 

But it's no secret that life at KPFA has been difficult these past few years and we are not yet through the woods.

 

Our finances were stabilized at the end of September, but at the end of the first quarter of our new fiscal year we find ourselves entering 2012 facing a potential deficit once again.  With no reserves to carry us through, we need to conserve, tighten our belts and move forward recognizing that our role as an essential information conduit and community nexus cannot be compromised, whatever our internal disagreements may be.

 

 

KPFA hit the wall financially in 2010, and painful staff cut-backs were necessary.  This brought the identity crisis that had been bubbling beneath the surface for a decade or more to a head, and it has not been easy to resolve.
 

One of the reasons we don't have a surplus is because KPFA spent more than $200,000 defending itself from grievances filed, refilled, and in one case, filed a third time, by the Communications Workers of America on behalf of some KPFA paid staff. Each time, the National Labor Relations Board rejected the Union's case but each time KPFA was forced to pay legal expenses to protect itself and the Pacifica Foundation.  We need to find a better way to resolve these issues at this important time.
 

KPFA's management is committed to finding better ways -- and with your financial support, we will continue to bring you the important news, culture of our time -- and both gritty and deep analysis needed to find our way through -- as a station, community, and world.

 

I encourage you to use this link to make a secure online donation to KPFA, and to be as generous as you can. If you do so by December 31st your donation will be tax deductible in 2011.
 

Thanks Again and Very Best Wishes for the New Year!

 

Sincerely,

 

Andrew Leslie Phillips

General Manager (Interim)tel: 510-848-6767 ext. 203 

email: [email protected]

Andrew Phillips

 

 

Coming Events for January

 

Richard Wolff Event

Richard Wolff - The Problem is Capitalism

The Solution is Democracy at Work -- January 12th, 7:30 PM -- Hosted by Brian Edwards-Tiekert

 

Read more

 

 

Diane Ravitch Event

Diane Ravitch - The Death and Life of the American School System - January 19th, 7:30 PM -- Hosted by Phillip Maldari

 

Read more

 

 

Thomas Frank event

Thomas Frank -- Pity the Billionaire:  The Hard Times Swindle and the Unlikely Resurgence of the American Right - January 25th, 7:30 PM - Hosted by Richard Wolinsky

 

Read more

 

Sunrise Ceremony Broadcast Live from Alcatraz
 
Alcatraz signKPFA has been a constant presence broadcasting the annual Indigenous peoples' Sunrise Ceremony live from Alcatraz since past KPFA manager Jim Bennett set up a remote broadcast node in 1999.
 
Alcatraz ceremonySince then thousands have taken the ferry to "The Rock" to participate in the sunrise ceremony.
 
It was raining this year but more than Alcatraz Ceremony3,000 people gathered to dance and celebrate an unthanksgiving ceremony. 
 
The broadcast was hosted by Mary Jean Robertson,
Miguel Gavilan Molina on the Ferry to Alcatraz Nov. 24
Miguel Gavilan Molina on the ferry to Alcatraz
host of KPOO radio's "Voices of the Native Nation."  She has worked in Native American broadcasting since she became part of the community radio movement in 1972 with one of the first native radio programs in the country, "Red Voices."  Produced by Miguel Gavilan Molina (Flashpoints & La Onda Bahita), the broadcast aired Nov 24th, 6-8 am.  The first hour is archived here and the second hour here.
Alcatraz Indigenous Broadcast 2011
Broadcasting from Alcatraz - Nov 24
Mary Jean Robertson (center) with Ras K'Dee (left) host of KPFA's Bay Native Circle & editor of Seventh Native Generation (SNAG)
 
Leonard Peltier Walk PosterIn addition, on December 19th Flashpoints interviewed American Indian Movement leaders Dennis Banks and Tony Gonzales, with moving sounds and stories from a Sunday December 18th gathering on Alcatraz Island to kick off a walk across the country "The Walk for Human Rights for Leonard Peltier."  The program is archived here.
 
See also www.aimwest.info for more info on the cross-country walk for Leonard Peltier. 
KPFA Deepens Coverage of the Occupy Movement
 
As the Occupy movement works out new strategies and tactics after the destruction of its encampments, KPFA has continued to provide unmatched coverage of the popular
America Wake Up
Photo by Eric Lusion
upsurge, including the Dec. 12 West Coast port shutdown and new movement initiatives such as defense of foreclosed homes. In addition to the news department, Davey D of the Morning Mix and Hard Knock Radio and Mitch Jeserich of Letters & Politics have been reporting first-hand from the streets, in addition to interviewing other participants and observers, while Dennis Bernstein on Flashpoints has focused attention on the student protest movement, among other issues.

 

Beyond the day-to-day developments, many of the station's programs are providing a forum for analysis and debate about the movement's origins, meaning, and future, and also for critique of its inevitable stumbles, limitations, and contradictions. Some highlights:

 

* On Nov. 25 Democracy Now devoted its full hour to a panel discussion on the Occupy movement with such notables as Michael Moore, Naomi Klein, Rinku Sen, William Greider, and Occupy Wall Street organizer Patrick Bruner.  The program is archived here.

 

* On Nov. 28 Women's Magazine, Kate Raphael devoted a full hour to a candid analysis of the movement from a feminist perspective, in particular from the point of view of women of color and trans people.  Archived here.

 

Occupy West Coast Port blokade

* On Dec. 8 Letters & Politics, at a time of confusion in some quarters about the impending port action, Mitch Jeserich helped clarify the issues by interviewing several Occupy Oakland organizers; an ILWU staffer who harshly denounced the movement's leaders as "a small group of extremists;" and Clarence Thomas, former president of Local 10 and a longtime progressive leader in the union, who responded with a powerful defense of the movement based on the ILWU's broad historical commitment to social justice.  Archived here.

 

* On Dec. 12's Against the Grain, Sasha Lilley interviewed social historian Ian Boal comparing the Occupy phenomenon to a variety of precedents ranging from the Diggers in 17th-century England to the native American take-over of Alcatraz in 1969-71 and current squatter movements in South Africa.  Archived here.

 

* On the Dec. 13 Morning Mix, Davey D. reviewed the previous day's action briefly with Angela Davis and at length with Clarence Thomas, who analyzed it in the context of ILWU history and the changing place of organized labor in American society.  Archived here.

 

* Back on Nov. 2, J.R. Valrey on the Morning Mix generated considerable outrage as well as some support when he blasted the Occupy movement as poorly organized, dominated by relatively privileged whites, and insufficiently attentive to ongoing struggles over school closings, police murders, prisoner abuse, and other concrete problems facing the black community in particular. Since then JR has had several interesting follow-up discussions with callers and guests on the air, as well as extensive debate with Occupy organizer Boots Riley, among others, in the pages and on the website of the San Francisco Bay View.  Nov. 2 program Archived here.

 

Airing diverse perspectives and critiques is bound to offend some listeners, but in our view it's in the highest traditions of KPFA.

2nd Call -- Take a Few Moments to Complete the KPFA Community Advisory Board Listener Survey 

If you have not already done so, please take a few moments to take our survey -- tell us what interests you, your favorite radio programs, what you like about KPFA, how KPFA can be better.
  
To complete the survey click here.
 
The KPFA Community Advisory Board: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting requires that "[t]he role of the board shall be solely advisory in nature...." It also stipulates that the board shall advise the governing body of the station and therefore must be distinct from and independent of the governing body. The purpose of the advisory board is to provide a vehicle for effective community input to the station's governing body about station programming, community service and impact on the community from the station's major policy decisions. Congress believed that the establishment of community advisory boards would assist the stations to develop programs and policies that address the specific needs of the communities that they endeavor to serve. The advisory board is intended to provide the public the opportunity to be heard on station programming, community service and impact on the community of major policy decisions. If you would like to play a role on the KPFA Community Advisory Board, please contact the CAB by email at [email protected]

 

Current CAB members are Attieno Davis, Judith Gips, Hep Ingham, Rahman Jamaal, Steve Martinot, Mary Prophet, and Nancy Polin.

Unpaid Staff Organization Actions

 

KPFA's 150+ unpaid staff members are represented by the KPFA Unpaid Staff Organization (UPSO). 

Thirty five programmers met in a regular meeting of the Unpaid Staff Organization on December 6.  In order to elect new UPSO council and program council representatives, we formed an election committee of Mary Berg (A Musical Offering), Anthony Fest (Weekend News & Morning Mix), Lisa Dettmer (Women's Magazine), Eddie Ytuarte (Pushing Limits), and Sabrina Jacobs (News Department). We also extended the terms of the current representatives until the election is complete.

Many felt that the current interim general manager evaluation had excluded the input of much of the unpaid staff.   We directed our Local Station Board representatives to work to improve the process.

 

The meeting moved unanimously to support the December 12 shut down of the Port of Oakland by the occupy movement. In addition a motion passed stating that the KPFA Worker website does not represent the views of UPSO. In this vote there was an abstention and one "no" vote.

 

~Reported by

 

Nina Serrano (Cover to Cover - Open Book, and La Raza Chronicles) and

Adrienne Lauby (Pushing Limits)Nina SerranoAdrienne Lauby

Volunteer - Bring Your Good Energies to KPFA

 

KPFA almost always needs volunteers.

 

Register to Volunteer here

 

What can you do to help out? We have many volunteer positions.

 

During fund drives you can come in to answer phones!

 

In between fund drive periods, KPFA needs volunteer help in the packaging of premiums to send to donors, as well as assisting with mailing pledge bills etc. These "mailing parties" are usually scheduled between 10 AM - 2 PM on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays, and are "as needed", when items have been received and are ready to mail.

 

Do you have skills with design, computers, data entry, cleaning and organizing, or really anything? We can use your help.

 

We are now using Shiftboard to organize and schedule volunteers. You will be able to sign-in, review and pick-up a shift schedule as well as cancel shifts online. You will also be sent reminder messages! 

 

Go to: https://www.shiftboard.com/kpfa/register.html

 

If you have questions call 510 848-6767 ext. 209

 

Please register today. Your skills are needed! 

 

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