Date: Sat, 03 Feb 2001 19:55:42 -0800
To: freepacifica@recordist.com
From: Peter Franck <pfranck@culturelaw.com>
Subject: the campaign against pacifica board

A number of people involved in organizing some of the recent demonstrations have asked how I feel about Carol Spooner's request for restraint.

I am afraid I don't agree with Carol, much as I so very much respect her work and commitment. It makes sense for her and the other plaintiffs to not be involved in direct action or maybe even picketing of Pacifica's lawyers etc., but in general I agree with Scott Fleming's posting. Political cases are not won in a vacuum; Thurgood Marshall may have been (was) a brilliant lawyer and the NAACP had a great legal team, but I doubt that he would have won Brown vs Board of Education [the 1954 case ruling school racial segregation illegal], if the third world hadn't been stirring, with the US and the Soviet Bloc competing for their allegiance and if the black community had not been stirring. [See a great article by Lew Steel in the current Nation on this]. My round-about way of saying that we have to keep the public pressure up.

As a lawyer I certainly don't advocate law breaking, but the Pacifica Board itself has been so impervious to the pleas of its audience that it seems that all first amendment freedoms have to be exercised to make it clear to the whole world what is at stake, and how passionately the people and groups which Pacifica has served for fifty years feel that this one and only US mass media institution which is outside the corporate/government system must be saved.

The suits need a lot of support: money, lawyers (probably paper and pencils even). Already one very important DC law firm has come forward to help. People are sending money, and should continue to, to the Save Pacifica Legal Action Fund/Vanguard Foundation. [address]

Wide public understanding of what is at stake is crucial to this kind of support, and to all aspects of this campaign. The work of Carol and her lawyers (and the work of the other legal teams) is terribly important, but a case like this is not won in an empty courtroom.

*********************************************************
Peter Franck, Attorney @ Law
Intellectual Property, Cultural and Constitutional Rights
voice:415.381.9960; fax 415.381.9963; email:pfranck@culturelaw.com
*********************************************************
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Date: Sat, 03 Feb 2001 19:22:19 -0800
To: "Alliance to Promote the Peace and Justice Mission of Pacifica" <alliance@lists.freespeechnow.org>,
From: Heidi Chesney <heidi@monitor.net>
Subject: Re: [alliance] Re: Appeal from Carol Spooner
Cc: freekpfk@egroups.com, freepacifica@recordist.com, newpacifica@egroups.com

Dear All in the movement to liberate Pacifica,

The concern that civil disobedience, sustained street action and attempted disruption of Pacifica's law firm has any bearing upon the Alameda Courts predilection regarding the strong legal case against Pacifica's past but more importantly it's current actions and attitude is incorrect, in my view. Pacifica's effort in amending the bylaws to allow selling of one or more of the stations, among other things, warrants now more than ever extreme measures on the political and media front.

This movement cannot afford to be guided by parochial perceptions and persuasions if we are to have any hope in succeeding. Since the lab suit had set the trail date in Aug, (there's a good chance this discussion is likely to be moot by then, once the stations are sold) and nearly a month has passed since the listeners last court date in Federal, the burden of action is placed squarely on the shoulders of listener and staff activists to make our concerns and outrage known to all the world which includes every EBG office in the network and station affiliate areas.

As far as this struggle is concerned, the recent developments concerning WBAI Amy Goodman, the amended bylaws, and now Pacifica's effort to "legalize" a sale of one or more of it's stations is more than enough cause to pull out all the stops now, not after this network is consolidated and sold off to the highest bidder.

Although we must financially support and strongly encourage vigorous legal efforts, we, unfortunately cannot solely rely on the outcome of the law suits, nor on the wisdom of our legal experts and comrades to right the wrongs within the system and halls of justice on our behalf as we know all too well, judges and the courts on-high are anything but apolitical.

[as witnessed internationally when supreme court justices essentially said that democracy is too messy and overrated and selected the new president instead]


~Heidi

At 11:53 AM 2/3/01 -0800, Scott Fleming wrote:
>To all:
>
>I must respectfully disagree with Carol Spooner's appeal. For several
>reasons, Carol, I think you are mistaken.
>
>The members of the Pacifica board of directors, day by day, are
>consummating the theft and destruction of the Pacifica network. I share
>your hope that the lawsuits will resolve this crisis in our favor, and
>soon. But there are no guarantees. We cannot stop pursuing all available
>avenues simply because we have confidence in the lawsuits.
>
>I am a lawyer, and I know that exclusive reliance on lawsuits can be
>supremely disempowering. Thousands of people are being mobilized right
>now. They are eager to play a role in this struggle. We cannot tell them
>to stand by and let the lawyers solve this problem for us. All of the
>people who are invested in this struggle must be urged to do whatever they
>are able to help us win back Pacifica.
>
>Among other tactics, we must hold the people who are stealing our radio
>stations personally accountable. They have utterly refused to respond to
>years' worth of letters, phone calls, and emails. It is now time, in what
>may be the final months of this struggle, to take the fight to them, to
>their places of work and to their homes if necessary.
>
>If board members like John Murdock, Micheal Palmer, and Karolyn van Putten
>persist in their evil ways, they should expect to incur the wrath of the
>communities they are wronging. We must make them uncomfortable, and we
>must make their employers question whether their positions on the Pacifica
>board are worth suffering bad publicity, disruptions to their business, and
>so forth.
>
>I have met no one who intends to intimidate or frighten anyone. Rather, we
>must make the personal and professional cost of the destruction of Pacifica
>too high for these people to pay. Nothing we have done compares to the
>firings, bannings, police/security guards, censorship, etc. that the
>Pacifica board has visited upon us.
>
>As for Epstein, Becker, and Green, I have heard nothing to suggest that EBG
>is working for free on the Pacifica case. There is every reason to believe
>that they are profiting handsomely from their efforts to steal our radio
>stations. Partners in law firms share profits, meaning all of the partners
>of EBG share with John Murdock responsibility for his actions as both a
>board member and an attorney for Pacifica. Funds donated by the listeners
>of Pacifica are buying fancy dinners and expensive clothes for EBG lawyers,
>rather than paying for the programming and information we so desperately
>need. This is unacceptable. In addition, if the left had more time and
>energy than it currently does, I would hope that we would be confronting
>institutions like EBG even without their involvement with Pacifica.
>
>Finally, with respect to the issue of whether the judge in the listeners'
>or other lawsuits will view these tactics as harassment, it is clear that
>Carol and several other plaintiffs are on record stating that they are not
>participating in the "Pacifica Campaign" and, in Carol's case, do not
>endorse it. The plaintiffs in these lawsuits are not responsible for the
>actions of others and, frankly, cannot control them either.
>
>Carol Spooner has done incredible work in guiding the listeners' lawsuit to
>the point where it currently stands. But now, just when our forces are
>beginning to coalesce once again, and as we start to rachet up the pressure
>on these people who would tear the precious Pacifica away from us, we
>cannot shrink from action. We must move forward on all fronts, including
>disrupting the business as usual of the board members and lawyers who are
>stealing our radio stations from us.
>
>The end is near. We must do all we can at this moment to make it a happy
>ending.
>
>Respectfully,
>
>Scott Fleming
>

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Date sent: Sun, 04 Feb 2001 14:19:35 -0800
From: Anne Fitzmaurice
Subject: Why I will continue to picket at Epstein, Becker and Green

Hi all,

Those of us out in the streets in support of KPFA are taking two kinds of action -- legal picketing and leafletting, and civil disobedience. The civil disobedience puts pressure on EB&G, and the leafletting also generates pressure with calls and letters from some of the people who take our leaflets. But, in addition to the pressure on EB&G, the picketing and leafletting educates people. Many people know about and support KPFA but don't listen to the station enough to know what's really happening at the network – they don't know about recent events at WBAI or about the rewrite of the bylaws, for example. The picketing is letting them know about what's happening now. And once they learn how serious it is, it’s getting some of them involved in the struggle.

A couple of weeks ago I gave a flyer to a very charismatic black man who walked away, and then after he read the flyer, came back to talk with me. He explained that he was from Nigeria and that he was very familiar with Amy Goodman's series on "Drilling and Killing in Nigeria." He talked about his appreciation for the series and its importance to his country. He went on to say that he was deeply concerned to learn what was happening at WBAI and that he would do everything within his power to help in the situation – that he would do whatever he possibly could do. So this kind of connection seems to me to be what we’re about and why we’re out there.

As of this weekend, we've distributed over 2,000 leaflets. This week we had as many as 25 people picketing during the week. I think the more people we have involved, the better our chances are of winning. We won in the summer of 1999 because so many people cared so much and so many people took action. The picketing is growing and so the number of people we’re reaching is also growing. Organizing is about bringing people into the struggle one person at a time. And that's what we're doing.

So I plan to keep it up. I feel strongly that I want to continue. I hope you all will decide to continue too.

Best,

Anne