Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 21:05:09 -0800
Subject: {FP} One year anniversary of Pacifica reporters' strike
From: "PNN strikers" <pnnstrikers@igc.org>

When Pacifica Reporters Against Censorship went on strike against Pacifica Network News one year ago on January 31, 2000, we asked our supporters to pressure the Pacifica Foundation to meet our demands for an end to news censorship, consciously leaving the question of how best to do that to Pacifica stations, affiliates, and their listenerships.

Supporters of a free and democratic Pacifica responded with a barrage of letters, emails and phone calls to Pacifica management demanding that they negotiate with the strikers. Listeners and stations gave (and continue to give) generously to our strike fund. Hundreds of academics and activists signed statements in support of the strike, pledging not to provide commentary for PNN news stories until the strike was settled. Numerous unions passed resolutions in support of the strike, including 5 different California AFL-CIO labor councils. Several affiliate stations cancelled their contracts with PNN. Other affiliate stations organized a second nationwide "day without Pacifica," in part to express their anger at continuing censorship, the use of scab reporters, and declining news quality. Forty-five stations -- all but a handful of them Pacifica affiliates -- run the strikers' newscast, Free Speech Radio News, in place of PNN on Fridays. In addition, dozens of freelance reporters from around the world have joined the original group who initially struck PNN.

Our supporters have our deepest thanks for these actions, which show those currently in power at Pacifica that listeners won't stand for news censorship. But in the face of this solidarity, Pacifica has continued to stonewall. When strike representatives met with Pacifica's new executive director Bessie Wash in late August 2000, Wash promised a written response to our demands by Thanksgiving. She never delivered it. Pacifica also ignored the concerns expressed by many affiliate stations around the country when their contracts came up for renewal in the fall. Then, in late December, Pacifica management took over at WBAI in the dead of night, firing and "banning" paid and unpaid staff, including one of our strike organizers.

Now, in the wake of these events, and as we approach the first anniversary of our strike, we renew our commitment to the struggle to save Pacifica, our community-based network which was built with many decades of listener and staff contributions. We also ask stations and affiliates to take immediate steps to remove PNN from their airwaves until the strikers' demands -- and the demands of community and staff for democracy and free speech at all Pacifica stations --are met. Together, we will win.

In solidarity, Pacifica Reporters Against Censorship