Juan Gonzalez, "Endless Negotiations Over Pacifica Radio Must Stop"

From Juan Gonzalez

Coordinator, Pacifica Campaign

Dear Friends,

It's been two weeks since the Washington National Board meeting
approved by unanimous vote a plan to end the crisis now crippling the
Pacifica Radio network. Even though some in the Pacifica reform
movement were unhappy with the accord, the 5-5-5 deal promised to mark
an imperfect but important turning point in the history of the network.

We now learn that this second agreement is now being renegotiated by
the board majority and is not at all settled. This is outrageous.

There have already been two negotiations that reached agreement on a
transitional solution. First, there were the Bay Area mediation
sessions where Pacifica board chair Bob Farrell and board member Marion
Barry, claiming to speak for the board majority, reached a settlement
with litigants for the reform movement. Barry even trumpeted the deal
on KPFA in early November.

That settlement was summarily rejected by intransigent board majority
members who met in Washington over the Nov. 17 weekend, after which
hours of new talks took place between dissident board members and those
representing the majority. A new "agreement" was reached and
unanimously approved.

For members of the Pacifica board majority to again hold up this second
agreement by trying to get a better "deal" is taking things too far.

I can understand old board members not wanting to resign from the board
without getting law suits against them dropped. But if they chose not
to attend the board meeting or to participate by phone or proxy, that
is their problem, not ours. Still, I am sure that if they wish to step
down from the Pacifica Board, they will be dropped from all the
lawsuits. If others, like Pacifica board secretary John Murdock, have
had a change of heart, and wish to renegotiate while the network
collapses, he too should just resign.

We in the staff of the Pacifica Campaign will not sit by watching these
people fiddle away as the network falls apart. As you know by our
messages to the movement, I and the campaign staff have been big
supporters of negotiations -- but never endless negotiations. And
certainly not negotiations which only lead to agreements which are not
honored by the board majority.

If in the next few days the entire Pacifica Board does not approve the
transition plan as voted on at the Washington meeting (or a variation
on that plan that acceptable to the reform movement), we will urge all
supporters of the campaign to use whatever peaceful means are available
to hold board members personally responsible for their inaction. We
will resume fully the campaign to secure their immediate resignations.

In the coming days, we will be announcing new plans and new
demonstrations against this reckless Board majority. If we have to
picket them on Christmas Eve, Kwanza, Hanukah, or any other holiday, we
will -- whatever it takes to get them to understand the time has come
end this fight.

Onward,

Juan Gonzalez

Pacifica Campaign

51 MacDougal St., #80

New York, NY 10012

646-230-9588

http://www.pacificacampaign.org

pacificacampaign@yahoo.com