[KFCF Friends] Pacifica has APPROVED bylaws, including KFCF Rep.

[subs at kfcf.org]

Hi all,
As you may have heard on the air, Pacifica's settlement agreement requiring the passage of new bylaws and to establish listener elections was in serious jeopardy. Included in the proposed bylaws is a section submitted by the Fresno Free College Foundation to re-establish a representative seat for KFCF on the KPFA Local Station Board (formerly the Local Advisory Board). I am very happy to join with Carol Spooner below to announce the bylaws have been approved, albeit with all the drama and more that Pacifica could muster. It was an honor to be in attendance at the history-making KPFK Local Advisory Board meeting Saturday at which the last vote needed to ratify bylaws was won. Following is a message from Carol Spooner.

Debbie Speer
Secretary, Fresno Free College Foundation

NEW PACIFICA BYLAWS PASSED

Approved by the Interim National Board and three Local Advisory Boards as 
required under the Legal Settlement Agreement --
Interim Pacifica National Board June 26, 2003, KPFA LAB and KPFT LAB July 
9, 2003, KPFK LAB August 23, 2003

Four years ago, in July 1999, when Mary Frances Berry, Lynn Chadwick, and 
that crew spent $500,000 to send armed guards into KPFA to occupy the 
station, throw the staff out & arrest them and their community supporters 
-- there was nothing anyone could do but sue.  We set out then to 
democratize Pacifica so that there would be another way to get rid of bad 
management and bad boards.  Some said it was impossible, and it nearly 
was.  And the price exacted for it was very high.  Deep divisions were 
revealed among us, and fears and even hatreds.  And agents provocateurs are 
always with us.

With the legal settlement agreement 1-1/2 years ago, in December 2001, a 
power vacuum was created into which many rushed to secure their place in 
the Pacifica of the future.  I believe that with the KPFK LAB vote to 
approve the bylaws yesterday a means was created for everyone to win.  It 
will be what we make of it, of course.  But the means is there.

We have created a hybrid model of a workers' collective and a membership 
organization of engaged listener-sponsors.  By bringing the listeners and 
staff/volunteers together to form local and national oversight boards, I 
believe the creative fire and vision can be found that is necessary, now 
more than ever, as the hand of American corporate fascism plays its endgame 
in a nuclear world, as self-consumption cannibalizes and wastes us all, as 
oppression and poverty and disease spread the degradation of despair and 
the tragedy of hatred, and as ecological disaster threatens all life on 
Earth with annihilation.  The fire of resistance that drove Pacifica's 
founders must now be renewed -- if we are not to go quietly into the long 
night.

There were and remain forces that seek to silence Pacifica, to pull its 
political teeth, and they will use every means to sap our strength and set 
us at each other.  Do not let them do it.  Hatred kills.  Do not listen to 
it.  My dear friend Robbie Osman said to me not long ago:  "The myth of the 
'Chosen People' leads to mass murder."  There can be no "Chosen People" 
among us, only volunteers in service to Humankind and our Mother Earth.

So, nominations for board seats at the five stations will open very 
soon.  Elections coordinators are on the job already at KPFK, KPFT & WBAI, 
and soon will be at KPFA and WPFW.  Volunteers are needed to serve on 
elections and outreach committees.  Check your station web page soon for 
details on how to get involved, and listen for on-air announcements, or 
call the station manager.  It is imperative to the survival of Pacifica 
that we find the very best people we can to serve on our boards and to 
preserve and protect Pacifica in these perilous times.  We need people of 
all races, colors, creeds and nations to stand together in mutual support.

To some of you I owe a personal apology for making a commitment I could not 
keep.  In all the furor, you may not know that I was one of the authors of 
the original "KPFA model"  elections that required our boards to be made up 
of a minimum of 50% people of color and 50% women -- and provided 
post-election adjustments to insure those minimums were met.  I fought for 
that model against all comers, first at KPFA, and then across the country 
for a long long time.  And it was with dismay and sorrow that I had to 
abandon it in the face of mounting legal advice that this would put 
Pacifica in serious legal and financial peril.  If such risks are to be 
taken with Pacifica, I believe the decision to do so must be made soberly 
by elected representatives who are fully informed and who can be held 
accountable for their decisions -- and after full on-air discussion with 
our listeners and staff/volunteers.  But abandoning "diversity 
requirements" pulled the rug out from under many who legitimately fear 
exclusion from Pacifica's governing bodies.  For that, I am deeply 
sorry.  And I pledge to do everything in my power to see to it that diverse 
boards are elected.  This is a pledge I ask everyone to join in, both in 
helping to find candidates and when voting in the elections later this year.

There are too many people to thank for their long labors ... to those on 
both sides of the bylaws debate who argued with passion and principle 
without descending to personal invective or intentional distortions of the 
truth I want to thank especially Dave Fertig, Janice K. Bryant, Acie Byrd, 
Diallo Kantambu, and in the end, Dick Gregory, as well as the KPFA LAB; for 
moral support and wise counsel, thanks to KPFA General Manager Gus Newport; 
and for unwavering clarity and unflinching courage under fire, deepest 
gratitude to WBAI LAB Chair Miguel Maldonado, KPFA LAB Chair Susan da 
Silva, KPFK LAB members Farah Davari, Loraine Mirza and Don White, and KPFA 
LAB members Joe Wanzala and Miguel Molina.

I think I'll close out with two quotations from Emma Goldman, 
first:  "Social and economic well-being will become a reality only through 
the zeal, courage, the non-compromising determination of intelligent 
minorities, and not through the mass."   These "intelligent minorities" are 
the Pacifica community, and I have deep faith in all of us.

And: "If I can not dance, I want no part in your revolution."   Let's dance!

The newly adopted bylaws are posted at www.wbai.net -- "Draft B."

Carol Spooner
Founder, Committee to Remove the Pacifica Board
Member, Interim Pacifica Board (soon to be removed and replaced by elected 
Directors)

And, finally, the guidance that carried me through the past four years --



A HOPI ELDER SPEAKS
"You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you 
must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour.
And there are things to be considered ...
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader."
Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said,
"This could be a good time! There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold on to the shore.
They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly.
Know the river has its destination.
The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the 
river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above water.
And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate.
At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally. Least of all, 
ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey 
comes to a halt.
The time of the lone wolf is over.
Gather yourselves!
Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we've been waiting for."
Oraibi, Arizona
Hopi Nation