A Call to Action from Media Alliance and the Pacifica Campaign
When: Tuesday, August 28
Where: Your Local Pacifica or community radio station
What: Show solidarity with Amy Goodman and the Democracy Now! staff
Amy Goodman and the Democracy Now! team have been suspended without pay for insisting on violence-free workplace. And Democracy Now!, which is being produced from a safe site in lower Manhattan and not Pacifica station WBAI, has been yanked off the air.
At WBAI, the Democracy Now! staff have been physically and verbally attacked by interim station manager Utrice Leid and other Leid loyalists. When Pacifica senior management ignored their repeated written requests that something be done about the intolerable atmosphere of intimidation and threats, they felt they had no choice but to fashion some interim solution last week and find a safe and secure workplace to produce the show.
No worker should be forced to report to a job site where they are physically attacked by supervisors and where staff members go on the air to urge their physical destruction. Let's stand in solidarity with Democracy Now! on Tuesday, August 28.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
1. Organize a solidarity protest in your local area. Choose your own local protest site. We recommend that if you have a Pacifica station or a corporate Pacifica board member in your town (or one of his offices like the National Association of Home Builders, Fannie Mae or the anti-union firm of Epstein, Becker and Green), then organize a protest at that site.
2. Please call, fax, e-mail or mail the individuals listed below. Contact them as many times possible until you feel that your voice has been heard. Your phone calls are important. Keep the message straightforward, no profanity or name calling. Demand the immediate dismissals of Pacifica Executive Director Bessie Wash and WBAI station manager Utrice Leid. The Pacifica Campaign will organize a national call in for Tuesday, August 28.
3. Make a contribution to the Pacifica Campaign, a grass-roots organization representing listeners and staff alike, fighting to preserve Pacifica's 50-year tradition of progressive, community-based radio. Tax deductible contributions may be made to our fiscal sponsor, a 501 (c) (3) organization. Make checks payable to: Institute for Media Analysis-Pacifica Campaign. Our mailing address: The Pacifica Campaign, 51 MacDougal St., #80, NY, NY 10012
WHO TO CONTACT
Call AFTRA headquarters today and ask to speak to union president Greg Hessinger. The AFTRA national office telephone number is 212- 532-0800. The fax number is 212-532-2242. Or e-mail him at: ghessing@aftra.com.
Tell Greg Hessinger that Amy Goodman and the DN! staff should not be forced to report to a job site where they are physically attacked by supervisors and where staff members go on the air to urge their physical destruction. That is fascism, not democracy, and no union should collaborate with such policies.
Pacifica Board Vice Chair Ken Ford
Tel: 800-368-5242 ext. 228
Tel: (301) 350-6388
Fax: 202-822-0369
E-mail: kenfordpacifica@aol.com, kford@nahb.com
Ken Ford's boss at the National Association of Home Builders:
Jerry Howard, CEO 800-368-5242 ext. 257
E-mail: jhoward@nahb.com
Ask that the NAHB's Ken Ford resign from the Pacifica Board today
Pacifica Board member Valrie Chambers
Tel: 361-825-6012 Fax: 281-655-0266
E-mail: Valrie.Chambers@mail.tamucc.edu, valriechambers@aol.com
Pacifica Board member Wendell L. Johns
Tel: 202-752-5355 Fax: 202-752-4281
E-mail: wendell_L_johns@fanniemae.com
Pacifica Board member Bob Farrel
Tel: 310-514-2052
E-mail: alfigo@aol.com
Cut the below list of email addresses, paste it into the To: line of your email composition form. Also go to:
http://www.progressiveportal.org/letters/pacifica/resign/
jspacifica@aol.com, uleid@escape.com, sypacifica@aol.com, kford@nahb.com, KenFordPacifica@aol.com, jmurdock@ebglaw.com, wendell_L_johns@fanniemae.com, Alfigo@aol.com, valriechambers@aol.com, Valrie.Chambers@mail.tamucc.edu, jhoward@nahb.com, bsmith@nahbofficer.com, pacificacampaign@yahoo.com, ghessing@aftra.com
The Pacifica Campaign is a grass-roots organization representing listeners and staff alike, fighting to preserve Pacifica's 50-year tradition of progressive, community-based radio. For more info to to: http://www.pacificacampaign.org
Pacifica Campaign
51 MacDougal St., #80
New York, NY 10012
(646) 230-9588
[posted 8/22/01]
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