Dissidents Blast Farrell ‘Peace Initiative’

October 5, 2001: October 2, 2001

An Open Letter the Pacifica Community In response to Bob Farrell's
on-air statement of September 27,2001

From: Pete Bramson, Leslie Cagan, Tomas Moran

Last Thursday, Bob Farrell, who was elected Chair of the Pacifica
National Board by the same majority that added five new board
members in a plainly unfair and non conciliatory process, delivered
a previously unannounced message on some Pacifica stations by
grafting a five-minute statement to the Pacifica Network News feed.


This is our response to his statement, which has been dubbed the
"peace initiative". As board members, we would have liked the
opportunity to have learned of this communication in advance, and
to have been offered the opportunity to respond as a dissenting
minority, in the manner that other institutions offer such
opportunity. It is incomprehensible to us that our institution, with its
fifty-year commitment to airing the alternative voice of dissent,
would not consider the contradiction between its mission and its
behavior.  

As of the moment we write this statement ,a full four days since
Mr. Farrell's on-air comments, we feel compelled to publish a
response to a statement  that addresses us directly, but which has
not been provided to us. Some of us have managed to hear the
statement on the internet, if we have access to  net audio.
Ironically, Mr. Farrell's online audio is found not in our Pacifica
Foundation's web page, but rather in  the web pages of some of the
opposition community groups. Other board  members have merely
heard about Mr. Farrell's remarks second-hand.  

In an age of instant communications, we are 4-days in waiting for a
response  to our request for a copy of Mr. Farrell's remarks, a task
that could  literally be accomplished with the flick of a wrist and a
click of a mouse.

Mr. Farrell invites everyone back to the "Pacifica Family",
promising that accountability will follow. He asks those of us who
are board members and plaintiffs to "reconsider our case". He asks
those of us who are listeners to unite and to support the
Foundation financially.  

This is the "peace initiative" that was similarly described to the
plaintiff  board members in a phone conversation with Mr. Farrell
three weeks ago, in  which he unequivocally explained that he
would be adamantly against the  election of any new members to
the Board in the upcoming September 19th  meeting. In a Board
that was divided 6-5 in many votes, it was Mr. Farrell's  vote,
contrary to his stated position, that enabled the majority board to  
unilaterally add members by its own invented process.  

We give Mr. Farrell and the "peace initiative" now the same
response we gave  then.   Consistent with our commitment to
reconciliation and healing for Pacifica, we are putting forth our call
for a "justice initiative".  

As listeners and board members, we have been appalled at the
damage that has  been brought upon Pacifica's assets, upon its
staff (paid and unpaid), and upon the credibility, the respect, and
the support of its listeners.  

This damage has been brought by the systematic abuse of power
wielded by upper management, and by the lack of transparency,
democracy, and oversight of the  Board.  

A fair resolution to this crisis must include the reversal of this
damage, as  well as the selection of new leadership that has the
confidence of the listener sponsor and the Pacifica Family.

At the Board level, the damage includes the legacy of a majority of
members that have been seated by an unfair process, which was
forced upon the minority directors. The damage includes the
removal of the power of electing board members away from a more
democratic system that had previously involved  the participation of
Local Advisory Boards. The courts are still to judge if this taking of
voting power was, as we allege, illegal, on top of being  plainly
undemocratic and unwise for an organization which survives
because of  the degree of credibility that it has with its listener
sponsors.  

All this damage, and the changes achieved by these undemocratic
maneuvers, must be reversed. Pacifica must once again have a
Board that is accountable to the local communities that it serves.  

Additionally, Pacifica must immediately start conforming to basic
practices of  fair and open procedure as it conducts its meetings;
to basic practices of fiduciary  oversight, as it relates to providing
its board members the necessary  information to ascertain the
financial health of the organization and to  recommend action
accrodingly; to the basic practice of management oversight,  as it
relates to taking swift action when its upper management does not
provide adequate accountability, and makes decisions which are
not in the best interests of the Foundation.  

The importance of Pacifica to the dissenting, alternative voices
today is as crucial as it has ever been. Should its Board ask the
listener to simply trust that everything is well in spite of signs to
the contrary? Or should it be the duty of the members of the Board
to clearly and unambiguously demonstrate to the listeners that the
values of this important institution are upheld by our own behavior
and that of our upper management?  

Listener sponsors will respond over the next few weeks to the
"peace initiative". We expect that the message to the Pacifica
Foundation and to those of us on the Board will continue to be
clear.  

The damage must be undone. The unfair practices by the Board
must be reversed. Our management must be accountable.  

Peace with justice. This has been the message that Pacifica
brings, and it must be how Pacifica lives.