In October, 2000, two of the Pacifica National Board members from the New York listening area, Leslie Cagan and Beth Lyons (who has since stepped down from the National Board), convened an open, public meeting to share their thoughts on what was happening in the Pacifica Foundation. Nearly 75 people came, and at the end of the evening all agreed it was time to set up an umbrella structure in New York City to work on issues related to WBAI and Pacifica. It was from this first gathering that Concerned Friends of WBAI began to take shape.

GET INVOLVED IN THE FIGHT TO SAVE WBAI and PACIFICA! 1) IF YOU LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY Concerned Friends of WBAI welcomes your active participation: • Join a committee:There are committees meeting regularly that deal with Action, Outreach, Media, Elections for the Local Advisory Board (see article on page 7 for more details), Research and Fundraising. • Share your time and skills: Help is needed with everything from writing to phone out-reach to media work to photocopying to data entry. • Join a neighborhood group of "Concerned Friends:" Organize with your neighbors to localize our message. • Call your city council rep: (to find yours, call City Hall: 212-788-7100) and ask her/him to sign on to Resolution 1723, which calls for Pacifica and WBAI to reverse the coup and democratize the network. For more information on this effort see page 4. 2) IF YOU LIVE OUTSIDE NYC There are Concerned Friends groups in Long Island, Westchester, Mid-Hudson, Rockland, New Jersey and Connecticut. The contact information for each of these groups is on page 3, and all welcome your involvement. 3) NO MATTER WHERE YOU LIVE • Make sure Pacifica and WBAI management hear from you: We urge you to make (non-abusive) protest calls to: Interim Station Manager Utrice Leid, 212-209-2820 Pacifica Foundation Executive Director Bessie Wash, 202-234-7487 • Call WBAI on the air: 212-209-2900. Calmly express your concerns; announce upcoming actions, the hotline number and web site address. • Join an email news list: Keep up with latest news, action alerts & calls for help. Subscribe at www.savewbai.tao.ca • Join public protest activities: You can start by participating in the VIGIL held every weekday at the station, 120 Wall Street, 4:30-6:00 pm. • Instead of giving money to the station, make a donation to the movement to save WBAI: See page 2 for more information on the many organizations you can support. And don't forget to fill out the form at the bottom of this page.

Over the next few months meetings were held and a structure was put into place. Committees were established to help focus our work: media, research, outreach, action, elections for the Local Advisory Board, finance, and a liaison committee to be in touch with other players in this struggle. A coordinating committee with representatives from the committees was established and grew to include representation from the LAB as well as community-based groups that are actively involved in this fight.

By the December coup, Concerned Friends had established itself as the umbrella structure for listeners, producers, the LAB and dissident National Board members to work together. Concerned Friends convened a community meeting on December 28th, in the middle of the holiday week, and more than 1200 people turned out. In fact, so many people came on that cold winter night that some could not even get into the building!

Since then Concerned Friends has had regular general meetings where the most up-to-date news is shared and people discuss and plan our next steps. At times developments unfolded so quickly that meetings were held every few weeks, but now general meetings are once a month. The coordinating committee meets every Monday evening, and the working committees meet as needed. All meetings of Concerned Friends are open to everyone.

At a meeting with hundreds of people on January 11, 2001 we adopted a brief statement which articulates what we are fighting for. While the crisis continues to unfold at WBAI, we stand by that statement as a guide for our efforts. In our short life, Concerned Friends has been the primary organization responsible for coordinating the city-wide, and area-wide, struggle to save our station. We have organized our own activites and worked in close cooperation with other groups, including Community for Progressive Radio and the Pacifica Campaign. One of the most exciting developments has been the formation of groups also called Concerned Friends of WBAI throughout the listening area: Long Island, New Jersey, Westchester, Rockland County, Connecticut and the Mid-Hudson area.

STATEMENT OF THE CONCERNED FRIENDS OF WBAI (adopted at a public meeting on 1/11/01) 1) We, the Concerned Friends of WBAI, reject all interventions by the Pacifica Foundation's national staff or Board of Directors into the management of WBAI which are carried out without a process that includes the participation of WBAI's staff and Local Advisory Board. 2) We call for the immediate reinstatement of all fired staff, the immediate and permanent lifting of all bans which have kept staff members and listeners out of the station or off the air, a commitment to no gag rule, the removal of security guards, the restoration of regular programming, and the end of all censorship. 3) We demand a democratic process involving staff (paid and unpaid), listeners and the Local Advisory Board to determine the General Manager of the station. 4) We demand that Pacifica immediately guarantee that all staff, paid and unpaid, be included in the WBAI collective bargaining unit. 5) We call on station staff and listeners to support: The current lawsuits against the Pacifica National Board Establishment of local election procedures for the ongoing selection of Local Advisory Board members National efforts, including those at the other four Pacifica stations, to establish a democratic process within the National Board to allow the Foundation to return to Lewis Hill's original mission

Our activities have included demonstrations in front of the station at 120 Wall Street, as well as at the NYC offices of Epstein Becker & Green, the law firm that represents the Pacifica Foundation in the law suits and where Pacifica National Board member John Murdock works. We have distributed tens of thousands of pieces of literature, and are greatly appreciative of the hard work done by the people who go out every week and set up tables at busy locations around the city. We have promoted phone, fax and email campaigns directed at the current station management as well as the National Board.

Concerned Friends has reached out to labor unions in the NYC area, helping them understand both the specific labor issues in this struggle as well as the broader concerns. Our ongoing work to win elected officials to our struggle has led to a resolution introduced in the New York City Council (see p. 4 for more details), and a forum organized in Washington, D.C. by Rep. Major Owens and the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Through our efforts people have learned about the lawsuits against the Pacifica Foundation, as well as news from the four other listening areas. Our elections committee is putting together proposals to carry out a fair and inclusive election for members of the Local Advisory Board. And it was Concerned Friends of WBAI that coordinated a delegation from NYC that traveled to Houston for protest and organizing activities around the March 3-4th meeting of the Pacifica National Board. Our people played a positive role in strengthening the connections between activists in the five cities where Pacifica stations are located, as well as in the protest demonstrations during that weekend.

For all the work we have done, there is still much ahead of us....and we need YOUR help. All committees are open to new members, and if you have ideas for new projects we welcome hearing about them. Most importantly, we need help getting the word out about the struggle to save WBAI. If you can help distribute literature (like this tabloid), if you are part of a group that wants to have a speaker, if you can help get our message into the mainstream media...we want to hear from you!

Call our hotline number, log on to our web site, and fill out and return the coupon below. Concerned Friends of New York is only as strong as the committment from the many people involved. You can help make us that much stronger!

If anyone wants to distribute hard copies of this newspaper,
they should contact Pete Korakis:
pete@wbaiaction.org
718-278-3381

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