In 1995 Where Were The New "Save KPFA" Crew?

What a crock. There were 10,000 plus people behind that banner, and somehow, Bernstein, Blankfort & Co. claim they were the only ones? Oh my, what a vanguard!

This would be laughable if it weren't so tragic.

Good grief, thousands of us were a part of this movement, and thousands of us have used the phrase "Save KPFA" in its history.

At that demo, there were many, many activists who are now supporters of the current http://www.SaveKPFA.org slate. In fact, here's one version of that famous photo with an informative (and historically accurate) account by Matthew Lasar (Pacifica historian, faculty member at UCSC): http://www.radiosurvivor.com/2009/07/29/remembering-save-kpfa-day/

Many KPFA staff, including news codirector Aileen Alfandary and Pacifica national affairs correspondent Larry Bensky, are in the front row. Dan Siegel, who is currently running on the SaveKPFA slate, was one of the main speakers that historic day in 1999.

You can see more photos here:
http://www.fsm-a.org/kpfa/KPFA73199march5.html

Now more than ever, please reject the wackos and conspiracy theorists (who even think that even using a phrase like "save KPFA" is a conspiracy against them) and vote for the intelligent, rational and progressive local station board candidates at http://www.savekpfa.org

Anyone who actually worked with Aileen Alfandary understood quite fully that she couldn't stand the whole thing. I remember her objecting to the characterization of KPFA as free speech radio, insisting the 1999 movement was about nothing but an employer/employee dispute, ridiculing the idea of a listener-initiated lawsuit. The woman doesn't have a progressive bone in her body. She's a soft liberal at best.

Cut the crap.

After the lockout, on 13 July 1999, of the entire KPFA staff, public sentiment in the Bay Area was so overwhelmingly against Pacifica management that even San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, a major Democratic Party honcho, spoke out against them. And I have no doubt that many of the people in the Concerned Listeners/'Save KPFA' slate and supporting milieu were at the mass demonstration 18 days later, on 31 July, against the lockout.

But where were all these people, including their staff backers like Aileen Alfandary, Mark Mericle, Philip Maldari, Kris Welch, et al., during the 8 years or so of incremental hijacking leading up to the lockout, including the massive purges of volunteer programmers in 1995? They were at best silent and often actively supportive of the purges. And, unsurprisingly, the professionalism-über-alles perspective these "Progressive" Democrats support for KPFA and Pacifica now is only a muted version of the perspective put forth by the mainstream-Democrat hijackers of the 1990's.

By the way, although my part in the struggle was small compared to that of people like Jeff Blankfort, Maria Gelardin, and Curt Gray, Steve Zeltzer and I are apparently the only two candidates for LSB this year who were involved in the struggle against the hijackers well before the 1999 lockout -- in fact, before the 1995 purges.

My Candidate Statement can be found at http://pacificafoundation.org/cand_page.php?id=405.

By 2010, the Thug Hallinan Gang also known as "SaveKPFA," Slave KPFA and Concerned Listeners, engaged in criminal terrorist activity. See:
http://danielborgstrom.blogspot.com/
http://danielborgstrom.blogspot.com/2010/03/intimidation-between-minutes.html
http://danielborgstrom.blogspot.com/2010/08/siegel-youre-suing-me.html
http://danielborgstrom.blogspot.com/2010/07/insights-experiences-on-kpfa-board.html
http://danielborgstrom.blogspot.com/2010/06/save-kpfa.html

As to the till-tapping by the Thug Hallinan Gang and their beauty queen girlfriend, former general manager Lemlem Rijio (and thank you Richard Phelps), see:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/09/17/18659062.php?show_comments=1#18659120

We had to hear Dennis Bernstein on the air on Flashpoints, 9/21/10, do an urgent money pitch describing how he has to work 80-hour weeks despite having had open heart surgery 3 years ago since his senior producer, Palestine liberation news specialist Nora Barrows Friedman lost her job due to insufficient funds (and lots of pro-Zionist-Democratic Party harassers at KPFA) because the Thug Hallinan Gang allowed the entire reserve fund to be spent, some $1 million, and now the station survives from fundraiser to fundraiser. In addition to voting for all opponents of the Thug Hallinan Gang, please give what you can so Flashpoints has more staff and Dennis can cut his hours to 40 hours a week. That is something tangible we all can do. You can donate online at:
https://ittsui.pair.com/kpfa/support/

These are not conspiracies; these are verifiable, undeniable facts.

BY FAR THE BEST CANDIDATE FOR LOCAL STATION BOARD IS STEVE ZELTZER, followed by the rest of the Voices for Justice slate, Dr. Sureya Sayadi, Jaime Cader, Felipe Messina
See
http://www.voicesforjusticeradio.org/
Next best are some of the candidates on the Independent Community Radio slate at:
http://www.voteindyradio.org
In addition to Aaron Aarons, who deserves a vote, and as he says, no vote is wasted, vote for all young peole under age 40 not affiliated with a slate who you think qualify for the Local Station Board.
Here is Aaron's excellent comment if you have difficulty understanding this voting system:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/09/21/18659364.php?show_comments=1#18659452
"BTW, please note that, thanks to the Single Transferable Vote system used in this election, you don't "waste your vote" by voting for somebody who may seem unelectable, since, if that person really doesn't get elected, your vote will be transferred to your next choice, and so on down your list."
Aaron's statements may be found at:
http://pacificafoundation.org/cand_page.php?id=405
and
http://kpfa.blogspot.com/

Do not vote for the "SaveKPFA"/Slave KPFA/Concerned Listeners/Thug Hallinan Gang.

For all the candidate statements, see:
http://pacificafoundation.org/cand_list.php?sta=kpfa

You can meet the candidates or hear them on the air, but whatever you do, please mail your ballot by September 25, 2010, at the latest. Otherwise, you will have to walk it to the station.

You can hear the candidates on air or meet them off air as follows:
From:
http://www.artistdata.com/kpfa/shows/
You can meet the candidates at the following forums or hear them on KPFA:
For transit info or carpool to any forum call 510.332.7181 or email les_kpfa [at] pacifica.org

Thursday, September 23 at 7 p.m. San Jose Peace & Justice Center, 48 South 7th St. San Jose, CA

O N A I R F O R U M S:
Third and Final Round:
Monday Sept. 27th: 8-10pm
Tuesday Sept. 28th: 8-10pm
Wednesday Sept.29: 8-10pm

THERE ARE 20,000 LISTENER-SUBSCRIBERS TO KPFA, YET ONLY 2,000-3,000 VOTE, BARELY MAKING THE ELECTION LEGAL. THAT IS OUTRAGEOUS AND UNCONSCIONABLE. WE NEED 20,000 BALLOTS CAST TO DEFEAT THE THUG HALLINAN GANG FOREVER AND MOVE FORWARD INTO THE 21ST CENTURY!

During 3 years as a KPFA Volunteer Reporter I was subjected to a nonstop barrage of Alfandary's mean spirited attacks and controlling behaviors, including but not limited to overt and covert race based insults, the sabotage of my work related tasks and assignments, verbal attacks delivered at top volume while she stood over me or always curious until they stopped her, she would question me about my whereabouts during personal time away from the station(?), or just stand in the newsroom, her mouth shaped in a perfect "O" starring at me. It appears she could not help herself, her insecurities are too deeply rooted, her ignorance that deeply ingrained.

KPFA's many honest and fair staff members who had/have a lot to lose by aligning with me nevertheless protected me. I appreciate their efforts, they are the reason I was there for 3 years, because Aileen began attacking me on my first day in news---ditto Mericle, in his intro class.

Kelia Ramirez had/has no power but nevertheless she has an "I am entitled" mind set, which resulted in her attempting to attack me one weekend after a news cast I co-anchored. But this is really more about Anthony Fest than Kelia. Anthony Fest-KPFA long time weekend anchor observed Kelia attacking me after a newscast. He saw it and stepped in. That's who Anthony is, he sure had nothing material to gain by defending me. He consistently follows his conscience.

Mericle's weapon of choice was spite, ridicule, cruel insults ( Mark once actually demanded to know where Willie Brown bought his suits and how much they cost. As though I automatically would know this.) coupled an almost rhapsodic welcome to any one white that came in the news room, whereas I was received by Mark with unwarranted suspicion as though I had arrived to pull his teeth or steal his job. His targeted harassment included assigning everyone in the room but ignoring me, not running a story he had assigned me, gruff "test questions" directed toward me about subject matter he thought I could not answer- he was wrong- and other petty, foolish actions. The result of his ongoing escalating, targeted pattern of harassment was that he made it easy to document his obviously illegal actions. And I did.

Mericle's bullying backfired. He came off abrupt, abrasive, insulting, crude, oddly mean and frankly confused. I took it in stride and held my tongue. So blindly ignorant and stubbornly arrogant are they that they leave KPFA wide open for lawsuits. I have no desire to take the peoples' money, but I sure do not want Concerned Listeners/"Save KPFA for themselves" to remain in power.


Alfandary, Mericle and Kris Welch are cut from the same cloth and will not change, neither will they ever be part of any thing that welcomes the community, diversity, women in general and people of color specifically into KPFA.

It is a sad testimony to the personal insecurities of otherwise intelligent people who do not need to put their feet on anybody's hands to maintain their positions and yet they do. I am nobody. It SHOULD be easy to get away with insulting me-and chasing me off a job in which we both know I excel and that is okay, because that self righteous ease of insult is what revealed to me who they really are and what they actually stand for.

And now I am telling you.

The Concerned Listeners a.k.a SLAVE KPFA mob have shown that they want to turn Pacifica into a Mainstream Liberal mouthpiece( another NPR) where true radicals need not apply. However, if they care so much about equality, why is there 80% unpaid staff, leaving 20 percent of the SLAVE KPFA TO DETERMINE THE OUT COME FOR THOSE 80% UNPAID STAFF MEANING VOLUNTEERS. ON THE LSB THERE IS ONE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE UNPAID STAFF HOW DOES THIS MAKE SENSE, AND THE SLAVE KPFA MAKES IT SO UNPAID STAFF ONLY HAS ONE VOTE THAT COULD OR COULD NOT INFLUENCE THE REST OF THE LSB. AT THE SAME TIME THEY VOTE WITH LSB MEMBERS, AND MOST OF THE TIME THEY ARE OUTNUMBERED. ALSO WHEN THE LAST MANAGER COLLEAGUE OF SLAVE KPFAS, IGNORED THE PROCESS OF UPSO. THEREFORE, MAKING UNPAID STAFF(VOLUNTEERS) EASIER TO TARGET FOR REMOVAL, AND FOR MOVING PEOPLE AROUND WITHOUT A LONG TERM PROCESS THAT HAD BEEN IN PLACE EVEN WITHOUT A MANAGER. NOW WE SEE THIS MINORITY SLAVE KPFA AS A THREAT TO THE WHOLE STATION WITH THE CORPORATE VIEW OF SLAVING KPFA, AND KICKING THE COMMUNITY OUT IN COMMUNITY RADIO. ASK THESE SLAVE KPFA HOW THEY FEEL ABOUT USING POLICE BRUTALITY, AND SACRIFICING VOLUNTEERS, COMMUNITY FOR THEIR PAYCHECKS. SLAVE KPFA WILL MAKE LISTENERS TRY TO PUT OUT MORE MONEY DURING FUND DRIVE, WHILE TRYING TO GET UNDERWRITING. FOLLOW THE MONEY OF THE SLAVE KPFA CAMPAIGN, AND HOW IS IT THAT THEY HAVE SO MUCH RESOURCES, TIME TO WRITE SELF PROMOTION ARTICLES, AND TRY TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT THEMSELVES BY SELLING THE STATION OUT. SOME PEOPLE CALL IT MIDDLE CLASS, OTHERS CALL IT RICH AND YOU GOT TIME, AND MOST OF THE SLAVE KPFA CAMPAIGNERS ARE PAID STAFF?

Don't be fooled. http://www.savekpfa.ORG is the REAL website of the SAVE KPFA candidates slate for the 2010 Local Station Board election, and is endorsed by a wide array of community and labor activists, academics, and KPFA unpaid and paid staff -- that's ".org" folks.

The website called "savekpfa. NET" was registered by a competing slate, that is trying to fool people into thinking they are who they are not. They are directing traffic to their site in an attempt to mislead you. They are *not* SAVE KPFA.

Sigh. Typical dirty politics. For the back story, see Brian Edward-Tiegert's message here:

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/08/21/18656505.php
"Why you should vote for Save KPFA in the Local Station Board election"

Please visit the REAL Save KPFA site at http://www.savekpfa.org - and remember to vote!

And good luck to all of us trying to save KPFA.
http://www.savekpfa.org

SaveKPFA.org is where to go to get a quick list of the CANDIDATES NOT TO VOTE FOR if you want to save KPFA and Pacifica from the Wellstone Democrats and the entrenched staff clique who have virtually bankrupted the station over the last 4 years or so.

Please vote for everybody EXCEPT the 'Concerned Listeners', now rebranded as 'Save KPFA'.

here is the real history ( with documentation), and why folks are fighting over that history, and who has a claim to it. In a few words, it is about democracy, and accountability. Something that is never given, but must be struggled for, and defended. Democracy is messy and noisy, and always in danger, but what is worse is losing your community radio station slowly, a little bit at a time to a proprietory patronage clique who would rather suck it dry than be accountable to anyone outside their charmed circle.

http://sites.google.com/site/therealsavekpfa

Jeff Blankfort On "The Real KPFA" Zionism And Labor
Jeff Blankfort On "The Real KPFA" Zionism & Labor Long term journalist and radio
host Jeff Blankfort discusses the history of the "Save KPFA" grouping formerly called
Concerned Listeners that are running in the KPFA 2010 elections. Some of the
supporters of "Save KPFA" were involved in refusing to fight the corporate take-over
of KPFA and Pacifica by Pat Scott. This was held on 9/24/2010 in San Francisco at a
meeting of KPFA Voices For Justice Radio
http://www.voicesforjusticeradio.org