1,000 Word Statement Against the Proposed New Day Pacifica Bylaws

Join Mumia Abu Jamal, Cindy Sheehan, Harry Belafonte and the over 75% of your current elected National and Local Board Members as well as scores of Pacifica program hosts, staff and past board members who are urging you to vote ‘NO’ on the proposed New Day Pacifica Bylaws. Why? Because they are undemocratic.

In contrast, the current Pacifica Bylaws embody the democratic, bottom-up governance structure that has kept Pacifica strong and independent for many years. The proposed New Day Pacifica bylaws eliminate local oversight and diversity in favor of top down, corporate style control.

This new set of bylaws called ‘New Day Pacifica’ was composed in secret with no consultation or collaboration with other Pacifica stakeholders. Why not use the cost-free amendment process in the existing Bylaws? New Day complains that democratic Bylaws cause dysfunction and financial losses but never offer proof or solutions. They don’t mention that public and non-commercial broadcasting is in trouble everywhere, or that corporate entities like Air America and Current TV have long since vanished.

Two or more of the proposed New Day officers, and many of their backers, supported the shortsighted, expensive folly of shutting down WBAI in October 2019. They also supported the Bylaws Referendum last year that failed by a whopping 2-1 margin and cost Pacifica about $150,000. The list of endorsers of the New Day bylaws do not include even one person from our two most racially diverse stations, WBAI in New York and WPFW in Washington, D.C.

These proposed bylaws would:

• dramatically reduce diversity of all kinds in Pacifica Governance and then programming
• eliminate any local oversight of station management, finances or programming
• Reduce staff representation
• divide the paid and unpaid staff
• reduce representation from our 200+ Affiliates
• block representatives from WBAI or WPFW from Officer positions for the first 3 years
• lock out staff from Officer positions
• lock in factional control of the Officer positions for 3 years
• add new appointed, unelected Director positions
• eliminate the checks and balances that are in the current Bylaws
• give greater power, with less Board oversight, to the Executive Director who will be able to fire General Managers without Board approval
• allow a single faction, possibly from a single station, to control all of Pacifica indefinitely

New Day Pacifica spreads the fiction that Pacifica governance is ‘dysfunctional,’ even though over the last few years the Board and iED have:

• extended the loan that enabled the settlement of our $5.7 million debt to the Empire State Realty Trust for $3.8 million, thus reducing our overall debt by $1.9 million. This prevented a ruinous bankruptcy being pushed by some who now support New Day
• set policy that will pay off the principal of the loan through major donor, bequest and grant income
• obtained $2.4 million in federal stimulus funds
• completed the Fiscal Year 2019 audit, with FY2020 on track to be completed in June
• developed the national COVID Race and Democracy show among all five stations and the Affiliates
• worked to bring KPFK expenses into line with revenue
• prevented the sale of the KPFA building due to unhandled property taxes
• ensured that the Pacifica workers’ pension plans are fully funded

Ask yourself, what actual solutions are the New Day proponents putting forward to any of the problems they claim? What role do they play in factionalism, and trying to disrupt the functioning of local and national boards? Why pursue expensive bylaws referenda instead of existing collaborative processes for specific, targeted bylaws amendments? Why won’t they say what their financial plan is, or who the “white knight” donors are who they claim will save Pacifica if they take over?

New Day proponents have engaged in a negative campaign of fear mongering and disparagement and ask you to put blind faith and trust in them. They complain about the complexity and length of our current bylaws but have put forward bylaws that are even more convoluted and are actually 13 pages longer than the current Bylaws! Their ‘transition plan’ allows a few named individuals to be appointed as top leaders, with no election, no opportunity to question them individually, and no opposing candidates.

Please vote ‘NO’ and reject these ill-conceived, irreversible and dangerous bylaws!

The style of ‘professional’ management New Day supporters like has been tried at KPFK with poor results. The station has lost tens of thousands of members since repeatedly cancelling local news and a co-hosted local morning show, and marginalizing community-based programmers in favor of syndicated strip programming. Their idea of professional management was the iED who illegally shut down WBAI in the midst of a fund drive. Why create a top-down, centralized system that will be dominated by one faction to the exclusion of other voices? Why reduce the role of the paid and unpaid staff in governance, or eliminate elected local oversight? How would these changes impact free speech and our commitment to peace and social justice?

We believe that these changes are meant to control the content you can hear on the airwaves, gentrify Pacifica’s broadcasting, favor voices from the corporate political party in power, and silence creativity and cultural expressions from the community. The New Day proposal threatens racial justice and diversity at Pacifica, and disenfranchises the east coast stations with larger Black and Brown memberships, programmers and staff.

We think advocates of bankruptcy and the sale of Pacifica’s assets and stations must not take over via this backdoor bylaws replacement. Our precious stations have been built through the collective efforts of tens of thousands of listeners and hundreds and hundreds of paid and unpaid staff over many decades. Don’t be fooled by the rhetoric! This is an asset grab, pure and simple. Right now the members, including you, own Pacifica! Don’t give away this precious legacy. Learn more at https://pacificafightback.org and https://pacifica-democracy-project.org.

Please vote ‘NO’ and reject these ill-conceived, irreversible and dangerous bylaws!