Radio is a powerful instrument for imparting information to strengthen the morale of those in struggle. WBAI has lost its way in the past year. We must bring it back to its mission. I offer experience in grassroots campaigns and strategic planning, and knowledge of immigrant populations under attack (www.justiceunity.org).
karlozcan@yahoo.com, 212-591-2111
I am running for the WBAI Local Station Board with Justice and Unity (www.justiceunity.org).
Like many of you, as an organizer in the struggle for social justice, I am a member of the army of dreamers who have hope and faith that a more humane, egalitarian, and just world is possible, if we devote ourselves to transforming those dreams into reality.
In 1986 I was forced to leave El Salvador (where I was a teacher and rural organizer) and moved to Long Island. Since 1999, I have worked with the Workplace Project, helping day laborers in Nassau and Suffolk organize to get the wages owed them. I was FMLN-NYS Coordinator and am now a steering committee member of the May 1st Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights, and a national committee member of the National Day Laborers Organizing Network, among other organizations. I have experience in grassroots campaigns and strategic planning, and knowledge of immigrant populations, now under fierce attack.
I believe that in the utopian dream for social justice, the role of WBAI is to be the voice of the voiceless–an instrument serving the struggle of the working class and everyone–for a just society. WBAI needs to fully become the natural ally of workers in their battles for basic human rights.
In every conflict, whether armed or nonviolent, the psychological element–individual morale–is decisive in the outcome. Information conveyed to the struggle’s participants largely determines their morale and commitment. Radio is one of the most powerful instruments for imparting that information. Experience from conflicts in Latin America has shown that radio managed by workers can be a key factor in winning. This was true in Nicaragua and in El Salvador, where “Radio Venceremos” played the role of a psychological ally.
In the U.S., workers are cut off from media that could build morale in their struggles. WBAI does that now in some ways, but it should become the “Radio Venceremos” that, from someplace in the mountains of concrete and from inside the belly of the beast, encourages the dispossessed on their road to victory. To assume this role, WBAI might include more programs that promote building movements to fulfill the needs of the dispossessed.
Before this can happen, we need to dedicate ourselves to rescuing WBAI, which is on the verge of being lost to those who value fundraising at any cost over voices of struggle. We need to build a new WBAI, dedicated to being the instrument of the voiceless and the working class.
Without this, WBAI will not exist for workers, and the struggle will be much harder.
This is a shared vision of the Justice and Unity slate, and I ask you to vote for us in this order:
1. Bernard White
2. Suzanne Adely
3. John Brinkley
4. Father Lawrence Lucas
5. Ray Laforest
6. Wellington Echegaray
7. Sharonne Salaam
8. Linda Bergnes
9. Myriam Decime
10. Carlos Canales
11. Sarah Klepner
12. Henry Hagins
13. Eugene Hamond
karlozcan@yahoo.com, 212-591-2111
1. Why do you want to be on the Local Station Board (LSB)?
I think that WBAI is, and should continue to be, the voice of the voiceless, the downtrodden and forgotten, and of the working class of this country. WBAI is on the verge of being lost, and we in the working class have a moral duty to do everything necessary to keep it in the service of social struggle. In this sense, I think that as an organizer, which I have been since the 1980s, I have to help fulfill this duty, and that I have a good deal of experience that could help the station.
2. How do you envision the LSB working with the Pacifica Foundation, WBAI staff and listener members?
I believe that the board should work in coordination and harmony with the Pacifica Foundation, but make it clear that it is our strong intention, as WBAI, is to put the station at the service of the common good, and of the social struggle for a more just society. We have a responsibility to ensure that management respects the rights of station staff and serves the needs of our local communities.
3. How can WBAI better serve the community? Please define community.
Communities are geographical as well as ideological, and can be based on present circumstances and goals and/or on historical connections.
As an organizer, I believe that there is an enormous vacuum in the area of media promotion of community activities for the real benefit of the working class. For this reason, WBAI should do more to promote the various activities related to the workers’ social struggles, establish radio programs that promote leadership training, and in general should promote the organizing processes of workers in their struggle for a just society.
4. Describe some actions you would take to increase the influence of the station in underrepresented communities and to increase the diversity of the listening audience.
I would present a proposal to create opportunities that would really educate and promote the workers’ struggles; a concrete example would be a radio program that promotes leadership training. It would be good to have regular, extended opportunities to exclusively inform listeners about actions that are being carried out each month (demonstrations, forums, conferences, exhibitions, educational workshops, etc.)
5. What sources of funding, other than listener donations, do you feel WBAI should solicit? Do you have any ideas with respect to improving the current funding mechanisms?
Build relationships with major individual donors and organize fairs, galas, and trips, which would allow for enjoyment, entertainment, and bonding among listeners while raising funds and the station’s public profile.
6. Please state briefly the skills, experience, educational background, work history, organizational affiliations, areas of community service, areas of interest and expertise that you would bring to the Pacifica network as a member of the Local Station Board.
My areas of community service and of interest overlap. They include immigration, housing, labor, and social struggles in general. I have broad experience in grassroots campaigns, and have well-developed labor organizing skills, as well as basic knowledge of strategic planning and knowledge of the immigrant population, especially Latinos, who are the second-largest population group in the New York City area. I graduated from college in 1978, with a B.S. in agriculture, including rural organizing and issues of planning. I went on to study agronomic engineering.
While still in El Salvador, I worked for 5 years as a high-school teacher, for 4 years as a rural organizer (Save the Children), and for 2 years as a credit planner in an agricultural bank. I’ve taken a number of courses in community organization and strategic planning, leadership courses, popular education, media, etc. In the United States, from 1986 to 1999 I did almost all the jobs that newly arrived immigrants do – dishwashing, cleaning, factory and construction work, lawn-mowing, real estate, pest exterminating, etc. Since 1999, I’ve worked as a community organizer in the Centro de Derechos Laborales (Center for Labor Rights), which includes working with day laborers and on issues of immigration and housing, as well as the organizing of hiring centers for day laborers, press, etc. In El Salvador, I belonged to Juventud Católica Progresista (Progressive Catholic Youth) and Frente de Acción Popular Unificado-FAPU (Unified Popular Action Front, the social arm of RN-Resistencia Nacional [National Resistance], one of the groups that formed the FMLN in 1984). In the United States, I was a founder of the Comité Cívico Salvadoreño (Salvadoran Civic Committee), and have been on the Board of Directors of Círculo de la Hispanidad (Hispanic Circle), General Coordinator of FMLN-NYS, the national board of directors of the National Day Laborers Organizing Network (NDLON), the planning committee for the Día del Salvadoreño-USA, the board of directors of Casa Comunal de Farmingdale, the Freeport Community Worklink Center, the coordinating board for the Coalición Primero de Mayo, and the ICB-International coordinating body of IMA (the International Migrant Alliance). I also attended the World Social Forum in the Philippines in 2008.
7. On which Local Station Board committees are you interested in actively serving? If you are a current Local Station Board member, on which committees do you currently serve?
I would like to serve on a committee for outreach to immigrants, which is even more important than ever at a time when our community is under physical and legislative attack. Therefore I would be most interested in the Membership, Outreach, and Fundraising Committee. Unfortunately, the current board majority has let that committee lapse. I want to be part of reviving it.
8. If you are currently on the Board and wish to be re-elected please describe your 3 year experience on the LSB. What did you accomplish? What were the obstacles you faced? Do you envision any change in the next three years if you are re-elected?
Not applicable.
Recent Comments