Luis Barrios – Candidate statement and questionnaire answers

Father Luis Barrios

Candidate Statement
fatherbarrios@justiceunity.org

I am running for the Local Station Board with the WBAI Justice & Unity Campaign (www.justiceunity.org) because it is another way to serve our communities. I have listened to WBAI since 1983 and have assisted with fundraising campaigns. WBAI is a vital community resource that belongs to the people. At a time when some are irresponsibly calling for selling this crown jewel of progressive communication, I am strongly committed not only to defending it, but also to intensifying its mission of peace with justice.

I am an Afro-Boricua community activist, a priest activist, and an academic activist who came from Puerto Rico in 1983 as a socio-economic immigrant. I am an author and professor of psychology, criminology, Latin American & Latina/o Studies, and Ethnic Studies at CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. I am an associate priest at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in West Harlem and the co-executive director of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO)/Pastors for Peace. I am also a former prisoner of conscience from the School of the Americas Watch movement.

I have a Ph.D. in clinical/social psychology, and specialize in conflict resolution and mediation: I have significant experience working effectively with well-meaning people who disagree, as well as with organizations under attack from whatever source. Addressing conflict constructively could result in better station functioning in programming, fundraising, budgeting, and governance.

I am running as a part of the Justice & Unity Campaign because it stands with oppressed communities and firmly against all forms of discrimination (e.g., class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, culture, language, immigration status). I also share with Justice & Unity a commitment to increasing WBAI’s coverage of progressive movements, whether against U.S. wars, stop-and-frisk, and environmental racism, or for Puerto Rican independence, reproductive rights, and same-sex marriage, to name just a few.

I want to do the best I can to bring back WBAI to its original agenda of community empowerment and resistance to neoliberal measures, such as the alarming trend toward using more commercial-style premiums. One important way to do that is to add more Spanish-language programming addressing the needs of this region’s growing working-class Latino population, rather than slashing such programs as was done two years ago. Another way is to implement a plan which Justice & Unity has offered to address WBAI’s financial crisis by moving the studio out of Wall Street to a location with more reasonable costs, while doing more aggressive off-air fundraising through benefit concerts and major events. In sum, I want to actively contribute to keeping WBAI under the administration and control of the 99%.

Justice & Unity has been endorsed by Charles & Inez Barron, Tim Wise, and ACT UP, among others.

Please vote for all the Justice & Unity candidates in this ranking order:

1. Father Luis Barrios
2. Cerene Roberts
3. William Heerwagen
4. Sharonne Salaam
5. Russell Dale
6. Carlos Canales
7. Diana Crowder
8. Shahid Comrade
9. Ebon Charles
10. Eugene Hamond
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Answers to Candidate Questionnaire

1.     In what ways is your station moving in a positive direction, that you would want to continue or perhaps improve?

I would like to improve horizontal collaboration between producers and activists. In the Bible, St. Paul compares the Church to a human body where there are different parts, but no one part is more important than another. We recognize that each organ has unique responsibilities and each is essential for maximum health. I envision all the parts – board, staff and management – working together in this body that we call WBAI. Collaboration is the biggest challenge, as it requires personal sacrifice to benefit the collective. This is one powerful way to eliminate the destructiveness of personal antagonism.

2.     In what ways is your station moving in a negative direction, that you would want to stop or change? What changes would you work for?

We need to change some present realities. WBAI’s programming and pledge drives are increasingly supporting private interests (particularly in the health field), and we need to reverse this course. This station is a public space that belongs to the entire community. Spanish-language news and public-affairs programs have been slashed or marginalized; we must reverse that and expand offerings to build our listenership within those communities in deep struggle. We should engage in exchanges where we consult with and learn from the communities in our listening area, instead of just hearing about them, so programming can be relevant to their needs. Our programming needs to engage far more young people involved in socio-political activism. The station can employ a more radical methodology, raising consciousness and mobilizing people to make change, by engaging popular culture with programs featuring progressive hip-hop and poetry rather than relying on the traditional lecture style.

3.     What key experience, connections, skills or traits would you bring to the Local Station Board to advance the station’s mission?

I bring lessons and knowledge from activism in various fields. One is as an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of New York. The other is as a tenured full-time faculty member at John Jay College of Criminal Justice-CUNY. Just as I do in the street, I function as a community organizer/popular facilitator in the pulpit and in the classroom.I have a Ph.D. in clinical/social psychology and a Masters in Sacred Theology with a focus on cultural theology; as a Board Certified Forensic Examiner, I specialize in conflict resolution and mediation. I thus have significant experience working effectively in situations where well-meaning people disagree, as well as in organizations under attack from the outside (and sometimes the inside.) Learning how to address conflict and communicate effectively could result in better all-around station functioning, including programming, fundraising, budgeting, and governance.

4.     What ideas do you have for helping the station and the Pacifica Foundation meet the financial challenges currently being faced?

I think we need to find ways to utilize the resources that we have in the community (such as cultural workers) and plan fundraising activities off the air. We need to go out into the community, not just expect the community to come to us. We need to go where the people are: beauty salons, barbershops, bars, places of worship, etc. An enlivened, expanded listenership would improve fundraising results. In addition to generating more funds, we should also seek to reduce fixed expenses, such as office and studio rent, by moving to a location with more reasonable costs.