WBAI STRUGGLE THIS WEEK: Tues. Aug. 6 – Wed. Aug. 14
Below:
- No Word Yet on Date of WBAI Layoffs
- Save BAI: Secure Your Voting Rights Now
- Tues., Aug. 6 at 7 PM – Coalition To Save WBAI – Meeting Of Working Committees
- Local Station Board Meets on Wed., Aug. 14 – 7PM
- Some Other Pressing Community Announcements
IMPORTANT: Please sign (and forward to your friends) our petition to stop/reverse the mass layoffs at WBAI: www.change.org/petitions/pacifica-national-board-stop-mass-layoffs-at-wbai
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NO WORD YET ON DATE OF WBAI LAYOFFS
WBAI Radio is in its most severe crisis ever. After years of management and governance by the “experts”, all paid staff have received layoff notices. Union members expect a 75% cut, including all paid staff from Wake Up Call, Talkback, Five O’clock Shadow, Caldwell Chronicle, The Jordan Journal, and the Evening and Sunday News.
On Friday, August 2, Pacifica's Interim Executive Director Summer Reese, unilaterally and on short notice, again cancelled negotiations that are required under the contract with SAG-AFTRA, the union of paid staff. Earlier that week, staff had received a notice that layoffs could begin as early as Monday, August 5. But on that date, reportedly no worker was told they had been laid off yet. Nonetheless, there is no reason to believe the plan for layoffs has been reversed.
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SAVE BAI: 2 REASONS TO SECURE YOUR VOTING RIGHTS NOW
First, the governing rules of the Pacifica Foundation – its Bylaws – require that membership approval be gotten before the “sale, exchange, transfer or disposition of any of the Foundation’s broadcast licenses”. Protect our position in the center of the dial with an antenna that reaches much of the tri-state area.
Second, the Local Station Board (LSB) has the power to evaluate the General Manager and Program Director and recommend the firing of either, as well as select the finalists for these positions when they are open. The LSB should also approve the station’s budget and monitor its spending. Three months ago, they were given the charge of making a 2-3 year plan for the station. Their primary solution? Gut the paid staff.
The LSB is NOT a ceremonial body: As the local board goes, so does our station. Only listeners whose memberships are current will be able to vote on station issues and in the coming board elections, so secure your voting rights now!
If you’ve donated a total of at least $25 since last September, you’re already eligible. If you haven’t, please contribute today:
- Use your debit or credit card, or get an invoice by calling 516-620-3602
- Pay online with debit or credit card at: give2wbai.org
- Send a check or money order to WBAI, Church Street Station, PO Box 7032, New York, NY 10008.
We suggest adding two cents – either on your check/money order or as enclosed coins, along with a note of protest against the layoffs.
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Tues., Aug. 6 at 7PM
COALITION TO SAVE WBAI – MEETING OF WORKING COMMITTEES
60 Wall St. (east of William St.), Manhattan – Atrium
Trains: 2,3,4,5 to Wall St.
Three working committees have been formed for the Coalition to Save WBAI that has now had community meetings in Harlem, Newark, and Queens: Outreach/Education, Direct Action and Legal/Research. These will be having meetings in the large space in this building atrium.
The LSB and staff were tasked with plans for station sustainability for the next 2-3 years. To work on this, the self-appointed LSB crew has specialized in no-notice meetings, selective inclusion of listeners, exclusion of some meeting attendees from the group’s listserv, and the arbitrary termination of group meetings by individuals. It’s boss recently retorted to a station supporter, “There is another group of people meeting which is very welcoming to non-board and non-staff members … Perhaps you should have joined that group.”
Indeed. Please come on Tuesday and plug in your ideas and energy. You are welcome here.
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Wed., Aug. 14 – 7PM
LOCAL STATION BOARD MEETING
16 Beaver Street, near the bull in downtown Manhattan
Trains: 4,5 to Bowling Green (wheelchair accessible); 2,3 to Wall St; 1 to Rector, J to Broad St., R to Whitehall St. (but R is not running uptown from Brooklyn)
The WBAI Local Station Board will meet on Wednesday, August 14th at 7pm and must include Public Comment. The board will be discussing station sustainability plans and needs to hear from you about what you value about WBAI. Be present to witness what they do in your name.
(Come early and view the Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here exhibit. Al-Mutanabbi was among the best known Arab poets and the Baghdad street so-named was the center of that city’s literary, cultural and intellectual community. In 2007, in a bombing that killed 30 people, the area was largely destroyed. The exhibit features artists’ responses to the bombing: http://www.alwanforthearts.org/event/952)
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SOME OTHER PRESSING COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS
Thurs., Aug. 8, 12 Noon-2PM
Rally for Lynne Stewart, 2:30PM Hearing for Compassionate Release
Trains: 4,5 to Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall; A,C,1,2,3 to Chambers St. http://1.usa.gov/15Hlfcy
RALLY: Foley Square, downtown Manhattan: Framed by intersection of Lafayette St., Worth St. & Centre St.
HEARING: U.S. District Court, 500 Pearl Street, Room 12 B, Manhattan (The park and courthouse are within 2 blocks of each other.)
- Lynne Stewart is imprisoned in Texas suffering from Stage 4, metastasized cancer but treatment has been halted because she is too weak to receive it. In spite of the recommendations of her Texas warden and the Regional Office Director, and full compliance with the required screening by the Federal Probation Office in New York, compassionate release has been denied by the Bureau of Prisons.
- Lynne’s attorneys have asked Judge John G. Koeltl to modify his sentence and send her home. At a hearing last week, the prosecutors argued that Judge Koeltl has no role in the decision. We disagree and will be back in court on Thursday 8/8, at 2:30pm, after the rally. Please bring photo ID to enter the building and be prepared to check all electronic devices. Do not be dissuaded by suggestions that the courtroom is full. We’ll be upstairs in Room 12B.
- More at www.lynnestewart.org or (917) 603-6160. Call Pres. Barack Obama (202) 456-1414; Atty Gen'l Eric Holder (202) 514-2001; Bureau of Federal Prisons Dir. Charles Samuels (202) 307-3250. Tell them to reverse the denial and send Lynne home alive!
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Every Day:
Dr. Mutulu Shakur has not received adequate medical treatment and rehabilitation 3 months after his stroke. www.mutulushakur.com
- Call / fax the Warden to demand decent medical treatment, physical therapy and rehab, and that as long as he is held captive he be at a place near to his family, and that his visits, emails, mail and calls be without restriction. Phone: 760-530-5000, fax: 760-530-5102
Mumia Abu Jamal's appeal re: the lack of notice to him or his attorneys of his re-sentencing from death row to life imprisonment was denied.
- There's now a petition to the Department of Justice to release Mumia. Sign it at http://www.change.org/petitions/release-mumia-abu-jamal
George Zimmerman was found not guilty of either murder or manslaughter in the killing of 17-year old Trayvon Martin. Those who say that his actions were unrelated to race are, at best, in denial.
- Sign the NAACP’s petition for a Justice Department to open a case against Zimmerman: https://donate.naacp.org/page/s/doj-civil-rights-petition
- Sign Trayvon’s parents’ change.org petition pushing for the review and amendment of the “Stand Your Ground” laws: http://chn.ge/16l6YRA
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