HLLN joins the SF Bayview and grassroots activists in Oakland, in California and throughout the global village, urging KPFA to do a live broadcast of the 40th anniversary of the Black Panther Party reunion | Letters from activists to KPFA management

Date: 9 October 2006

HLLN Letter to KPFA management and to urge others to join SF Bayview and HLLN in making this appeal

– Letters from activists to KPFA management:
Letter from Donald Lipmanson
Letter from Sharon Martinas

– SFBayview (Willie and Mary Ratcliff) call to action, background information and sample letter

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HLLN answers SF Bayview?s call to action: HLLN Letter to KPFA management and to urge others to join SF Bayview and us in making this appeal

The Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network HLLN) stands in solidarity, joining with the SF Bayview and grassroots activists in Oakland, all over California and throughout the global village, urging KPFA management to reconsider its decision not to do a live broadcast of the 40th anniversary of the Black Panther Party reunion. To that end we publish below a few of the letters sent to KPFA’s management and SF Bayview?s call to action, to reinforce, add to and make louder these voices of reason in our communities.

Oakland and Berkeley, right in KPFA?s back yard, is the birthplace and first home of the Black Panthers, whose members still rot in prisons, some four, five decades later, simply for being at the vanguard of making the U.S. a more civil, equitable and humane place to live in.

This gathering of revolutionaries who changed the course of world history is much more than just a time for remembering and reminiscing. The same crises that led to the founding of the Black Panther Party have once again risen to an unbearable intensity. A mixture of rage and despair ? and talk of resistance and rebellion ? pervades the ?hoods and barrios. Young people, brainwashed by the corporate media and schools that make not the least efforts at teaching or promoting decency, compassion, humane values, the importance of consensus and coalition building but rather elevates only competition and dog-eat-dog-get-a-job-or-rich-no-matter-how-it-destroys-our-neighbors-and-environment, are hungry for Panther wisdom to infuse and inform their discussions about how to get the boot off their neck and save their communities from police occupation and terrorism, forced ethnic cleansing and emigration, the tearing apart of families and neighborhoods bereft of ?safety net? or survival programs, mass incarceration and persecution of prisoners ? especially political prisoners, job lockouts and near-slave or sweatshop labor in and out of prisons, poisoning by toxic waste and polluting industries dumped in communities of color and on and on.

Has KPFA joined the rabid rage of the profit-over-people status quo? Or, is it still the flagship radio station setting standards for community radio? Has the pioneering voice in community radio become so assimilated into the mainstream that it now makes decisions in the manner the profit-over-values embedded, corporate media make their programming decisions? That would be a huge disappointment. HLLN appeals to KPFA management to remember its roots. The 40th anniversary of the Black Panther Party is an occasion of incomparable significance to Black people and all people who fight for human rights and liberation around the world. We Haitians and the great many friends, from all over the world, who stand with us at the Network, add our voices to those urging KPFA not to cancel broadcasting the Black Panther Party’s historic reunion live.

Join HLLN and the SF Bayview in this. Tell KPFA it is shortsighted to think only of losing money if it were to INTERRUPT its fundraising drive with a live broadcast of the historic Black Panther reunion. kindly send an e-mail or phone: KPFA General Manager, Lemlem Rijio, phone: (510) 848-6767, ext. 255 Email: generalmanager@kpfa.org, with a copy of e-mails also to: erzilidanto@yahoo.com

Many hands make light a heavy load (Men anpil chay pa lou)

Marguerite ‘Ezili Dantò’ Laurent, Esq.
Chair and Founder
Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
October 9, 2006

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----- Original Message -----
From: Donald Lipmanson
To: generalmanager@kpfa.org
Sent: Sunday, October 08, 2006 2:55 PM
Subject: Black Panther Party reunion

I share the view that the station ought to devote at least one day to
a live broadcast of the 40th reunion of the BPP, an organization which
had an important impact on national and local politics in the 1960's
and 1970's. This event should be made available for those of us who
are trying to understand the contemporary impotence of progressive
politics and the rarity of interracial political coalitions.

KPFA’s programming has become so predictable (and frankly boring)
during the fundraising period that I tend to hardly ever listen, so I
would imagine the station would be looking for an event like this as
an opportunity to generate some enthusiasm, better than average revenue
and hopefully some new subscribers. The station would do well to pay
more attention to local efforts to change the socio-political system,
instead of such constant and repetitive (some would say obsessive)
focus on international affairs, which are largely beyond our
individual abilities to alter.

Don Lipmanson, Attorney at Law
Ukiah, CA

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Dear KPFA management,

I have just heard from the SF Bay View that KPFA management has
decided not to do a live broadcast of the 40th anniversary of the
Black Panther Party reunion this coming weekend in Oakland.

Why? Because it will interrupt your desire to raise a million
dollars for so-called ‘community radio’!!! Who do you think the
‘community’ is? Who gives KPFA its principles and practice for
grassroots media --- whatever is left of it on KPFA? Certainly not
the present management of KPFA. The only thing you seem to want to
manage is money-making.

In all the years I have been listening to KPFA, I have never
heard such a disgusting, unprincipled piece of information since the
corporate corrupters shut you down a decade ago. I guess that
corporate corruption has seeped its way inside the station and
poisoned your political practice.

I plan to go to as much of the Panther anniversary weekend as I
can. I also am in touch with many grassroots principled activists
who use KPFA as their radio information source.

So, here is my pledge to you. I will be listening to KPFA as I
drive over the bridge to Oakland. If I do not hear a live broadcast
of the 40th Anniversary celebration of the Black Panther Party, I
will distribute flyers at the Panther anniversary to everyone who
will take one, telling them of your total sell out as a radio
station; ask them never to contribute to KPFA again, and also ask
them to jam your money making airwaves number this weekend with
complaints about your selling out the celebration of the Panthers.

Hopefully, this tiny act of principled civil disobedience of
one outraged KPFA listener against your reactionary practices will
have a positive effect on making your station accountable to the real
community in which you were originally nurtured and grew in the era
of the Black Panther Party.

Unsincerely yours,

Sharon Martinas

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From: SF Bay View <editor@sfbayview.com>
Date: October 8, 2006 12:33:05 PM PDT
To: SF Bay View <sfbayview@lists.riseup.net>
Subject: [sfbayview] Urge KPFA to broadcast Black Panther reunion live

KPFA programmers’ plans to broadcast live from the 40th Anniversary Black Panther Party Conference and Reunion this coming weekend, Oct. 13-15, have been derailed by middle management. KPFA is accessible on air in Northern California at 94.1 FM and on the web, both streaming and archived, at www.kpfa.org.

We’re appealing the cancellation to KPFA’s general manager, Lemlem Rijio, and ask you to join us. Please forward this letter or use your own words and call and leave her a message. Let us hear history as it happens!

Willie and Mary Ratcliff
SF Bay View
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To KPFA General Manager Lemlem Rijio
Phone: (510) 848-6767, ext. 255
Email: generalmanager@kpfa.org

Several KPFA programmers had been making plans to broadcast live from the 40th Anniversary Conference and Reunion of the Black Panther Party, which takes place Friday-Sunday, October 13-15, in Oakland. Suddenly they?ve been notified by members of your staff that KPFA management would only permit recording the reunion for broadcast at a later date. The reason given was that it would interrupt the KPFA fund drive.

This gathering of revolutionaries who changed the course of world history is much more than just a time for remembering and reminiscing. The same crises that led to the founding of the Black Panther Party have once again risen to an unbearable intensity. A mixture of rage and despair ? and talk of resistance and rebellion ? pervades the ?hoods and barrios. Young people are hungry for Panther wisdom to infuse and inform their discussions about how to get the boot off their neck and save their communities from police occupation and terrorism, forced ethnic cleansing and emigration, the tearing apart of families and neighborhoods bereft of ?safety net? or survival programs, mass incarceration and persecution of prisoners ? especially political prisoners, job lockouts and near-slave or sweatshop labor in and out of prisons, poisoning by toxic waste and polluting industries dumped in communities of color and on and on.

Add to that the brainwashing of our youth by the schools and of the general populace by corporate media, and you can see why this programmers? collaborative felt the need and were planning for a live broadcast from the Black Panther Party conference and reunion by KPFA, the last bastion of free speech on the radio dial. So you can understand the shock and deep disappointment those programmers and the listeners who were anticipating a live broadcast felt when they heard it had been cancelled.

We understand that the traditional live broadcast from Alcatraz for Indigenous People?s Day (aka Columbus Day) this Monday was similarly in jeopardy until programmers and listeners successfully pressed for it to go forward.

As a KPFA listener and supporter, I find this situation to be at the least ironic, considering that KPFA is the flagship and original station of the Pacifica network, a national network that takes great pride in being one of the few if not the only medium with the courage to broadcast the voices of the founders of the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement, of Paul Robeson and Mumia Abu Jamal, the station where revolutionary history-makers like Angela Davis, New York City Councilman Charles Barron, Kiilu Nyasha and Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. expect they can speak their minds and be heard by listeners who transform ideas into action.

Many KPFA programmers and listeners of color and their supporters have been working hard to create and spread the word about programming that speaks to the huge potential audience of Black and Brown and other oppressed people within reach of KPFA?s powerful signal ? aiming to draw them in to first one show, then another until they become regular, loyal listener-sponsors.

Nothing attracts them better than live broadcasts from events that speak directly to them, like the Black Panther Party reunion and the Alcatraz ceremony. New listeners and old will show their gratitude to KPFA by calling in their pledges or pledging online.

The 40th anniversary of the Black Panther Party is an occasion of incomparable significance to Black people and all people who fight for human rights and liberation around the world. Because the Party was born and grew up in Oakland and Berkeley, right in KPFA?s back yard, I would expect it to be featured on KPFA with at least the star billing that much more conservative institutions like Yerba Buena Plaza and the Oakland Main Library have given it with special, highly publicized exhibits and events.

I urge you to give one or more live broadcasts from the Black Panther Party conference and reunion your full support, strong promotion and generous time allocation on KPFA.

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Forwarded by the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
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