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HOLLYWOOD AND THE CIA — Film historian Ed Rampell details Hollywood’s entangled relationship with the CIA and the Pentagon; HOUSES OF THE DEAD: Nancy Kurshan exposes the cruel human rights offenses taking place inside America’s vast gulag of Control Unit Prisons; BROTHERHOOD OF SUMMER: David Macaray charts the history of the most powerful union in the US: the Baseball Players Association; TAR SANDS COME TO AMERICA: Steve Horn explains how the Keystone Pipeline debates have diverted attention from Big Oil’s other plans to transport Alberta’s oil into the US. PLUS: Jeffrey St. Clair on CONSTITUTIONAL ENTROPY; Mike Whitney on HOW THE BANKS TARGETED BLACKS; Chris Floyd on THE RISE OF BRITAIN’S TEA PARTY; Kristin Kolb on THE NEEDLE AND THE DAMAGE DONE; Kim Nicolini on the FILMS OF WILLIAM FRIEDKIN; and Lee Ballinger on POETS VS. THE ONE PERCENT.

July 19, 1999

Open Letter to Pacifica Management From Staff of WBAI

by R. Paul Martin

The Staff of WBAI is appalled at the anti-labor tactics of the
management of the Pacifica Foundation in locking out the Staff of KPFA
from their workplace.

The assault on KPFA Staff by Management’s armed goon squad will never be forgotten and is a crime against labor, against KPFA, against the
community KPFA serves and against the rest of the Pacifica Foundation.
If these tactics had been perpetrated by the owners of a coal mine, a
factory, a sweatshop or by any corporate board they would have been
reported and condemned at every Pacifica station. That they were
perpetrated by the Executive Director in the name of the Governing Board
of the Pacifica Foundation does not exempt them from condemnation.
We demand that the lockout of KPFA Staff end immediately, that all scabs
and armed goons be removed from KPFA’s premises and that all fired Staff
be immediately reinstated. We demand an end to the “gag rule” which
Pacifica Management has used to prevent reporting on these issues. We
demand an end to the censoring of news programming and of Democracy Now! on Pacifica stations.

Pacifica Management is destroying KPFA, destroying Pacifica and
destroying the good will earned by the labor of Pacifica broadcasters
over the past half century. All Union busting and anti-labor tactics
must cease.

The Staff of WBAI supports the Staff and listeners of KPFA in their
efforts to reverse the great harm that Pacifica Management has done to
them and to the rest of us.

In Solidarity With the Staff of KPFA

R. Paul Martin
Chief Steward
WBAI/UE Local 404