Free Speech Radio KPFA Broadcast Notes for April 2016

Tags

Ann Garrison, Communist Party USA, Dennis Bernstein, Donald Trump, Dr. Michael Hudson (UMKC), Dr. Peter Phillips, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (CP USA), Flashpoints, Jefferson Sessions, Kevin Pina, KPFA, KPFA's 67th Birthday, KPFA/Pacifica Radio internal conflict, Pacifica Radio Network, Steve Zeltzer

LUMPENPROLETARIAT—GONZO: I’ve been listening to news and information since I was a child growing up in San Mateo, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. I remember being kind of fond, as a kid, of the SF Bay Area’s Ten O’clock News on TV Channel 2 (KTVU), even after they were taken over by the conservative Fox. Seeing Dennis Richmond, as a news anchor along with his colleagues, on a regular basis led me to trust their newscasts. Eventually, I came to decide that, for me, the most appropriate (and honest) local outlet of news and information was free speech Pacifica Radio Network, particularly free speech radio KPFA (Berkeley, CA), and including Democracy Now!, which I’ve been listening to since it began broadcasting across Pacifica Radio’s national network out of the New York City-based, WBAI. Democracy Now! even went on to grow into one of the most important progressive TV shows.

I’ve been involved in and around KPFA over the years and have many friends (and, probably, enemies) in the KPFA community. But I’ll save those experiences for another time. I will say that I even ran for KPFA’s governing body, the KPFA Local Station Board (LSB) in 2010, alongside Dr. Sureya Sayadi and long-time SF Bay Area labor journalist Steve Zeltzer, who currently hosts the labour programme, WorkWeek, at KPFA.

I only hope to convey my passion for critical free speech and the free flow of information on the eve of free speech radio KPFA’s 67th Birthday. All of my most thoughtful teachers, since childhood, and professors in community college and the University of Missouri-Kansas City, have confirmed the importance of being an informed and critical citizen to further the best hopes for a functioning and healthy democracy.

This is why I have always approached news and information with a very serious earnestness, taking notes and such. However, it’s a shame that I’ve not been able to organise all of my notes very well and have lost many of the important news and information across various moves over many years. (Some of my notes have been documented at MediaRoots.org. And some of my KPFA transcripts of Guns and Butter broadcasts of heterodox economist Dr. Michael Hudson (UMKC) have been published in Finance Capitalism and Its Discontents (2012) by Dr. Michael Hudson. So, the efforts of those of us to document important broadcasts have not been in vain.)

It’s always been disappointing to me (and others around the KPFA community, such as independent journalist and expert on geopolitics in the African Continent, Ann Garrison) that, as many of us have discussed, KPFA has failed to make individual segments and news stories accessible to listeners, scholars, and researchers. Basically, tons of important information comes and goes like disposable entertainment. Many of the broadcast archives are not even labelled with the topics discussed nor time stamps given for how to find individual segments within broadcasts.

For some reason, despite its abundance of willing and able volunteers, KPFA has never been able to consistently archive, transcribe, document and make accessible its many important broadcasts (outside of the wealthier listeners who can afford to make larger donations and be rewarded with archival content). Worse, many broadcasts are often deleted after a certain period of time under the pretext that when songs are used in radio broadcasts, then those broadcasts must be deleted from the archives, such that the working classes, the proletariat, and the lumpenproletariat are deprived of beneficial information capable of helping facilitate informed decision-making. (Instead of editing out any songs and/or copyrighted material to be able to archive free speech radio broadcasts, the entire broadcasts are deleted from KPFA’s archive web pages.)

All of this, of course, runs counter to Pacifica’s noble mission statement, which certain factions within KPFA oppose. Not everybody within KPFA fully supports free speech nor KPFA’s and Pacifica Radio’s democratic governance structure by which listeners elect board members to run KPFA and the other Pacifica stations across the nation. Effectively, the listener-sponsors are the owners of free speech radio KPFA and its off-shoot, the Pacifica Radio Network. KPFA, the nation’s (and probably the world’s) first listener sponsored radio station serves as a model for the world to see how the airwaves belong to the people. Radio dials around the world (and TV bandwidth) do not need to be run and controlled for and by corporate interests, as KPFA has nobly exemplified for 67 years. The people deserve (and need) at least 50% of the radio dial to be publicly run and operated in the interest of the people, not corporate advertisers, establishment propagandists, or capitalist profiteers.

The democratic governance structure at KPFA and across its national Pacifica Radio Network was borne of the great struggle of many thousands of us who rallied to support KPFA and Pacifica Radio in 1999 when armed thugs occupied KPFA radio, under then-Pacifica Radio Executive Director Lynn Chadwick and then-Pacifica Radio Chair Mary Frances Berry. The straw that broke the camel’s back that fateful evening in 1999 came when Chadwick and Berry tried to censor broadcasters and Flashpoints executive producer and host Dennis Bernstein was physically dragged out of the radio station in mid-broadcast. That was a chilling broadcast, which cast a very real sense of fascism in America.

Flashpoints was taken off the air and KPFA’s programming was replaced by some weird canned programming piped in from out of state. I was working in San Carlos, California, that evening, listening to KPFA radio as usual. But I immediately drove across the SF Bay straight to Berkeley when I heard Dennis Bernstein, one of my favourite broadcasters, being dragged away from the KPFA microphones. By the time I arrived, less than an hour later, there were loads of people outside of the radio station, who had surrounded KPFA in solidarity. The waged and unwaged staff had been taken off the air and the building was soon locked, the doors chained up, and the windows boarded up. It seemed like free speech radio might be killed off forever and we’d soon be on our way to an Orwellian brave new world.

But, we the people, refused to give up free speech radio, even camping out in front of the station for weeks. President Bill Clinton even sent Janet Reno when the establishment felt the Berkeley police were being too lenient with KPFA supporters camped out in front of the KPFA building on Martin Luther King, Jr. Way in Berkeley, California.

These notes (as I run out of time today), aim to speak to why Lumpenproletariat.org (like many of my friends as well) has worked to document many broadcasts, making them more visible around the world online, which are important to enlighten and expand listener consciousness, but which are often deleted and/or obfuscated over time. The goal is to combat collective amnesia, which prevents us from learning from past mistakes and leads progressives to repeatedly be fooled by the two-party dictatorship, such as the unfortunate support that certain factions within KPFA gave to the Obama campaigns in 2008 and 2012, despite the wealth of information broadcast on KPFA and Pacifica Radio, which one would think would preclude anyone around KPFA from voting for an Obama, as it would be a vote against one’s own interests as a member of America’s working class. I’ll never forget how frustrating it was to hear intellectuals, such as Chris Hedges support Obama’s campaign for U.S. president in 2008, and hearing the giddy voices of people, such as KPFA’s Brian Edwards-Tiekert and others gleefully supporting Obama. Like the song by The Who, we hope we don’t get fooled again.

In closing, I apologise for any editorial sloppiness or wordiness. All of the above is to introduce my personal broadcast notes to Lumpenproletariat, not unlike my university lecture notes. I started keeping notes this month on a private web page for my own personal reference. But I’ve decided to make these notes publicly visible, in the hope that these notes may help fill the gaps left by KPFA’s website, an issue which I championed, alongside Steve Zeltzer and our Voices For Justice slate, when we ran for the KPFA Local Station Board back in 2010.

Messina

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Thursday, 7 APR 2016

UpFront (this episode hosted by Brian Edwards-Tiekert), 07:00 PDT

Listened to: 1st 53 min

1st topic: tax havens, including briefly touching upon the Panama Papers
2nd topic: Professor Mehrsa Baradaran, author of How the Other Half Banks on predatory banking, such as payday loans and such; the failures of credit unions

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Tuesday, 12 APR 2016

La Raza Chronicles

Listened to: none

“Tonight’s program includes a commentary on the international response to the murder of the Honduran indigenous environmental activist, Berta Caseres; an interview about the fightback against immigration raids; the story of a Federico Correa’s journey from a California fieldworker to a Mexican artist with an exhibit at Bellas Artes in San Miquel de Allende, Mexico; a calendar of upcoming events; y mucha musica! Enjoy!”

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Thursday, 14 APR 2016

UpFront (hosted by Brian Edwards-Tiekert), 07:00 PDT

Listened to: min30 to end

topic: Brazil(?)
next topic: (c. 31:00) author discusses her book about so-called “puppy mills” or dog breeding industry

Rising Up with Sonali, 08:00 PDT

Listened to: 1st 47 min

Intro by Sonali: Drug Prohibition and so-called War On Drugs
News Headlines (read by Alfandary-clone, Christina Anistad(sp?)
1st topic: UN role in the so-called War On Drugs
- Johann Hari, author of Chasing the Scream (JAN 2015), a book on the so-called War On Drugs
- UNGAS? (UN General Assembly on Drugs)
- the rights of addicts; decriminalising drug use
- (c. 26:00) end of segment; brief crappy music break (stock music sample)
2nd topic: Ana Teresa Fernandez(sp?), artist is painting sections of the US-Mexico border wall, so as to make it look as if it has disappeared (cf. Banksy painting of an opening in a Palestinian wall)
- (c. 34:00) Sonali mentions the Banksy work delicately, apparently, so as not to accuse her of ripping off his concept
- (c. 41:00) end of segment; music break (stock music sample)
3rd topic: On South Asians, Sanjay Kamishra(sp?), author of Bases(?) Divided
- On the immigrant experience of South Asians

Letters and Politics, 10:00 PDT (hosted by Mitch Jeserich)

Listened to: min12 to end

(c. 12:00) MJ speaking with author, Thomas E. Mann, It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How [] Collided with [] Extremism
- Newt Gingrich’s ‘Conservative Opportunity Society’
- (c. 21:00) “unholy alliance” between blacks wanting congressional redistricting to get into Congress also helped Republicans redistrict other districts in their favor
- back to Newt Gingrich’s time in the Republican spotlight
- (c. 48:00) MJ mentions “the debt ceiling”, but seems to forget his frequent guest and broadcast colleague Dr. Richard Wolff’s long-held analysis of how the ‘debt ceiling’ issue is “political theatre”
- MJ and guest talk over each other quite a bit during this interview

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Thursday, 14 APR 2016

One-Day Fund Drive

UpFront (hosted by Brian Edwards-Tiekert), 07:00 PDT

Listened to: none

topic: ?
next topic: ?

Rising Up with Sonali, 08:00 PDT

Listened to: min10 (end of news headlines) to the end

Intro by Sonali: KPFA’s birthday
- Studs Terkel speech excerpt
  - “I’m 91 years old.”
- (c. 19:00) Sonali Kolhatkar pitching and selling Studs Terkel speech, entitled Keeping the Faith in Difficult Times from KPFA Allies Pack: 2015-2016(?), “consisting of 180 recordings” (BET said later when he joined in)
- (c. 21:00) BET joins SK
- (c. 25:00) [TW] excerpt of a 2003 UC Berkeley speech by Edward Said (public intellectual and Palestinian refugee) “Thank you. [applause]“
- (c. 37:00) SK pitching…”…every speech KPFA has hosted over the last 15 years.”
- (c. 40:00) BET joins in. He seems to correct SK: ‘…every speech we’ve aired over the last years’: Bell Hooks with Alice Walker, Chomsky speeches, Amy Goodman speeches, Chris Hedges, Gabor Mate, Eduardo Galeano, Jeremy Scahill, et al
- (c. 44:00) next speech excerpt: Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors (2009) reading, 13 April, 2015, I think ‘cos SK said he died “almost a year ago”.
  - On Robert Carter and mirrors
- (c. 53:00) BET returns to pitch

Democracy Now! (this episode hosted by Amy Goodman), 09:00 PDT

Listened to: all (of live KPFA broadcast)

Intro by AG:
- school districts with rocket launchers (mentioned during intro, but I didn’t see it in the DN website)
- (c. 20:00) to (c. 25:00), AG mentions that JG got to ask Hillary Clinton about Berta Caseres, but they didn’t air it yet (and I didn’t hear it during the broadcast; maybe it was cut out when AG and KPFA cut away to documentary, KPFA On the Air)
- on the Palestinian question: Bernie Sanders does well, HC sounds like a bully braking about ‘Hamas being aided by some nation or other) ‘maybe Syria)
- (c. 28:00) AG seems to cut away from regular broadcast to play an excerpt of KPFA on the air (narrated by Alice Walker. Sunday evening at 7pm, AG will be in the SF Bay Area
  - Matthew Lasar clip
  - vintage news clip
  - (c. 37:00) Elsa Knight Thompson
    - (c. 38:00) [superTW] clip from Elsa Knight Thompson
    - radicals, such as Black Panthers symbolise the first split within KPFA. Street activists wanted their voices on the air. Elsa Knight Thompson didn’t, apparently. This internal division seems to have continued to this day.
  - (c. 40:00) Mario Savio and the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley
  - ‘Pacifica was one of the first news outlets to question US involvement in the Vietnam War’
  - Aileen Alfandary and her coverage of Three Mile Island disaster. ()
  - Larry Bensky and his coverage of congress(?)
- (c. 46:00) AG pitches again
  - Ongoing experiment in democratic media. (notably, according to inside sources, AG doesn’t support democratic governance of KPFA and/or Pacifica)

Economic Update (hosted by Dr. Richard Wolff), 10:00 PDT

Listened to: all

Intro by Dr. Wolff
- [TW] On the interconnectedness of the global economy [notes: Perhaps, it’s easy to ignore the poor in our town or city limits, or those in other states, or those in other nations. But Dr. Wolff explains clearly how we’re interconnected on a global scale. Since the GFC originated in the USA, as a result of our political decisions and actions or inactions, we have a very real responsibility to inform ourselves and own the consequences of political decisions made in our name.]
- (c. 8:00) Panama papers
- (c. 21:00) Mitch Jeserich cuts in to appeal for listener support
- (c. 25:00) Dr. Richard Wolff ‘pulls over’ to get on the phone and help pitch
- (c. 32:00) On the economics of the (blue collar) Crime Bill signed by Bill Clinton, et al.; facing economic hardship, classes (or “layers” of people) could have banded together; some turned to criminal activity; USA incarcerates at the highest rate in the world;
- (c. 40:00) Mitch Jeserich cuts in to appeal for listener support
- (c. 44:00) back to Economic Update: Dr. Wolff resumes discussing incarceration rates associated with ‘economic downturns’; “the sugar baby phenomenon”…”young college students” having difficulty getting through college payments, so some young people are having trouble and enter into a “sugar baby” relationship. This is agreeing to be a “companion” to a wealthy person who pays for college expenses.
- (c. 49:00) Mitch Jeserich cuts in to appeal for listener support
- (c. 51:00) back to Economic Update: Dr. Wolff discusses worker co-operatives or workers self-directed enterprises; co-ops in other nations, such as Cuba

Fund Drive Special (hosted by Mitch Jeserich and Sasha Lilley), 11:00 PDT