PacificaWatch

https://kpftx.org/pacalendar/cal_show1.php?eventdate=20190919

It seems she met her demise not on the way to the Forum but at the PNB’s Th5Sep private meeting. In the tradition of the secrecy culture secreting from every pore of the beast known as Pacifica, this non-confidentiality matter wasn’t done in public, allowing members, staff, listeners, to hear the reasons & arguments made, & how directors voted. Oh, no. That would be transparency in action – anathema to the Pacifica way. Instead, her former allies turned against her, knives drawn, stabbing her. In the front, the sides, &, of course, the back. Cowards. All of them.

Greek tragedy this was not. Pacifican tragedy neither. It was simply what passes for daily life amongst The Chosen of Pacifica. Just a lil bit more raw.

A number of hitherto reliable sources tell me the proximate reason for Ms Aaron’s end was her defence of WBAI’s station manager, He-of-the-Augsburger, Berthold Reimers. In this she was supported by Director Alex Steinberg, a WBAI listener-delegate. But a raging gale of retribution is blasting through Pacifica HQ 2.0, the virtual version, powered by CSC, Californian station chauvinism, & all those frightened forces who think that if WBAI is hacked off then their own station’s begging bowl has fewer competitors. So let’s all gang-up on WBAI, 4-on-1.

Hence the Alex Steinberg/James Sagurton report to the W11Sep WBAI LSB, warning that “the goal of these behind the scene machinations is not the revival of WBAI but its dismantling“. It’s just that in Stalinist style, Alex left out the lil detail of Gorgon Grace having her snakes slashed off a few days before. Old habits never die. Stalinists, nuns, indeed, Stalinist nuns, same-same-same. https://pacificaradiowatch.home.blog/2019/09/13/the-goal-of-these-behind-the-scene-machinations-is-not-the-revival-of-wbai-but-its-dismantling-pacifica-directors-sound-the-alarm/

This Thursday there are three PNB meetings, with these stated purposes, etc.:

• 7.30pm public session: “Set Bylaws Notice Date, ED report, Chair election, NES report[;] Special meeting called by Directors Crosier [KPFT listener-delegate], Sabbagh [KPFK staff-delegate], Goldmacher [KPFA listener]” (my italics & bold), posted by Bill Crosier, 10.54pm EDT (updated 11.41pm), Th12Sep;

• 8.30pm private session: “Personnel Issues, Legal Issues, Governance Issues[;] Meeting called by Tom Voorhees [KPFA staff], Alex Steinberg [WBAI listener], Grace Aaron [KPFK listener]”, posted by Grace Aaron, 3.13pm, M9Sep; &

• 10.30pm public session: “Governance, Committee Business[;] Meeting called by Tom Voorhees, Alex Steinberg, Grace Aaron”, posted by Grace Aaron, 3.17pm, M9Sep

https://kpftx.org/pacalendar/cal_show1.php?eventdate=20190919

So not just electing a new PNB Chair, but setting in motion the revision of the by-laws. The new majority are intent on fundamental change. Hence the Steinberg/Sagurton focus on the Pacifica break-up plans of Peter Franck & others (please see the posts of recent days).

So it needs to be emphasised that Grace’s passing is only part of a much more expansive move from within the PNB: (1) to instigate direct central control over WBAI, removing local management (principally GM Berthold Reimers & perhaps PD Linda Perry), & (2) to revise the by-laws, making it easier to dissolve the Pacifica network. Call it ABS, the Acid Bath Strategy.

Simultaneously, the monthly LSB meetings are being cancelled without explanation: KPFT’s W11Sep (announced at Meeting Archive, 11.38pm EDT, M9Sep), & also not just KPFA’s Sa21Sep (ditto, 1.32pm EDT, Sa14Sep) but the 19Oct too (ditto, 9.18pm EDT, W21Aug). KPFK’s was due to meet yesterday, Su15Sep (audio likely to be posted tomorrow, perhaps Wednesday, at https://kpftx.org/archive.php). Shutting down discussion isn’t part of the progressive playbook – but Pacifica is run by reactionaries, passionate about controlling access to information. Is a coordinated attempt being made to stymie opportunities to ask basic questions, to discuss, to express dissent?

Consistent with it all is the lack of mandatory posting of audiofiles for two recent public sessions of PNB cttees.: the Tu3Sep Strategic Planning Cttee, & the W4Sep Programming Cttee. As expected, no explanation for these violations is given at https://kpftx.org/archive.php. Manners maketh man, but obviously not P-man.

This makes the current Local Station Board elections more important than ever, as the cliché has it. Voting started Th15Aug, ends Tu15Oct, with results certified F1Nov. Will the commencement of ructions drive the 46k electors towards the polls or make them rip up their membership cards in despair? Latest from National Elections Supervisor Renee Penaloza, Th5Sep, with listener quorum 10%: KPFA 3.4%, KPFK 2.5%, KPFT 3.6%, WPFW 3.0%, WBAI 3.3%. Every chance we’ll see stuffing by blank ballots again. (The NES’ link for a later report, apparently dated Su15Sep, is as dead as a Pacifican parrot.) https://elections.pacifica.org/wordpress/ (strapline, “Grassroots Democracy at Pacifica Radio”) & http://elections.pacifica.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Pacifica-Election-Report-09-05-19.pdf

Not to be outdone by the PNB, the same evening, the execution process proceeds apace at WBAI. Here the Management Evaluation Cttee sits (or is it smothers?): “[t]his meeting will complete preparations for the Management Evaluation Process”. The joy, the schadenfreude, of the rule of the offices. This, the station-level correlate of the PNB Personnel Cttee, the one chaired by Grace’s fellow Gorgon, Jan Goodman, that delivered Maxie to the slab. https://kpftx.org/pacalendar/cal_show1.php?eventdate=20190919

The bodies are beginning to pile up in PacificaWorld.

On a happier note, contradicting the meetings archive, of course, a more prominent Foundation webpage still lists Ms Aaron as the occupant: https://pacifica.org/pnb_members.php. Touching. As the lady puts it at the end of her own personal correspondence, peace . . .

. . . Pacifica peace . . . doing it all for The Mission . . . Pacifica, where peace is war . . .