Lisa Davis Candidate Statement

As a current member of the WBAI Local Station Board and the Pacifica National Board, I have proudly served my term as part of the Justice and Unity Campaign (www.justiceunity.org) with courage, integrity, and conviction. It's an honor for me and our slate to be endorsed by such strong human rights activists as Amina Baraka, Amiri Baraka, Evelyn Warren, Michael Tarif Warren, and Larry Hamm. I ask that you join them in voting for me and all my fellow Justice & Unity candidates:

Omowale Clay
Tibby Brooks
Sara Flounders
Marianela Tricoche
Marian Borenstein
Wellington Echegaray
Bok-keem Nyerere

As a New Jersey-based African American grassroots activist with over 20 years experience on the front lines of such issues as reparations, ending police brutality, and fighting for socio-economic parity, I’ve held steadfast to my principles of ending racism, empowering communities of color, and ensuring that underrepresented communities have access to the airwaves. I’m co-founder of the Tri-State Save “Like It Is” Support Coalition, established to support the work of highly esteemed journalist Gil Noble and now also challenging the license renewals of major NYC TV stations for unfairly representing communities of color. Through my community activism, I also support the work of Creative Spirits, dedicated to youth enrichment, Waset Komuniversity, the Millions More Movement, and the People’s Organization for Progress (POP), among others.

As I firmly believe the political face of Pacifica as an institution is as important as what it broadcasts, I have authored and helped pass motions on the local and national boards condemning police brutality and the death penalty. I’ve also supported motions showing solidarity with the NY transit strike, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and other political prisoners.

Because of the conduct of certain WBAI board members, my work on the National Board has also included helping establish the Committee to Investigate Allegations of Racism and Sexism, which I currently chair. I've also help institute anti-racism training for board members. Serving on Pacifica’s Programming, Audit and Technology Committees, I've helped pass a national programming policy, contributed to finalizing standardized Pacifica-wide financial policies and procedures, and supported digital distribution of our programming and the integration of various multimedia technologies. (I must also thank the many hard workers on these committees with whom I’ve collaborated.) I’ll continue working on technology issues -- Pacifica faces increasing fundraising challenges as more and more people, especially youth, get their information from digital downloads.

But the board work that gives me the most pleasure is making WBAI a living, breathing institution within my community. I’ve brought their concerns to the station and have worked hard to show community organizations such as the National Hispanic Media Coalition, POP, and the Clinton Hill Improvement Association how to use WBAI as an organizing tool via public service announcements.

Please vote for the entire Justice and Unity slate so that we can expand our board majority to ensure that WBAI remains in the vanguard of the social justice movement.

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (23) add comment

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Show/Hide comments

fflefever: Yes, puh-leeeez avoid racist language! http://radioactivist.net

No more stuff like this, OK?

Race-Baiting Quotes from Lisa Davis:

Thursday, January 26, 2006
"...the fact that she is White and I am Black makes this statement even more egregious..."

"...When I came back home and went to my computer I found the
following very insulting message from xxxx, a White member
of the LSB, who did not show up at the LSB meeting in Newark..."

"...in the three years I've been sitting on the Board I have
frequently witnessed White men and White women scream and argue at the LSB meetings ... The LSB has even witnessed a White man publicly curse a woman out..."

And of course, elsewhere Lisa has explicitly endorsed racist language. Lisa voted to allow racist remarks from a member of her Just-Us faction to be posted to the official listserve of one of the LSB committees. As R. Paul Martin (independent staff candidate) wrote at the time:

The arguments against the motion were interesting. Ed Marshall went on about how those with melanin deficiency have caused genocide and all sorts of bad things, and he said it has to be a disease. I thought he made quite a self-indictment. Cerene Roberts said that melanin deficiency was "a condition," and it was all right to have such slurs on the committee's E-mail list. Ayo Harrington agreed and said that if people feel insecure about references to melanin deficiency then that's their problem."

When racial slurs were made, R. Paul Martin objected. Lisa's buddy Ed Marshall retorted with more racial slurs. When R. Paul tried to get the full committee to go on record as opposing such language, the motion was initially blocked, then allowed but defeated.

Those voting against banning racial slurs on the listserve included Lisa Davis, Cerene Roberts, Ayo Harrington, William Heerwagon; as chair, Nia Bediako abstained.

December 11, 2007

Lisa Davis: PLEASE DO NOT USE RACIST AND DEROGATORY LANGUAGE. AND PLEASE NO NAME CALLING

I MUST ASK EVERYONE TO PLEASE NOT USE ANY RACIST OR DEROGATORY LANGUAGE ON THIS BLOG. THE ISSUES ARE TOO IMPORTANT WITHOUT RESORTING TO USING DEROGATORY WORDS OR RESORTING TO NAME CALLING!

November 27, 2007

Lila Flowers: Lisa, don't listen to these people

Lisa, don't listen to these people, you will only wast your energy on these Honkie pigs. You know they are not worth your spit. Keep fighting the good fight and we will fry their ass and sqush them like a bug!

Your firend, The flower Girl

November 18, 2007

fflefever: Don't give Lisa another chance to abuse her office and incite racial animosity. http://radioactivist.net

What is factual, historically true, is that the misdeeds Albert itemized in his statement did occur. We can document that. I, especially can document Lisa's formal acceptance of my being told I had a "melanin deficiency" disease!

It is also true that Albert was advised not to name names. So he changed the wording to omit names of those whose misdeeds he listed or "asked about" ("Isn't it true that...").

He also was aware of many examples of Lisa Davis and other JUC operatives racializing their rhetoric and routinely identifying people by race (I have posted a few here and there; I can repost them).

Unfortunately, he did not realize that people would fail to see the parody for what it was, fail to see that he was _mocking_ the JUC by using the same kind of language they use, i.e. specifying the "race" (white) of people they criticize and the "race" (black) of people who are criticized by their opponents.

Aided by a Central Government (Dan Siegel, of the Pacifica national office), they seized upon this to declare Albert's language to be "racist" and to call Albert a "racist".

If Albert were to sue for slander, I would not blame him.

It is shameful that Lisa would try to obscure and befoul Pat Logan's long and honorable history of defending Black citizens (in and out of Pacifica) by (1) declaring Albert guilty without a trial, and then (2) declaring Pat guilty by association.

Lisa is not worthy of the office she presently holds and certainly should not be given a second term and a renewed opportunity to abuse her office and incite racial animosity.

--Frank LeFever

November 18, 2007

Lila Flowers: ...

go Lisa you are doing a great job!

November 10, 2007

Lisa Davis: My REsponse to Pat Logan -- Part III

Juanita Ferguson may have received a monetary court award (as she should have received one), but she never got justice for her son. I am sure she would rather not have any of that money, but instead prefer for her son to be alive. And I am equally as sure that she would prefer that the man that killed her son be imprisoned. And I am also sure that she would rather that this racist system of oppression be dismantled so that her other children will be able to thrive, so that no one will ever have to endure what she has. And its interesting when I?ve heard Juanita Young speak, I?ve never heard her make references about being visually impaired, it has always been about her fight against racism and injustice.

But the most revealing statement that Pat makes, is that she disagrees with how he worded the statement, but that it is absolutely factual. And this encapsulates much of the sentiment that I have encountered from many in White America, whether they call themselves liberal or conservative. They have merely reduced issues of racism to superficial, shallow, meaningless word games, while doing little to dismantle the system of racist oppression! When I as a Black person encounter racism or racist attitudes, and choose to fight against it, they say I am race baiting. Or the Board opposition counters with inane and ridiculous arguments such as I don?t want station accountability. As far as they are concerned, as long as they don?t say certain words, then they?re not racist. But they utilize the worst stereotypes, play to them and pull them out of their pockets like candy and use them at will to their benefit. Albert Solomon?s statement is nothing but a vilification of the Black people on the Board, especially Black women and is filled with innuendo and outward lies and the typical stereotypes that White society has about Black people. His statements absolutely are not factual. But as I have learned, and evidently so has Pat, people that come from her society don?t need proof to make accusations against people of color. And her equally false allegations that what he says is true, is nothing more than an endorsement of Albert?s racist attitudes.

Racism must be abolished! But it can not happen from superficial shallow self serving understanding of simply making the issue a word game. It is about abolishing systems of oppression, it is about changing paradigms, so that one form of oppression is not replaced with another.

Well people ultimately are entitled to their beliefs and attitudes. I can?t do much about that. But take this message as a clarion call. I will never sit by and see people with views contrary to the benefit of my people using my community or making a mockery of what Black people go through in this society. People of color are not some pet project of the left. And when I see people coming among my community when we gather, with views contrary to our benefit, regardless of their race or nationality, their views will be exposed.

Lisa V. Davis

November 07, 2007

Lisa Davis: My Response to Pat Logan - Part II

I ask Pat, has she no conscience to be with someone with Albert?s views around someone who is Black that she claims to ?love?and admire? I have to wonder when or if she introduced Albert to Juanita if she introduced him as her good friend and as someone that Juanita should vote for. I have to ask Pat if she had been given the chance if she would have told that audience at the October 22nd Coalition Commemoration to vote for Albert? If she had a chance, would she have gotten in front of that predominantly Black audience and espoused her views about identity politics? Would she have told them to vote for Albert Solomon, her friend, for the WBAI Board? And even more so, would she have talked about Albert?s statement that he wrote for his White audience? Would she have told that audience that the statement was factual (which by the way, IT IS NOT)? Would she have referred to the Spanish shows, the Haiti Show and the Hip Hop show on WBAI as ghetto programming the way she did at the Cinema Arts Theatre in Long Island in 2004? I, on the other hand, want everyone to know where I stand on issues.

My concept of friendship is very different from Pat?s. Because I don?t understand how someone could possibly call themselves a friend of Juanita Young and yet endorse a racist such as Albert Solomon to sit on the Board of a radio station that helped to mobilize people in support of Juanita. Juanita?s son was murdered by police because of his protest against the police killing of Amadou Diallo, another young innocent and unarmed Black man who was shot 41 times by police. Since Diallo?s murder, there have been at least 144 more people killed in New York by the police and they are primarily Black and Latino. And the police get away with it because of a White racist power structure, which vilifies and devalues people of color. I would think that her ?friendship? with Jaunita Young would lead her to be one of the biggest fighters against racism. I would think that it would lead her to advocate for more programming at WBAI that dealt with the reasons that Malcolm Ferguson was gunned down. But instead she is running on a platform against identity politics and calls issues of racism a smoke screen by Justice and Unity. In her candidate statement she writes:

?The split in the Board which Justice And Unity erroneously claims is caused by racial animosity, a smoke screen designed to intimidate dissenters, results only partially from the extent to which members believe that identity politics should or should not be the dominant paradigm in determining programming and the makeup of the audience the LSB and management aspire to reach."

November 07, 2007

Lisa Davis: My Response To Pat Logan - Part I

I am glad to see that my blog is receiving so much activity.

Pat in her response to me, leaves out a very, very, important detail, which will put my statements that she says I made in a whole new light. And even more so, will show Pat in a whole new light as well.

But as context and truthfulness are not something the opposition subscribes to, I implore the reader when reading these statements to always ask why, to always ask what preceded any statements that were made, and to always ask about the chain of events surrounding these statements and to even ask about the afterwards. I implore that you demand that of me, as well as my opponents. Hence the reason that my writings tend to be a little long. I believe such detail is important and I will never make a public accusation without context, witnesses and proof. Whether you believe in my views or not, I am forthright and honest.

A crucial part that Pat leaves out of her response to me is that she was with Albert Solomon, who had just released his derogatory candidate statement against Black people and especially Black women, at the October 22nd Coalition's commemoration for the fallen victims of police brutality and their families. The place was FILLED WITH PROGRESSIVE BLACK PEOPLE, INCLUDING BLACK NATIONALISTS! Juanita Young is Black and due to the murder of her 23 year old son, Malcolm Fergeson, by police, she has been involved in the battle of her life ? against a racist system of injustice predicated on the fallacy of white supremacy ? for social equality, social equity and social justice for all people.

Pat is also being quite deceptive when she says that I am judging her based on guilt by association. Pat endorsed this man with these views to run for the Board of WBAI, a radio station which rallied support for Juanita Young. (Admittedly however, while I don?t believe that the adage about ?Birds of a Feather? applies as much for toddlers and teenagers, I do tend to think that its true of people well into their adult life). This is not merely a question of guilt by association, as she claims. It is a question of her politics, of her endorsement of a candidate such as Albert and then providing cover for him and bringing him to people like Juanita. Moreover, he was at the event with a video camera and was passing out his literature trying to get Black people to vote for him. Interestingly enough, Albert wasn?t passing out his candidate statement that he had in which he wrongfully and deliberately villified Black women. He had a completely different candidate statement in which he left out all reference to Black people. Why is that?

November 07, 2007

a lady in houston: ...

If elected, what actions could you reccommend to transmute the in-fighting and backstabbing that sends reasonable people running and corrodes the Foundation?

November 04, 2007

tom: ...

WBAI is bankrupt. Dan Siegel of the Pacifica National Board is corrupt. He has been temporarily placed on the national board for one month to sabotage the elections and allow the WBAI and Justice and Unity corruption to continue

November 03, 2007

Patricia Logan: My Response to Lisa Davis (PART 3)

In 1990 when I read about Radical Women, a socialist-feminist organization, in a Braille feminist newsletter, I was ready to go and check out a meeting even though I expected to be the only blind person present. Soon I was attending study groups, learning more about the need for working class solidarity than I had ever heard on WBAI. All oppressed groups, including the blind, must work together to prepare the way for the revolution. I joined CISPES, Committee In Solidarity With The People Of El Salvador, warmly welcomed by people like Tibby Brooks, current LSB secretary. I had found a new family of sighted friends with whom I felt safe and accepted. they encouraged me to increase my participation and to learn new skills.

As I grew to know and was accepted by more and more activists I came to realize many things. A partial cause of the rejection I had experienced when younger were my own negative expectations which had influenced my behavior and the attitude radiating from me. I had to sufficiently value my common bonds with others in order for them to be recognized by those others. My identifications as feminist, atheist, socialist, singer, poet, adherent of alternative medicine, WBAI activist, etc. have become as important to me as my membership in the blind community. This has not diluted my identification with that community, made me less proud of the alternative techniques we use nor less willing to struggle for equal opportunity for all blind people. Instead, it has made me a better representative of and more convincing advocate on behalf of blind people because I am now a more well-rounded person.

Each of us has dozens of identities, all important to some degree. They form an intersecting web. People from very different cultures living in markedly different circumstances will still find points of common ground if they are open to looking for them. Identity politics encourages or sometimes even demands its adherents to adopt a narrow, limited view of identity which strongly militates against mutual understanding and working together.

What does this mean for programming at Pacifica? It means that, while issues of all oppressed people, including people of color, should be addressed at least as often as they are now, the strategy of how to address them and to whom they should bee addressed must change. Groups should not be divided into little boxes, each with their own program. The broader listenership must be invited and welcomed to learn about and participate in the fight to end various areas of oppression. They must be assumed to be part of the solution rather than attacked as part of the problem. Attacking people does not make them receptive to new ways of thinking.

"Earth Watch" was a superb example of this kind of Pacifica mission driven programming. Instead of urging that its brand of enlightened, inclusive humanism be emulated, Management fired Robert Knight. This is just one important example of why the Justice And Unity mindset must not prevail at WBAI.

As one speaker at the October 22nd rally reminded us, quoting a much older source -- and I may be slightly paraphrasing -- we must all work together or we will fall separately.

Patricia Logan

November 02, 2007

Patricia Logan: My Response to Lisa Davis (PART 2)

MY EVOLUTION BEYOND IDENTITY POLITICS

One belief that Lisa ascribes to me is absolutely correct. I do not admire prioritizing identity politics nor do I believe they accord well with the Pacifica mission. this belief arises both from my personal journey to overcome an overly narrow interpretation of my own identity and from my understanding of the tenets of revolutionary socialism.

From early childhood on I, like almost all other blind people throughout the world, was faced with a bewildering array of stereotypical attitudes, lack of understanding concerning my abilities and limitations, discrimination, condescending behaviors and outright rejection. Though, in my case, these did not come from the adults closest to me, when confronting the outside world my child's mind could conceive of only two possibilities. Either there was something dreadfully wrong with me which caused me to deserve this unpleasant treatment or there was something terribly wrong with those who conferred it on me. I took the latter stance and never consciously wavered from it.

In high school I made a few sighted friends. In college I made only one. I have memories of rejection which still bring tears to my eyes. I decided that, with very few exceptions, sighted and blind people were incapable of forming deep relationships of mutual trust and respect and that I would be the one to do the rejecting before "they" rejected me.

Some of my friends and I, many of us WBAI listeners, realized that these negative attitudes toward blindness were as prevalent in the agencies supposedly set up to assist us in our path toward independence as they were in the wider society. We formed the Blind Power Movement, a short-lived group which nonetheless was featured in a long "Village Voice: article and which held a demonstration that managed to create a good deal of adverse publicity for our chosen target, the Lighthouse For The Blind.

In 1977 came the first major WBAI crisis of which I was aware, the lockout ordered by the Local Advisory Board and the call by staff for listeners to come and support them outside the WBAI 'church,' the building the station then owned. I did not pause to think about rejection. I grabbed my keys and hurried to the bus stop. That was the first time I experienced a solidarity so pervasive that it began to transform me. Not only was I engaging in something very important, keeping the injunction from being served on the staff occupying the building, but I found myself accepted and I was amazingly proud and happy. I trusted the friends I made among the Friends Of WBAI and they respected me.

In 1980 I joined the National Federation Of The Blind, NFB, an organization which recognizes that blindness is merely a physical characteristic, not a huge handicap, and that it is the attitudes toward blindness which hold blind people back in education, employment and other areas of life. Knowing that this philosophy wa shared by a large number of people constituting a nationwide support system gave me enormous confidence. Hearing about members who are employed by, socialized with and sometimes married sighted colleagues gave added weight to my positive experiences in the Friends Of WBAI and chipped away more conviction from my isolationist stance.

November 02, 2007

Patricia Logan: My Response to Lisa Davis (PART 1)

Lisa Davis has written in part: "... the interesting thing about Pat Logan is that she claims to be working with the Committee to Support Juanita Young. Pat endorsed Albert. And Albert endorsed Pat. They are friends and Pat is also friends with most of the people who engage in racist attacks on the Board. Pat doesn't like identity politics. She says that people like me on the Board use erroneous claims of racism as a smoke screen to attack people who don't think programming should be based on identity politics (which is a code for progressive Black programming.)"

I respond as follows:

WHAT FRIENDSHIP DOES AND DOES NOT MEAN

This is the sort of narrow, slanted, self-absorbed thinking and misinterpretation of the views of others which characterizes most of Lisa Davis' utterances, just the same old, same old tiresome thing. I would have ignored it but for the fact that she says I only claim to be working with the Juanita Young Support committee. This enraged me.

I was present for most of the court appearances connected with Juanita's first successful case in which the judge ruled that she did not trespass in her own apartment, as charged. I heard the summation in the civil suit against the cop who murdered her son, Malcolm. I was present for the last 2-1/2 days of the latest trial in which a jury awarded her $1,350,000 for the pain and suffering and civil rights violations inflicted on her by another policeman. I was one of those who assisted her in traveling to Atlanta to speak at the US Social Forum this past June.

The Support Committee exemplifies the best features of a progressive group. Its members are diverse in age, gender, race and political affiliation, yet we all recognize our common objective and are comradely toward each other.

I have known Juanita for over thirty years. We met at the Lighthouse for the Blind where we used to attend adult education courses and hang out with friends. She assisted me in getting through the first lap of my trip home after a hospital stay, a favor I will never forget. She is a wonderful friend and parent as well as an amazing role model of courage, perseverance, wisdom, and support for others, including other families devastated by police murders.

I love and admire Juanita. How dare Lisa Davis infer that I am not a valued member of the Committee or that my support for Juanita is not genuine!

And speaking of friendship, yes, I am friendly with Albert Solomon. He has helped me in many ways including, to give a specific example, assisting me in transporting some heavy and bulky items while I was moving. Does that mean that I agree with everything he says and does? Of course not. Do I agree with the way he worded his candidate statement? No! Do I concur with the charges he makes against a Board member, a J&U supporter and a Management person? Absolutely. They are completely factual. Does anyone reading this agree one hundred percent with the views or actions of any friend? It is impossible for such a thing to occur. Confering guilt by association is ugly and irrational and tells you a great deal about the person attempting to do it.

November 02, 2007

fflefever: positive? http://www.friendsofwbai.org

If that's a positive African image, I'd sure hate to see a negative one!

October 30, 2007

Fige Bornu: Lisa Davis: A Justice Advocate for all http://www.figebornu.blogspot.com

I strongly endorse the re-election of Lisa Davis to the WBAI Local Station Board and the Pacifica National Board. As a community activist myself who works to restore and uplift the originality, dignity and standing of Africans worldwide, I know that Ms. Davis is someone that not only wants to restore African dignity, but she wants all of humanity to be restored back to a state of respectability and honesty. And to those of you who call her a racist, please understand that it can be proven that much if not all of the social, economic, political and even spiritual dyfunctions that African people experience can be traced back to the centuries old and bold assault, enslavement and destruction of African people. That's right, the numerous issues and negativity that effect most African people are the result of white wannabe supremacy. And while one must be held at some point responsible for their own destiny, let it be known that it will take an extreme amount of work, sacrifice and more to reverse this situation. That being said, the para-military, prison-industrial complex has not just a tight hold on Africans in America but on much of all of the regions of the world where people of color reside.

Furthermore, there can be no justice announced, promoted and/or created by non-Africans unless these individuals honestly and completely surrender to the truth which finds them and their ancestors guilty of the degradation of all of humanity. It is only then that any acceptable non-African leadership can be used in our continued work to bring all of humanity back to a place of justice, love and peace.

Lisa Davis is a member of the class of humanity whose people have suffered unjustly. And it is people like Lisa Davis who must and will fight to rid our environment of any and all vestiges of racism, hate, imperialism, etc.

Fige Bornu, Chairman
Positive African Image Institute

October 29, 2007

fflefever: another opinion, from another African-American woman http://www.friendsofwbai.org

Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2006 16:43:44 -0800
From: "DONNA JO WARREN"
To:
Subject: Re: Extremely Offensive Comments

As an African-American woman who sued the CIA for their complicity in bringing crack to the inner cities, as a grassroots activist who has fought California's Three Strikes Law for the last 12 years, and as a recent and upcoming candidate for Lt. Governor (Green Party), I find Lisa Davis' remarks about Patty Heffley to be disingenuous and rather disgusting. It is equally as curious to me that Ms. Davis replaced Director Michael Tarif Warren who made disparaging remarks about Director Heffley a few months ago.

Is this quid pro quo?

I served my two years on the board hopefully with distinction and pride. The board was dysfunctional because of the remarks, actions, and inactions of directors like Michael Tarif Warren. With Ms. Davis' remarks, I don't see the situation getting any better, it fact I think it might get worse.

Ms. Davis, I met your kind when I was first on the board. They attacked me on the ride from the hotel to the first meeting because I didn't take "sides with the justice coalition" from New York. The truth is, I couldn't take sides because I didn't know one faction from another. The other truth is, I wouldn't take sides regardless because that was not why I was on the board.

With the many problems WBAI has, my suggestion is that you concentrate on fixing the problems and stop attacking Patty Heffley who while white has, unlike some of your other directors, the foundation's interest at heart. I believe all white people have a level of racism, after all "white privilege" runs deep and is hard to abandon when it advantages a person but Patty Heffley is more objective and fair than her fellow directors who used their power to disrupt and bring WBAI to near destruction.

So if you have the energy to pick a bone with Director Heffley and not much left to work tirelessly for the foundation, you need to get off the board now. The PNB need workers, not people who are already factionalized before they even join the board.

I expect some flak from this email but after all, it's the dysfunction of the grassroots who like to talk and act like big fish in tiny ponds instead of rolling up their sleeves and actually doing what's needed to get a progressive voice out to the many ears who need to hear it.

I spent hundreds of hours as the secretary to the PNB; I tried to make a positive difference. Please think objectively about what you intend to contribute to the PNB. If it's just "lip" and factionalism, please do us all a favor and get off the board now.

Whatever you do, don't try this email bit again. I don't think anyone - black, brown, white, red, or yellow - need a lecture from Lisa Davis.

By the way, is the suggestion you said you wanted to incorporate into the upcoming workshops teaching Directors how to disagree with someone without attacking the person? If it is, please make sure you don't miss that workshop because you certainly need the lesson.

Donna J. Warren, former secretary to the PNB

October 29, 2007

Mitchel Cohen: ...

Lisa Davis refuses to recognize that she actually voted to cut the already paltry salaries of the staff at WBAI -- if you read her statements, she makes it seem (and maybe she's convinced herself) that she was against the cuts. BUT SHE VOTED FOR THEM.

That is her approach, and her cronies in the Just-Us faction, to dealing with the terrible financial situation at WBAI that she won't even admit exists -- cut the salaries of staff!

And then pretends that she didn't do that. She DID, the Just-Us faction all did, in a lockstep vote.

Disgraceful!

Lisa, just address this one issue, please, for once. You can ramble on later about how anyone who disagrees with you or station management is a "racist", but for now how about just addressing your actual vote to cut staff salaries.

As Jamie Ross correctly puts it, "Sheeeeeesh".

Mitchel Cohen

October 29, 2007

Lila Flowers: Lisa Davis Needs More Free Food!

Could you expalin the free food incident? What is wrong with getting free food? I am poor and I would like more free food. Free food is good! Or could someone else explain it?

Lila

October 29, 2007

joey: ...

October 27, 2007
Carol Spooner: ...
If you haven't already received it, you soon will receive your ballot for the WBAI Local Station Board (LSB) 2007 election. Please don't lose your ballot -- vote!

I'm endorsing --

#1 - James Ross
#2 - Seth Goldberg

and, in alphabetical order,

Carla Cubit, Robert Gold, Jennifer Jager, Ken Laufer, Pat Logan, Don Mathiesen,
Lee McClure, Stefan Neustatder, Bernardo Palombo.

I hope you will rank James #1 and Seth #2 on your ballot, and then go on to rank the others listed above in order of your preference. James Ross is the only encumbent who deserves re-election this year. He has worked diligently to uncover and understand the station finances and to make recommendations to deal with the problems. Unfortunately, his efforts have been blocked by the current majority on the LSB (the "Justice & Unity" faction). Seth Goldberg has the financial and business skills that WBAI so desperately needs at this time. All of the above-named candidates are sincerely committed to helping to right the station by hiring station management that will strengthen & revitalize programming, restore the listener-base and rebuild financial stability. They can be the seeds of sanity at a very troubled institution if you elect them to serve this very important community resource.

This is a critical election for WBAI. I believe it is absolutely essential that NON "Justice & Unity" slate candidates take a majority of the seats on the Local Board if WBAI is to survive, and perhaps even Pacifica itself. As I wrote to you a few weeks ago, WBAI is bankrupt. It is paying its bills by borrowing money from the Pacifica National Office which is borrowing the money from other Pacifica stations. This whole house of cards could come down if the problems at WBAI are not solved quickly. There have been very serious financial irregularities at WBAI, including use of "restricted" grant monies for unauthorized purposes. In addition, when WBAI terminated Gary Null's program it also terminated a major source of listener-support for the station. Regardless of what you think of Gary Null's program, the station needed a realistic plan to replace that income or to reduce its expenses to live within its reduced income. It did neither, and that is one of the causes of the current bankruptcy. Other causes are overall mis-management, waste, poor staff morale, not enough good programming, and competition from other alternative media sources, both on the radio and on the internet.

The "Justice & Unity" faction has held the majority on the LSB for the past three years and has been blocking necessary management changes and other changes at the station. In addition, the LSB majority elects 3 of the 4 WBAI seats on the Pacifica National Board and they have been blocking necessary action by the Pacifica Executive Director and National Board. For this to change, at least 5 of the 9 listener seats , and 2 of the 3 staff seats on the LSB must be won by independents who are not part of the "Justice & Unity" slate. I honestly don't know why the "Justice & Unity" slate has been so destructive to WBAI, they have good "political" credentials and you would think they would want the station to grow and thrive. However, they have not acted that way, and if they are permitted to continue to control the Local board and to confuse and mislead the national board, then I am very very pessimistic about the future of WBAI and Pacifica. This is tragic in a time of national crisis where EVERY form of alternative media

Again, please vote -- Every vote matters. With "ranked choice" voting just one vote can determine who wins the last seat on the board.

Thanks, and best regards,

Carol Spooner
Pacifica National Board Member - Jan 2002-Jan 2005
Lead Plaintiff - Listeners' Lawsuit to remove the old Pacifica Board - 1999-Dec 2001

October 28, 2007

Lisa Davis: ...

MY RESPONSE TO MITCHEL COHEN:

Firstly, I must say that the irony is not lost that Mitchel Cohen, who had relatives murdered in the concentration camp, has no problem with someone "sieg heiling" and giving the nazi salute to someone like me (or any of my allies for that matter).

The irony is also not lost that Mitchel Cohen has no problem with someone yelling "Open the Gulags and Ovens" when it is being directed at someone like me.

The irony is not lost that Mitch is offended that I would dare find someone yelling sieg heil and giving nazi salutes anti semitic when he had relatives killed in Nazi Germany, but that he then mocks my fight against racism , with no thought at all about all of my African ancestors that were killed and tortured in this country for hundreds of years. (And it is still going on.)

I don't want to see words or gestures like "Sieg Heil," the nazi salute, the "N" word, nooses, KKK or any other words or symbols with such a history of violence and racism being used against anyone, under any circumstances -- ever! There are no circumstances under which a nazi salute should ever be used.

I invite everyone to please go to the links below and view Paul DeRienzo's behavior for yourself (the videos will take a few minutes to load, so please have patience)

28 minute video show DeRienzo's offensive behavior
http://www.justiceunity.org/video-battle for progressive/20050314/bcat derienzo qt.mp4

Paul DeRienzo's Behavior on 2/16/05
http://www.justiceunity.org/video-battle for progressive/20050314/exerpts/feb15lsb.mov

Moreover, the motion that passed called for a 6 month suspension for DeRienzo and that upon returning to the Board he would have to issue a written apology. Had he issued that apology at the end of 6 months, he would have had over a year and half to finish serving on the Board. But DeRienzo refused to apologize.

To review the motion go to: http://www.justiceunity.org/ne...otion.html

FOOTNOTE: note that last year Mitch also endorsed Albert Solomon.
http://lists.topica.com/lists/TheBlackList/read/message.html?mid=913419719&sort=d&start=20069

Also, please see his rationale for Albert Solomon's statement this year. http://www.listenerforums.net/...read=73499

More postings from are forthcoming.

Lisa V. Davis

October 27, 2007

fflefever: Not just "a remark" I was personally attacked in racial terms; standard J&U "defense" against criticism. http://www.friendsofwbai.org

I had the temerity to criticize Nia Bediako (LSB delegate, chair of the Programming Committee, and wife of the J&U appointed LSB Treasurer) for her mishandling of the planning for an abortive "Town Hall" meeting. Ed Marshall (failed J&U candidate for LSB) posted a message attributing my criticism to my age and other characteristics ("inane OMF"), including my "melanin deficiency" disease. Lisa Davis, who interprets every criticism as racist even when race is not mentioned, voted against disapproving such EXPLICITLY racial attacks in the Programming Committee's official listserve.

Subsequently, in a patently discriminatory way, I was deprived of my voting membership in the committee.

I had been a member from the beginning, had seen initial progress (towards surveying the staff to ascertain their knowledge of procedures for initiating new programs and evaluating current programs) disrupted by what can only be described as mob tactics. After J&U achieved complete control, it spent the next couple of years doing nothing at all.

As a member of the Membership, Outreach, & Fundraising committee I have seen negligible fundraising and pathetic neglect of outreach and membership.

As a member of the management Evaluation Comittee, I have seen initial efforts to evaluate the General manager and the program Director disrupted, and the (bylaws mandated) annual evaluations shirked for the next 2 or 3 years. I saw the PD's personal assistant given control of an eventual sham evaluation of the PD [I can give details as to its shoddy methodology]; a process not yet formally reviewed by the complete LSB so far as I know.

As a member of the Finance Committee, I have seen stonewalling (management in collusion with J&U) when independent members asked who were the "consultants" that drove consultant expenditures far over what had been budgeted, and asked what they did for their money. Stonewalling when we asked what happened to the proceeds of a fundraiser at Riverside Church (J&U exists primarily to protect the man who diverted the funds to his own use). Stonewalling and derisive retorts when we asked to see explanations of specific budget lines in an effort to find alternatives to staff cuts. Their preference was to ignore continued deterioration of membership and listener support and to adopt absurdly inflated projections of IMPROVED listener support, year after year, in proposed budgets that this year even the national office and the PNB had to condemn. WBAI is bankrupt and our bills are being paid by other Pacifica stations.

I could cite a few more examples, but the basic facts are that (1) J&U exists to protect the status quo, (2) every criticism of them or of management is attributed to our being white (not true, as some of us are black) and their being black (not true, as some of their operatives are white), and (3)participants in any interpersonal or governmental exchange are routinely identified by race in J&U descriptions.

This tactic has had an impact on programming. Some WBAI producers take this model as an indication of what is acceptable, and many listeners have complained about what they perceive as a pervasive tone of anti-white and anti-semitic undercurrents (and sometimes explicit rhetoric). Some complain in public forums, others vote with their feet. I know. I have done my own outreach (tabling at various demonstrations, handing out home-made leaflets at marches, etc.) and I have met many FORMER members and FORMER listeners that way.

--Frank LeFever

October 27, 2007

edix: Talk about liars!

First of all, as Mitchel Cohen is a sitting board member of the WBAI LSB, his attacks on candidate Lisa Davis are completely out of line and below the standards that should be upheld in order to sit on the LSB.
Secondly, in Mitchel Cohen's attack campaigns in order to get his friends from the Greens elected, he has recently accused the Justice and Unity Coalition of being infiltrated by COINTELPRO, which was a government snitch and disruption policy during the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s. Cohen offers no evidence that any member of the JUC is a paid government informant or paid government disruptor. He has no facts to back up this claim, even when asked several times to produce evidence, he simply falls silent.
It is obvious that Cohen is desperate to get his friends elected, to the point of mudslinging, engaging in rampant hyperbole and outright lies that undermine activism as a result.
Please do not vote for anyone that Mitchel Cohen supports and look closely at who he attacks, since if he chooses to be so low down in his efforts, anything associated with him will be low down, too, as a result.
Don't believe the hype!

October 27, 2007

Mitchel Cohen: ...

Don't believe a word that Lisa Davis and her Just-Us cronies write.

Lisa Davis has spent her few years on the Local Station Board race-baiting any and everyone who disagrees with her on anything at all. I was no fan of Paul DeRienzo's, but for Lisa Davis to call him an "Anti-Semite" because he sieg-heiled her, and then orchestrated his removal from the Board by the "Just-Us" faction, is typical of her lies. Yea, lecture me, Lisa Davis, about anti-Semitism, who had relatives murdered in the concentration camps and who grew up with neighbors and relatives who were Holocaust survivors, and who got beat up every day in the Marlboro Projects where I grew up by anti-semites and racists. Just HOW, Lisa Davis, is someone who calls you a "fascist" engaged in "anti-Semitic" behavior? What crap.

This preposterous claim by Lisa Davis -- and it wasn't just words, her faction actually REMOVED Paul from his elected seat, just as they supported removing Robert Knight from the station -- goes to the heart of everything wrong at WBAI. Lisa and the thought-police (now there's a good name for a punk-rock group, eh?) invent whatever stories they want, smear anyone they need to to gain votes from unsuspecting listeners, using race-baiting as their main weapon to cow people into silence. Just watch how they play it, in this election. And don't believe a word of it.

Meanwhile the station is now $250,000 in debt under Lisa's and her "Just-Us" crew's control;

Lisa and Just-Us refuse to investigate the $60,000 in missing equipment;

Another "Just-Us" honcho, Omowale Clay, dared to call me a "racist" on the air for bringing up the missing equipment, because "Black people now run the station."

IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BLACK OR WHITE - IT HAS TO DO WITH MANAGEMENT'S INCOMPETENCE (AT BEST),

- bad programming,

- missing equipment,

- the authoritarian firing of Robert Knight and Gary Null,

- the loss of over 4,000 members during the last 3 years that Lisa and "Just-Us" have run the station and the Board,

- and Lisa and the "Just-Us" crew's vote to cut staff pay (while verbally denying she was doing so as she was voting to do so). Is this person in denial, or what?

The station needs to be saved as our voice against fascism, airing the thought, art, music, resistance of the progressive communities. These Just-Us cutthroats and race-baiters like Lisa Davis are doing the Bush administration's work in destroying this critical resource.

Don't vote for a single member of the Just-Us crew. Vote for the independents, and only the independents.

Mitchel Cohen
Brooklyn Greens / Green Party,
coordinator, No Spray Coalition, and
elected representative to the WBAI Local Station Board

Race-Baiting Quotes from Lisa Davis:

Thursday, January 26, 2006
"...the fact that she is White and I am Black makes this statement even more egregious..."

"...When I came back home and went to my computer I found the
following very insulting message from xxxx, a White member
of the LSB, who did not show up at the LSB meeting in Newark..."

"...in the three years I've been sitting on the Board I have
frequently witnessed White men and White women scream and argue at the LSB meetings ... The LSB has even witnessed a White man publicly curse a woman out..."

AND, Lisa voted to allow racist remarks from a member of her Just-Us faction to be posted to the official listserve of one of the LSB committees. As R. Paul Martin (independent staff candidate) wrote at the time:

The arguments against the motion were interesting. Ed Marshall went on about how those with melanin deficiency have caused genocide and all sorts of bad things, and he said it has to be a disease. I thought he made quite a self-indictment. Cerene Roberts said that melanin deficiency was "a condition," and it was all right to have such slurs on the committee's E-mail list. Ayo Harrington agreed and said that if people feel insecure about references to melanin deficiency then that's their problem."

When racial slurs were made, R. Paul Martin objected. Lisa's buddy Ed Marshall retorted with more racial slurs. When R. Paul tried to get the full committee to go on record as opposing such language, the motion was initially blocked, then allowed but defeated.

Those voting against banning racial slurs on the listserve included Lisa Davis, Cerene Roberts, Ayo Harrington, William Heerwagon; as chair, Nia Bediako abstained.

VOTE THESE CREEPS OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

October 27, 2007

Write comment

Show/Hide comment form