For more than two years, the management of Pacifica Radio has been attempting to prevent the public from learning the truth about what they call "the positive changes" they are forcing on the organization that has been known as "Free Speech Radio" for nearly half a century. Meetings of the Board of Directors are now held in closed session, minutes of those meetings have been declared "confidential," and a gag order has been placed on personnel banning discussion of these matters on the air. Those who have tried to speak out both on and off the air, have been intimidated, fired and in some cases banned from the organization. Now, these would-be-masters of Pacifica are attempting to extend their ban on truth-telling to KOOP-FM, an independent community radio station in Austin, Texas.

KOOP-FM is one of dozens of community radio stations who, for a fee, receive the right to broadcast the Pacifica Network News. Pacifica Managers pretentiously refer to these stations as "affiliates," and have increasingly attempted to interfere with the autonomy of these stations' programming decisions by dictating the time of day the Pacifica News must be aired. But KOOP-FM is now being pressured for what it is airing * before* and *after* the Pacifica Newscast----an informational disclaimer which reveals facts that Pacifica Management, self-declared "leaders of the progressive movement" don't want people to know:

1) That they hired union-busting consultants against their own unionized workers at WBAI-FM (New York), KPFK-FM (Los Angeles) and KPFA-FM (Berkeley).

2) Have brought a case before the National Labor Relations Board, asking the Board remove union protections for 90% of the workers

3) And that the workers are accusing Pacifica of union busting.

Pat Scott, Pacifica Foundation's Executive Director, who is spearheading these anti-union activities and other "positive changes," has denied the truth of the charges leveled against her regime. Nevertheless, a growing movement of dissident listeners and workers and others committed to the preservation of community radio, free speech broadcasting and grassroots control of media have been struggling to get around the information blackout.

Last September KOOP-FM, a co-operatively owned and operated station, voted to run the informational disclaimer. WORT-FM, another cooperativley run "affiliate" in Madison, Wisconsin also decided to run a similar disclaimer. Other community stations that take the Pacifica Newscast have been considering similar actions.

Last December, Pacifica's management attempted to intervene directly to pressure KOOP to remove the disclaimer. Scott and Pacifica News Producer Julie Drizin telephoned various members of KOOP's staff and elected Board of Trustees.

According to an article in this month's Portland Free Press:

"According to Comrade Odekirk, a KOOP trustee, Drizen was "extremely rude," called the disclaimer inaccurate, and said it was hurting her career. Odekirk says he and other trustees were also phoned at their homes.

At issue was the difference between Pacifica Foundation and Pacifica Network News. According to Drizen, all the news people are members of another union and are not involved with the UE dispute.

Odekirk then wrote the following new disclaimer: "Pacifica Network News is produced by a unionized work force with a contract, but the Pacifica Foundation is currently in a labor dispute with its unionized workers at WBAI/New York and KPFK/Los Angeles. Pacifica is no longer using a union busting consulting firm for its contract negotiations with the United Electrical Workers. Pacifica has said they will negotiate with the UE in good faith with the goal of having a fair contract with its unionized workers, but Pacifica has not withdrawn its attempt to exclude 90 percent of the workers from union protection or other contract proposals that the workers do not consider fair or equitable. KOOP will continue to monitor the situation."

Pacifica is not satisfied. Now, KPFK's General Manager Mark Schubb is planning to pay a personal visit to KOOP and is hoping to succeed where Drizin has failed.

Some of Mark Schubb's previous " successes":

1) A gag order issued to KPFK personnel prohibiting even the announcement of community events discussing the Pacifica situation, under threat of "being permanently removed from the station."

2) More people "banned" from KPFK since his tenure began in June of 1995 than in all of the station's previous 35 year history. (In the past, individuals were "banned" for such things as physical assault on others or willful destruction of equipment. Now, people are banned for talking.)

3) The union reduced from 17 to 6 members at KPFK

4) A reign of terror in the previously open environment, where workers who speak publicly about what's going on are threatened with firing, and have been, fired.

5) Program hosts of call-in shows who make announcements such as one made on Jan 2 " I give you fair warning, anyone calling up attempting to criticize the station will be cut off the air."

Pacifica's National Board of Directors will be meeting in secret again at the end of this month in the Houston area. On the agenda, ratification of Pat Scott's new "5 Year Plan" for Pacifica, which will, she hopes, complete the transformation of 5 community radio stations into a "professional broadcast organization."

Inside sources report the Scott regime has not yet succeeded in stamping out all resistance to her coup. To maintain some fiction of process, these board members must vote on ratification of the plan..

Thus, Scott and her allies plan to address the issue of "governance." They are planning to further manipulate the organizational by-laws to insure lifetime tenure and a clear majority for her faction. They hope to permanently prevent any incursion of democratic decision-making at Pacifica Radio.

the author of this article is a former staff member and union steward at KPFK-FM, Los Angeles.