At a January 2nd meeting called by producers opposed to the take-over at WBAI, the statement below was adopted by all present, including some community members. We invite other staff members who wish to sign this statement to write to savewbai@hotmail.com, or call 718-707-7189. Those who wish to sign the statement on behalf of community organizations are also invited to submit their names. We intend this statement to become one of many tools in our organizing effort to gather broad support for the campaign to reclaim the station.

STATEMENT OPPOSING THE ILLEGITIMATE TAKE-OVER OF WBAI

We, concerned staff and listeners of WBAI, reject the way WBAI's general manager, Valerie van Isler, was removed by the Pacifica Foundation in collaboration with local personnel, and how the interim general manager, Utrice Leid, was installed. We deplore the Foundation's coming in secret in the middle of the night at the start of a holiday weekend to change the station's locks, and the illegitimate installation and imposition of new station management. We deplore the firings, the bannings, the presence of security guards in the station, and the denial of access to personal property belonging to staff. We deplore the racial divide-and-conquer strategy now being used, and we deplore the scapegoating of any staff member or listener.

We call for the return of all fired and banned staff, and we demand a democratic process to determine the leadership of the station.

Staff (paid and unpaid)

Rachel Barr
Elombe Brath
Janice K. Bryant
Dave Burstein
Aniruddha Das
Kathy Davis
Bill DiFazio
Bob Fass
Deepa Fernandez
Leslie George
Amy Goodman
Juan Gonzalez
Sharan Harper
Rosalie Hoffman
Kamau Khalfani
Miranda Kennedy
Robert Knight
Deena Kolbert
Bob Lederer
Al Lewis
Errol Maitland
Badal Malick
Steve Marshall
Chandana Mathur
Ken Nash
John Randolph
Spider Blue Rider
Serene Roberts
Mimi Rosenberg
Andrea Sears
Brother Shine
Scott Sommer
Eileen Sutton
Harriet Tanzman
Bill Weinberg
Bernard White

Community Endorsers (organizations for identification only)

WBAI Local Advisory Board
Pacifica station KPFA Local Advisory Board
Noam Chomsky, Professor of LInguistics & Philosophy, MIT
Katha Pollitt, columnist, The Nation Magazine
Robert W. McChesney, Institute of Communications Research  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Peter Phillips, Project Censored
Michael Albert, Publisher, Z Magazine
Laura Flanders, Host, Radioforchange.com
New York City Councilperson Christine Quinn
Roger Wareham, December 12th Movement
Christian LeMoine, Global Sweatship Coalition
Ray Markey, President, New York Public Library Guild, Local, 1930, DC 37
Matthew Lasar, Visiting Assistant Professor of History, University of  California at Riverside
Rip Robbins, KSVR-FM General Manager (Pacifica affiliate)
Mark Crispin Miller, Director of the Project on Media Ownership, New York University 
Francoise Cachelin, David Crane, Lanie Zipoy, We Can't Breathe
Marie-Claire Picher, Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory 
Bill Koehnlein, Brecht Forum 
Dan Wilson, Network in Solidarity with the People of the Philippines 
Ursula Ruedenberg, Concerned Friends of WBAI 
Bob Mc Cafferty, Co-Chair, New Jersey Cop Watch, Vice Chair of New Jersey Independents
Caryn Mandelbaum, Global Exchange 
Elizabeth Robinson, radio station KCSB
Elvira Tarr, Ph. D.  Prof. Emerita, Brooklyn College 
David L. Wilson, Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater NY 
Pat Sordill, Northern New Jersey Branch of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
(WILPF), New Jersey Peace Action 
Roy Rollin, College Voice Newspaper of the College of Staten Island 
Howard Brandstein, Save Organic Standards 
Dr. Lee Altenberg, Adunct Assistant Professor, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Matthew Smith, New Jersey Freedom Organization 
Elizabeth Shanklin, Chair, Bronx Greens 
Sherry Gorelick, Associate Professor of Sociology, Rutgers University 
Bill Crain, Professor of Psychology, CCNY 
Victor Chernov, Workers Solidarity Alliance (IWA), New York/New Jersey 
The Grassroots Radio Coalition 
The Progressive Media Alliance of Ithaca, New York 
Matt Noyes, Education Coordinator Association for Union Democracy 
New York City Greens 
Pacifica Reporters Against Censorship 
Madelyn Hoffman, Director, NJ Peace Action 
Sarah Hansen, Executive Director, Environmental Grantmakers Association 
Amanda Vender, Filipino Workers Center 
Thomas Wm. Hamilton, Richmond County Chair, Independence Party of New York State 
Deborah Speer, Fresno Free College Foundation 
The North Bay for KPFA listeners group (Sonoma County, CA) 
William Stribling, President, West 88th Street 200 Block Association 
Dominique Esser, New York Taxi Workers Alliance 
Fernando Velazquez, People Without Borders Radio 
Larry Hamm, The People's Organization for Progress