An Undeserved Break
By Medea Benjamin and Mark Stout

There are few things in this world more shameless than corporate welfare. The typical, all-too-common corporate welfare scheme goes like this: a profitable, gigantic corporation comes into a proud but struggling community and says it will locate operations there if only the city pays for some of the costs of the move. The cash-strapped community, hungry for any sort of jobs, decides to give the company what it wants to lure the jobs to town.

That s exactly what happened in Fresno last week when the city council voted to pay for $3.5 million of the construction costs of a new warehouse for the clothing company Gap. The new facility promises to bring 350 new jobs to Fresno, and in a county suffering double digit percent unemployment, that is certainly a good thing. But as a rule public dollars should not go to support private interests, and hard-pressed communities should not subsidize profitable businesses. Communities should not give money to any corporation, but they especially shouldn't give money to a corporation such as Gap Inc, a company with 1999 net profits of $1.1 billion and a proven record of sweatshop abuses around the world.

In 1999, Gap, along with 16 other retailers, were named in a $1 billion class action lawsuit targeting human rights abuses in the factories making their clothes on the US island of Saipan. The lawsuit charged the companies with violating US indentured servitude and anti-peonage laws based on universally recognized human rights. .

The situation in Saipan, part of a US commonwealth, is truly nightmarish. Thousands of women mostly teenagers toil long hours at factory sewing machines manufacturing the clothes that end up in retail stores such as the Gap. Lured by the promise of good jobs in the US, foreign workers pay recruitment fees of up to $10,000 to work in Saipan. Many must sign contracts waiving their basic rights, including the freedom to join unions, attend religious services, quit, or marry. Because payment for food and lodging is taken directly from their paychecks, many workers do not earn enough to repay their recruitment fees by the time their year-long contract has expired.

In Saipan, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of the Interior, "allegations persist regarding the inability to protect workers against crimes such as illegal recruitment, battery, rape, child labor and forced prostitution." Garment workers there typically work 12-hour days, seven days a week, and are sometimes required to provide long hours of "voluntary work" to meet strict production quotas.

More than a year after the lawsuits were filed, all but four of the original defendants have agreed to a landmark settlement that will improve conditions for Saipan's thousands of garment workers. But GAP, which buys more Saipan garments than any other defendant in the lawsuit, shows no signs of settling. The company still refuses to make a commitment to ensure that the people who make its clothes are not facing abuses.

Why is it, given these facts, that the city council is offering to bear the estimated $3.5 million cost of moving a pond from the Gap's chosen warehouse site? And why did the city, in an earlier corporate welfare deal, give away the 58-acre site worth at least $1 million for $1? Surely it's not because the Gap can't afford to pay for the real estate or the removal of the ponding basin.

The Gap is one of America's largest retailers, with more than 2,900 stores including the Old Navy and Banana Republic chains. Last year the company sold $11.6 billion dollars of clothing and earned a net profit of $1.1 billion. The company s executives are some of the richest men in the country. According to USA Today, Gap's CEO, Millard Drexler, earned the richest pay package among U.S. executives in 1998, totaling $494.5 million in cash and stock, and Forbes just named him among the top ten highest compensated US CEO's in 1999.

City officials say that the city will eventually recover the $3.5 million subsidy. That offers some consolation, but it doesn't explain why Fresno taxpayers had to make the loan in the first place to this wildly profitable company. Why should a poor community pay money to a rich corporation to bring in jobs? In the short term, the city is paying $10,000 for each job the company will bring to the area. And that figure doesn't even include the land giveaway.

Just as Gap has been unwilling to share its success with the workers who make the company's clothes, so too now is the corporation unwilling to pay its own way in Fresno county. The display of sheer greed is disgraceful.

The break given to the Gap is clearly undeserved, both from an economic and a moral point of view. The city council should take immediate steps to reconsider its decision. Fresno taxpayers should not be put in the position of subsidizing a company that has shown a consistent disregard for the basic human rights of the people who make its clothes. It's time to take these welfare kings off the public dole.

Chronology:

• July 1, 1997: In sweeping move of corporate welfare, City Council votes to subsidize construction of The GAP distribution center. Enticements offered by the City include:
  

• Selling the property to Gap Inc. for $1.
  

• Designating the site as a foreign trade zone.
  

• Developing Dakota Avenue into a four-lane road and providing site access off Dakota.
  

• Paying for extending utilities to the site's powerhouse.
  

• Paying $150,000 toward correcting soft-soil conditions on part of the property.
  

• Over next two years, anti-GAP sweatshop protest movement begins to build in Fresno.
  

• March 29, 2000: Former Saipan sweatshop worker for the GAP, Chie Abad, and Medea Benjamin, founding director of the human rights organization Global Exchange, featured at a series of events in Fresno, including an anti-sweatshop protest at The GAP in Fashion Fair mall. Thanks to strong organizing by the United Students Against Sweatshops, over 150 persons attended the protest, generating significant media exposure.
  

• April 25th 2000: City Council votes unanimously to bear the estimated $3.5 million cost of moving a ponding basin to subsidize construction of the third phase of the Gaps Fresno complex -- a 750,000-square-foot warehouse that would dwarf anything built in the city to date. This works out to roughly 350 low-wage jobs created.
  

• May 6, 2000: 20 nonviolent protesters were arrested at Fashion Fair mall, speaking out against The GAP’s continued use of sweatshop labor. The Fresno Police Department provided close to 100 officers to facilitate citizens arrests made by Fashion Fair Mall security. Arrests generate widespread media coverage, including a story in San Francisco Chronicle.
  

• May 24, 2000: The first of four consecutive Fresno City Council hearings on a financial transaction to pay for The GAP Inc.’s $3.5 million ponding basin relocation. At the final hearing on June 13th, all Council members except for Henry Perea vote in favor of transferring the $3.5 million. Councilmember Perea votes against the transfer, making a principled stand that criteria for the City’s subsidization of new businesses had not been developed by the City Manager’s office.
  

• June 3, 2000: Anti-sweatshop protesters descend on The GAP Inc.’s Old Navy store in Clovis. Many signs and props allude to the City of Fresno’s recent decision to subsidize the expansion of The GAP distribution center. The appropriate, professional response by the Clovis Police Department contrasts greatly with the over-reaction of the Fresno PD at the May demonstration.
  

• June 8, 2000: Fresno Human Relations Commission agrees to write letter to City Manager and City Council urging the incorporation of human rights criteria when considering public subsidy of private corporations.

To find out about the next anti-GAP sweatshop action, please call (559) 497-1724.

Fresno Center for Nonviolence

TO/GAP/DP2K: At a June 6th gathering of about 20 people at the Center, four presenters gave report-backs from the Washington D.C. protests against the World Trade Organization. They all emphasized how important local inter-organizational actions are in this "culture war" against corporate world domination.

George Elfie Ballis, Mark Stout, Justin Rubin and Dan Fitzpatrick Jr. all urged us to seek out new people to participate in activities such as Earth Day and the GAP protests; and also to become informed about each others' causes.

Some specific suggestions came out of the group discussion. 1) Vigorously and generously support alternative media like the Labor Community Alliance (L/CA) and KFCF; 2)Make a point of going to unfamiliar groups from the progressive circle every so often: e.g. help Food Not Bombs or Catholic Workers serve a meal; help collate the L/CA on the last Monday of the month; sign up for the "I'll Be There" program; 3) Get as many people as possible involved in the demos to be held in August in the wake of the Democratic Convention in L.A.--participants will come back informed and energized. Information about all these activities (and more) can be found in this paper!!!

The gathering was also a goodbye party for Justin, whose presence as director of Pesticide Watch has been greatly appreciated. Good luck, Justin, in your next ventures.

TIANAMEN SQUARE REVISITED: Honorary Board Member Vincent Lavery will present a controversial perspective on the Tianamen Square Massacre, based on information he collected on a visit to Beijing a month after the events of 1989. His presentation, on Thursday July 7 at 7 p.m., will question the commonly-held picture of thousands being killed. Vincent--never one to back away from his position--has even offered a reward to anyone able to prove that murders took place.

YARD SALE: Thanks to all donors, workers and shoppers who helped make our June yard sale a success, netting over $1000.

WAY OF PEACE AWARDS: At the Center's 8th anniversary celebration in June, Way of Peace Awards were given to long-time peace advocates Ralph and Polly Victor; Chris Schneider, director of Central California Legal Services; and the dynamic duo of the Labor Community Alliance, Pam Whalen and Mike Rhodes. Congratulations to these wonderful, dedicated friends of the Center.

UNITED WAY? The Center can register to receive donations to the United Way designated for our use. This is beneficial only if some of you make monthly payroll deductions going to the United Way, and would like us to receive a share of your contributions. If you are such a one, please call Richard at 266-2559 and we will make the necessary arrangements.

THE WELCH REPORT
June 12, 2000.
Jack H. Welch, M.D.

Health Care and Missed Opportunities Amid the Politics of Prosperity

“If the world were rational, we would have taken advantage of an unprecedented opportunity we’ve had over the past decade”, resulting from a robust economic expansion, “to grapple with major problems that await us in the realm of financing the aging of America. In particular... we would have put two of our major national entitlement programs, Social Security and Medicare, on the road to long—term stability”, including the extension of health insurance to the currently uninsured.

During the period since 1991 the gross domestic product (output of our economy) grew from roughly $6.7t to more than $9t after adjusting for inflation. The economy created more than 22 million jobs. We are experiencing the lowest national unemployment rate in three decades, the lowest inflation rate since 1965, the lowest poverty rate since 1979 (the poverty rate for African—Americans is still high at 26 per cent, but that is their lowest rate ever).

The federal budget has been in surplus for two years straight, and surpluses, outside the Social Security system, of around $800b over the next decade are projected. The best news of all, perhaps, is a return to the relatively brisk rate of growth of productivity that characterized the nation’s economic performance for most of the 20th century, which in turn elevates the living standards of workers. The Medicare trust fund, which pays hospital bills, is now estimated to be solvent for the next 22 years.

A growing problem is the rising number of people without health insurance, 44 million in 1998, most of whom come from working families. Above all, this appears to be due to the rising cost of health care and health insurance. Also, because of incredible breakthroughs in treating many human diseases, people are living longer than ever before.

Medicare represents a paradox: from the standpoint of benefits, it is an inadequate program at present, compared with health insurance plans offered in the private sector, because of its deductibles and copayments which beneficiaries are required to pay, and the absence of outpatient prescription drug coverage. Yet Medicare is going to cost us much more in the coming years.

Because the US is the only major industrialized country that has no drug price regulation, US drug prices are higher than those for the same drugs overseas (on average, one—third higher than in Canada). Pharmaceutical companies now spend as much on promoting and marketing their drugs as they do on the research and development of them!

Researchers are near announcing the successful completion of the “working draft” of the entire human genetic structure, or genome. This will enable unlocking the secrets to treating diseases at their most basic cellular, molecular and genetic roots.

How are we going to pay for these medical breakthroughs, and distribute the benefits fairly across the population? Medicare needs to be made more efficient and competitive, requiring careful crafting. Churchill once remarked, “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing -- after they’ve tried everything else”. We will bring our important social programs in line with fundamental fiscal and other realities, and will enact the inevitable reforms! (Source: Susan Dentzer of The Jim Lehrer News Hour to S.J. Valley Town Hall, Fresno Apr. 19, ’00

FRESNO ORGANIZER IS KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT NATIONAL CONFERENCE
By: Shirley Kirsten

A Fresno Area Substitute Teachers Association (FASTA) contingent will represent Fresno subs at the "First" Annual National Substitute Teacher Conference to take place in Washington DC on July 14th and 15th. Karla Hansston, Secretary/Webmistess and Shirley Kirsten FASTA, President and Keynote Speaker will journey together to the beltway for the "Substitutes Make It Possible" event. It is expected that at least 100 substitute activists and union leaders around the country will attend the proceedings at the Martin Luther King Memorial Library in downtown D.C.

FASTA will ring in the conference with Shirley Kirsten's Keynote address that will underscore the essential role of substitute teachers in our educational process. The story of FASTA's against the odds journey to the collective bargaining table will include the union's victories as well as challenges to its right to fairly represent substitute teachers.

As FASTA approaches the first anniversary of its landmark contract with the Fresno Unified School District, it can be proud of having obtained a 30% raise for substitutes in a little over two years. Still, the fledgling union, the first of its kind in the State of California is grappling with the lingering unfairness of a substitute teacher evaluation process that denies a substitute the right to face his/her accusers or to obtain arbitration. Therefore, top on the priority list for 2002 negotiations will be demands for due process, including arbitration and progressive discipline, health benefits, sick leave and an end to the discrimination against subs in the granting of teacher contracts.

FASTA is growing by leaps and bounds...an example for substitute teachers all over the country. Our message at the Conference will be to Organize! The FASTA the Better!!

NOMINATIONS NOW BEING SOUGHT

Central California Legal Services is seeking nominations of those who are making significant contributions to legal services and its clients. Those selected will be honored at the Fourth Annual Awards Reception to be held September 28th as a benefit for CCLS. The event serves to recognize individuals who have lent their talents and skills to further the delivery of free legal services in civil matters to the client-eligible population.

Nominations are being accepted in three categories:

Judiciary/Attorney/Law Firm
Business Client
Volunteer Staff

and must be received by July 12, 2000 in order to be considered by the Awards Selection Committee. Please contact Luisa Medina at (559)441-1611, ext 134 or (by e-mail) luisa@centralcallegal.org for more information on how to submit your nomination and also if you want to purchase an ad in the program booklet or make a donation for the silent auction.

Fleeting LPFM Opportunity Seized by Some Valley CBOs
By Gunnar Jensen

It is unfortunate that California fell into the first filing window for the new low power FM radio frequencies. Though there is some good news to report very good news, it is especially unfortunate that the first filing window may have slammed shut on so many San Joaquín Valley community based organizations that might have profited by having their own radio station. Immigrant groups, school districts, city and county governments, churches, union, environmental and other progressive groups may have missed out on filing for as many as 40, possibly more, 100 watt radio slots on the southern San Joaquín Valley radio dial.

After years of civil disobedience in the form of pirate broadcasting, (that is, broadcasting without permission from the FCC), the Federal Communications Commission responded, more or less positively, to the lack of access U.S. residents have to their airwaves. Following a year of pro/con comment taking, the FCC created the new LPFM service, and not without a lot of flack from fatcat broadcasting, inc . (In fact there s still powerful pounding on the Senate to follow earlier House efforts to kill LPFM. Call Sen. DiFi, and ask her to get out in front of the efforts to save LPFM!) The Commission then divvied the country into five filing regions, and thereafter by lottery assigning each region a five day filing window spaced 3 months apart. No applications would be accepted before or after this window. As mentioned, California fell into the first filing window, learning about it just 30 day's before the window opened.

Time will tell how many groups, and perhaps more importantly, which groups filed for which frequencies in the SJV. Those of us assisting and encouraging groups to seek this access found many unwilling even to apply, even though the American Friends Service Committee was providing technical and application completion assistance, free of charge.

I believe one reason groups did not apply is because there is no local model for community radio. Some groups appeared to have little idea how ongoing radio access and/or participation could further their missions. More tangible reasons were the obvious many boards would not even be meeting within the time frame created after they learned of the opportunity. Legitimate concerns about budgets, programming, and management seemed to preoccupy one group even after they were informed they would have 18 months to organize, fundraise, answer questions, etc. Many boards like this one are just unaccustomed to moving quickly, even when the risk is tiny, as was the case in applying for an LPFM.

Several local groups did apply for some of the available LP100 frequencies. (Also good to know is that another window for 10 watt stations will open in about a year.) In all, Radio Grito, part of Proyecto Campesino of Visalia and of the AFSC, assisted in the preparation of 13 applications throughout California. These applications represented 7 frequencies.

We are especially excited about the possibilities for the frequencies applied for in Visalia and Fresno. In Visalia, Proyecto Campesino and the Pacific Friends Outreach Society applied. Four organizations applied for the frequency in Fresno: the Fresno Center for Nonviolence, El Comité de los Pobres, the Interfaith Alliance and the Community Alliance. At an exciting workshop on LPFM that took place at the Nonviolence Center, attendees were spontaneously offering ideas for programming, cultural presentations, youth involvement and the participation of other local organizations. Depending on the outcome of their respective applications and which other groups may have filed for the frequencies, these groups may have a good chance at finally sharing, in a small way, the realization of genuine community radio, locally.

(GH Jensen is a community radio activist and graduate student in Mass Communications and Journalism at CSU, Fresno. His focus is on media access for low income, minority and progressive community groups.)

LOCAL ARTIST FILMS OUR FAMILY STORY
By: Theresia L. Rogerson

The images from our family story will not fade with time thanks to George Elfie Ballis, along with support and inspiration from his partner Maia and their home and sanctuary at SunMt. With an expert eye, Elfie has captured the passions and struggles of our global community in four recently released videos.

In December 1999, Elfie followed five union plumbers to Seattle as they joined approximately 50,000 others in the protests and demonstrations that shut down the ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization. Awaken chronicles the growing ties between labor, environmental and social justice groups as a worldwide movement against corporate domination and greed ignites. If you haven't yet thought about how many decisions in your life are controlled by multinational corporations, get this video!

Bringing the issue of corporate power into our own backyard, the GAP video documents a local demonstration to inform consumers about the sweatshop labor practices of the GAP, Inc., the corporation that also owns Old Navy and Banana Republic. Twenty people were arrested at Fashion Fair mall by close to 100 Fresno City police officers that accepted citizen's arrests from the mall security. This will wake you up to the overwhelming police presence and the protection of corporations over individuals in our own community.

Respecting and preserving cultural heritage is a vital strategy to counter the homogeneity created by globalization. Deep within the history of Indian wisdom rises a cinematic swell of drumming and dancing as O Matake Oyasin brings you to Alcatraz for an annual un-Thanksgiving ceremony honoring our Creator. This docu-poem is truly for all our relations .

The bilingual video !Si Se Puede! uncovers the true integrity of the modern homes being constructed in Fresno subdivisions. Union carpenters and community groups join forces to advocate for better wages and more training for the primarily Mexican carpenters who build these homes. This video will educate homebuyers about the oftentimes shoddy construction of homes due to these less-than-adequate working conditions.

For information about how to buy these videos, contact SunMt, 35751, Oak Springs, Tollhouse, CA 93667 or phone 559-855-3710.

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
By: Julius P. Rasmussen, Jr.

We are looking for people who comprise the steady or occasional KMJ radio listening audience and calling for them to join us in waging a boycott of all products and services advertised on KMJ until such time as KMJ institutes policies that ensure equal opportunities for opposing opinions on that station!

KMJ Radio has made a concerted and continuous effort to air only the most politically conservative and backward opinions available. It airs Rush Limbaugh fifteen to eighteen hours per week and Michael Medved at least 10 hours a week. Anyone who is aware of what is actually going on in national and world affairs knows that Limbaugh spews a steady stream of lies about those events and the people involved in them; and Michael Medved puppets that Limbaugh line. In addition, the local Limbaugh wanna-be on KMJ, Ray Appleton, continues to arrogantly hurl verbal attacks at the progressive community. He is selling all his listeneres "down the river" and prostituting his services to his corporate bosses.

Viacom (a combination of CBS and Westinghouse) , which is the owner of KMJ Radio, is Appleton's boss. Viacom is one of the BIG-5 broadcast media monopolies that own almost all powerful radio and television networks and a huge amount of other types of media outlets. Viacom, through ownership of CBS Radio and Television networks, is making sure that KMJ, along with all its other media holdings, tow the corporate line and not accommodate the more progressive views which would hold coporations accountable for their activities!

The spirit of the Fairness Doctrine (written in 1935 and destroyed by the Reagan administration) has been totally swept away at KMJ; and, in its place, is a heavily one-sided, heavy-handed, Conservative Republican operation that almost totally blocks out any input from liberals, progressives, or progressive populists! Now that the Federal Communications Commission is no longer guaranteeing free and equal (or nearly equal) time for all political views in commercial radio, it is time for the us, the people of the COMMUNITY, to override this dereliction of government duty and wage our own campaign.

We, the local community, must insist on a LOCAL "Fairness Doctrine" of our own - a doctrine that guarantees that opposing views be reasonably/equally expressed over KMJ and all other such stations. IF THE BROADCAST AIRWAYS ARE, INDEED, OWNED BY ALL the PEOPLE (YOU AND ME); and it is, therefore, WE who license the owners of the station so they can use our AM radio frequency; then we have the right - the imperative - to stop KMJ in its tracks if it refuses to honor our right to fair and equal access to our own airways!

We insist on balanced talk radio! Jim Hightower is a reputable and available non-conservative radio voice who is willing to become part of the daily KMJ talk show offerings, and we shall insist that Hightower - and others like him - be part of the KMJ talk show listings, with equal time balanced with talk shows like those of Limbaugh and Medved.

Up until now, stations like KMJ and the corporate monopolies behind them have been standing with folded arms like school-yard bullies, completely silencing our more progressive voices, and saying, "What are you going to do about it?" Well, our answer is this, and mark it well: "We are going to wage an all-out, long-term boycott against all of the KMJ Radio advertiser's products and services!"

No commercial radio station can make it without profitable advertisers; and you, my fellow consumers, and I can pull the profits right out from under those advertisers at KMJ Radio simply by voting with our dollars in spending our dollars somewhere else - and refusing to use those dollars to buy KMJ-advertised products and services!

After getting the boycott going against KMJ Radio, we plan to eventually get people nation-wide to boycott ALL the major corporate propaganda television networks (CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, and Fox) as well.

Please be watching for notices and E-mails announcing activities that will be undertaken in the near future to carry on the boycott of KMJ. We welcome you to join us in boycotting KMJ's advertisers.

The corporate media monopolizers tell us it's "mind over matter," which means "they (coporates) don't mind, 'cause we don't matter!" Let's surprise them by showing them that WE and our consumer DOLLARS DO matter, and we DO have something real interesting we are going to do about it!

Contact Julius P. Rasmussen, Jr. via Internet at jpr27@fresno.com; write him at 150 Pollasky, #E, Clovis, CA 93612; or phone 325-0345 (or cell: 970-9628). Julius has FREE materials you can use to help track and boycott the advertisers at KMJ Radio or on the television networks.

THE CRISIS AT KFCF

This month, if you are a member of radio station KFCF 88.1 FM, you will receive notice of a recall election. The Community Radio Coalition is attempting to recall all members of the existing board and have a new election. Why?!? The reasons are complex and the issues troublesome for the progressive community in Fresno. The Community Alliance newsletter has given both sides in this dispute an opportunity to speak for themselves about the issues involved and articulate a vision for the future of KFCF. In our ongoing coverage of this important issue, this month we interview Rych Withers, KFCF board president and CRC representative and KFCF board member Catherine Campbell to try and better understand the issues involved in the conflict. Here is the interview, conducted by L/CA newsletter editor Mike Rhodes:

L/CA Questions for Rych Withers of the Community Radio Coalition:

RW: A recall is an extreme measure for use in cases of financial mismanagement or breach of trust and should not be used to serve the political agenda of the few. There is no indictment, charge or allegation in the recall statement to justify invalidating the first democratic election the Fresno Free College Foundation membership has conducted in almost a decade; a feat accomplished by the present Board majority to empower listeners. The people in favor of the recall refused to pay membership dues, had never been "elected" to the Board by the membership, and had ignored the Foundation by-laws requirement to have annual membership meetings and elections, meaning that the Board was paralleling Pacifica in becoming a self-perpetuating Board with no elections. While we feel that a recall process is a waste of resources of the station and Foundation, we have been petitioned for one, and things MUST BE RUN LEGALLY, or we could risk losing everything.

RW: KFCF was founded to bring in the programming, ideas, and outside influences of KPFA, Berkeley and will continue to do so. The current Board majority represents the majority view of our subscribers, as shown in recent surveys, elections, and community meetings; and we're committed to representing the larger community of KFCF's audience who subscribe to our station to support KPFA. KFCF will continue a certain amount of programming to address regional concerns and issues.

RW: KFCF supports quality programming that deals with regional issues and concerns, but we are not and should not be a mouthpiece for various local political organizations. Having programmers advocate actions by the listeners is considered a very serious offense by the Federal Communications Commission. Guests however are free to express opinions, as long as they are not slanderous, libelous, indecent or profane.

RW: Changes should be carefully studied and many things should be considered, including listener and subscriber responses to surveys, pledge drive income, and what KPFA programs would be replaced. At February's Board meeting, the Program Director moved to adopt several new programs that had been reviewed by staff and Board members and had gone through the process that was in place for new programming proposals. A vocal Board minority, part of the so-called "Community Radio Coalition", delayed the approval. Many of these new shows will start in July, replacing the Pacifica Network News, which has suffered in content and quality due to the stringers strike and replacing it will send a message to the Pacifica National Board.

RW: The CRC is not a legitimate democratic organization as they have no officers, no elections, no by-laws, no 501(c)3 status; not even anyone who will admit to being a leader during our Board meetings. Do we want to be held hostage by a modern day version of a Hydra - a creature that will split into multiple creatures, each with its' own demands? They are interested in taking over KFCF, and their members have publicly stated goals of replacing 60-70 percent of KPFA programming (FFCF Annual Banquet, November 1999, Steve Barile in Opening statement.) The CRC has been engaged in false, potentially slanderous and libelous statements and personal attacks about the Board Majority.

RW: This is an issue that needs to be addressed by the by-laws of the Foundation. There is a subcommittee that has been the assigned the task of examining our by-laws and recommending any changes that might be needed to bring us into compliance with state law, among other things.

L/CA Questions for Catherine Campbell of the Community Radio Coalition: