[CIMC-work] Can we endorse this?

Wed Sep 10 15:53:16 PDT 2003

Hi. Christine here, back in the loop. Free Speech Radio News is asking for 
support from local groups in their ongoing negotiations with Pacifica (see 
below). Would the CIMC collective be interested in endorsing this? Mitchell, what 
about CMA? Anyone else, know of other groups/community projects/independent 
media outlets that might support this call? I just think it would be a tragedy if 
this news program went down the tubes.

Let me know, and I can coordinate forwarding an endorsement re below, at 
least for CIMC. Discussion?

Chris Geovanis

Subj:   Sign up to support FSRN negotiations!   
Date:   8/15/03 7:20:11 PM Central Daylight Time    
From:   <A HREF="mailto:adrienne at monitor.net">adrienne at monitor.net</A>    
To: <A HREF="mailto:adrienne at monitor.net">adrienne at monitor.net</A>    
Sent from the Internet (Details)    

Dear Reporters and Members,

Our negotiations with Pacifica are not going well. 
We've written a letter of support we want you to sign, 
which will be displayed on our website and used in
other public situations.   We also have a letter we
would like community organizations to sign, and
if you can help with that effort, please let us know.

To add your name to this letter, please contact Aaron Glantz  >
aaronfglantz at aol.com<

The involvement we'd had from reporters has
been heartwarming and very necessary.  These
negotiations could mean the end of FSRN as it
is today.  Please take a minute and get back to
us today.

Adrienne
for the Negotiation Committee
-----------------------------------------------------------------

To the Pacifica Community,

We, the undersigned, are freelance reporters and staff for Free Speech Radio 
News (FSRN), who work to gather news, produce it and bring it to radio 
listeners across the United States and overseas via the internet and short wave.  We 
represent over 200 journalists, activists and technical people from diverse 
backgrounds and from around the world. We are the largest new group of workers, 
young people, activists, people of color, and people outside the major US 
urban centers served by Pacifica stations to enter the network in the past three 
decades. We are skilled in radio and news, and we strive to use our skills in 
the interests of peace and progressive social change.

Pacifica generously provided us with core funding last year, and we are 
currently in negotiations to obtain similar support in the upcoming period.  
However, we're quite disheartened by Pacifica's response so far. Pacifica's 
negotiators appear to want to take over FSRN, redesign it and merge it into a show 
they already produce (Peacewatch), cutting our wages and returning the news to a 
traditional hierarchical workplace.

We who built FSRN into the global news network it is today have a different 
vision, one that is decentralized, reporter-controlled, and from the 
grassroots. FSRN was built entirely on reporter labor. When we went on strike against 
the former Pacifica Network News, FSRN's democratically controlled structure was 
critical to the rapid expansion of our reporter pool, the training of vital 
new voices and our ability to continue on a shoestring during our first 
difficult three years.  We ask you -- Pacifica's listeners, workers and affiliates - 
to support us in preserving FSRN.

*MAINTAINING EDITORIAL INTEGRITY & INDEPENDENCE. 
Prior to the beginning of the current negotiations, we voted to remain 
independent from Pacifica for the next eighteen months.  However, because our goals 
are highly compatible and intertwined with Pacifica, we also formally proposed 
concrete steps toward a closer, more collaborative, relationship with 
Pacifica over the next 18 months. FSRN has become, after all, the de facto 
international daily newscast of Pacifica and one of its signature shows, though we also 
air on over 50 other community stations.  We are very proud of this - it is a 
relationship that strengthens both the Pacifica network and FSRN. Yet we also 
have reservations about Pacifica structure and ability to provide an 
egalitarian workplace.  As freelance reporters for Pacifica national specials and 
Peacewatch, and as staff and volunteers at the Pacifica stations, we have directly 
experienced a lack of transparency, democracy and accountability within 
Pacifica that we have not experienced within FSRN. Also, many of our reporters who 
filed for Peacewatch have not been paid for several months. While we understand 
the disarray caused by the former Pacifica national board and hope these 
things improve over time, we feel it would not be in our interest for us to merge 
into Pacifica at this time.

*FSRN'S DEMOCRATIC STRUCTURE.
We support FSRN's decentralized, democratic model of governance.  FSRN is a 
worker-run collective with 200 plus members, who each have an equal voice and 
vote.  Daily decisions are made by a representative steering committee open to 
all members. Larger policy decisions are informed by a variety of standing 
committees, including an editorial advisory board drawn from Pacifica and 
affiliate stations. Any proposed major change in structure, working conditions or 
wages, requires a full membership vote.  Any tentative agreement made with 
Pacifica will have to be ratified by our members. We are not, and do not seek to 
become, a hierarchical structure with an "executive producer" (or the 
equivalent). We have always been open to new members of the Pacifica community 
participating in FSRN, if they are willing accept these principles of equality.

*FAIR WAGES AND BENEFITS.
We value equally the contribution of staff and freelancers to the newscast. 
As a matter of principle, all of FSRN's staff are paid the same rate, and 
freelancer compensation is kept comparable to that of staff. Over time, we have 
seen the long hours and intense pressure erode the time, patience and willingness 
of our dedicated members. FSRN has always operated very cheaply in comparison 
to other similar programming. Some of this savings has come at the expensive 
of fair wages for freelancers and health benefits for staff. As social justice 
activists, we can no longer condone exploiting our own workforce and asking 
them to cover struggles for economic justice while their own economic and 
health care needs are unmet. We can no longer, in good conscience, pay our 
freelance members the same 'strike wages' they voluntarily accepted three years ago 
during the struggle to save Pacifica ($160 per feature story - representing 1-3 
days of labor -- less than Pacifica paid back in 2000 when we went on strike). 
 In solidarity with each other, we support a long-overdue raise in payment 
for freelancers' feature stories to $250 and headlines to $50, and we support 
the addition of vacation, sick leave and health benefits for FSRN's daily staff. 
Our proposal to Pacifica includes funding to help make these basic needs a 
reality for FSRN's workers.

*TRAINING. We support a budget that recognizes and supports the vital role of 
training in this model of news production.  Training is part of the ongoing 
work of FSRN. Many of us have been trained in short intensive sessions.  Many 
of us continue to want and receive coaching in the process of doing our work.  
Many of us leave FSRN for shorter or longer periods and we know ongoing 
short-term training is essential to sustaining the reporter pool.  In addition, 
FSRN'S news training builds and enhances the local news departments of many 
Pacifica & affiliate stations.

In short, we want to be able to continue to provide Pacifica and other 
community radio station listeners with the best progressive news and analysis 
available using the grassroots and egalitarian model we've developed over three 
years of existence. We hope you will join us in supporting these goals.

In solidarity,
Nell Abrams, FSRN headlines editor, Tampa, FL, WMNF
Jackson Allers, New York City, WBAI
Pauline Bartolone, FSRN tech co-producer, Berkeley, CA, KPFA
Josh Chaffin, Brooklyn, NY
Deepa Fernandes, FSRN anchor, New York City, WBAI
Ian Forrest, New York City, WBAI
Aaron Glantz, Korea
Chandra Hauptman, FSRN fundraising & outreach, Berkeley, CA
Adrienne Lauby, FSRN fundraising & outreach, Cotati, CA
Kata Mester, FSRN producer, New York City, WBAI
Jade Paget-Seekins, FSRN tech co-producer, Berkeley, CA, KPFA
Leigh Robartes, Moscow, ID
Andrew Stelzer, Portland, OR, KBOO
Vanessa Tait, Berkeley,CA, KPFA
Melinda Tuhus, New Haven, CT
Randi Zimmerman, FSRN headlines editor, Tampa, FL, WMNF
Martha Baskin, Seattle, WA
Matt Martin, Oakland, CA
Leigh Robartes, Moscow, ID
Miranda Kennedy, India
Jim Hickey, Atlanta, GA
Ngoc Nguyen, Korea
Sasha Lilley, Berkeley, CA, KPFA
Monica Lopez, Los Angeles, CA, KPFK
David Pohl, Berkeley, CA KPFA

(To add your name to this list: contact >aaronfglantz at aol.com<)
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