15,000 march for KPFA

By Herb Kaye

BERKELEY, Calif. - A crowd of 15,000 supporters of embattled workers at radio station KPFA demonstrated at the campus of the University of California here, then marched 16 blocks to Martin Luther King Park. There speakers denounced KPFA management and demanded autonomy and reinstatement of all staff members.

In a last-minute attempt to defuse the situation, Mary Francis Berry, chairperson of Pacifica, the governing board of KPFA, sent a letter reinstating all staff members except popular station manager Nicole Sawaya and veteran journalist Larry Bensky.

Many expressed dissatisfaction with the Berry letter, pointing out that it does not provide for local autonomy and representation on the Pacifica board, nor does it provide assurances against the rumored sale of KPFA.

Former KPFA broadcaster Bill Mandel, fired in 1995, told the rally, "I will tell Pacifica management the same thing I told the House un-American Committee in the 1960s, "If you think we will cooperate with this collection of Judases, then you are insane."

Fred Pecker, business representative of Longshore Local 6, noted the many struggles of his local to organize at Media Copy, Rubber Stampede, and other plants, which KPFA supported on the air. Pecker also reported that the West Coast Longshore Caucus meeting in July had voted full support to KPFA workers' fight.

Other speakers included San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, former Berkeley Mayor Gus Newport, United Farmworkers Secretary-Treasurer Dolores Huerta, actor Peter Coyote, and Tom Rankin, president of the California Federation of Labor.

A striking steelworker from Spokane, Wash., Richard Jacquez came to the area with a dozen other strikers to picket the home of Kaiser Aluminum CEO Charles Hurwitz in nearby Pleasanton.

"We've been out for 10 months now," said Jacquez, "but I'm glad to be able to be here for this fight for free speech and labor's rights at KPFA."