Pacifica Stands with Wikileaks and Julian Assange

Ann Garrison, BAR contributor

10 Oct 2018

The nation’s left-wing radio flagship is no longer an unwavering foe of imperialism and war, but Pacifica last week did the right thing for the Wikileaks founder.

“Assange could have turned his cyber-genius into a multi-billion dollar tech empire like Mark Zuckerburg’s, but instead he devoted himself to peace and justice.”

If you’re opposed to war, how can you not love Julian Assange? Peace has been his overarching goal ever since he hacked into Pentagon computers at age 17, and he still has hope. In 2011, he told RT:

“Nearly every war that has started in the past 50 years has been the result of media lies. The media could have stopped it. If they hadn’t reprinted government propaganda, they could’ve stopped it. But what does that mean? That means basically that populations don’t like wars. And populations have to be fooled into war. Populations don’t willingly and with open eyes go into war. So if we have a good media environment, then we’ll also have a peaceful environment.”

Unreasonably rational? Quixotic? Of course it is, but so are the Black Agenda Report, the Black Alliance for Peace, the Women’s March on the Pentagon, the United National Antiwar Coalition, and anyone else still arguing that peace is possible. Assange could have turned his cyber-genius into a multi-billion dollar tech empire like Mark Zuckerburg’s, but instead he devoted himself to peace and justice by exposing the machinations of state, corporate, and oligarchic power. For that he’s spent the last six years of his life as an asylee, in effect a political prisoner, inside Ecuador’s London Embassy. He has said many times that he’ll gladly walk out of the embassy to face minor bail-skipping charges if the UK will promises not to extradite him to the US to stand trial for publishing classified documents. The UK, however, will not make that promise.

Pacifica National Board votes to stand with Assange

On September 26, I reported here that a resolution in support of Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange was pending before the national board of the Pacifica Radio Network, which was founded by pacifist and conscientious objector Lew Hill nearly 70 years ago. The board, which consists of four delegates each from KPFA-Berkeley, KPFK-Los Angeles, KPFT-Houston, WBAI-New York City, and WPFW-Washington D.C., and two delegates representing Pacifica’s 300 affiliated stations, passed the resolution on October 4.

In Pacifica’s heyday, during the 1960s and early '70s, one might have expected a unanimous vote, but Pacifica is not the anti-war, anti-imperial platform it once was. KPFA-Berkeley split during the 1990s over whether the US intervention in Yugoslavia was humanitarian or imperial. The fault line remains and it has been replicated at other stations.

On the 20th anniversary of the assassinations of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundian President Ntaryamira, KPFA News played the received lies about the Rwandan Genocide three times a day, even though lies about the nature of US involvement in both Yugoslavia and Rwanda had long since become cornerstones of the so-called humanitarian argument for war. US wars are now preceded by NGO hurricane warnings that genocides like those in Yugoslavia and Rwanda are underway, but the slow-motion genocides in Gaza and DR Congo warrant little or no attention.

“Pacifica is not the anti-war, anti-imperial platform it once was.”

Some Pacifica reporters and hosts were so infatuated by the USA’s first Black president that they overlooked his expansion of Middle East wars and his institutionalization of weekly drone assassination planning at the White House. Many have succumbed to the fascist reduction of all US politics to pro- and anti-Trump positions.

Nevertheless, what remained of the once fiercely anti-war Pacifica prevailed on October 4. WBAI delegate Alex Steinberg motivated the resolution on the national board:

“The Julian Assange case is a key case for freedom ofthe press. As you know he’s been hunted by the US government with the cooperation of the UK government. And now it looks like the government of Ecuador is ready to hand him over to the tender mercies of the Justice Department. And his crime is very simple. He exposed the machinations of the US government in various ways through the whistleblowing activities of Wikileaks. We have to support Julian Assange at a time when he has few friends left.

“The mainstream media has basically been silent about the harassment of Julian Assange and the attempt to imprison him. And even some so-called progressive outlets have been silent. I think that if Pacifica makes a statement, it will be very important and will serve to educate many people in this country and beyond.”

Delegates voted 12 yes, 0 no, 4 abstain, and 3 present but not voting, as follows:

KPFA – Berkeley/Northern California

Sabrina Jacobs, abstain
Carole Travis, not present
Chris Cory, yes
Tom Voorhees, yes

KPFK – Los Angeles/Southern California

Grace Aaron, yes
Jonathan Alexander, yes
Jan Goodman, yes
Mansoor Sabbagh yes

KPFT-Houston
Adriana Casenave, present but not voting
Bill Crosier, yes
Joseph Davis, present but not voting
DeWayne Lark, yes

WPFW - Washington DC

Tony Leon, yes
Benito Diaz, present but not voting
Maskeelah-Myrtle Washington, abstain
Nancy Sorden, yes

WBAI-New York

Kathryn Davis, yes
Ken Laufer, yes
William Heerwagen, abstain
Alex Steinberg, yes

Affiliate stations (300):

Efia Nwangaza (WMPX), abstain
Alex Randall (WUVI), not present

Voters in the upcoming Pacifica elections may want to inquire as to how they were represented on this vote and others. That’s how democracy’s supposed to work after all.

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