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| Pacifica Campaign Update |
Dear Friends, Fresh from the spring drive fundraising boycott, Pacifica reform activists across the country have launched a spirited campaign targeting the usurpers who temporarily control the Pacifica Board. Just this past weekend pickets were thrown up in Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington DC. In addition, high-powered seminars hosted by Pacifica's anti-union law firm Epstein, Becker and Greene were disrupted in New York, Newark, and at Epstein, Becker headquarters in Washington, DC. All across the country, we're linking up and stepping up the heat. And it's working. Our pressure campaign forced Pacifica Board Treasurer Micheal Palmer to resign. Now, Pacifica Board Vice-Chair Ken Ford must resign. We've sent more than 750,000 protest e-mails to Ken Ford's employer the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). The next step is a concerted nationwide effort to picket affiliate offices of the NAHB. Don't like to picket? Then pay a friendly visit to your local NAHB rep and deliver a letter. This means we need you - yes, you -- in Atlanta, Minneapolis, Portland, Las Vegas, Madison, Tucson, Albuquerque, Kansas City, Columbus, Washington DC, Tampa, and Honolulu. Did we leave your town out? Let us know! Please contact us asap at pacificacampaign@yahoo.com and tell us you'll be on the team for a national day of action. Please leave your contact info. We're looking to organize the action before the Pacifica National Board meeting slated for June 30. Thank you. Together we will win. Included below our two "sample" reports of what Pacifica reform activists have been doing around the country. Sincerely, Pacifica Campaign staff PACIFICA CAMPAIGN-LA ACTION AGAINST KEN FORD In Los Angeles, Pacifica Campaign activists readied to pass out Vulture flyers at the Inland Empire P.A.S.S. (Purchasing Agents and Suppliers Seminar), an extension of the BIA/SC (the Southern California affiliation of NAHB). The organization was having a Luncheon and Trade Show at the Double Tree Hotel in Ontario with about 400 attendees. Five Pacifica Campaign activists entered the ballroom close to noon. As people were sitting down to lunch, the activists began to place flyers on almost every chair. One activist walked directly to the podium and started speaking over the microphone about Ken Ford and his role in the Pacifica crisis. She continued for at least a minute before the microphone was turned off, and throughout the time she was being pushed out of the room by a woman, the activist continued shouting out her message, chanting "Ken Ford must resign." Meanwhile, the four other activists handed out flyers, until three were individually told to leave, apparently by the organizers of the event. One activist was never apprehended and continued passing around the fliers until she noticed that her companions were gone and then quickly left through the nearest exit. This action was very successful and a preliminary foray to remind the clients of the Builders Industries Association of Southern California (BIA/SC) that the Pacifica Campaign and the Free Pacifica activists will not rest until Ken Ford resigns from the Pacifica National Board. PACIFICA ACTIVISTS HANG BANNER ON NAHB HEADQUARTERS, DISRUPT NAHB BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING In the predawn hours of Saturday, June 9th, Pacifica activists stealthily achieved the upper floors of the headquarters of the National Association of Home Builders in Washington, DC. A banner was affixed to the exterior of the building and the messengers disappeared into the dawn of Dupont Circle. The banner read "KEN FORD off the BOARD - NAHB OUT OF PACIFICA," and was placed to coincide with the NAHB's Spring Board of Directors' meeting. Click here for photos That meeting occurred over five days, culminating with a general Board meeting on June 9th, with over 1500 NAHB members in attendance at the Washington Hilton Towers and Hotel. Around 15 Pacifica activists, nattily dressed and bearing name badges that looked strikingly akin to the NAHB meeting badges entered the hotel. The first two to defy the high security (which included Ken Ford prowling the lobby) and get into the ballroom addressed the crowd and were removed forcibly by security. One of them was detained by Hilton security, handcuffed, and dragged off to a basement security room for close to an hour. Ken Ford himself briefly showed his face in the corporate jail cell. After being threatened with arrest, the activist was banned for life from that hotel and ejected. The group quickly formed a highly vocal picket line that kept the NAHB members, hotel security and four squad cars of Metro DC police well aware of the collective discontent with Ken Ford. Ken Ford is the Vice Chair of the Pacifica Board, and embodies many of the problems that riddle the board and necessitate its removal. He has overstayed his legal term on the Board. He supported the illegal bylaw changes that made the Board self-selecting and he claims ignorance of glaring problems created by the management that is accountable to the Board, while simultaneously claiming that he, the mere Vice Chair, has no control whatsoever over the network's management. Ken Ford is a named defendant in the three current lawsuits, and his resignation will be relentlessly pursued by the Pacifica Campaign. The NAHB is one of the country's most egregious perverters of the political process, pouring $2 million dollars into the coffers of pro-business candidates every election cycle (70% Republican, 30% Democrat). The NAHB opposes the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, disability access laws, and anti-sprawl initiatives. They are very forthcoming with their agenda, laid out at http://nahb.org. June 16-17: WBAI Radio in Exile Broadcasts from the Clearwater Revival. See http://wbix.org/ for details For another account of the Pacifica campaign actions, see Russell Mokhiber and Rob Weissman's weekly column at http://commondreams.org/views01/0612-05.htm Tax deductible contributions to support the work of the Pacifica Campaign may be made to our fiscal sponsor, a 501 (c) (3) organization. Make checks payable to: Thank you. |