Leslie Radford Candidate Statement

These are the defining challenges confronting the 21st century. Their solution demands leadership from those who will live with the consequences of the decisions we make now.

All of the struggles around KPFK are rooted in one question: will we oldtimers continue to tear up KPFK between us, or will we nurture new leaders? Do we have the wisdom to liberate the station from us? KPFK’s factions have driven out a progressive general manager and blasted our bitterness across the Los Angeles press. We have done our damage. At the end of our struggle to free Pacifica from cronyism, to bring democracy to the network, we became the insiders, two infighting loops of veterans distributing LSB seats among ourselves and likeminded associates. This is the moment. You are choosing half of KPFK’s Local Station Board this year. Half of the LSB will remain to guide the newcomers. Together they will find our new general manager and determine which direction, forward or back, progressive or regressive, the station will take.

As you choose from among these candidates’ statements, vote as if you’re choosing KPFK’s direction through the crises to come. You are.

Look through the statements for people who bring leadership from outside KPFK, who bring new communities, new ideas, and new ways of organizing. If KPFK can rise from the mire, it will be because of the vision of innovators. Look for young people, for fresh voices, for the people who engage the issues of this century on the streets, in grassroots movements, in community building. These new leaders bring the imagination and clarity of youth and freshness; our current leaders have their experience to offer in exchange. With your vote, you can choose the next leaders of KPFK and, maybe, the world.

It’s our choice. Let’s not drag KPFK behind us into the sunset. Let us leave KPFK as a living legacy, a vital tool for the visionaries who must re-create the future.

I am Leslie Radford. I am a correspondent for LA Indymedia and Aztlan Electronic News, and a contributing writer on migrants’ rights, the South Central Farm, and sundry other topics for Action LA, Activists San Diego, Alternative Press Review, Archive of Global Protests, Bordervoz, Countercurrents, Counterpunch, Delete the Border, DemLeft Infoasis, Dissident Voice, El Enemigo Común, Infoshop, Insurrección, Los Angeles Post Carbon, North Eastern Federation of Anarchist Communists, Portside, Reclaim the Media, Resource Center of the Americas, San Francisco Bayview, U.S. Marxist-Leninist Organization, Watts Student Union, and the World Prout Assembly. I served on the KPFK LSB and helped craft the Pacifica bylaws. I sit on KPFK’s Governance Committee and Stop ICE Raids Task Force, and I recently completed a stint on KPFK’s Waivers Task Force. I am an oldtimer.

My suggestions for LSB members are at radiojustice.net and myspace.com/leslieradford. Email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .