Marianella Trioche Candidate Statement

I am honored to run for the WBAI Local Station Board on the slate of the Justice and Unity Campaign (www.justiceunity.org), which has been endorsed by the Free the Cuban 5 Committee and many other activists and progressive organizations. I urge you to also vote for all my colleagues on this diverse, anti-racist slate:

Omowale Clay
Tibby Brooks
Lisa Davis
Sara Flounders
Marian Borenstein
Wellington Echegaray
Bok-keem Nyerere

I was born in Puerto Rico and came to New York 40 years ago, where I have resided since. Before retiring, I worked at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine for 30 years as a biochemist. I was a delegate with 1199, the health care workers union, for 25 years, where I participated in contract negotiations and helped workers with their job grievances and medical claims.

I worked with the Vieques Support Campaign, which fought successfully to close the U.S. naval base in Puerto Rico. I was also a board member of La Peña, a grassroots community services center in the Bronx. I helped organize demonstrations against the police murders of Amadou Diallo and Anthony Baez. At present, I’m a member of Workers for Peace, a women's organization in the Bronx dealing with Latinas' issues. I am also a member of the Bolivarian Circle Alberto Lovera of New York, which organizes support for the Venezuelan revolution and the Hugo Chavez government. In the past I occasionally helped with Spanish-to-English translations for WBAI's Wakeup Call.

This station is a necessity and must continue to broadcast information the mainstream media either refuses to cover or distorts greatly -- whether it's the advances of participatory democracy in Venezuela or the struggles of Latinos and people of African ancestry against police brutality here. WBAI must keep the present character of its programming and its rejection of corporate underwriting. We must fight hard to keep this treasure within our midst. That will be my central focus as a board member.

I support the commitment of the Justice and Unity Campaign to insure the station maintains genuine activist-oriented programming allowing for a variety of issues, especially those reflecting the political voices of communities of color (including Blacks, Latinos, Asian/Pacific Islanders, Arabs, and indigenous peoples) and youth. I believe the station should represent as many groups as possible, so everyone has their own voice.

In the past year, I’ve attended several meetings of the Local Station Board to inform myself about how it works. I’ve been appalled by the behavior of some members of the opposition: Spreading innuendo and rumors about station management hurts staff morale and confuses the listeners, and using Robert’s Rules of Order to filibuster ensures that very little gets done at meetings. As a board member, I will set a positive example of constructive behavior. I will also work with other board members to expand station outreach, distribution of literature, and requests for contributions at educational events by activist organizations.

I respectfully ask for your vote.

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Mitchel Cohen: ...

In her statement at the on-air candidates' forum, Marianella Trioche INSISTED that there were 28,000 paid-up listener members of WBAI and so the independent candidates were vastly exaggerating the financial situation and resources of WBAI, and that the station not only was not in crisis but was doing well. She was backed up at various times by Just-Us flaks Omowale Clay and Sara Flounders, who repeated that same 28,000 figure ad nauseum. Clearly, this figure was one of the talking points prepared for them by Just-Us honchos.

Well, the Just-Us crew were once again were misinforming the listening audience. The actual number of members is 15, 517, which is a loss of more than 1,000 members since last year and over 4,000 members since the Just-Us faction took over the Board and all its committees, purged Robert Knight and Gary Null, drove away Mike Feder, and accuses anyone who challenges their erroneous figures of being a "racist".

Of course this ridiculous 28,000 number is not just an innocent error -- they each repeated this exact same figure to deflect the very real issue of the station's financial bankruptcy. In fact, Clay, Flounders and the other Just-Us board members had just VOTED to order paycuts for all staff at WBAI, over the strenuous objections of all of the independent Board members. They said at the Board meeting that there was a financial crisis at the station that justified cutting the already low salaries of paid staff, but when it came time to appear on the radio they each stated that there was no financial crisis, that the independents were lying, and that the station had 28,000 members, so there!

I guess they assumed that listeners would not learn about their actual statements and votes at the Local Station Board meetings, and no wonder -- the secretary of the Board, Tibby Brooks of the Just-Us crew, has failed to provide minutes of the meetings for almost a year, so no one can check to see the Just-Us crew's actual votes.

Welcome to Orwell's nightmare.

Marienella Trioche made a big deal on the air about how "smart" she is, in those words. Well, as a smart person who supposedly understands actual numbers, do you disavow the 28,000 figure that you and your cohorts so avidly presented, repeatedly, to trick the listeners into believing all is okay with the station?

If you do, as you should, then we can begin to examine the 300,000 website hits members of the Just-Us crew falsely claimed occur each month, in a desperate attempt, yet again, to "prove" that the stations' financial situation is honky-dory and that people have not been leaving the station in droves -- 4,000 since Just-Us took over.

And after that, we can look at the $60,000 in equipment ordered by the station that is, um, "missing". As a listener, let alone as a candidate for the governance body of WBAI radio, aren't you in the least concerned about that disappearance of equipment that listener donations paid for?

Mitchel Cohen
Brooklyn Greens / Green Party

October 28, 2007

joey: ...

October 27, 2007
Carol Spooner: ...
If you haven't already received it, you soon will receive your ballot for the WBAI Local Station Board (LSB) 2007 election. Please don't lose your ballot -- vote!

I'm endorsing --

#1 - James Ross
#2 - Seth Goldberg

and, in alphabetical order,

Carla Cubit, Robert Gold, Jennifer Jager, Ken Laufer, Pat Logan, Don Mathiesen,
Lee McClure, Stefan Neustatder, Bernardo Palombo.

I hope you will rank James #1 and Seth #2 on your ballot, and then go on to rank the others listed above in order of your preference. James Ross is the only encumbent who deserves re-election this year. He has worked diligently to uncover and understand the station finances and to make recommendations to deal with the problems. Unfortunately, his efforts have been blocked by the current majority on the LSB (the "Justice & Unity" faction). Seth Goldberg has the financial and business skills that WBAI so desperately needs at this time. All of the above-named candidates are sincerely committed to helping to right the station by hiring station management that will strengthen & revitalize programming, restore the listener-base and rebuild financial stability. They can be the seeds of sanity at a very troubled institution if you elect them to serve this very important community resource.

This is a critical election for WBAI. I believe it is absolutely essential that NON "Justice & Unity" slate candidates take a majority of the seats on the Local Board if WBAI is to survive, and perhaps even Pacifica itself. As I wrote to you a few weeks ago, WBAI is bankrupt. It is paying its bills by borrowing money from the Pacifica National Office which is borrowing the money from other Pacifica stations. This whole house of cards could come down if the problems at WBAI are not solved quickly. There have been very serious financial irregularities at WBAI, including use of "restricted" grant monies for unauthorized purposes. In addition, when WBAI terminated Gary Null's program it also terminated a major source of listener-support for the station. Regardless of what you think of Gary Null's program, the station needed a realistic plan to replace that income or to reduce its expenses to live within its reduced income. It did neither, and that is one of the causes of the current bankruptcy. Other causes are overall mis-management, waste, poor staff morale, not enough good programming, and competition from other alternative media sources, both on the radio and on the internet.

The "Justice & Unity" faction has held the majority on the LSB for the past three years and has been blocking necessary management changes and other changes at the station. In addition, the LSB majority elects 3 of the 4 WBAI seats on the Pacifica National Board and they have been blocking necessary action by the Pacifica Executive Director and National Board. For this to change, at least 5 of the 9 listener seats , and 2 of the 3 staff seats on the LSB must be won by independents who are not part of the "Justice & Unity" slate. I honestly don't know why the "Justice & Unity" slate has been so destructive to WBAI, they have good "political" credentials and you would think they would want the station to grow and thrive. However, they have not acted that way, and if they are permitted to continue to control the Local board and to confuse and mislead the national board, then I am very very pessimistic about the future of WBAI and Pacifica. This is tragic in a time of national crisis where EVERY form of alternative media

Again, please vote -- Every vote matters. With "ranked choice" voting just one vote can determine who wins the last seat on the board.

Thanks, and best regards,

Carol Spooner

October 28, 2007

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