[grc] Pacifica and WBAI

[Brian Shiratsuki]

On Wed, Oct 9, 2019 at 7:56 PM Lisa Dettmer via grc
<grc at maillist.peak.org> wrote:

> ...And as someone who has worked in ACT-UP and many other grassroots organizations that had a modified consensus basis I have seen how process that is Democratic can work and Pacifica is NOT democratic  because the intention to respect each other and actually communicate isn’t there...

pacifica adopted a hybrid proportional and winner-take-all system
which inherits the worst of either option. it chooses a board somewhat
proportionally, which in pacifica's case means a board divided near
the middle between two parties or factions. then the resulting board
attempts to make decisions using winner-take-all, instead of any sort
of consensus basis which might yield a proportional outcome.

the bylaws also reflect a poor understanding of a proportional system
in its rules regarding filling vacancies, and in removing board
members. for example, each station has twenty-four delegates who
proportionately choose three from among themselves to send to a
national board. the method used requires the support of seven
delegates to elect a national board member.

it would be reasonable, then, to require the affirmation of at least
the balance plus one, ie eighteen delegates, to recall any board
member so elected. but the bylaws only require two-thirds, or sixteen
delegates, to recall a national board member. so now it appears that
at one of the stations, proportionality will be thwarted and a third
of the station's membership will become unrepresented at the national
level.

maybe the bylaws authors should have checked out these modified
consensus bases. or maybe they did, and lost to the majority who
favored constant jockeying for a small numerical advantage.

brian s