Pregnant black woman forcibly thrown on concrete

Unrest is brewing at Berkeley-based KPFA radio after
a dispute between management and a volunteer ended in the staffer, who is
pregnant, being forcibly removed by police.
Nadra Foster, an unpaid producer at KPFA, was injured by Berkeley police
officers after refusing to leave the station on Aug. 20. Police say that
at least six officers used force on Foster in order to arrest and remove
her.
The incident is the latest source of tension between management and
volunteers at the station. In 2007, KPFA derecognized its Unpaid Staff
Organization, the council that represents about 200 volunteers. The staff
has long squabbled with the parent company, Pacifica Radio, saying it’s
attempting to make the network more corporate and soften its voice of
dissent. Insiders say management wants to get rid of some of the
volunteers at the station, which has about 60 paid employees.
Dennis Bernstein, a paid KPFA producer, said the strain between management
and volunteers has been growing.
“When management marginalized the council, that disenfranchised the unpaid
staff and it has grown increasingly worse,” Bernstein said. “There is now
a sense the unpaid staff isn’t welcome and there is a quest to move to a
more professional NPR-type station, which seems to exclude what has been
the heart of KPFA.”
KPFA, the nation’s oldest listener-sponsored radio station, was founded by
World War II pacifists in 1949. The progressive station, seen as an
alternative source of news and anti-establishment opinion, has seen its
share of battles over the years, one in 1999 that resulted in a lockout
and the arrests of 53 supporters. more