Fwd: Nadra Foster and the Resignation of Lois Withers, KPFA Business Manager

http://www.blockreportradio.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=218&Itemid=26

Written by The POCC Minister of Information JR
Friday, 14 November 2008


On November 10th, Lem-Lem Rijio, KPFA's General Manager, announced through email that Lois Withers, KPFA's Business Manager was resigning. For those that keep up with KPFA business, Lois is the white woman who called the police on Black programmer Nadra Foster falsely accusing her of being banned, on August 20th. Consequently Nadra was beaten up, thrown to the ground, kicked in the head, strait-jacketed, and forcibly removed out of the station, resulting in her facing 5 charges: including 2 counts of resisting arrest, 2 counts of assualting a police officer, and one count of trespassing.

This incident was reported in the SF Bay View Newspaper, the SF Chronicle, the Berkeley Daily Planet, the Oakland Post, on Indy Bay Media, and to this day the initial incident still has never been talked about on the KPFA News, by the main anchors on the Morning Show, or by Democracy Now.

Lem-Lem Rijio said, "KPFA's business manager for the past four years, Lois Withers has been offered a great position with a great environmental organization and will be leaving her position at KPFA in the coming couple of weeks.

Lois has done outstanding work, expanding KPFA's capacity in administration and financial management and we thank her for her great contributions to KPFA/Pacifica. Lois has exemplified excellent work ethic while KPFA's business manager and has developed systems and structures that help KPFA achieve financial accountability and sustainability."

Does Rijio consider Withers initiating under false pretenses, the Nadra Foster beating by Berkeley police to be "outstanding work" and "great contributions to KPFA and Pacifica"? She must, because in her statement she never mentions the incident, and furthermore no one has been disciplined to date for what happened to Nadra Foster, inside of the KPFA radio station, in Berkeley. Just to mention, Lem-Lem Rijio and Nadra Foster are both single mothers with two children, who used to be friends and hang out.

On the positive side of things, 3 out of the 5 culprits from KPFA and Pacifica management that were responsible for what happened to Nadra Foster and the aftermath, have resigned; that being Nicole Sawaya, the former Executive Director of Pacifica, Dominga Estrada, the Human Resource officer at Pacifica, and now, Lois Withers the KPFA Business Manager. The remaining two responsible are Sasha Lilley, the Program Director for KPFA, and Lem-Lem Rijio, the General Manager of KPFA. Sasha was directly on the scene when Nadra was beaten and refused to help her, according to Hard Knock Radio producer Anita Johnson, who was an eye-witness to the Berkeley police beating of Foster, and Lem-Lem Rijio, the General Manager of KPFA, refused to discipline anybody, as well as led the attempted coverup, with the help of the KPFA News, the main anchors of the Morning Show, and Democracy Now, who, to this day, have refused to mention the issue on air.

Although with Lois Withers resigning we won a battle, we still have a war to fight in getting justice for Nadra Foster, getting a daily/weekly Black public affairs show on KPFA, and removing pro-police administrators like Lem-Lem Rijio and Sasha Lilley from the KPFA and Pacifica staff.

If you would like to support Nadra Foster in her legal battles as well as with her medical tribulations, considering she will not be able to use one of her arms for at least the rest of the year, you could give money directly to the Nadra Foster Defense Fund at Wells Fargo, or email her at nadrafosterdefensefund@gmail.com, as well as support her in court on Thursday, November 20th, at 9am, at 661 Washington St., in downtown Oakland, in courtroom 104.

Look for further updates on www.blockreportradio.com