That diverse coalition was on glorious display at a July 31 rally in the city's Martin Luther King Park. More than 10,000 people turned out for the rally, the largest in Berkeley since the Vietnam War, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Political cross-pollination was the rule. Tables set up around the perimeter advertised the Sierra Club, the Peace and Freedom Party, the Police Review Commission and even the Rally to Prevent Y2K Catastrophe.

More offbeat allegiances, too: One woman strolled around topless with a sign reading, "Let Our Bodies Speak"; a speaker claimed KPFA had broken the story of a UFO cover-up. Groups' representatives thrust leaflets at each other, signed each other's petitions and joined each other's mailing lists and donor rolls. Speakers who were black, Native American, Puerto Rican and gay, took the podium to tell the crowd how KPFA had spread the word for their movements when no one else could, or would. One woman shouted, "We're winning! And we're winning because of our unity!"

The lesson for the left is perhaps as old as American history: Hang together or hang separately. Undoubtedly the backing of so many different parties bolstered KPFA's staff in their fight with the Pacifica brass. The stunning diversity gave lie to Pacifica chair Mary Francis Berry's claim that KPFA's only listeners were "white males over 50." Smelling votes, the state Legislature even launched an audit of the foundation's tactics.

Progressives at Harvard could take a page from the Berkeley playbook. Hundreds of people backing each other's causes is more impressive than small handfuls at isolated candlelight vigils and demonstrations. In that vein, the Rally for Justice in March was an important step. Conservatives criticized the rally, which linked the Progressive Students Labor Movement, the Coalition against Sexual Violence and the Living Wage Campaign, for bringing together causes that had nothing in common. But it's no accident that the Rally for Justice made CNN and The New York Times and brought students' complaints to the fore.

Here in Berkeley, Pacifica finally relented a bit last week, allowing staff to return to their building and restart programming as usual. Activists caution that the battle over the station is far from finished. They are planning another rally for this weekend. But with the left united behind it, KPFA's future is looking brighter than before.

Adam A. Sofen '01, a Crimson editor, is a history and literature concentrator in Pforzheimer House. This summer he is working as a courier for a San Francisco-based attorney service.