PRESS RELEASE
The Friends of Cuban Libraries
January 10, 2008
Contact: Robert Kent FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tel. 718-305-9201
E-mail: kentr50@yahoo.com
Website: ( http://www.friendsofcubanlibraries.org )
Ben Franklin Dishonored by Philly Conference, Critics Say
As members of the American Library Association gather in Philadelphia for a conference (January 11-16), critics say the ALA is dishonoring the legacy of Benjamin Franklin, the Philadelphia icon of liberty who also founded the first public libraries in colonial America.
According to the Friends of Cuban Libraries, a support group for intellectual freedom in Cuba, key offices in the American Library Association have been taken over by a pro-Castro faction which is ignoring and covering up the persecution of Cuban librarians and the burning of thousands of library books on the island. The ALA often passes resolutions on international affairs, but critics say the ALA has abandoned its principled defense of intellectual freedom for victims of repression in Cuba.
A 2005 secret police raid on a Havana library named in honor of Benjamin Franklin is one example of the repression in Cuba which ALA leaders are ignoring and covering up, claim the Friends of Cuban Libraries.
“If certain ALA leaders think they can gather in Philadelphia and get away with trampling on the legacy of Benjamin Franklin,” declared Robert Kent, the co-chair of the Friends of Cuban Libraries, “then they had better think again. Philadelphians, when they find out what is going on, will not take kindly to a library association which hypocritically claims to defend intellectual freedom while some of its leaders collude with a regime which jails librarians and burns books.”
Since 1998, volunteers in Cuba have founded hundreds of independent libraries in a challenge to government control of information. According to human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders, the Cuban government has responded to the island’s independent library movement with a campaign of harassment, police raids, mob assaults, 20-year prison terms for library directors and the burning of library collections.
Cuban court documents taken from the island and published on the Internet indicate that classics such as George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” are among the books burned in Cuba following police raids. The American Library Association has issued three reports on the situation in Cuba, but critics say the ALA has refused to condemn, or to even acknowledge, the Castro government’s repression of librarians or the burning of seized library books.
In the ALA’s only membership poll on Cuba, say the Friends of Cuban Libraries, 76 per cent of respondents voted to condemn the Castro regime, but the ALA leadership refuses to listen to its members on this subject, according to critics of the association.
The island’s independent library movement receives aid from several nations, including the United States. Cuban officials assert that the volunteer librarians are U.S. agents who are trying to overthrow the government. These “absurd” claims are supported by some ALA leaders, according to critics.
Human rights defenders such as Ray Bradbury (the author of “Fahrenheit 451″), Nat Hentoff, former Czech president Vaclav Havel, Andrei Codrescu and ex-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright have issued appeals on behalf of Cuba’s independent librarians. Critics say the ALA has either ignored these appeals or has failed to respond substantively to them.
“Benjamin Franklin must be turning in his grave over the ALA’s book burning shenanigans,” declared Robert Kent of the Friends of Cuban Libraries. “The ALA is the world’s oldest library association,” said Kent, “and until recently the ALA honorably defended everyone’s right to read freely. The effective capture of key ALA offices by pro-Castro extremists is a tragedy which needs to be remedied by means of public awareness, beginning with the people of Philadelphia.”
