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the lib-plic list - a network of progressive librarians
The South African - Swedish LPYL site

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The lib-plic list

You are welcome to enter the lib-plic list - a network of progressive librarians that has expanded beyond the original members (from US, UK, Austria, Germany, Sweden, South Africa), to include, at present individuals from India, the Philippines, Norway, Finland, Argentine, Mexico, Canada, Slovenia, Pakistan. We believe that there is a need for an international list for the purpose of exchanging views, submitting early warnings, sending signed petitions or other letters in urgent issues. There are many threats ahead:
GATS, outsourcing, privatisation etc., which urge us to act internationally.
By entering this list you don't sign up for a membership, we don't have to share a common view on each library or social subject and you are not obliged to go along with every initiative on the list. We think that the ten points below are a reasonable starting point. If you agree on them, we want you on this list!
Reply to sve.we@xpress.se
Welcome!

Lennart Wettmark
Bis /Libraries in Society/ Sweden

The following 10 points are a basis of principles/goals shared by us as progressive librarians internationally:

  1. We shall work towards an international agenda as the basis of common action of librarians everywhere actively committed, as librarians, to social justice, equality, human welfare, and the development of cultural democracy.
  2. We will unite librarians and information workers in opposition to the marketization of public goods, to privatization of social resources and to outsourcing of services and will oppose international treaties and institutions which advance destructive neo-liberal policies.
  3. We insist upon the equality of access to and inclusiveness of information services, especially extending such services to the poor, marginalized and discriminated against, including the active solidarity-based provision of information assistance to these groups and their advocates in their struggles.
  4. We shall encourage the exploration of alternative models of human services; promote and disseminate critical analysis of information technology's impact on libraries and societies; and support the fundamental democratization of existing institutions of education, culture, communications.
  5. We shall undertake joint, interdisciplinary research into fundamental library issues (e.g. into the political economy of information in the age of neo-liberalism and corporate globalization) in order to lay the basis for effective action in our spheres of work.
  6. We will support cooperative collection, organization and preservation of the documents of people's struggles and the making available of alternative materials representing a wide range of progressive viewpoints often excluded as resources from the debates of our times.
  7. We will investigate and organize efforts to make the ibrary-as-workplace more democratic and encourage resistance to the managerialism of the present library culture.
  8. We will lead in promoting international solidarity among librarians and cooperation between libraries across borders on the basis of our joint commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related covenants which create a democratic framework for constructive cooperative endeavours.
  9. We will organize in common with other cultural and educational progressives, to help put issues of social responsibility on the agendas of international bodies such as IFLA and UNESCO.
  10. We shall oppose corporate globalization which, despite its claims, reinforces existing social, economic, cultural inequalities, and insist on a democratic globalism and internationalism which respects and cultivates cultural plurality, which recognizes the sovereignty of peoples, which acknowledges the obligations of society to the individual and communities, and which prioritizes human values and needs over profits.