[Anarchafeminists] Save The Women's Library - Lobby London Met Board of Governors

[Gail Chester]

      ++ Please circulate widely  ++

      Over 12,000 people have signed a petition to Save The Women’s Library.

      Join us as we deliver it to London Met Governors and continue the campaign to keep The Women’s Library collections, staff and building together.

      Thursday 27 September
      4.30pm
      Moorgate Building
      84 Moorgate London EC2M 6SQ

      Next organising meeting of Save the Women’s Library campaign:

      Monday 30 September
      6pm
      Freedom Books
      Off Whitechapel High Street.
      All supporters welcome

      http://savethewomenslibrary.blogspot.co.uk/


      Campaigners rally to demand "A library of our own!" 
           
              Supporters rally to #SaveTWL (c) Martin Lesanto-Smith 
      by Megan Redmond
      The campaign to Save The Women's Library held a lively rally outside the library in Old Castle Street on Saturday, September 22nd. 


      Supporters gathered to hear music, singing and stories expressing why The Women's Library is such a unique and important cultural and public resource. 


      Protesters carried a variety of colourful placards, reading "The Women's Library is a treasure!", "Deeds AND words!", and "A library of our own!"  


      An imitation 'Women's Heritage' blue plaque was also unveiled. See more photos here and here.


      In March 2012, London Met announced that they were seeking a new home, supporter or custodian for The Women’s Library. Campaigners from trade unions, feminist groups, activists and friends of the library want to keep the collection open, accessible and fully staffed in its current location off Whitechapel High Street.


      What may happen after Christmas is a scaling down of library opening hours to one day a week managed by a skeleton staff until it is taken over by another bidder, most likely to be the LSE. It would then most likely move to Central London, away from its unique current position in the heart of the East End of London - on the edge of the City but in a multicultural, largely working class residential and trading neighbourhood - whose character has provided such a rich seam of historical and literary work and is integral to the contemporary city we love. 


      The Women's Library has grown in the last ten years into much more than a library. It is a cultural centre embedded in the local community with creative outreach projects such as Magic Me. Regular exhibitions, exciting and at times controversial, have been held there. The upcoming exhibition opening on the 17th October will be The Long March to Equality: Treasures of The Women's Library. The library has succeeded in doing what many museums and galleries strive to do - connect meaningfully with a non-academic audience as well as provide researchers with a personalised and welcoming space to work. 


      It is of course also a vital research hub, housing the UK's largest collection of materials on women's history and is of global importance with many items in the collection inscribed into UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. 


      Rudi's Save The Women's Library petition has gathered over 12,000 signatures to date. Messages of support have been sent from around the world as well as from the local neighbourhood.


      As one supporter, Prof. Barbara Taylor, Professor of Humanities, Queen Mary, University of London, commented:


        “The closure of The Women's Library would be a real step backwards for all of us who fought to end the invisibility of women in history. The Women's Library must be kept open not just to academics but also to the local community and anyone interested in finding out about our rich history of women's struggles for equality.”




      Angela Brady, President, Royal Institute of British Architects added:


        “I hope that this magnificent purpose-designed building for The Women's Library, designed by award-winning architects Wright and Wright finds a future which keeps it all together, including the dedicated staff and collection. There has got to be a solution out there. It would be most regrettable if it all gets lost after so much effort and enjoyment of it.”


      There is currently an upsurge in feminism with many younger women expressing their anger at persistent inequality through actions such as Saturday's Slut Walk. The cuts to services, pensions, pay and erosions in working conditions are affecting women as a group in society disproportionately, so expect campaigning around gender issues to grow bigger, louder and more insistent. 


      What is being done to The Women's Library is symbolic of the treatment of women in wider society; as expendable during times of hardship, easily dispatched, disposed of or swept under the carpet. We must not let this happen.

      http://savethewomenslibrary.blogspot.co.uk/
     


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