What's Behind the Fight Against the ALA

It's the Marxism, stupid.

In the wake of the Montana State Library Commission's (MSLC) withdrawal from the American Library Association (ALA), a letter is circulating among librarians expressing their support for the ALA President, Emily Drabinski. The MSLC withdrew its support of the ALA because of Drabinski’s status as a Marxist, and this letter, signed by thousands of library professionals, reads in part:

After learning the election results that named Drabinski ALA's next president, she identified herself in a Tweet as a "Marxist lesbian" who believes in collective power--and has a mom who is very proud of her.

We are living in times where homophobia is rampant in libraries, with library workers at risk of physical violence and online harassment on a regular basis. State library associations that aren't standing up to homophobic anti-book and -library groups are not doing their jobs as library advocates*. 

Librarians and other library workers need to stand against bigotry. Marxism is an economic philosophy not a political platform. Turning this into a partisan issue resulting in a minority-led dissolution of a longstanding nourishing partnership–a move which will harm the future of libraries and library professional associations in the State of Montana–is deeply misguided and uninformed.

In short, Marxism is just an economic philosophy and any opposition to Drabinski is homophobia and bigotry.

Fast forward to last weekend, and Drabinski shredded any possible defense of her continued role as ALA President at a socialism conference in Chicago.

Karlyn Borysenko

got the audio and reported,

American Library Association President Emily Drabinski was initially scheduled to be a speaker at the Socialism 2023, but after a media firestorm over her Marxist leanings that led to several state library associations parting ways with the national organization, her session was quietly canceled.

But Emily still went to the Socialism Conference and still attended sessions.

I know because I ran into her.

Emily told the crowd, after introducing herself as Emily “a librarian,” that public education and libraries need to be on the agenda of socialist organizing.

The State Freedom Caucus Network (SFCN) has been leading the charge to have states like Montana and Texas to withdraw from the ALA and withhold funding. Greg Price, the Communications Director for SFCN tweeted, “The @ALALibrary gets thousands of dollars from state governments every year. They are the oldest and largest library association in the world and have major power over what books appear in school libraries all across America. They are to libraries what Google is to the internet and this is the person in charge of it.”

I don’t see how the ALA continues to stand behind Drabinski, but of course, they will. Now the pressure is on other state library associations to do what Montana did and state unequivocally that they cannot stand shoulder-to-shoulder and financially support a Marxist-led organization using libraries to organize and indoctrinate.